Hurray!

The website is now up and functional! Please check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.renasoap.com/

Mad Monkey Soaping

Having heard lots of good feedback from friends and family, I am getting ready for the holiday season. That means making up enough soap to get me through December. The problem with soapmaking is the cure time. If I run out, it will be another month before I can have more. The prospect of running out is both exciting and frightening. I would truly be blessed if I sold it all but probably stressed about making new bars.

For all my super sensitive friends and youngest daughter, I have whipped up a batch of good old olive oil soap. It is unscented and un-colored. I added a very small percentage of coconut oil for lather and hardness but the remaining is pure extra virgin olive oil. It turned out such a pretty lime green color.

Also shown is a felted bar of salt soap. I saw it in a magazine and remembered that I wanted to try it with one of my soaps. My first sample didn't go quite as planned but I think this one looks great. I may eventually put some up for sale on my website. They feel so neat. It's like soap and wash cloth all in one. The wool provides a gentle exfoliant. The trick is to make the soap strongly scented to overpower the "wet sheep" smell.

Back to my mad monkey soaping...

Pretty New Batches

I'm taking a new look at an old process...hot process. I originally attempted crock pot soap and was disappointed with the results. They looked clunky and homemade and I hid them in the corner. While not pretty, they turned out to be wonderful bars after they had aged a bit. They had a nice lather and felt so nice on my skin. Feeling inspired by a soap blog, I decided to try it again and use the teacup mold I had hidden away.

Sometimes as new soapers we get blinded by all the oils available and try to put every one of them in every recipe. I am definitely guilty. I have calmed down a bit and call this recipe Simplicity because it contains only 3 oils: coconut, olive, and avocado. I made a 2 lb. batch and soon realized that I had a lot more than I needed to fill these 4 teacup molds so I began searching the kitchen. I found some silicon ice cube trays shaped like hearts so I filled those. Still more so I pulled out a silicon mini muffin tray and filled that. Still more and getting desperate for a place to put this, I pulled out some plastic cookie cutters from my closet. I laid them on a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet and filled them up. I was so excited when they turned out just fine. I had to shave off the one side because it was a bit gloppy. I am hatching some new Christmas soaps that I cannot wait to try out.

Yesterday was also the day to make yet another batch of spa salt bars. Everyone loves them and I am having a hard time keeping up my supply. I decided to use up some leftover bits of oil so I hope they are as good as the last batch. They sure are pretty and smell fabulous. I was using up bits of fragrance oil too. I half hazzardly dumped Sweet Grass and Cucumber green grass into the oils.

My Aunt has asked me to make a "manly" gift basket. I have some new scents on the way and cannot wait to get started making some new masculine soaps. My website is just about done and I cannot wait to let everyone see it. My goal is to cover the cost of my oils and fragrances and maybe a new mold here and there. Hopefully that's attainable.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

Anyone See Elephants?

My latest soap now presented in living color. So what did I change? I followed the directions for the soap colorants I'm using. These are a bit bold but I'm so excited to see some bright colored soap that I can look past the gaudiness of it all and admire the elephants.

Is it just me or do you all see elephants too? The green looks like an elephant with it's trunk spraying water in the air. Do you think they could use my latest creation as one of those ink blot tests? They would think I have some hidden issue with elephants because every bar says elephant to me. Maybe I will just call this bar Ink Blot.

Have you ever tried to do something your way over and over and failed every time? Yet like some insane person, you continue to expect different results. That would describe me and my colorants. I refused to dilute the colors because I was too busy. Surely, I could just add a couple drops and that would be the same thing. My bars ended up either completely void of color or had clumps of color speckled throughout. Why did I make this so hard on myself?

I find myself asking that question often lately. God's way is always the easiest way even though it doesn't seem that way at the time. I insist that my way is easier and will work just fine. Again and again I am reminded that I need to give it all up to Him. When I ignore His plan, I live in my own gray world. Doubt and fear creep into the shadows. When those Israelites wandered around in the wilderness, God showed them over and over why His way was better. He provided for them miraculously, even though they grumbled. It was the journey through the wilderness that brought them closer to Him. It was the miraculous provision that led them to trust Him. God has given us the instruction book, we just have to trust enough to follow the directions and not make up our own.

Grrr... Colorant

I whipped up 2 batches yesterday. First is a beer shampoo bar that will hopefully be better than the last shampoo bar. I personally do not like it, but others say it's great. The second soap sounds fabulous, smells fabulous, looks less than stellar. It is a basic bath soap with some apricot seeds for exfoliation, honey powder for moisture, and scented with cucumber melon.

The problem with the 2nd soap is the colorant. I seem to be colorant challenged. I know a lady that turns every soap the color of cheddar cheese. I think at this point, I would be happy with that outcome over the diluted, practically non-existent colors I'm getting. I pulled some water out of the water for the recipe and added colorant to 2 bowls. It looked very dark and scary. When I added it to the soap, it didn't even show up. The swirls look beautiful if you look very closely. I'm so annoyed that they didn't quite turn out the way I'd planned.

Things don't turn out the way I'd planned a lot lately. I'm participating in a Women's Bible Study written by Priscilla Shirer. It's called One in a Million. It focuses on the Israelites and their meandering through the wilderness after they fled from Egypt. This really speaks to me. I have all these great plans but I need to let God do the planning. God tells us to "be still and know that I am God". It's the "be still" part where I struggle. I want to do something. The Israelites saw God's glory over and over when they waited and watched. Sure enough, when I am silent and still, I see God's awesome power as well. It is when I try to make things my way or plan things my way that things fall apart and I become frustrated.

Take some time today to "be still".