Late last year I took a fancy for creating some soap.  It started as a little niggle in my brain when I was at a craft event and I saw that other people had made them. I was a bit intrigued . I saw a lot if beautiful shaped soaps , and attractive designs of things like cupcakes and floral shapes etc.

I thought I would like to have a go. I had no idea what my own soaps would look or smell like but I decided to try and go down a natural path , concentrating on essential oils and natural flowers and spices. This one is called 'Rock the Kasbah '. Named after a favourite song  by The Clash . It reminded me of visiting the market in Istanbul many years ago with all its exotic and wonderful aromas . I've used tumeric , honey , lavender , and ginger to recreate that experience.

I started experimenting .  My biggest problem was simply not knowing a single thing about it. I had to start from scratch. This was refreshing for me in a way because with the sewing and knitting I rarely , if ever don't know how to proceed 😁 it was a steep learning curve.  I've never done anything even vaguely sciency before , and working out accurate measures to fractions of a gram , and calculating the percentages of allergens etc was all challenging to me. At times I thought I would not be able to do it , but I pressed on. Learning as I went.

I soon realised that even if I only were to give the soaps away to friends and not sell them , that I needed to cough up the money for a cosmetic safety assessment if I were to carry on. So I saved up ( it's expensive  ) narrowed down my ideas to 8 products ( the assessment package I opted for , you could get 8 done at once ) and had them assessed.

I've designed my soaps specifically to be genderless , and I feel they would be liked by everyone . At first , my husband thought I had just gone a bit daft , but now he uses them all the time. Especially the patchouli based products.  

I've used classic scents such as patchouli and lavender but added depth and interest with things like ginger and lime  , and unexpected elements such as golden syrup , tumeric and honey . They're strongly scented and have  usual elements. I have not used any synthetic scents , or 'parfum ' as it is labelled. This one is scented and coloured only with Patchouli , mixed spices and muscovado sugar.

I'm pleased with the results. It's been a very interesting journey for me, a hobby with the added bonus that people seem to like them and buy them too . 

The emphasis is the scent and so I kept the bar in a traditional easy to use shape. I want people to actually use them and not leave them lying around looking pretty.

When you open the wrapping the aromatic scent explodes. The whole bathroom smells beautiful 😀

My hope is that once this collection has paid for itself , I will introduce a range of moisturizing cream. I've so many ideas .....  

This one is Gin and Tonic , and that's exactly how  it smells.  'Wow ' is the first reaction  people give when they sniff it 😁