Soap Making class

A while back one of my friends bought a Groupon for a soap-making class so three of us bravely entered a territory that none of us had ventured before: making something AWESOME.

Here are some pretty pictures :)

Blue poppy seeds and lavender buds. I don't remember what the stuff on the left is...maybe lavender dust?

Whole rose buds

I chose to make the oatmeal soap, paired with bitter almond and ground oats. I also added whole rose buds, lavender buds, blue poppy seeds, and coconut milk.

Here is my concoction of the ingredients before I added it to the soap base. Pretty, huh?

The powdery stuff is the coconut milk.

After mixing up the batch and pouring it into plastic-lined cardboard boxes, we headed home. We had to keep it wrapped in a blanket for 48 hours; after that we were free to cut it up. I simply cut mine into thick bars using a butter knife and it was easy-peasy....then I squished the loose pieces into a bumpy looking circle and left it all to cure for four weeks wrapped up in some brown paper.

Ta-da! The end result.

Next time I'd use less poppy seeds because those suckers scratch you up! You have to use this soap on a washcloth or something: not directly on your skin. My arm looked like it had been scratched up by rabid squirrels before I realized this the first time.

The soap has a light, pleasant almond smell and I feel totally cool knowing that I made it!