Saturday, 21 September 2013

Orange Spice

As the autumn weather begins to roll onto the West Coast, I've been looking forward to making and using a few seasonal soaps. Along with pumpkin pie scented soap, one of my favourites is orange spice. This soap is scented with essential oils, and I love how the warm, spicy undertones contrast with the note of bright citrus from the orange.


The essential oils in this soap include cinnamon leaf, orange 5 fold, and a touch each of anise seed, clove and nutmeg. I also steeped a vanilla pod in the warm oils; as expected, the scent doesn't really come through, but I love the speckled look of the vanilla beans throughout the soap.


I also used coconut water for the liquid portion, which I had never tried before, and included tussah silk in the lye water. I coloured the top portion of the soap with cinnamon powder, and left the bottom portion uncoloured. I had intended to do a nice fluid swirl, but the soap thickened incredibly quickly (I didn't even have a chance to use the stick blender), so I did a quick swirl with a spoon to incorporate the two colours together. The result isn't quite what I had in mind, but I like the simplicity of the design.


Happy seasonal soaping everyone!
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10 comments:

  1. Eileen21 September 2013 at 18:50

    Absolutely love the colour!

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  2. SoapJam22 September 2013 at 00:20

    I love orange, vanilla and a bit of spice, so right now your soap sounds really really yummy to me! I like the way it looks natural and down to earth, reflecting the autumn season.

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 September 2013 at 09:43

      Thank you Silvia! Do you have any other fall favourites?

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  3. SoapJam22 September 2013 at 16:00

    I think the orange vanilla spice combination is my favorite fall scent (well, we don't have fall in the Philippines but doesn't mean we don't get to enjoy things associated with the 4 seasons :-) ) . I also bought pumpkin spice and apple jack peel, but have not used them yet. Out of the bottle, I am not that excited about the scents, so will have to see if I change my mind after soaping with them. What about you, Deirdre, what are your favorite scents, autumn or not?

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 September 2013 at 20:56

      Hmmm I love anything with lavender essential oil. I've been mixing lavender EO with either peppermint or citrus EOs a lot recently. My taste tends to run towards either herbacious/woodsy scents (lavender, rosemary, mint, clary sage, cedarwood) or spices/vanilla. I tend not to like florals or anything in the lemon verbana/lemon eucalyptus family of scents (they seem to give me headaches).

      I haven't smelled or use a lot of fragrance oils, but there are a handful that I absolutely love: evergreen (very realistic forest scent), pumpkin pie and Tahitian vanilla. I purchased all of these from Voyageur in Canada. I also bought creme brulee from them, and out of the bottle, it smells fantastic. A real buttery vanilla scent. I'm thinking of making a "banana brulee" soap with that, using Cee's banana milk technique.

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  4. Cee23 September 2013 at 20:44

    So pretty Dierdre, what a great fragrance combo...I bet it smells wonderful!

    PS - I think a Banana Brulee soap would be wonderful!!!

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    1. Unknown23 September 2013 at 22:15

      Thanks Cee! It smells great - I can't wait for it to be cured. I'll keep you posted on the banana brûlée soap. Looking forward to trying out the banana technique! I love purées and milks in soap

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  5. Unknown30 August 2014 at 13:50

    absolutely gorgeous!!!

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