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A Laugh for Friday

As the work week comes to a close, I wanted to share a giggle with you that I’ve enjoyed for a long time. I have always enjoyed a good laugh, especially at my own expense, and know that many other people could use one once in awhile. While gathering rain water this week, I remembered a great soaping laugh I’ve had and meant to share. Whether you are a soaper, wanna-be soaper, or know someone obsessed with the craft, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.

Many, many soapers over the years have flocked to Kathy Miller’s soap pages to learn about the nuts & bolts of soaping. On her site, there is an abundance of information about both traditional and modern methods, troubleshooting, and recipes. And that’s just for starters. One of my all time favorite pages on her site is entitled “What Kind of Soaper Are You?” which started from an email she had with a friend. Over the years, many people have added to the list describing soapers in this world and it has grown into quite a good laugh. The list includes great entries like the Mad Scientist, Group Soapers, The Recreational Soaper, (Supposedly) Cured Soaper, and one of the ones I channeled this week- the Rainy Day Soaper. Honestly, I’m still laughing as I’m typing this post today. My cheeks & ribs are sore from giggling. Even if you never plan to make soap, you would probably have a great laugh if you stop by this page! As Kathy has so graciously allowed me to blog about her and her site, here is the direct link for your enjoyment. http://millersoap.com/soapertypes.html (If it won’t link correctly, copy & paste the address into your address bar.) Can you figure out which ones describe me the most often? If someone guesses, I promise to confess my soaping personalities!

I must now sign off for the weekend. I will be working behind the scenes on the website as I hunt down the broken code that’s blocking the pictures. If all goes well, the rest of David Vu’s pictures should be loaded by Monday onto all of the pages. Emails and Facebook are probably the best way to catch me today as I’m not working from the usual location today. Hope your weekend goes well and you have a great laugh to brighten your day!

Happy Washing!
Dorothy

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Honeysuckle Soap

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.

Green & White Honeysuckle soap curing on the rack
Honeysuckle Soap Curing on the Rack
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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

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DvisualArts Review and Soap Pictures

This post is not so much about making soap as to show some great pictures and review a local independent photographer in the Houston, TX area. Those who have followed the blog for awhile can tell you that my photography skills are, shall we honestly say, barely passable? Frankly, they’re pitiful so I spent some time looking for a good local photographer to take our soap pictures. Hubby told me about his coworker who runs a side business in photography and I added him to the pool of choices. The more I saw of his work, the more I loved it. He has a passion for sports photography but such a wonderful eye for color and perspectives! His wedding pictures are just beautiful. I was interested to see what he could do with our soaps. We challenged him with naked bars of soap and nothing more to go on but my request to keep it natural. I really wanted to see what he could do with the colors and textures if given free rein. We were thrilled when he gave us back the results. No kidding, I did a little dance and giggle. Just ask hubby; he was laughing at me. Vu, you must post more of your work to your Facebook page- soon! So without further ado, I’m going to post some of his work here. You’ll be able to spot his other pictures all over the website also- they’re much prettier ones lol If you are in the Houston, TX or surrounding areas and in need of a great photographer, DvisualArts does awesome work with a great turnaround time. Check him out at www.dvisualarts.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DvisualArts to see more great pictures!

"Frosted" Chocolate Soap
“Frosted” Chocolate Soap
Oatmeal Milk and Honey Scrub Bar
Oatmeal Milk and Honey Scrub Bar
Green Tea Sand Soap on the Rocks
Green Tea Sand Soap on the Rocks
Ginger Peach Tea Soap
Ginger Peach Tea Soap

Chocolate Soap
Chocolate Soap

Most of these soaps have a few bars still left in stock in the catalog. Feel free to provide some feedback here on the post or on our Facebook page about the new layout and Vu’s photos. If you enjoy looking at cool soap pictures, please feel free to check out some of the links now appearing on the right side of our pages! Thanks for stopping by and visiting our page today.

Happy Washing!
Dorothy