MEMORY LANE

The scent of this soap takes me back home to the Mediterranean. With essential oils of lavender, rosmary and bay laurel it would be hard not to.

The olive oil portion is 100% infused with rosmary lovingly grown and kindly donated by one of my neighbours. I infused the oil the traditional way, over the course of more than 40 days, caressed by sunlight and moonlight.

It also features cruelty-free tussah silk, which is becoming a regular ingredient in my soaps.

Bye now!

A.

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

This soap smells seductive, very feminine, and floral without being overly sweet. I also added some cruelty-free tussah silk fibres for a more slippery and luxurious feel.

It inspires me of passion and dreamy romance, so I decided to call it after Wong Kar-Wai's delicate movie. All I have to do is sniff it and I hear the slow, longing music of the movie's soundtrack. 

Until next post!

A.

RORSCHACH TEST

I love using all types of milks and yogurt in soap. This one features a very generous amount of greek yogurt as a partial water replacement.

What do you see in the two soaps of the first row put side by side? I see the face of a mystic creature. Maybe it was the Soap God that showed himself to me, hahaha! Pity the Photography God did not make his appearance this time :-(  

The tiny black speckles are poppy seeds. It is scented with a blend of essential oils, predominantly cedarwood and rosmary, which in my book is kind of a manly smell. Unfortunately, it was not ready for Father's Day here in Australia.

Pictured bellow are some of the washclothes that I crochet. Funny the large number of fellow soapers out there that also like to crochet, I wonder why that is. 

Bye now!

A.

PURPLE RAIN (and a few thoughts on palm oil)

"I only want to see you bathing in the purple rain"

Prince

Since coming to Oz I've decided to take the plunge and go palm oil free. When in Spain, I was always using what I purchased as sustainable organic palm oil, but somehow I felt the production and manufacturing process could not be entirely traced and, therefore, my mind was not at peace. 

There is a lot of conflicting information about palm oil and the way it is commercialized. Some suppliers say they carry 'Ecocert certified organic palm oil' but, does that mean it is also sustainable? For me, sutainable means forest and animal friendly as well as respectful of farmer's rights. Some others say that they source from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) members. And that's a good start, but the RSPO itself has several standards. These range from 100% sustainable, with the recommendation that companies should aim at this (but, remember, this is only a recommendation), to what they call 'GreenPalm', which is untraced palm oil with a trading scheme to support equivalent certified sustainable production. And in between you can find the compromise solution of the 'mass balance certified sustainable palm oil' (a mix of certified and uncertified palm oil). So, if I'm buying from someone who sources from an RSPO member, which palm oil am I actually buying? For a very small scale soaper like me it is hard to obtain an accurate answer. I bet for some of those well-intentioned suppliers an accurate answer is difficult to obtain, too. 

So I've been struggling as to what was the best choice to make and this is where I stand at the moment: I have gone palm free in all but one of my soaps, my 'little sin'. I will post about it another day and explain why I've kept that one particular soap that is not palm oil free.

I don't intend to vilify palm oil all together. Not at all. There is a lot to be said for palm oil: it has the highest yield per hectare of all the vegetable oils. It supports the livelihood of many farmers in developing countries. And unrefined palm oil (not so widely used in the handmade soap industry) has many desirable properties to me as a soaper. I don't even agree with those who say that, as an edible oil, it is unhealthy (remember when coconut oil was one of the bad guys?). So, maybe one day, when I can be entirely sure that I'm using certified palm oil that is fully traceable, I'll use it again regularly. 

I haven't been able to bring myself to use animal fat in my soaps yet, so this also has been a decision with an economical cost attached, but I think it will be worth it, at least for the time being. 

Until next time!

A.

FAST & FURIOUS

It is almost a miracle that I managed to swirl this soap at all. The trace accelerated very quickly and by the time I turned around after pouring the bottom third and doing the pencil line, what was left in the soap pot was almost soap on a stick. I was working at a low temperature, with a not particularly fast moving recipe and, as usual, only with essential oils, none of them from spices, so the only thing I can think of was the benzoin oleoresin causing this behaviour.

Still, not a totally bad looking soap IMO, and it smells amazing! 

Bye now!

A.

JABÓN DE CASTILLA

Aunque me encanta pensar en el diseño, colores, aromas y demás aditivos de mi próximo jabón, creo que hay algo mágico en un jabón puro y simple como un jabón de Castilla, 100% oliva virgen extra, sin más. Por su suavidad, es uno de los jabones más adecuados para las pieles sensibles de los bebés y de las personas mayores.

Aquí está mi primer jabón 'Made in Australia'. Ya lleva casi 2 meses curándose y pienso dejarlo por lo menos uno o dos meses más antes de siquiera probarlo. La mayoría de los jabones ganan con el tiempo, pero esto es especialmente cierto cuando se trata de un jabón de Castilla que, con el paso de los meses, gana en dureza y produce una espuma con más burbujas.

Hasta luego!

A.

  

DECÍAMOS AYER....

Ha pasado una eternidad desde la última vez que hice un jabón, fue en diciembre de 2014 en Barcelona. Estos meses han sido tiempos de cambios profundos, y en ello seguimos, adaptándonos a una vida diferente en la otra punta del mundo. Un lugar familiar (al fin y al cabo, es el hogar original de la goanna) y a la vez desconocido. 

En muchos aspectos hemos tenido que empezar de nuevo, y los jabones no han sido una excepción. A medida que pasaban las semanas y las urgencias de la vida diaria o la propia rutina se apropiaban del tiempo, cada vez daba más pereza volver a empezar. Buscar proveedores, idear nuevas fórmulas libres de aceite de palma (algo que me rondaba hace mucho tiempo por la cabeza), buscar la inspiración, ponerse a crear.... empezar de cero otra vez. 

Confieso que en ocasiones pensé en no volver. Me intenté convencer a mi misma de que no valía la pena. Pero no pude ni queriendo. Por muchas escusas que buscara, las ganas seguían ahí asomándose de tanto en tanto. Así que un día decidí propiciar el reencuentro haciendo un simple jabón de castilla, 100% aceite de oliva y sin aromas. La mejor elección. Me permitió jugar un buen rato y poco a poco ver las diferentes fases del proceso; emulsificación, traza líquida, traza media, traza espesa.... iban llegando y las iba saludando mentalmente a la vez que imaginaba "si quisiera hacer tal técnica, tendría que parar ahora y separar una parte, si quisiera hacer tal otra cosa, tendría que llegar hasta este otro tipo de traza, si quisiera....". Enmoldé y supe que ya no había marcha atrás. Los miedos, principalmente al fracaso, ya no tenían cabida. Disfruté tanto que comprendí que tenía que seguir. Tenía que intentarlo. Porque aún si no puedo un día llegar a vivir de esto, habré disfrutado mucho, pero que mucho, en el camino. ¿Por qué renunciar al placer de todo el proceso creativo? Inspirarse, formular, diseñar, crear, desmoldar, cortar y ver el resultado, fotografiar...  

Y así, después de ese humilde jabón, llegó el que veis en la foto de más arriba y otros más que he ido creando en estos días y que iré mostrando poco a poco.

Encantada de estar de vuelta :)