Salty Disappointment

I made a salty disappointment yesterday, but the hydrangeas are beautiful. They were my inspiration for the color of the salt soap. They are so fresh and beautiful even on a rainy day. The gradations of color from yellow to lime to blue are definitely my favorite colors. Now that I think about it, my house has quite a bit of blue and green. I suppose it is rubbing off on my oldest daughter because she chose a lime green for her "tween" remodeled room. Gone is the pink and pretty and hello big girl brown and green.

I set out to make my hubby some new soap yesterday. He really likes the salt soap and has been taking it to the gym after realizing the soap at the gym was really awful by comparison. I wanted it to be a pale lime green and scented with cucumber & green grass. It would smell fresh and clean to go with the fresh color. All was going well and the color looked good. The soap traced quickly and smelled delicious. I added the salt and stirred, which lightened the color but sometimes the color morphs during saponification. I left it to sit in the oven while I took the girls to the pool. When we returned the house smelled great. I pulled the mold out of the oven and set it in the dining room to cool a bit while we ate dinner.

I should have cut it before dinner. I waited until we had watched Wipe Out and had sundaes before I tackled the now very hard salt soap. As I cut it crumbled into chunks. I think 3 or 4 slices were whole but the rest were oddly fragmented and looked like big hunks of rock found in a cave somewhere. The color is just about white with a tinge of green. Not exactly the color I was going for either. Now they look like slightly moldy rocks. Oh well, at least he will still be able to use it at the gym. I don't know that I will give it to any friends though.

On a positive note, moisture bar #3 is fabulous. It is a really hard bar that produces a wonderful fluffy, creamy lather. My next bar will be a rose hip powder bar. I'm looking forward to a new experiment. I also have some shredded loofah to make my brother, the mechanic, some hand soap. I saw a great tutorial for making round soap with a whole loofah. The summer is so full of soapy promises.

I do feel that I am improving. I look back at my first bars that were molded in a shoe box and giggle. I even threw away some really sad bars from my first attempts. I had no idea what I was doing and the bars were perfect illustrations of that fact. I was so proud of them at first and now so disappointed. I think if you decide to make soap, don't give up before you try a half dozen batches. Definitely start with a reliable recipe before making up your own. When you do decide to make up your own recipes, seriously look at a soap calculator and be familiar with the characteristics of the different oils. Most importantly, practice, practice and more practice.

Happy Soaping!