Wow! We love playing in our workshop when we can. This last moment-o-fun was spent playing with our new blackberry mold. It makes perfect replica’s of blackberries. This wonderful fruit mold is from Van Yulay and you could easily get lost looking at all the unique and quality made silicone molds they carry. The particular one for this batch was the Medium Blackberry Mold with 25 cavities.
Next:
We still had to perfect the color and scent of the embeds but at least they were ready to be used in the bar soap. Now we will play with design next. Should the berries cover to soap top or just do a simple line down the middle? Do we like the solid color bar of soap or the one with the color swirl?
We will explore these and many other questions on: ‘As the Soap Turns!’.
Scent:
In this test batch we tried Blackberry Sage from Brambleberry and Fresh Blackberry from Bulk Apothecary. This 2 lb mold each got 1lb of soap one scent on each side of the mold. The Blackberry Sage is nice because the sage tempers the sweetness of the blackberry. The Fresh Blackberry is dark, sweet, and fresh. I’m not sure there is a clear winner yet. So we’ll see which scent stays and cures the best after 4-6 weeks. The Fresh Blackberry did thicken up quite fast so I’ll take that into account if I keep using it.
Here at Normal Soap Company we always prefer to use essential oils. Nature would have it some lovely smelling plants and fruits will never provide an essential oil. Alas, we are left to cosmetic safe fragrance oils if we want something that smells like fresh blackberries (apples, peaches, lilacs, strawberries…etc).
Stay tuned!
