greenstorm: (Default)
I got most of my smelly things to put in soap by post, since I don't really live near anywhere I care to buy fragrance oils and essential oils and whatnot. I ordered things that sounded nice, years back, or that I was curious about. When I made soaps I mostly sniffed the bottles, mixed a couple together, tried to remember which was which or noted it on a piece of paper, and then the paper got separated from the bars of soap after they'd aged.

I have a ton of small, half-full bottled of fragrance oils etc around and I like some of them, don't like others, and mostly don't know which I like. I step into the shower and think, "oh, I like this one!" but that's as far as it goes.

I have a ton of extra lard right now so I've started making sample batches for each scent. This looks like making one batch of soap and splitting it into 1-kilo portions, then adding fragrance to each seperately.

Today I did bergamot oil (not fragrance oil), carnation fragrance oil, "rain" (smells like "men's products" or ozone or something), butterfly orchid fragrance oil, frankincense fragrance oil, hawaiian plumeria fragrance oil, and hyacinth fragrance oil. We'll see how they turn out. I can give away anything I don't enjoy, both the soap and the oil.
greenstorm: (Default)
I'm making more soap.

The last soap I made had sugar in it for extra suds, sunflower seed oil to make it more nourishing/moisturizing and to make it spoil faster (it felt right), salt in it to harden the bar, and both kinds of grit. Plus it had every scent to make me feel nourished: roses and joint soothing and benzoin to remind me of Tucker and fir needle to remind me of the woods. It's for getting through memories and hard times and is every colour, the kind of confused mix of cranberry seeds and walnut that reflects my current inner state. It will not last forever, I'll need to use it up before 2 years.

Today I'm making shea butter soap, so rich like a blanket. Sugar for suds, no grit, and sweetgrass and sage and birch for cleansing and the first sap of spring. It'll keep well and won't spoil. One day I'll be ready for it and it will be there, white and clean and gleaming.

Soapmaking is a thing we did together and it will always bring him to mind.

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greenstorm

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