Soapy Friday: 2018 Fall Soaps

The thing about making high-quality, artisan, cold-processed soap is that it needs a minimum of 4-6 weeks of curing time before it's ready to be used. So, you have to plan ahead, which means you are making fall and winter stuff in the summer.

Fall Soaps for 2018

I don't mind it. I'm sick of the hot weather and making fall and winter soap puts me in the mood for cooler times ahead.

I've made 3 different fall soaps this week, which will all be ready by early-to-mid October. I'm feeling chilly already!

"Falling Leaves"

This soap turned out EXACTLY like I was hoping it would. In fact even better. I used my triple-butter luxury recipe for this soap, and it is scented with a citrus-spiced-berry fragrance that makes me want to go pick pumpkins and Christmas trees at the same time!

Falling leaves and autumn glory

"Eucalyptus Spearmint Sea-Salt"

This is another one of my triple-butter luxury bars made with activated charcoal and white and pink Himalayan sea-salt. It has a very invigorating eucalyptus and spearmint fragrance, with hints of ozone and sea spray. This soap makes me think of taking a long walk along a winter sea shore with a wool sweater wrapped around my shoulders.

Eucalyptus Spearmint Sea Salt Soap 

"Country Bumpkin"

Not only is this soap gorgeous, it's made with real pumpkin! Pumpkin contains Vitamin A and C to help soften and sooth the skin, while boosting collagen production to prevent aging. Better than pumpkin spice, this soap smells like fresh-baked pumpkin pie with an extra dash of cinnamon!

Pumpkin Pie anyone?

The Garden in October

Most everything is tidied up for the year in the yard and garden, although we still have one more "after mow" to do on the lawn.

Beautiful colors

The grass seed w/fertilizer and warm weather made the lawn completely take off. We are forced to give it one, last mow or else it will turn into an unmanageable jungle. Usually in the past, we actually get COLD weather in October, which keeps the grass from growing too much, but noooooo. This year and last year have been unseasonably warm.

We haven't even had a freeze yet, and it doesn't look like we'll even get one in the next 15-day weather forecast (BTW, our average first frost is Oct 16th...even last year brought us a freeze by the end of October). I still have all of my bulbs to plant and hope to get to those next week, so I guess if there's a silver lining...

Green, red, orange, yellow...

In some exciting news, my pink, potted Angel's Trumpet bloomed this month! I bought this thing from a lady at the farmer's market this past summer and she swore it would do great up here in a pot. She said you just bring the pot in the garage and it goes dormant over the winter. Can you believe that?

When I bought it, it was only 8" tall. Next year, this thing will get bigger. I think it needs a name...

Pink Angel's Trumpet in a pot

We had a couple of Angle's Trumpets w/yellow flowers ("Charles Grimaldi") growing in our yard in Florida and the flowers smelled A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! They would make the whole yard smell like lemony magnolia flowers. Heady.

Anyway, the fall colors are "peaking" here in our area right now and one cannot help but be amazed at its beauty. Soon, they will be gone and the cycle will begin again.

Tranquil beauty

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Soapy Friday - Fall Leaves and Citrus Energy

Happy Friday everyone!

There wasn't much going on this week due to me waiting to see how my last couple of batches of soap perform after they cure...

But first, fall leaves in July! Can you believe this?

October in July?

It's been so dang hot and dry that our tulip poplar trees have already shed 10-15% of their leaves due to heat stress and lack of water. Usually, they start to drop a few leaves here-and-there in July, but I've never seen this much!

The veggie garden is starting to pick up, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm taking a small break from soap (sort of).

Maters are coming it

On to soap, shall we?

Like I said, not much happened this week, but I did manage to make a double batch of what I am calling "Citrus Energy" olive oil soap. I usually make my olive oil soaps 100% natural and only use essential oils, but I didn't have enough orange and grapefruit essential oils to make this batch, so I subbed in some "Energy" fragrance oil from Bramblerberry.com. It smells just like orange essential oil.

Waiting for release

I usually can unmold in a day, maybe two, but when I tried to unmold this morning, the bottoms were still a little soft, so I am going to let it sit for another day or two. I might have used too much fragrance oil, which upped my total liquid amount and is making the soap a little softer.

I did try another lotion recipe that contained only 7 ingredients: water, olive oil, emulsifying wax, vegetable glycerin, vitamin-e oil, a preservative, and fragrance oil. I liked how it turned out and made 5 sample bottles, which were given away to friends. I've been using the one bottle and I really like it. I made it with an "Anjou Pear and Lime" fragrance oil blend, which makes me think of summer and fall at the same time.

Of all the soapy things I make, lotion is the easiest and gives me the fastest gratification...basically it's ready to use right after you mix it and put it in the bottle (after cooling).

That's all for this week, friends!