Coconut Cucumber & Dill

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Ingredients: Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Blended & Strained Cucumber, Spring Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Spirulina, Dill seeds

Superfatted: 6.5%

First Impressions: I wanted to experiment with natural colourants so used the spirulina .. And the plan was to make it two toned, but I ran out of time and had to pour at a light trace causing the seeds to be displaced and the layers to merged *ahh well ..

Caraway Tangerine & Sandalwood

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Ingredients: Olive Oil, Tallow (see notes below), Caraway Seed Infusion, Sodium Hydroxide, Tangerine & Sandalwood Essential Oils

Superfatted: 7%

Notes: This is the one and only time I have or will use animal fat in my soap .. I felt it important to experiment with this traditional ingredient at least once, but will NEVER do so again!

I also had trouble with the essential oils accelerating trace, and had to 'gloop' the mixture into the molds with a spoon ..

First Impressions: This is a very solid, hard bar that bubbles and lathers well .. The essential oils both seem to have been lost in the saponification process, and even the super strong caraway infusion has imparted little more than a gentle colour to the bar .. A bit of a failure so far as fragrant appeal is concerned, but definitely still an efficient, yet mild cleansing product ..

French Lavender Castile

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Ingredients: 100% Olive Oil, Spring Water, Sodium Hydroxide, French Lavender Essential Oil

First Impressions: "It's dreamy"

I love using this pure olive oil soap despite it's lack of bubbles - coconut or castor oil will improve the lather but decreases moisturising quality .. Given how often one washes their hands, especially a gardener and pet owner like myself, I prefer to use this gentle bar so I don't need extra hand cream after I've rinsed ♥