Play Time

The soap dough challenge on Soapmaking Forum is coming to an end this weekend. Over the past week or so, I've been mulling ideas around, trying to come up with.... something. I finally came across a photo that inspired me; it was similar to this one.

I know that these are fairly simple to mimic but they still take time and trying to figure out how best to put it all together was also a bit of a challenge. When I realized that the deadline was fast approaching (Feb. 25), I figured I'd best get my butt in gear.

Over the last few days, I'd been sketching out layout ideas and finally came up with one I liked. When I got home from work yesterday, I got to work. Unfortunately, my batter thickened up a little faster than I'd hoped and I had to hurry to get it all together but, all in all, I'm pretty happy with my soap.

Here are some of the pieces I used to put the soap together. On the left, the pink/white/black rod and the black and white rods will span the length of the mold. (I used the mini mold for this soap.) The rest are some of the "candies".

John was ready to try one of these before I told him they were soap. He was a little disappointed.

The soap in the mold. Sorry, the photo isn't the best but you get the idea.

And, the cut soap. I had envisioned the bar being another, larger, candy with green, black, and white stripes but my batter thickened up more than I expected. I'm not disappointed, though. It's a fun soap, a cheerful soap. The batter was lightly scented with Sweet Fennel essential oil, an oil that smells like licorice.

There was more batter than needed for the small mold, which I did on purpose because I knew I wouldn't be able to use all the "candies" on this loaf.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this soap. It's fun, playful, colourful, smells yummy and the scent works with the theme of the bars. That said, I still want to make a soap with roses, scent it with something totally different and call it "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden."

Tomorrow? Poop!