Helloooo, very sorry it's been about a month since I did a post. I really have been crafting, cooking etc but I just haven't gotten my act together enough to document and post it for everyone's viewing pleasure. Finally decided enough was enough and would try out making soap.
You can get really into soap and make it with lye and stuff and ingredients, not my style. So I bought a brick of soap base, some lavender oil and little lavender bits (seeds? I dunno...).
Been carrying this around for awhile...
Tip? Put some lavender oil right on your pillow, will make for some sweet dreams.
The soap base is fun because there's lots of different kinds you can buy. Goat's milk, soy, pure white etc. I got straight clear regular kind cause I'm broke and I wanted to see the lavender bits in it.
Take some, cut into little chunks.
I don't know why, but this looks really cool. Like space ice.
Iew.
Put some drops of lavender oil in there, I just kind of shook the little container out until it smelled pungent enough. You can put the lavender bits in now too, but they tend to float to the top so let em steep in there for minute to bog em down.
Cover a wide bottomed container with wax paper, making sure it gets into all the corners.
Fits perfectly.
Pour the wax in, making sure it covers the whole bottom.
Also iew.
Let it sit for a hot second, then sprinkle the lavender bits in (Unless you've already done this.) This'll cause them to stick to the surface and they won't fly around when we pour the second layer of soap on top. I did not do this and my bits flew around.
*shake*shake*shaaaake*... *shake*shake*shaaake*... shake your
laaavendeeer biiiits, shake your laaavendeeer biiiits!
I honestly like the looks of the soaps with less lavender in them better, so that's what I suggest. I went a little crazy on the first batch and they turned out a little murky.
Let that layer dry for a bit, 10-15 minutes, then pour a second layer on top.
Did not go as planned.
Let that layer dry as well, 20 minutes or so. Then peel it back from the wax paper until you have a little freestanding brick'o'soap.
Bam.
From here you can go crazy, just cut off jagged pieces, cut it up into neat little cubes, or even make soap shavings... I chose cookie cutters cause I just wanted to go straight up insane.
Seems legit.
Luckily soap is really easy to cut, so it's not difficult to use a bunch of shapes. I'd use metal though because plastic ones seem to be a bit too flimsy to do any real damage.
At one point my hand started to hurt, so I'd press down on the cutter with a flat hard surface, like the pan we originally poured the soap into.
Ease and class are the name of the game.
After fitting in as many shapes as possible, you can ball up and reheat the remaining soap. Although with the lavender bits the soap got tinted darker and darker with each reheat.
Blorbular.
When I only had a tiny bit of soap left I tried this method, taping down a cookie cutter to wax paper and pouring the soap into it.
Super easy, right?
Did not work.
ehhhh...
Let em dry, stack em up and package em for your friends and family. Don't worry, they'll have to coo over them and pretend they're really cool, so you'll feel validated in the end.
Glamour shot
Picture perfect
