All the Pretty Soaps

Jul
21

I’ve been playing around with soap lately, trying out different flowers, seeing what happens. Here’s the wild phlox soap.
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Yep, the pretty pinks and purples turned green in the soap. Not all flowers lose their color. Here’s marigold.
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And this is clover on the right, dandelion blossom on the left.
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Dandelion blossom turns the soap darker after time, I’ve discovered. This is dandelion blossom soap, below to the right, after a couple of weeks.
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On the left in the above photo is mint. Most herbs retain color nicely. (And if you grind them finely, they sometimes turn soap a light green.)

This is rosemary soap. (Not green–I didn’t finely grind the herb.)
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Sassafras tea soap–the color comes from the tea.
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This is chamomile soap, and the color here is from the chamomile essential oil itself.
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I’ve also been trying a different mold. I mostly use a regular rectangular soap mold, or Pringles cans for round soaps. The chamomile soap was made using a french bread pan.
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Each well will hold two pounds of soap.
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Of course, there are no end caps. But–no big deal!
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After lining the pan with parchment paper, I used bars of soap (also covered by parchment paper) to prop up the ends until the soap firmed up.
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Soap loaf!
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I like it!

July 20, 2015 - The Aftermath of the Downpours

The creek in the goat yard looked like this after the flooding rains we had here in the past week. We’ve had so much rain in the past two months that brush and mud have been pushed constantly against the drains (and against the fences), clogging them mercilessly. The daily rain didn’t stop long enough...
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July 16, 2015 - Flower Identification Test

Pop quiz! Identify this flower! And this one! To be honest, I have no idea what they are. I want to dehydrate some of the petals to put in soaps, but I have no idea what to call the soap because I don’t know what the flowers are! Help! If you’re the first person to...
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July 6, 2015 - The Dance

Poor Dumplin. She’s been dismissed, for now. Bradley’s interested in Moon Pie. But she’s not so sure she’s ready to be interested in him. She dances around him. He chases. Moon Pie enjoys the chase! She teases him. Moon Pie: “I just have an itch I can’t scratch.” “I don’t know if I want you...
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July 3, 2015 - Easy Homemade Onion Dip

You need this dip this weekend! I guarantee I’m having it here. I love the Lipton onion soup mix dip, so of course I had to figure out how to make it from scratch. It’s barely any more work to make it homemade, and much more delicious, so why not? Here’s how. How to make...
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