Star Anise and Green Tea Soap Fail

 I've had this soap in my  head for three weeks and yesterday was the day to make it. I had pre weighed all my ingredients so this was supposed to be a fairly easy batch of soap to make.  I had planned a swirl in the pot but the phone rang just as I had finished doing the fragrance and colouring so I was pouring it in to the mold in layers as I was talking. After I hung up I did a bit of a swirl and finished the top.

Overall I was really happy, the Green Tea fragrance did not accelerate trace and smelled really great with the Star Anise. I used chromium green oxide for the green, titanium dioxide with poppy seeds for the white and activated charcoal for the touch of black.

Later that day........ I realized I had left the olive oil out. Oh no! I unmolded it last night and made a cut so I could see the swirl. So here it is, at least I have pictures because the soap is going in the garbage:( I'll try again for sure. Has this ever happened to you?

Toilet Fresheners from Pinterest

A few months ago customers started coming in to the store looking for Peppermint Oil and Citric Acid to make Toilet Fresheners. Apparently they were the latest thing on Pinterest and I have to say I was curious when I heard about them. They sounded like bath bombs for your toilet ( a little cray cray for sure) but I looked at a few recipes and bookmarked one. I  made the ones shown here last Sunday using this recipe  from a blog called Maria's Self.  I followed the recipe exactly and am really happy with how they turned out. The essential oils of Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint smell really great together and the fragrance is nice and strong.

 

 

I used silicone molds and got 29 little ice cube sized Fresheners. The flowers in the mold pictured above all fit perfectly into a 500ml Ball Mason Jar, be sure to put the lid on, you want to hold the scent in until use. I gifted those to my Mother In Law, she gets a kick out of things like this.

These little fishy ones are super cute but my mold only makes 11 at a time so I'm going to make another batch to get enough to fill a jar.

And these are the flowers out of the mold. They are said to deodorize and kill bacteria in the toilet bowl. I'm definitely all about the natural cleaners and I have used mine by cleaning first and then adding a Freshener to finish. Let me know if you try them!