First Soap For Fall

Yes, the title of this post is lame-o, but I am still pondering the name of this baby. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted. One of these swirls was supposed to be orange, but I used extra virgin olive oil as opposed to the pomace variety, and I ended up with this. The scent is TO DIE FOR! I went very dark on this one. I am usually the sweet, sometimes musky type of scent lover, but this one is scented with 50% anise essential oil which I am in love with. It reminds me of those black jelly beans. I hated those damned things when I was a kid. I would pick them out of my Easter basket and give them to my uncle or my mother, and they would gobble them up. Puke! Anyway, my tastes have grown much more refined in my old age, and while I still can't stand black jelly beans, I love the smell of anise and black licorice. Oh yeah, the other 50% is a blend of orange, cinnamon, ginger, and clove.

 
I CPOP'd this soap because I personally cannot wait to use it. I'm thinking of making a scrub and a candle out of this blend too. It's that delicious...

The Evolution of Chai!

Like my hand-drawn tea cups? lol...

Chai tea is one of those scents, like coffee, that I absolutely love the smell of, but can't stand to drink the stuff! Chai tea is also one of my all-time favorite soap fragrances. It's spicy and exotic with universal appeal. Women and men dig this scent because it's not floral or girly, and it's not manly either. With that being said, I've already made and sold two successful batches of Chairiffic, and they pretty much look the same. I added some black tea to my lye solution to give it color, but I was stuck with an entirely brown soap.

This time, I wanted a different look. I was inspired by a post Amanda from Lovin Soap did a few months ago where she made chai tea soap in little paper cups and sprinkled cinnamon powder on top. How freaking clever was that?! Well I aint that crafty, but I used her creative genius to give Chariffic a makeover, and Voila!

Chairiffic Numero Uno

Chairiffic The Second

A deliciously-scented mini slab of chai tea soap with foam and cinnamon and a few droplets of Tahitian vanilla. I'm in looooooove!

Is It Autumn Yet?

I love warm weather, but this is ridiculous! I never want to know what Hell feels like, but I feel like I'm living in Hell on Earth. Anyway, I'm actually preparing for my autumn offerings. On the horizon:

Caramel Apple soap and lip balm! I can never get enough of this scent. But being the me that I am, it won't be traditional caramel apple (except the lip balm). It'll be my personal blend....

Orange-y, spicy, something, but with a Halloween-y appeal in both a soap and Gloss Bath and Body Oil. It won't be an obvious "Oh-yeah-this-is-Halloween", but I feel that I have to represent the occasion, ya know?

Firewood Soy Candles will be back. I love this scent. It smells like a smoldering embers with droplets of blackberry. Very nice....

Pumpkin Sugar Scrub is also making an encore appearance. I'll go lighter on the cinnamon because it can be somewhat irritating to the skin (Ask me how I know...) Pumpkin and orange spice smell too much alike to me, so I may actually use something else other than pumpkin. I may do an apple cider-type scrub. Love, love, love that fragrance...

So, that's about it for now. I'll be posting later this week on my revamped Chai-riffic soap. Love, love, love the aroma of chai tea! What are my other soap making sisters working on?