i do say i am a blog neglecter + soap mold troubles + heather and nettle, or, the long post title

Why, hello, stranger. I have now, three months (give or take) later come around to write that post about soapmaking goodliness I promised about. *blushes*

Last weekend I made some soap: Heather & Nettle, apart of a specially special-like thing that might so happen to be a new line at Malkata. I can't tell you very much because it's a surpise, but I'll say that the soaps are unscented and and herbal and quite sexy, I must admit. I haven't really got a release, er, more like list-in-Etsy-shop-yay-it's-available-for-sale date in mind for it but I figure by mid-Sept. I may have gotten mineself infusing each herb into olive oil goodness and making nice pretty soap loaves and letting them cure and all of that grand fun, so perhaps expect by early October they'll be in my shop, along with some other goodies I can't tell you about. I'm a party pooper, yes, I know.

So, without further ado, I'll show you how it went in lots of pictures. How hunky dory it is, yes?

Lots of fresh pumpkin seed soap grated up in mine devoted and beat-up crockpot.

So as remilling goes, you have to wait a incredibly long time for the soap to melt into an even reasonable consistency to pour into the mold, even when it's grated. That isn't something about remilling I'm particularly fond of, but I love how long the soap lasts and how rustic it is so to me, it's a pretty good trade-off.

Alas! It has melted!

After 1-2 hours it's pretty completely melted. See how mushy and totally unappealing it looks? Fortunately, by the time it's hardened it's quite pretty (in my opinion, anyway).

 While it was melting, I decided to line the mold. My dad so generously built a nice little wooden mold for me in the beginning of July for my soapmaking endeavors with wingnut-type things on the sides, but oh my goodness it is SO hard to line that thing! See, the wingnut-type things on the sides actually get in the way instead of being useful. Therefore, I have half a mind to buy a mold from Bramble Berry so my mold won't look like this when I line it...

A (sort of) lined mold

Once it was thoroughly melted, I added the infused oils (first picture). Whilst I mixed it all together it smelled quite good, like hay or fresh cut grass. Then I clumped into the mold like so and it looked like this...

Soap in the mold

I sprinkled it with heather flowers and covered it and let it cure for about 24 hours. Next morning it was all hardened and lovely!

Soap loaf in the mitre box to be cut

Voila, finished bars

These bars, for some odd reason, remind me of some sort of French countryhouse or an old white armoire with the paint chipping off (but in a nostalgic, charming sort of way).

 These babies have to cure for three weeks and then they'll be ready and raring to go :) I'm so excited to share them!

(P.S. - For kicks, here's another hint: there's cocoa and shea butters inside each one – a.k.a., a super moisturizing bar of soap)

In other news, I'm in the final steps of finishing a website for Malkata Soap Works, and within a few months it shall be open to the world. Wooo! There'll be lots of neat stuff, some background info on the soap shop and on my invisible self, links, and perhaps some specials and and my recent soap endeavors, what's curing, and some of my ideas.

Goodnight ;)