This year Dave and I decided to bake all of our bread this year. I started with the HB in Five group attempting to bake through the book. Dave made a variety of wonderful breads from other resources. It was fun and healthy and we’ll do it again in 2011. If you’d like to read about our bread adventure, drop by his blog HERE.
Another thing we decided to do this year is make soap. Our trip to Tarpon Springs Florida last January really motivated us into making our own. This year we’ve made eleven different soaps.
If you’ve missed those posts with the recipes, the links are on the Soap, Etc page. In June I also listed what we’ve learned from this venture HERE. I could add to that list the following:
- We found it was worthwhile to make two different soaps while we were in the mess.
- Our batches make 10 bars. It’s been a good idea since we are still experimenting, but once we decide on the ones we really love, I’d like to go ahead and make a much larger batch. Our problem is we love them all and want to continue to experiment!
- We found that we weren’t putting enough fragrance oil in our batches so we bumped up the amount this last three and they do really smell nice, but not overpowering.
- Always have everything ready before you start with the lye.
This next year we will try some different fragrances, natural colors,and other exfoliants.
I’ve toyed with the idea of making liquid soap next year. A new group was created just to make this kind of soap. You can find them in the Yahoo groups at SOAP_MAKERS_CLASSES. I’ve signed up, but not sure I will take the plunge.
If you are still sitting on the fence about making soap, join one of the online soap groups. My favorite is The Sage Soapmakers Forum. There’s nothing like a friendly group of soapers to get you excited about soap and other body care products. They also have swaps so you can see what others are making. Here is what I received from the Hostess Swap this month.
I made my Mango Body Butter and my cocoa sugar scrub for this swap.
While I am reviewing our soaps, I can’t forget the body care products. My favorite of everything non-soap related is the shea mango body whip. I love the feel and the smell. I also love the Dreamsicle Face Lotion although I think I would not scent it next time or at least not make such a large batch. I’m getting pretty tired of smelling this treat on my face.
It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to more experimenting with both the soap and the other body care products.
So many beautiful soaps! Did you use them all up or are you giving some away as well? The reason why I hardly did any soapmaking in 2010 was that I still have soo much soap left over! But I will be doing some soapmaking in 2011 I hope 🙂
Happy Soapmaking and body care products making in 2011!
Kristina, We still have a lot of soap left, even after giving some away. But it keeps forever and it’s fun to keep searching for that favorite bar. And it’s kind of addicting!