Learning New Things! Handmade Cold Process Soap

Rustic Soap Challenge! 

 

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This is my entry for the April Soap Challenge for the Soap Challenge Club.  The challenge was to create a rustic soap with minimalist packaging.  I decided to go green!  The soap is made with cucumber peel puree and nettle tea instead of water.  It's 44.5% Olive Oil, 26% Coconut Oil, 5.5% Castor Oil, 5.5% Avocado Oil and 18.5% Sunflower Oil.  I didn't add any essential oils and went with the earthy scent of the nettle and cucumber.  Surprisingly, the cucumbery nettle scent did survive the cold process. It's very earthy and subtle.  I did add a bit of French Green clay, but I think that most of the colour comes from the cucumber and nettle.  I am really pleased with the colour!  

The packaging proved to be the biggest ordeal.  I actually entered the challenge because I haven't gotten to the packaging part of soap making yet.  I'm very new to this, so this proved to be motivation.  My desk looked like a craft store bomb had gone off.  I was buried in all things rustic.  I finished a grand package with a tiny crate, paper grass, ribbons and tags.  It was elaborate and looked like an earthy Easter basket.  Then I re-read the challenge and discovered the "minimalistic" requirement!  Back to the drawing board.  I decided that I wanted it to look like a brown paper bag.  So I ran with that, did a chalkboard label and used a little hemp cord for the handle.  I used the soap stamp because I just got them in the mail!  I am currently in love with my soap stamps and couldn't resist showing one off!