Why the croap crown is mine.....

I wanted to have a go at a "round" soap and finally managed to find somebody eating Pringles, so I stole the tin and had a go. Eek! - I've no idea what went on in that tin during gel, but it's a very weird- (and rude-looking) soap to me. Or is that just my dirty mind? :-) It smells good though - a mix of strawberry-coconut with milk.
I suspect it got too hot during gel - anybody knows the answer, please let me know!
It doesn't look too disgusting cut, but I might have to set the cookie cutters on it. We'll see.....

First funnel soap!

I discovered this fab new technique and thought I'd give it a go. I'm gobsmacked at the result, to say the least. It looks completely different cut than it does in the mould, and no two slices are the same. I scented this one with "Blue Amberwood" and as it's a discolouring FO, I'm hoping the "cream" swirls will eventually go a browny colour. So far it's gone a bit of a strange yellow but we'll have to wait & see.

In the mould

Cut!

I'm exhausted, and still no soaps......

I still don't have any soapies to post here as I've been away in Derbyshire for a few days staying with my friend Joy. On Friday we went to Buxton and met up with our friend Zoe (we all know each other from the Fresholi forum) and to finally meet in person was great. It was a lovely giggly day despite the hideous weather. On Saturday we managed to produce 5 batches of CP soap and very proud of ourselves we were too. Joy showed me how to make whipped soap, so watch this space. Sunday we went to a trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham. Picture it - 2 grown women going a bit giddy when they found a cake decorating place that had silicone moulds perfect for making soap in. At one point certain people were brought a chair as they were a bit overcome by it all (and it wasn't me) :-) It was good fun but very tiring and we came away with some great ideas.

My only problem now is too many ideas (and a head about to explode with them all) and not enough time to put them into being. Drat.

I haven't fallen off the edge.........just yet!

I didn't realise it'd been so long since I posted. Well, I've been away hiding in Portugal for a few weeks, contemplating my navel and wondering what to do with my life. My dream would be to live in Portugal and make my croaps, and if I can make some sort of money from it - great! When things were going well for us a few years ago, we were lucky enough to buy a house there and there's just something very special about it. The house almost gives you a big cuddle when you go back - sounds mad but I know what I mean. Might be something to do with the resident spirit we have (and yes, I know her name, which part of the house was hers and a bit about her family - courtesy of her granddaughter who turned up out of the blue one day last year after living in France for 40+ years!). My friend even commented that the house was happy to have us back and had seemed very sad when we weren't there. So here's a pic which doesn't really do her justice but I love her anyway


We also had a visitor who brought us her kittens last time we were there. She hasn't been seen for a few months, but 2 days after we arrived she appeared (sadly without kittens this time). After a few weeks she was having a bit of trouble with the word "feral". We called her Suki which I'm told means happy in Japanese - suits her really well.



And for those friends of mine who doubted that the Croap Queen took her crown with her so it couldn't be stolen while she was away, here's proof! Hah!

Been a bit busy lately!

I haven't posted much lately but there'll be some pics soon of what I've been up to. I've been concentrating on sorting out my safety assessment and all the associated red tape that we have to cope with here just to sell a bar of soap. I had a meeting with Trading Standards today who are more than happy for me to sell my soaps. Scary stuff!! Now I've got to decide on a business name & identity, and that's not as easy as it sounds. Oh, and sort out insurance, and packaging, and labelling, and allergen declarations, and weights for labelling.......and the list goes on! I just want to have fun making soap and hope to be able to sell some. As for reading the 351-page document relating to EU Cosmetic Directive changes coming up, I don't think so!

Not that I'm addicted or anything........

I've made 4 soaps in the past few days - 3 ok and one disaster.

This one is Seabreeze and I was hoping for reasonable swirls all the way through. Not too bad for a first go at this way of swirling, but I didn't really want the base to be blue blobs. No idea why it's got greenish bits in it either, or white feathery bits.....I only used blue colour.

This one's Rhubarb & Custard. I went into shock when it came out of the mould because it turned out more or less as I'd imagined. A first for me!!!

Then came Raspberry Yoghurt. I can't get the hang of in-the-pot swirls no matter what I try. I've tried different traces and nothing seems to be quite right. I'm not keen on the smell of this one either but it's getting a bit less pongy as it cures.

All going too well........here comes the disaster. Beautiful smelling FO but a swine to work with. I had soap on a stick and no time to even smooth out the top once I'd dolloped it into the mould. The contrast colour wouldn't mix in so I had a hissy fit & just chucked it on top. It went to gel within 15 minutes, and doesn't look much better when cooled. Hopefully I can rescue it by slicing off the lumpy bits from the top and making little sample sizes out of what's left.

Lolita

I made a hot process soap this week for my niece - the FO is a dupe of a perfume she loves. I'd not tried the Celestial colours in hot process before and whilst they don't react like they do in CP, they hold up quite well and mix in fine. I even went mad & brushed some mica on the top just to show off a bit.