sweetgrass soap in glorious green

Just close your eyes and pretend you can smell the light sweetgrass fragrance.



Ok...I get a lot of questions about how I make my soap. I'll post detailed photos of the steps at another time, but here's a quick overview.

Well, before it looks all pretty like the photos above it is very much a liquid like this...



Getting the soap to come to trace is a little tricky at times. This means that the soap has to thicken enough to harden later while remaining thin enough to pour into the mold. Because the soap is a traditional lye and oil soap, it is very caustic. This means it can burn you. So, you have to be really careful not to get it on you or the counter! Yes, this does hurt. I keep apple cider vinegar handy (this is a neutralizer).

The pretty green decorations on the soap are called soap sticks...



...and soap curls...



To make these pretties, I cut up a plain bar of colored soap (previously made and slightly hard), into long rectangles. Then, I use a vegetable peeler to "peel" the soap and create the curls. It's actually kinda fun. I know it's not necessary to put all this extra decoration into the soap, but I like to make things pretty and colorful.



If you place the curls and sticks into the liquid in the right places (ideally where your cut lines are for the bars), you get pretty color throughout the bar.



All of this is simply trial and error. Practice does eventually make perfect.



You have to work quickly with the liquid soap. Lots of things can affect how quickly the soap hardens on you. Oftentimes, Dynamo has to lend a hand. While he's pouring I'm mixing the next color or peeling curls!

In the end, if you're lucky, you get prettiness like this soap! And, even though it takes extra time to add the "pretties" to the soap, it's worth it. I think it makes the customer feel pretty when they have something beautiful, both in smell and looks. We all want to feel pretty. That's my goal...to make you feel pretty!