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Hi everyone!  Yep, I haven't shared any photos for quite some time - but I'm getting back into the swing.  I've been spending alot of time latley restocking my basic bars - Miracle Mud, Natural Oatmeal, Shaving and Naked.  These are popular and wonderful, but soapers know that experimenting and playing with new ideas is always how we want to spend our time.  Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled that I'm developing a little customer base that I've got coming back for more - but you gotta let the creativity out sometimes, too.

I'm really, really trying not to purchase more fragrance oils (no really - I swear!), so I'm attempting to salvage some of those bottles with just a smidge of oil left and blending them into something new.  I also ran out of coconut oil so I tried some babassau and decided attempt changing my water ratio " aka discounting the water".  I basically raided my soap pantry and jumped right in.

So here are the results!  
Fragrances:  WSP Barber Shop + MMS Elements of Bamboo.  I added the fragrance combo to the oils first just in case it might speed up.  It didn't until I got all the colors blended (by hand - which accounts for some of the color specs in the blue).

Colorants: Gulf Stream Lab Color from Brambleberry,  Satin Grey Pillowcase mica from Mad Oils, and Zion Views mica from TKB Trading Co.

Told you I was mixing it up!  I love the babassau oil!  I've been using it in my lotion bars and it's perfect for that. Unfortunately it's a bit pricey so I may not soap much with it from now on.

Colorants sometimes give me trouble - seems like I either use too much or too little every time. Plus, the gulf stream always fools me because it looks green when you blend it in and stays that way until after the gel phase. Just when you think it's going to stay murky and green, the blue is revealed!  I must say I have loved experimenting with lots of different micas the past few months - there are so many fun ones out there now.   And best of all, this soap smells wonderful! Just enough masculine kick rounded out with the clean and slightly sweet bamboo.  It's so nice, I'm tempted to try and reproduce it.  You know what that means, right?? Buying more fragrance oils!   Sigh


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