Friday 30 December 2011

Prickly Pear Soap - Follow Up


I tried 5 different versions. All of them have juice that I made from local prickly pear fruit. The first two have prickly pear oil in them, then I ran out so I used Argan Oil for superfatting the the last three.


 The first batch had the seeds from the fruit in it and I don’t like it.  It is WAY too scratchy, not like the nice exfoliation from poppyseeds or coffee grounds… The ABRASIAN from the prickly pear seeds is Not my thing. 



For the last of the 5 experiments I froze the prickly pear juice and the soap has turned out rougher, slightly bumpy, not as smooth as I like, and the colour runs.  So basically, I really liked versions 2, 3 and 4. The soap is wonderfully smooth, I love the lather and it leaves my skin feeling awesome!
I will continue my search for Prickly Pear Oil that I can afford, maybe include some other things from the prickly pear cactus, and continue making this soap. I may try a shampoo as well as Prickly pear is supposed to be fabulous for hair.

Scent – still have not come up with a signature scent for this soap yet… tried various but not impressed. Will keep trying!
I have had great feedback so far from this bar.  Except... one customer got it as a gift for Christmas for her not-well-loved step mother solely based on the word Prickly and the idea of cactus … and one person that tried it, did not like it for her skin. Haven't figured out why yet but something to look into and must have more testing…  


Happy Soaping everyone and Happy Happy Happy New Year!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoox Jen

Monday 26 December 2011

Pomegranate Soap - Follow Up


I tried 4 different versions of Pomegranate Soap.  Unfortunately, the scents were all duds.  I have been very frustrated with my EO blending recently. I have decided that I don’t like Frankinsence or Palmarosa in soap.  I have tried blending them in many different ways but I just don’t like either of them. In the last few months, I have only come up with 2 new scents that I have really liked.  Oh well…  it is all part of the fun!   The colours were very interesting.  They all have fresh pomegranate juice that I made from local pomegranates.  They also all have some pomegranate seed oil in them.
The first photo shows them in order – Soap 1 (from left to right) has half water, half pomegranate juice.  Soap 2 has all pomegranate juice, no water.  Soap 3 has all pomegranate juice and madder root, as a colour experiment, and in an attempt to preserve the little pomegranate seed oil I had left, it is superfatted with both pomegranate seed oil and rose hip oil. Soap 4 is similar to soap 3 but without the madder root.

The soap is wonderful (except for the scent).  SO smooth and rich and my skin feels wonderful afterward.    This is definitely a repeat, but I need to come up with a great scent for it…

Also, I may not be able to continue experimenting with this one this year… as the pomegranate season ended suddenly.  Right when the local pomegranates were at their ripest, there was a torrential rain storm which made most of the pomegranates crack, open up and fall to the ground. 
 hope you are all well and enjoying the holiday season
xoxox
Jen

Monday 19 December 2011

Samples & Christmas Party Favours


it has been a wonderfully busy month full of Christmas markets, orders, packaging, creating




i created these for a local business woman who gave these to everyone for her staff Christmas party



Happy Holidays everyone.  I hope this week is wonderful for you!!
xoxo
Jen

Friday 16 December 2011

Olive Oil Experiment Results


If you are interested in reading about the results of my recent experiment with different qualities of olive oil in soap making, please come visit my other blog. http://naturalmentemediterraneo.blogspot.com/2011/12/olive-oil-experiment-results-resultados.html

Happy Soaping and Happy Holidays!!

xo
Jen

Sunday 11 December 2011

Soap Making In Progress


I will be adding some of these photos to a new “Soap Making” section on my other blog  http://naturalmentemediterraneo.blogspot.com/

I am lucky to have the chance to be working with a photographer lately. We are swapping services as I am giving him language classes. He is also a web-designer... hmmm... the possibilities...


equipment...


some ingredients...


measuring and pouring...


this time I was making a Pomegranate soap






some butters & hard oils...


mixing after melting...



mixing lye with oils...



awaiting trace...


adding the at-trace ingredients...



pouring...

 

cut soap...


I had experimented with madder root but unfortunately it didn't take too long before this colour (which I had really liked) turned dark because of the pomegranate juice...

There are a ton more photos but these are some of my favourites.  Hope you have enjoyed a peek behind the scenes!

Which were your favourite photos here?

UPDATE:  My recent olive oil experiment is almost complete.  I am waiting for testing results from a couple of more people and then I can put all of the information together and publish, hopefully before Christmas!!
Happy soaping!!!

xoxo Jen

Friday 2 December 2011

We Have A Winner!!



Alexander of Sapunuri naurale   http://sapundecasa.wordpress.com/ guessed correctly!

I was so hoping to give you some more clues, but Alexandra got it after only clue 2. . .  My next clues were going to be:
Clue 3:  It grows here in the Mediterranean region, both wild and cultivated. . .
Clue 4:  The actual colour of this ingredient is beautiful and vibrant but so different to the resulting soap colour. . .
Clue 5:  We eat it.
And well, so many more ideas for clues but the correct guess is. . .
POMEGRANATE JUICE
Can you believe it?
This photo is the same soap, just taken later the same day. It has been difficult to capture the true colour with a camera. The actual colour is a beautiful deep greeny brown.
Congratulations Alexendra!!!  Please send me your address to naturalmentemediterraneo@yahoo.com  and I will send you a bar of the soap!
 Here are the rest of the creative guesses.  Thank you everyone!

Pumpkin
Tomato Juice
Brown Sugar
Kelp/ Seaweed Powder
vanilla paste
Dark Chocolate
Almond milk
Fuller's Earth
Ghassoul
Avocado
Green tea
Rosemary Powder
French green clay
Bentonite clay
Spinach
Cucumber
Pureed banana
cocoa bean infused olive oil
rosin, pine tar
Olive Pomace
Vanilla absolute,
vanilla c02,
honey
Laurel (bay) in olive oil
Laurel butter
Patchouli
Madder Root
Basil
Cilantro
Cucumbers
Wheat
xoxoxo Jen

Mystery Colour - Clue # 2


Thank you to everyone who submitted guesses yesterday!  There were a lot of awesome guesses but no one has guessed correctly yet...
I suppose this second photo is a clue in itself. When I first took it out of the mould, it was dark on the outside but very light on the inside. It didn’t take long before it darkened all over.  It continued darkening all day long...
Clue # 2 – This colour was a complete surprise. I have never worked with this ingredient before and I had no idea it would produce any colour at all.
Here is a list of the wonderful guesses so far:
Coffee
Dead sea mud
Olive pomace
Bay laurel leaf oil
Prickly pear fruit
Dark cocoa butter, the kind that smells like chocolate
Dark chocolate
Cocoa powder
Kola Nut (don’t know what this is…?)
Brown clay
Beer
Hibiscus
Hemp oil
Honey powder
Tea
Aloe vera gel
Milk
Vanilla
Vanilla Fragrance
Something I found next to my Aloe Plant
Peanut Butter
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Olive Green Clay
Walnut Shell Powder

Good luck and happy soaping!!

xo
Jen

Thursday 1 December 2011

Can You Guess the Source of the Colour? Clue # 1


Would you like to play a guessing game?

The first person who guesses what the source of the color is in this soap, wins a bar...
Clue # 1:  The colour comes from a natural source.
I will coninue to post a clue each day until someone guesses correctly...
Good luck & happy soaping!
xo  Jen