The Soapmaking Continues

There is an old tradition that if you are making several of something, you should give the first one you make away.  I don't know where this tradition comes from or what the return is but it seems to me that it is a good start to any new endeavour.  Actually, I had very little trouble with this as Christmas was fast approaching and the first batch, which was lavender, was very quickly earmarked to be dispersed amongst the friends and family that I was going to be seeing.  In fact, three weeks out there was a crisis moment as I realised there was not enough soap from the first batch to go around.  So I made a second batch of lavender was just as quickly allocated.  (The last two of the second batch went into the post today).

The funny thing about these first two lavender batches is the smell.  They smell gorgeous and while I am trying to get feedback on the soap itself (how else am I going to learn) a few people are saying "I haven't used it, it smells too nice."  I could offer to sell them another one, it is a rather expensive hobby to keep giving the stuff away but that seems just a little mercenary.  I have been using it myself and have been very happy with it.  (I used it to shave my legs and I did not need to moisturise the way I usually did.)

The batch that I made yesterday was a shaving soap, the first of which is going to B as he gets a rather nasty shaving rash and has a bit of trouble finding a  shaving foam that suits.  Because this is to be used for shaving, which means it needs a compact space on the vanity, I wanted to use square moulds rather than the long ones.  I also used cassia and cumin essential oils for the scent which is quite distinctive (and definitely manly).  I thought that I had done a pretty good job of putting the soap in the moulds but it turns out that I need a bit more practice.  There was also a scary moment when it would not come out of the moulds and I had to try a couple of tricks which I found online.  Well, practice makes perfect and pretty really isn't the point.  Now I have to wait four weeks for it to cure before I can try it out on my primary guinea pigs.