Goodbye Summer and Hello Halloween

I was shocked by the early morning snowfall we had the other day. I still haven't gotten over the fact that we're into Autumn. Anyway, seeing the snow inspired me to make this soap. Summer's End with lavender, lemongrass and sage. I'm low on essential oils so I decided to use FOs this time. Also, I realized I should have cleaned the soap up a bit before taking a picture. The camera magnifies every rough spot. I also don't know why it's so large. I resized it so it would be the same size as the rest but for some reason it won't go any smaller.



After several hints from a nephew about being low on soap, I finally got around to making his favorite Dragon's Blood. It took me awhile because I kept forgetting to buy hemp oil. I decided to have some fun with this one and made it with HP so I could use plastic molds.

Dragon's Blood, Beer and Hemp Soap (plus pumpkin which is explained below)



I doubled the beer soap batch because I also wanted to try out a new FO called Pumpkin Lager. I wanted to add pumpkin in since I was using this scent which is why the Dragon's Blood has the extra additive of pumpkin in it. I told my nephew I was doing it and he just shrugged. He didn't care as long as he got his soap. I also have say thanks to Fyrja for posting a pic of her Celtic soap. I looked at her pic and thought "That's really nice. I wonder what happened to my Celtic mold..."



Have a safe and happy Halloween to everyone. Pumpkin Lager and Dragon's Blood Skulls.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The first image popped into regular size as I was looking at it, Hazel
Gorgeous soaps...I love them all!
I bought some Sage EO and Basil EO and have been wondering what to do with them; your combo sounds really nice for the sage. I originally bought the Basil with the idea of a "Caprese Soap" but then when I smelled it and my Tomato FO together, umm... "EWW!" Whatev's, I may try it anyway, who knows what the lye will do with it?

Oh, and BTW you've inspired me to get some dragon molds! I'm pretty new to single cavity molds, but I used some oval ones recently to make a special soap for some of my NOLA friends and that worked pretty well

Lovely soaps, Hazel! I really like the look of the dragons ....!


Sent from my iPad using Soap Making

Awesome! I like the skulls

How fun! Thanks for sharing. I especially love the dragon ones.

Thanks everyone! I had fun with them. I don't normally use these molds for regular soap because it's a pain to get them out. But the annoyance was worth it because I thought they turned out well. I had to put the molds in the freezer for an hour. I then let them sit on the counter for about 15 minutes. I only had to struggle a little while with them to get the soap to pop out.

@ cerelife - I'm glad to know the first pic didn't overwhelm the monitor. I've never used basil or sage EOs so I don't know how they'd turn out in CP. I've only used clary sage EO and it sticks well and smells great. However, I've always blended it with other EOs or an FO.

@ cerelife, judymoody & Saswede - I used Milky Way's Dragon tray which gave me 8 bars. I didn't buy it here but I'm just showing this as an example. http://www.elementsbathandbody.com/Dragon-8-Bar-Tray-Soap-Mold-pr-1794.html Other people like them, too. All the bars have been claimed so it looks like I'll have to make another batch because I wanted to keep a couple for myself. It's just it's so rare for people to get excited about my soap so I can't say 'no' when people ask for them. It makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside.

@ renata - This probably doesn't help you any but I bought the skull mold from Brambleberry. http://www.brambleberry.com/Skull-Flexible-Mold-P3551.aspx It's a nice heavyweight plastic, too.

I can't tell you the size of the batch for these molds. I always make extra since I have several individual cavity molds which I like to use for fancy soap to give as gifts. If I fill up the small molds and a loaf mold, I have a Wilton's heart mold which I use for guest size soap. I'll have to weigh the soap and figure out how many ounces I used in all.

Awesome, Hazel! I love the dragons too. Do you LOVE the Pumpkin Lager as much as I do?

Great looking soap!

Thanks ladies!

@ paillo -

I don't know - how much do you love it? This is the first time I've used it so I don't know how it will mellow out. But I can say it smells wonderful. So far, my opinion is "Yum!" and it has just the right touch of spiciness to it. It's different. I thought it would be more of a food type of scent and I vaguely think of pumpkin pie but it's more complex than a pumpkin pie FO. I just don't know how to describe it. Of course, the beer scent may be affecting it a little. It usually takes awhile before the beer fades and the scent comes out. Ask me again in a couple of weeks. :grin:

eta: I just noticed you got PL from BB. I bought mine from WSP so there might be a difference between the two FOs. Actually, I'm sure there is a difference since the descriptions are different.

I'm hoping the DB doesn't discolor anymore. You can't see it in the pics but there are streaks of activated charcoal in them. They're visually more interesting with the black, brown and gold than they appear in the pics especially the skull. I'm so happy at how the dragons turned out. This is probably the only batch that has ever come close to looking like what I visualized.