My Secret Soap Project – An Army of R2D2 Soaps

I’ve been working on a secret special project for the past several weeks for a colleague of mine.

She decided a few months ago to throw a family reunion of sorts.  Her guest list included family members and close friends.  It was scheduled for the shortest day of the year (in the Northern hemisphere), December 21st, right smack in the middle of the season of Christmas parties!  To ensure that her guests would remember this party, she picked out a Sci-Fi theme.  It was to be a Sci-Fi Mash Up Family/Friends Reunion.

The Favours

Early on in the planning, I offered to help out with the favour boxes.  My friend was determined NOT to give a gift that would just take up space at her guests’ homes.  She wanted it to be consumable.  I immediately started thinking about all the sci-fi inspired soaps that could be easily made.  I asked her if she minded if I investigated a little bit to see if I could come up with a neat idea.  Of course, the extra added benefit of this approach is that her guests would have a gentle soap that is safer than their regular store-bought soap!

Ice Molds on Double Duty

After a couple of hours searching online, I found a couple of promising options.  Both were ice molds from Star Wars.  One was a mold of Hans Solo and one was an ice mold of R2D2.  I ordered three of each from Think Geek and quickly put together a few samples for my friend to look at.

R2D2 and Hans Solo Soaps

We all agreed the grey colour was the best and that the R2D2 soaps were the best for the party.   As much as we liked the Hans Solo soaps, it seemed a little morbid to provide a party favour of someone frozen in ice. So, we agreed to go with the grey R2D2 soaps, scented with Sandalwood.  I used activated charcoal to get the grey colour.

60 “Bars” of Soap Later…

I set out to the task of creating 60 R2D2 soaps.  With only three molds, that meant I had to make 20 successful batches of soap.  It’s true, not every R2D2 came out great.  Sadly, several of them lost their legs in the process.  (Even R2D2 isn’t indestructible!)

An Army of R2D2 Soaps

Packaging

R2D2 fit perfectly in these jewelry boxes with a clear top.  I created a “nest” for each soap with some crinkle paper.  Finally, my friend has a great suggestion of adding a silver stretch look to the box to dress it up a wee bit.  I love the result.

R2D2 Favour Boxes

Favour Boxes

Goat’s Milk Soap with Sandalwood, Bamboo, and Clay

I recently had some fun experimenting with different additives for my Goat’s Milk Melt & Pour soap.  Our home supply was getting low, so it was a great excuse to try out new combinations.  I ended up with three new soaps:

1. Goat’s Milk Soap with Sandalwood Extract. I was hoping that this soap would end up smelling of sandalwood, but the scent is not quite as strong as I would like.  Perhaps I’ll add a couple of drops of essential oil in next time.

2. Goat’s Milk Soap with Bamboo Extract.  The bamboo is quite grainy.  I suspect that it’s going to work great as an exfoliating agent.

3.  Two-toned Goat’s Milk Soap with Green Clay and Activated Charcoal.  I love my charcoal soap, but I find that it’s quite messy in the shower.  So, I made a two-toned soap and combined the charcoal with my other favorite, green clay.  I scented this soap with lime essential oil.  The bars smell very refreshing!  Of course, every time I look at these bars, it makes me think of yet another favorite of mine, Nanaimo bars!  Mmmm…  (good thing I didn’t scent the bars with peppermint!)

On the soap front…

I`ve been away from my blog for a little while, but it’s all been for a good cause!

I just finished seven bars of sandalwood charcoal soap for friends of mine.  After trying the four samples of different soaps I made a few weeks ago, they requested more charcoal.  That was officially my first sale!  Woo hoo!

That was the good news.

On the liquid soap front, I have now attempted to make it on two different occasions.  On the first try, despite following the recipe as closely as possible, I ended up with a grey sludge, as opposed to a lovely soap paste.  I suspect the sludge result was due in part to the types of oil I used.  Not to be discouraged, I tried again last weekend and had a wee bit of a mistake on the temperature.  I realized too late that the temperature had risen too high and watched the soap mixture erupt in the bowl.  It was both horrifying and fascinating at the same time.  Alas, I was not able to save it.  While unfortunate, both tries were good learning experiences and have made me more determined than ever to master the art of crafting liquid soap from scratch.

If you’re dying to try my soap bars, let me know and I’ll fix you up.

As for the liquid soap, I’ll have samples ready as soon as I make a decent batch

Stay tuned!