Bathbombs and Specials – The Week in Soap: 11th June ’17

I don’t know what the weather’s been like with you, but it’s been absolutely atrocious here this last week.  Rain, rain and more rain.  It’s beyond the pale, it really is.  I keep hearing people referring to that lovely warm spell we had in May and saying that that was our summer – it’s all over now. Arrrghhhh please, no!!  Despite living in one of the wettest areas in the UK (and loving it) I adore the sunshine.  It brings out my freckles and a sunny disposition that, to be honest, doesn’t often get an airing 😀

Anyway, come rain or shine, there’s always something that needs to be done in the soap kitchen, so I’ll crack on and update you quickly on what’s been happening this week.  Four double batches of soap were made: Clarity and Lemon Verbena Confetti (one of the summer specials):

Clarity & Lemon Verbena in the Mould

Incidentally, remember the last batch of Lemon Verbena Confetti that featured in the post about Fragrance Oils going rogue? Well I received loads of tips about more things to try to avoid it happening, which I put into practice and got NO acceleration.  I’m in the process of putting together an other blog post about it which I’ll share soon.

I also made Welsh Rose and Yr Wyddfa.  Yr Wyddfa is the Welsh name for Snowdon – the highest mountain in England and Wales, and after which this area, Snowdonia, is named.  Yr Wyddfa was first made last year, and I always said I would bring it back as a summer special.  I’ve made a couple of changes to the design, and I can’t wait to cut it tomorrow:

Welsh Rose & Yr Wyddfa in the Mould

I also made up a big batch of my facial soap.  I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the trial bars that went out, and many more queries from people wanting to buy it, so I’ve gone ahead and made up a batch in my tall & skinny mould:

Facial Soap in the Mould

I cut it couple of days later, and was very surprised to see I’d got a double partial gel!  I don’t usually gel my soap, but clearly this got much hotter in the centre of the mould than it did on the outer edges.  I actually don’t mind the effect at all, and it makes no difference to the finished product other than appearance, so I’m embracing it.  Don’t think I’ll be able to recreate it though!!

Facial Bars with Partial Gel

This week also saw me making LOADS of bathbombs, some of which are heading out with a wholesale order today.  Clockwise from top left we have Oatmeal, Milk & Honey, Welsh Rose and Luscious Lavender

Bathbombs

 

In other news, thanks to the rain, there’s been far less work done on the garden than my optimistic post last week may have anticipated.  Dean did manage to make the frames for the raised beds, and place them in situ, but that’s as far as we’ve got:

Raised beds

Oh, and the kids and I made some DELICIOUS chocolate chip cookies.  To be honest, they were SO delicious, they didn’t last very long and we had to make a second batch. Ooops!!

Homemade Choc Chip Cookies

I may well post the recipe sometime soon!

I’m off now to make that wholesale delivery, so thanks for reading – I’ll be back soon!!