I had written this post in early December but had to hold it so I wouldn’t ruin someone’s holiday surprise.)
There are two lades we love in Mississippi who were waiting very patiently for me to make more Honeysuckle soaps. I had promised them a batch but I really had wanted to improve the colors of their favorite soap over the last time. That was the tricky part for me. As the blog followers are aware, I have reservations about colorants in my soaps. It’s got to be a natural product- no FD&C colorants in my soaps! I first learned to color soaps with a waxy kind of colorant but they really never gave me the results I wanted. I refused to touch a lot of soap colorants that I researched as I found out what they were made from. Some of the “sure fire” herbs that I’d had recommended to me over the years gave me interesting results- at first. Color morphing is a bit of an issue for the cold process soaper as your gorgeous blue become purple overnight. A tie dye looking soap became brownish purple by the time it was ready to deliver and a deep emerald green slid into the color of something you’d almost step on in a pasture. Or the time my pink became brownish- yuck! Yellows became tan and don’t even ask about what we decided some of the results reminded us of. Let’s just summarize some of my soap coloring research as enlightening to me and fun for the household. But I kept making my research batches with the hope I’d get the colors I wanted if I just kept trying. I absolutely love looking at other people’s pretty soaps and admire their artistic work they create in colors. There are incredible soapers out there that I hope to one day come close to in great designs. In the meantime, my job was to try again to create a colored layer soap that stays the color I wanted it to so I could make these two little ladies happy for the holidays.
After many failed attempts, I got a herb green to work reliably. This batch of Honeysuckle soaps in the catalog still has the not too sweet fragrance with a layered green look. I has planned a swirl in them for the holidays but it started to get too thick so we went for the layers instead. We used one of our milder recipes for the batch to get a great smooth feel while not drying out your skin. (One of these two ladies has to wash up quite a bit in her job and tends to dry out this time of year so it was a high priority for us.) The feedback on this batch tells us it is great for all ages and even liked by the “no flowery scent” users. We hope you’ll enoy it as much as we have!
The sun is now rising on another cold day here and I must head out to check on the soap herb garden. I wish you a great day out there and an even better time in the shower!
Happy Washing!
Dorothy
