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Left to right: Bay Rum, Apricot-Peach (will get a LOT darker, except for the white chunks throughout), Strawberry Smoothie Left to right: Vanilla Bean (will get VERY dark brown, with white swirls), Heather & Hyacinth, Althaea Rose Clockwise from bottom: Sensuous Sandalwood (will darken a bit), Sunshine Citrus, Nag Champa, Pure Olive Oil The new look of Althaea Rose. Some won't like the flowers embedded in the tops. But I WANT them! Apricot-Peach has a bit of vanilla in it, so the base of this will go from buttery yellow to chocolate brown after a while. The cubes of white soap will stay white, though, and the tops are "frosted" with white swirls. Heather & Hyacinth. The fragrance turns the base lightly green, and it's filled with shredded blue, purple and green soap for an impressionist painting effect. This one moves *very* fast, I usually have to bang it into the mold, but I kind of like the rough effect on the tops. It looks like a hot process soap, and indeed it does superheat when the fragrance is added, but it's not truly a hot process soap. Nag Champa. The tops are swirled with gold and bronze micas. Pure Olive is no reason to be plain and boring, right? I like the swirly tops. Sensuous Sandalwood. The purple section has the slightly discoloring fragrance in it, so it will get darker purple with a little time. Strawberry Smoothie. The musk also darkens a bit, so it was added to the red swirl to make it turn a darker berry red after a while. Sunshine Citrus. I'm happy with the visual on this, no plans to change it anytime soon. Okay. Now it's time to box and ship orders. This seems to be my routine anymore: Spend a day boxing and shipping, spend a day making soaps/lotions/scrubs/etc. to refill stock, spend the next day turning out the new stuff to cure, then whatever time is left goes back to boxing and shipping. Back and forth, back and forth.

So, today I unmolded everything.



This is me, flipping an ice cube bin upside down to release the loaf of Nag Champa soap inside.








I had run out of mylar strips, so this one had a sheet of waxed paper in the bottom to help the soap release.



Peels right off. Usually.



Flip it over, and I use this ingenious little device called a "soap planer" to get any scraggly bits off of the edges. If you don't have a soap planer, you can buy one for about $8 - $10 plus shipping online at your average soap supply place. If you don't have one, you can go to the grocery store and find something called a "cheese planer" for about $4. *cough*



Next up is a big double loaf in one of the Rubbermaid shoebox molds.



Pop the lid off.....Ta Da! It's Christmas!



Bending the sides of the mold away from the soap loaf to release suction.



Then flipping it upside down and pressing on the bottom to release.



Peeling off the mylar sheet.



See? Comes out pretty clean on the bottom.



And where there are a few blemishes on the edges, I trim with the planer some more.



This is my big wire-cutting cheese wheel slicer. I slide the double loaf onto the central groove and pull the arm down, bringing the wire (piano wire) down through the soap loaf and dividing it into two loaves.



See?



That's Nag Champa, about to get painted with some gold mica on top.



After 9 or 10 soaping sessions, I have a pile of scraps like this. I mash them up to make soap balls, or I separate them by color and shred/chop them for embedding material.



Fresh Nag Champa, born today.



Lavender Chamomile.



Dragon's Blood. The black is grayish right now, but the fragrance discolors and will make it darken to black in a day or two.



Iced Black Keemun Tea. Those are Jasmine tea leaves throughout.



Here's the Yuzu Japanese Grapefruit.



East Indian Patchouli. Again, the fragrance discolors, so the black will get blacker in a few days.



Orange Spice.



Green Irish Tweed, with subtle swirls.



Sunshine Citrus, tops painted with gold mica.

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