Soapy

Today was as good a day as any to start learning the soap making trade. I have already tackled candles and some light jewelry making... I figured soap making would be a sinch!

Turns out... it was! I ordered a ton of soap-making supplies from an online retailer, Candlewic, awhile back. Unfortunately, due to the blizzaster of January, the supplies got destroyed and they had to reship them out to me, so I just got them last week. I have been itching to experiment ever since.

I decided to begin with the easiest possible soap instructions. I have months of crafting ahead of me, so don't worry, I'll tackle the hard stuff in the coming months.

The best place to start, I thought, was with Martha's Soap Cubes craft. And it was just as easy as it looked! I melted down a bunch of glycerin soap in a bow in the microwave. This took all of 3 minutes. I decided to make red and purple cubes, so I added red food coloring to one batch and red and blue food coloring to the next.


I also decided to add in some rosemary essential oil. Essential oils are essentially these aromatic, super-concentrated compounds, which are supposed to have different medicinal properties. According to Mediterranean tradition, rosemary essential oil is supposed to stimulate hair growth, boost mental activity, relieve respiratory problems and reduce pain. All of these things (minus, perhaps the hair growth stimulation of course) seemed pretty awesome to me, so I decided to go with it.

Once I had added food coloring and essential oil to the melted soap, I poured it into ice trays which I had pre-coated with vaseline, to allow for easy removal.

I think these look and smell pretty cool! I can't wait to give these as a gift; if only I had thought to do this before Valentines Day. My only concern is that the food coloring will come off when I use it... so I will be sure and test the soap on myself before I go giving them away.