Rose Soap

Funny, how I get an idea in my head for a soap and can't let it go till I make it. I perused Etsy soap sites, blogs, Google images, etc. for a good soap technique to bring my rose soap to life. I really love the pictures of rose soap with rose petals embedded on top, but my practical, botanical-bit wary husband discouraged plying my soap tops with crushed roses. He said, "Who wants to wash with scratchy rose soap with soap petals that fall off in the shower?" Hmm...he had a point here, but I still love all those rose topped soaps, so I compromised and used only a minimal sprinkling to adorn the tops. Practical botanical bit haters can pluck the 3 or 4 petals off before indulging.

At last, I decided on a modified dream-catcher style where I layer alternating light pink, dark pink, and white layers in a slab mold. The pink and dark pink were made with rose clay and Brazilian red clay, which I love for the great soap feel it provides.  I added a few splotches of green and ran  my skewer, outward,  through both the lily-padded pools and the leaves. It didn't really look like roses, but the impression of roses was definitely there. Now, here's a first--normally too consumed with making my soap work, I decided to step it up a notch and do a few pictures of the soap in progress. Mind you, I'm a nervous Nelly and normally too focused on the soap to do anything else. Instinctively, my family avoids asking me questions or talking to me when I'm in the soap zone. Here's the start of my rose soap. It's controlled chaos, for sure, but suits the way my brain works...flitting here and there..nothing ever linear.

I used a super luxurious blend of oils including olive, avocado, shea butter, rosehip oil, and coconut. I added a light scent blend--rose absolute, palmarosa, and patchouli.

Here's the cut bars--even though I used a CPOP, I'm still going to let these cure a few weeks. The scent was a little more subtle than I anticipated. My husband loves it--even with the botanical bits! He'll just pick them off and proceed as usual. Girls love this stuff--we'll just sniff our bits, pick em out of the shower and love every minute of it. This is a GIRL soap.