Soaping

With the approach of the Goldendale Farmers Market Christmas Bazaar, as well as Christmas, I have been up to me ears in soap! 

I've had a lot of fun this go around. Usually I do hot process, which produces a plain, rough and rustic looking soap that I love. This time I decided I wanted to do cold process so the soap would go into the mold more fluid and I'd be able to do fun things like mix colors and such. It's been a learning opportunity for me to figure out what works and what doesn't. 

I think my soaps turned out lovely! I could do a lot more with them if I used colored micas and the likes, but as always, I only use natural things like clays and spices to color my soaps....so I'm limited to what I can do with those items. I'm super stoked I was able to figure out a purple for my lavender loaf though! For that one I soaked alkanet root powder in my liquid oils for 2 days, then added a bit of white clay when making the soap, and it wound up making a purple/gray hue. Yay! Success!  

All together I have made 25 loaves of soap since October 1st (not all of them pictured below!). 5 of those loaves being custom order loaves! The rest were made and separated: 3-4 bars of each kind set aside for the Christmas Bazaar, and 5 bars of each kind set aside for Sam to sell to his co-workers. What was left over from that I've been selling through my FB. And lastly, I have some set aside as gifts for teachers. 

With all the soap made, it's time to just let everything sit to cure. It takes a good 6-8 weeks of cure time before the soap will be ready for use. Using it before a decent cure time as been accomplished will result in the soap essentially "melting" away in the shower. Now what's the fun in buying soap that isn't going to last? That would be a shame. Let it sit out and cure, people! All the soap will be ready for use between December 5th and 15th. So in time for Christmas! Yay! That was the whole point, lol. 

Peppermint (I made three batches of this, it's a top seller)

Basil

Eucalyptus

Lemon

Lemongrass

Cedarwood (I made two batches of this, it's a top seller)

Coffee-Clove

Palmarosa

Oatmeal

Lavender (this was a custom order loaf)

Patchouli

Cocoa-Mint (I made two batches of this, it's a top seller and my personal favorite)

Pine

Anise (licorice)

Some custom order loaves...lemon, oatmeal, and peppermint

So far I've sold almost everything I set aside to sell right now. The rest is set aside for the upcoming Christmas Bazaar. I hope to sell a lot there too! What doesn't sell, I'll put in my stash as use for gifts. It's taken soooo much time to package up what I've sold, but I think the end result is beautiful. 

I've had a lot of fun doing this. It feels great to provide people with homemade soap not full of yucky ingredients. It's awesome that people actually want my soap! That makes me happy. It feels great to be able to make some money too, lol. 

With love,
Mama Hauck