Soap Scents

It's been a fun few months. Illness, both mine and the children, has taken up all my time and it's been enough just keeping up with the world let alone adding crafting time on. I have lots of projects in the pipeline and am having fun but not seriously crafting at present. I am still working on image transfer to polymer clay. I can do this and it works well I just can't find a suitable varnish to seal the images. It either stays sticky and doesn't set or sets and then becomes sticky after a few months. Tcch. The fine tuning is always the hardest.

On fine tuning I've been making soap tonight. I have a new base recipe in development which is needing tweaking and I thought tonight I'd go for it and make a full size batch with a nice scent for christmas presents. It looks good so far. I know I shoudn't peek, buthey, we all do it. It's gelling nicely at present so this could be the definitive base. I've made up a new scent mixture as a heavier Christmas smell and have used 4ml ylang ylang, 4ml cinnamon and 12ml sandalwood. A nice treat for the nose and hopefully a good present for my friends.

I've also been fiddling with soap wrapping. I like waxed paper. I like the bareness of it. Thinking on it though I think for the price I charge for a bar of soap maybe bareness is not acceptable. If you want to treat yourself you want something that looks good as well as feel and smell good. That makes it sound as if I overcharge! I don't . One of the reasons this new base recipe is taking so long is that I can't get the price in for less than £5 because there are so many goodies in it. OK if I ever get to be a bulk producer, but those days aren't here yet. Slow and steady and building , but not bulk yet. Anyway I have had a brainwave and have got some lovely paper that is affordable and now I'm prevaricating. Full soap wrap? Or strip of paper round soap? The strip looks good, but for hygiene maybe the full wrap. I need to sleep on it.

http://www.puresoaps.co.uk/