Update on the Soap Fairies Visit

Well, the soap fairies certainly seemed to have enjoyed the visit to our house, because they decided to come back! Remember the poisonous looking yellow soap, which I had to cook and shred to save it? And my lovely plans for it? Well.............. the soap fairies had other ideas, LOL.

I decided on a well used recipe for the base soap, to which I wanted to add the shreds and also top it with shreds. But as the scent of the shreds wasn't all that strong, I thought it a good idea to add a little fragrance to the base soap as well. BAD IDEA! I wanted something to compliment the scent of the soap shreds and sniffed my way through all my FOs, and of course I just had to pick another one from a batch bought which I hadnt used before. Guess what? Yep, soap fairies spat in it. It set up very quickly, but I managed to handstir the shreds in and top the log as well, but...... after alittle while it separated again and a huge oil lake appeared on the top of the soap. It started absorbing back into the soap a little over the next couple of days, but I didn't hold out much hope, I feared for the worst again.



So yesterday I finally unmoulded it, with oil dripping everywhere and yes, as I had feared....... poisonous yellow splotches all around the bottom. I was not a very happy bunny. So what to do? Sling it in the bin? Waste all those oils and fragrances ( which, btw still smelled delicious in the soap, darnit )? The soap didn't have any zap so it would definitely be ok to use, but oh boy, those yellow bits were gross. Sigh, it was majorly frustrating. The only thing I could do was yet another rebatch. Fortunately ( and I have no idea why ) the yellow areas were all round the bottom, so I cut these areas off, chunked up the rest of the soap and chucked it in the cooking pot.



Added a little water and stirred like crazy while it heated up, until it was all melted down nicely to a kind of soft mashed potato consistency. Slopped it into the mould, had a few words with it, basically to tell it to b...dy well behave itself or else, and left it overnight.
















And lo and behold, just this once my stern words must have had some effect on it, because when I took the soap out of the mould this morning, it was............. normal looking soap, hurrah! Not the prettiest of soaps but it looks kind of wholesome in a rustic sort of way, LOL, it smells great and has lovely lather. It is still very soft, because of the added water, but I am confident that in a few weeks time this will be a lovely soap to use.





I just hate waste and if there is ever any chance of saving a batch, I'll give it a go. They might not be as beautiful as other soaps, but they are special, because they have been given a second ( or third, lol ) chance and survived despite all the hiccups.