mmmm coffee......

I'm a huge fan of foodie type soap.  My mouth waters at the sight of them, so here's a couple of pics of my newest soap.  Hazelnut, coffee and cinnamon.....ahhh smells delicious. 

It's made with fresh goats milk, which I thought was quite appropriate ;)

Almost forgot!

With the chaos that has become the Christchurch norm, I almost forgot to post my cut pics of the blue swirl soap.  So here it is:

 I need to work on my cutting, these bars are huge!  Weighing around 150 grams!  I think I might have to save up for a slab mold with dividers ;)

Time for a Give away!

I think NZ needs some cheering up after recent events, so I have decided to hold a monthly draw to give away prizes.  All you need to do is like my Facebook page via the link on the left of this screen.  Winners will be drawn and announced on the first of every month.  This month I am giving away a bar of my NEW Apple Jack soap. This soap is scented with Apple, Cinnamon and Clove and is perfect for winter.  Good luck :)

(Sorry NZ residents only)

Just Like Christmas!

I think the thing I love most about making soap, is the unveiling of the creation.  For me the morning after a pour is just like Xmas, the anticipation, the excitement, never knowing what your gonna get, and yes sometimes the disappointment (when its not what you had hoped for)

Tonight is like Xmas eve.  I have made my first ever slab mold - yay!  I've been waiting for my dear partner to make me one (in like forever!) so you can imagine my excitement when I came across a wooden box that  had at home and it is PERFECT.

Here is a sneak peak at my newest creation:

Its a 5 colour swirl.  My first 'in the mold swirl' and I'm pretty happy with it so far.  The fragrance is a dupe of Ralph Laurens Blue fragrance (hence the blue overload) - I've used this fragrance in the past, but I decided to relaunch it with a new look!  Its pretty and powdery and floral all at the same time.  LOVELY!!

Will post cut pics in the morn

x

A glass and a half of goodness :)

Cleopatra bathed in milk but that is soooo last century, this season its all about chocolate.............

I love trying new soap recipes, and to be honest I don't venture away from my regular recipe all that much.  But then I thought dang it!  I'm going to try something new.
I have been hunting for the perfect chocolate scent.  Its actually harder to come by than you might think.  There is nothing available in New Zealand that even resembles chocolate, and my regular Australian supplier doesn't stock any chocolate fragrances.
So you can imagine my delight when I was FINALLY able to source an awesome chocolate fragrance.  Again this one is imported, but from a new supplier who has a whole range of delicious scents.

My goal is to create the ULTIMATE chocolate bar (of soap).  I figure what better way to do this than to increase the cocoa butter, add some milk and add some dark chocolate.

Here's how I did it :)

There are 2 ways you can add goats milk to your recipe, I am going to do it the easy way.  To do this I am going to split the total liquid needed.  Part will be water to dissolve my lye, and the second will be goats milk added at trace.

First I prepare my recipe. 

This batch is going to have a whooping 30% cocoa butter. This will be added to my other oils and melted down.

Here is my minimum requirement of water added to my lye 

I have my other additions ready.  Goats milk, and Lindt chocolate.  I am premelting the chocolate.

Once my lye mixture and oils are at the correct temperatures I combine them.  I am going to stir this by hand as I want to give the mixture time to cool (so my goats milk doesn't overheat) and so I don't bring this batch to a heavy trace.  I want it just emulsified, because I know that when I add the chocolate and the milk things are going to set up pretty quick.

Here it is just emulsified, it took about 10mins of stirring to get it to this consistency.

Now I slowly add my milk, stirring the whole time.

As you can see, the mixture has thickened up, and has a lovely creamy appearance.

Now I add the melted chocolate (I have used about 20grams for a 1kg batch, any more and the soap will run brown when washing)

Yummo - I have to remind myself that this is soap!

Once combined I then add my fragrance oil, and pour.

I then get a spoon and dip it into some more melted chocolate, I am doing this to create delicious chocolate swirls.

All done!

And here it is cut, it looks and smells just like chocolate.  Now I just have to wait 4 weeks......