Or maybe a delicious smell. Whatever.
Yesterday, I took my very first Blim workshop. It was a “Guest Workshop” run by Beata of Soigne, and it was awesome: I learned how to make cold process soap, and as an added bonus, bath bombs!
The almighty k-dot was in attendance as well, and we had a great time figuring out the exact temperature of the lye & water solution, the oils, and getting everything mixed properly. LYE! Lye is fun! Although I think when I create my “ingredient list” I’ll refer to it as “sodium hydroxide”. It might sound more chemical, but it sounds less like “IT’S GOING TO EAT YOUR SKIN!” For the record, ALL soap is made from lye. Ivory, Dove, whatever. Lye! No lye = no soap. If it doesn’t have lye in it, it’s not actually soap — it’s probably a detergent or something else. The lye & water solution is non-caustic after 48 hours, and with the appropriate amount of fat/oil… becomes soap.
In the end, our group made two batches of soap: orange & cinnamon (complete with some ground dried orange peel, smelled SO good) and vanilla with some lavender buds. Tomorrow, I get to remove them from their molds (read: old [clean] milk cartons) and slice them up into bars, then wait 4 weeks while they harden completely.
I am so looking forward to doing this at home. I have everything I need (well, other than the ingredients) save for a hand blender, which I’m picking up tonight. I’ve given up on finding one in a thrift store (my local Value Village is picked over voraciously for anything good) but I found one for $17 at Sears. It’ll do.
Then, in a month or so… I should have soap! Glorious soap! I’ve been digging around for new soap recipes and drooling a bit. They look so tasty. (No, Donna. You can’t EAT the soap. Awww.)
We also made some bath bombs that are da bomb (har har). Peppermint essential oil & chocolate fragrance, with a little bit of ground rose petal for decoration. They smell like After Eights, and are absolutely divine. I am SO having a bath tonight…. and possibly a box of after eights, to keep me from munching on the bath bombs themselves. I suspect the taste is not as good as the smell.
They smell so good that they actually inspired Justice to her second ever attempt at counter surfing (the first was a few months ago when she was on prescription food — apparently she really liked her prescription food and tried to score some while I was still preparing it for her.)
Silly puppy. You can’t eat a bath bomb!
Oh god. She really IS just me in fur.
Are you sure you’re not just hoarding lye to get rid of all those dead bodies you have stashed somewhere?
No no. I use quicklime for that. :)