Yesterday's Soaping Adventures (Chamomile, Oceanfront and Lavender Eucalyptus Soaps)

See I kept my promise...I'm back! So like I told you all yesterday I made 3 batches of soap: Chamomile, Oceanfront, and Lavender Eucalyptus. I was so excited to be back in the kitchen soaping after a little hiatus I did all my prep work the night before so I was ready to go come 6am.  

My first batch came out wonderful! That was the Chamomile.

Isn't it pretty and soothing looking?! I put chamomile flowers throughout the entire batch and then sprinkled a few flower buds on the top. I'm pleased with the way this one came out so we'll see how it looks when I cut the bars down to size. It smells absolutely wonderful, I love Chamomile Tea and this smells just like it! Very relaxing. I'm not sure what to call this one so any suggestions would be welcomed! I wanted something more than "just" Chamomile. Maybe "Relaxing Chamomile Tea"? I don't know...let me know what you think. Either on Facebook or below in the comments section.



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OK those are lovely so on to my second batch. "Oceanfront" was inspired by my love of the beach. Especially Myrtle Beach, SC -- if you've never been you should go it's one of the best beaches IMO....but I may be a little partial :o)

Anywho back to my soap...I had a great soap planned. It was suppose to be White with blue swirls throughout (kind of ocean inspired) with a blue/white swirl on top. Not too fancy but pretty ya know. As I mixed my oils, fragrance, and lye solution together the mixture STARTED TO SEIZE!!

Now for all of you who are not soapmakers and you don't know what that means. The best way I can describe it is the soap begins to thicken up quickly (really almost instantly in this case) and it's more like the consistency of applesauce or thick mashed potatoes. Everything started to immediately separate and not blend together. You should have seen me screaming!! "Drama Queen" I know! I immediately poured it into the mold and pushed it down in there trying to smooth the top to make it look decent. Went back to check on it like 15-20 minutes later and it literally was like a mold full of oil...all separated. As you will see below I then dumped the soap out of the mold and into my crockpot. I decided to slow cook it and then put it in a round mold with the hopes that it can be salvaged somewhat. We'll see later when I unmold it how it turned out.

LESSON THAT I  LEARNED: When working with new fragrances or essential oils remember to do a "small" test batch so that you don't waste your ingredients if all doesn't go as planned. :o)

I will  make an attempt at my dream "Oceanfront" soap again. I may need to find another combination of scents though.

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So now on to my 3rd batch. I was a little nervous about mixing this one up even though I've made my Lavender Eucalyptus soap TONS of times! But I was beginning to doubt my skills. I waited about 30 minutes and then attempted it. This one came out beautiful as usual. I tried to leave most of it cream colored this time and only a small portion on the top is lavender, so I'm also anxious to see how this one turned out once the bars are cut!



So those were my soaping adventures yesterday. I will unmold and cut these down today and report back to you all! Thank you for reading and listening to my soap rambles! Until next time...

Hiya Everyone!! I'm still around :o)

Where has the time gone?! This year has truly flown by! Wow, this is all going to take some used to again. I've been MIA  for a while now on my blog and I am so sorry to those of you who follow my blog and wonder "when in the world is she going to post something"? LOL...TODAY is the day! Yeah I'm so sad :o)

Seriously though my goal for 2012 is to at least make a blogpost once a week. Hopefully more, but for now that seems like a realistic goal to me.

Lots to do before the end of the year, which is only 3 days away. I've got lots of new things planned for 2012. We did home parties this year and plan to do the same next year as well as participate in a few more craft shows. New products, designs, changes to our website, newsletter, more youtube videos on our channel...you get the idea. I will definitely be asking for your input as we make necessary changes and I want to say to you all thank you so much for your support throughout the years. Next month will be our 7th Anniversary in this business journey and we look forward to growing a lot more!

I have soo much to tell you all, so what I'm going to do is organize everything by subject and then make seperate posts. I will start with the soaps I poured today and what I learned in that experience (hint hint:  seizing soap). I just finished making a Chamomile soap  (haven't decided on a name), Lavender Eucalyptus, and Ocean (long story on Ocean). That will all post tomorrow with pictures. Hope you all have a wonderful day. We're having beautiful weather here in SC this winter I hope it stays that way!

Myrtle Beach, SC

And the Winner Is.....

I decided to switch it up a bit and post the results of my Facebook giveaway here on our blog.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER! Tina Sanchez Congratulations!!! Take a look at our website or etsy shop and pick a soap of lip balm of your choice! You can email me at: carolinasoapco@yahoo.com with your address. We will be picking another winner in March so "Like" our fan page and you are automatically entered in the drawing!



Paula's Fried Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich (Review)

I know, I know...this has absolutely nothing to do with soap. But I think this year I will blog about other things too that interest me. I am a food and recipe junkie. I love looking at the food network and the other cooking channel and occasionally trying something different. So, about an hour ago I decided to try this Paula Deen recipe I saw on one of her episodes the other day. It's pretty simple and most people have these ingredients on hand in their kitchen. So I will just give you guys my review of this and you can determine for yourselves whether or not you want to give it a try.

I did not follow this recipe to the "t". I used creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy and omitted the honey. I only made one sandwich so I'm not sure about the amounts I just eyeballed everything to my liking. I also used a firm banana b/c I didn't want it too mushy. Fried in a cast iron frying pan a couple of minutes on each side and Mmmmmmm...finally toss in cinnamon sugar and done. I paired this with a cup of Giradelli Hazelnut Hot Chocolate and it was the perfect combination. 1st bite - creamy peanut butter oozing out with a crunchy buttery bread. However when I got to the last 2 bites I must admit I was a little tired of the bananas, but my bread was still nice and crunchy. (just being honest)

Next time I may just leave the banana out or just put it on half of the sandwich.

 If you don't like things too sweet just don't coat your sandwich in sugar at the end. Personally I had no problem with the sugar:) Now this is not something you want to eat every day. An occasional splurge is OK but I read in one of the other reviews this sandwich is 800 calories, not sure how accurate that is but gauging from all the butter and sugar that's probably about right.

I was actually pleasantly surprised that I actually liked the combination. Well butter and sugar makes just about anything taste good :) And we know Paula loves her butta'! I hate I didn't take a picture of mine b/c my sandwich actually looked better than this in my opinion. Maybe the cast iron skillet had something to do with that. Let me know your thoughts on this if you decide give it a try! Recipe is below:

"Paula's Fried Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich"

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

3 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 to 3 ripe bananas

8 slices white bread

Topping:

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a frying pan, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Make sure butter does not burn. In a small bowl mix together the peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. Slice the bananas into 1/4-inch thick slices. Spread the peanut butter mixture on 4 slices of bread and cover with banana slices. Top with the remaining 4 slices of bread. Spread the remaining butter on both sides of the sandwiches. Grill the sandwiches in the frying pan until each side is golden brown.

For topping, combine the sugar and cinnamon in shallow plate. Coat the grilled sandwiches with the mixture. Cut diagonally and serve hot.

The recipe and picture were taken from the foodnetwork.com website.

Coconut Milk Soap (what a mess)

Soooo....I guess I haven't gotten the hang of soaping with coconut milk. I have no earthly idea what happened to this batch of soap. Maybe I measured something wrong, I don't know! Mixing the coconut milk with the lye was a little tricky. That may have been my mistake. All I know is it came out an oily mess!! Smells good though.:)

This is the ugliest soap I have ever made. I have used probably only 2 bars of this loaf, I just think it's so ugly I can't bear to take it in the shower with me LOL These pictures are when I first made it back in September (I think) it's even uglier now.

Just thought I would share this ugly soap with my blog readers in case you guys needed a laugh today :-) I will be trying to learn how to rebatch this batch of soap. I've never rebatched before but I guess now is as good a time as any to learn. Live & Learn.

Look at the oil just running out! I must have measured something wrong. But it still lathers up really well in the shower and it's creamy too.