When the going gets tough, the tough rush out the door sobbing with their tail tucked between their legs, drive home like a maniac, yank out out the Babassu oil and start making soap.

So, I needed something CLEANSING for my heart, my soul and my little kitchen. What better than handcrafted soap? Still not up to call myself an "artisan" soap maker. Not sure how one earns that title. Instead I think I'll just go with Fartisan Soap Maker. Fits my life better, Not quite ready to put it on my soap labels though.  Still want to sell a few bars. So lets just keep that Fartisan thing between you and me, OK?

I was in a hot process mood last night. My basic HP recipe is
     10 oz  Organic Coconut Oil
     10 oz Rice Bran Oil
     10 oz Pure Red Wattle Organic Lard
     5 oz Organic Sunflower
     2 oz Castor Oil
     5.1 oz lye
     12 oz aloe vera juice

Added 1/4 T Maddar Root Powder and essential oil mix of 1and 1/2 Blood Orange and 1/2 Patchouli.
(I recently decided, about one minute ago to share more of my exact recipes. It seems many soapers are all top secret, Agent 99 about their soap which makes it hard for us new soapers to improve so I am breaking the unwritten code, Of course after seeing some of my soaps you'll understand why sharing my recipe is no big deal. It will be like Rosanne Barr/Arnold/Macadamia Nut Queen/ sharing her cookbook)

So batch number one came out like this:

I agree. The flowers are a bit much. Too bright but you don't know until you try. The maddar root powder did not mix as well as I thought it had. Next time I think I will infuse for a couple of days instead of a couple of seconds. I did like the tops though:

The scent was fantastic. Been walking around with a bar taped under my nose all day. A farm girl's gotta do what a farm girls gotta do.

Batch number two consisted of same recipe but I added 2 T ground steel cut Irish Oats and 1T ground orange peel scented with 1oz Sweet Orange and 1oz Cedarwood EO's. It was hideous going into my mold and improved over the next 12 hours. I took these bars outside for their debut.

See that ? A group of three. The only valuable thing I ever learned in my Art 101 for the Dumb at Joliet East HS. Now something very important to remember with this recipe. DO NOT SCRIMP on the Irish Steel Cut Oats. Last month I made this soap with Alabama Machete Cut Oats and it ruined the whole batch. Every time I took a shower I would hum the theme music to Deliverance.

Still not tired enough to sleep I moved on to Hot Process batch number three, the Lavender-Anise. For color I used Alkanet. Seemingly enough to re-tar the street put front. I was looking for a pale blue, I was gifted with this:

Grey Granite ? It is solid as a rock. Maybe if I coat it with a little oil or I could take it outside like the others

Ah better, especially since I plopped it in the middle of the only Lavender plant I have that survived last winter. The green makes the blue less sad. So those were the three batches I made last night but I was on a soap photo roll so I scooped up the egg soap I made a couple of weeks ago and threw it into a nest box.

Don't worry, I won't sell this bar to the public. I'll save it for someone special. An in law perhaps

Not done yet because I do obsess much...I grabbed my 4 week old Patchoily Bar. Called such cause the dang thing smells so heavenly but won't get hard ! I made it lie on top of some stony concrete piles in the hard hoping the texture would motivate it.

So there you have it. I know some sane folks blog about one new soap at a time but...Why?