Од земјата на Плитвице, Пулска Арена и прекрасните острови- From the country of Plitvice Lakes, The Pula Arena and the Wonderful islands

Со прилично задоцување, почнувам серија на постови за сапуните во кои имав прилика неодамна да уживам.

Првите сапуни од таа серија се од Хртватска, и тоа од два креатора, потполно различни, но двата изврсни.

I'm so belated with posts on European swap, we had organized back in February, so I'm beginning a series of post with my lovely gifts.

The first one is dedicated to two soapmakers from Croatia, totally different by their sensibility, but both excellent.

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'Diva Soap' низ Македонија!

Ново

Погледнете ја нашата е-продавница на 'Facebook' страница.

Таму имате можност да ги прегледате сите производи и  директно да ги порачате.

Доставата низ Македонија чини  90 ден. до вашата адреса.

Удобен начин за да добиете она што го сакате- додека седите дома во вашата омилена фотеља нарачувате, во влечки го чекате пакетот!

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'Waves & Cakes'

После недостаток на козјо млеко на пазарот, одсега повторно ќе бидат достапни новите сапуни со таа прекрасна состојка. Ако сте во прилика, напијте се од него, многу е поздраво од кравјото, го подобрува имунитетот и побогато е со храниливи материи.

Но, да се вратиме на сапуните. 

Во 'World Soap Challenges 2013' колекцијата има некои со козјо млеко,  тие наскоро ќе бидат достапни во сет. Со нетрпение чекам да ви ги представам во пакетчиња.

Новиот сапун со козјо млеко изгледа вака:

Зошто е 'Waves & Cakes'?

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'HIMALAYAN'

Хималајската сол е нешто релативно ново на овие простори. Како луѓето се повеќе се свртуваат кон здравата исрхана, се повеќе откриваат и нови артикли кои ги воведуваат во секојдневниот живот.

Јас хималајската сол ја воведов и во сапуните!

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Get your body ready for summer!

I just wanted to share with you what I've been up to lately!

In case you don't have a fb profile, or you've missed my recent posts, you can take a look here

First I made new batch of whipped shea body butter. I'd had this order from quite long back

Then, I just thought it would be great to make some sugar scrubs,as a giveaway to my loyal customers. I've made them before, but for the first time, I used my own CP soap. It was so fun, simple and quick and I think it complements this butter,or a soap (or both) just perfectly. After having them unmoulded and cut, I rolled them into extra sugar, making them to look like jellybones we have here (I adore those jellies). 

Do you know this recipe 1-2-3? 1 part of oil, 2 of soap, 3 of sugar! Could it be simplier?

I made three separate batches. In the third I added activated charcaol, not only for colour, but for detoxification effect, too (the black one is in the right upper corner on the last photo). I was eager to try one, so headed to take a bath with my new cube the very first evening. My skin really loved it. The extra oil  (olive and almond) the cubes contain is so moisturizing and left my skin so smooth and baby soft.

We have holidays here, starting from tomorrow, up to Tuesday (tomorrow is interntional holiday, May Day - Labour Day and just afterewards it's Othodox Church Easter), so I have decided to make a special offer with these cubes for everyone who would buy a soap these days. 

Any soap goes with a cube!

Now, all these goodies make a wonderful Care Trio!

What do you think?

Do you like sugar scrub cubes and what is your favorite non-soap product to make and use?

Have a nice day!

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World Soap Challenges- Final Week

Hello everyone!

We're done with Amy's challenges for this year! 

I enjoyed these challenges for so many reasons, but the most valuable is that I had a chance to discover some soap artists I hadn't known before. So, thanks Amy for organizing this year's fun for all of us. I believe you enjoyed, too, but yet, you were the one who had to prepare  a new video every week, new instructions and afterwards to visit everyone's blog or page and encourage everyone of us.

Let me say first I feel I didn't give my best (though, it's not that I was not trying), but every new batter brings me another risk, I almost never work without surprises, lol.

This week's challenge was something I had tried before (you can see my first 'Leo' soap  here), but I can say this one gave me the headache the most. Ok, let's start!

The First batch:  "Hey yellow, where are you???"

I still don't know what happend here!? For my not-meant-to be yellow, I used yellow oxide, and that puzzles me even more!? The inner spots were piped, the outer scooped with a spoon.

Ok, this is a nice soap loaded with shea butter and avocado oil! Liquid used- Whey! I think this will be great nourishing bar. But, for this challenge- it's just not what it was supposed to be!

The Second batch: I'm not giving up and rolling my sleeves up again! Now I opted for green, as basic colour and kiwi fragrance. I was considering adding poppy seeds into the base to give it more kiwi look, but gave it up in the last second, thinking it would be maybe too much. Now, I think I should have gone with poppy seeds, it would have been pop. This time I left my piping bags behind and tried pouring with spoons. One teaspoon, the other one was smaller. Let's see what I ended up with

WHAT??? Now, I'm furious! What the heck has happend here?

I think I know. My 'spots' portion were unfragranced and stayed so perfectly smooth and middle-traced all way long. On the other hand, my base portion, was fragranced and was slowly setting up. I think that this thicker, basic portion pressed the thiner leyers underneath and made them spread. By the way, this soap has a lots of ash! But, the ingredients are fab, so much cocoa and shea butter! Whey again for whole liquid amount!

And the Final one: New ride, guys! New colours, new method, sweet almond oil in place of butters and goats milk for liquid . Oooh dear, it soaped fantastically! This time I took two piping bags (ziploc bags,actually) and cut their corners as little, as I could.! Unmoulded, not cut:

Don't ask me how I ended up with NO ash on top!!? I have no idea,but  I'm glad I did! 

And what I have found inside:

Not bad this time! I still can complain about this one (my spots should have been placed differently), but boy,  I must say I am so tired of this leopard design, I'm not going to repeat it soon again! I really need some rest ! I love these colours and no ash on tops. Do you think ash is related to butters amount in the batter? This one is without any, unlikely the previous ones, which contained  both cocoa and shea butters and have had so much of ash!

I'm going to take more pics of this one and will update this post later, so if you wanna check it out, you're welcome. Or, have you had enough of my 'leopard spots' for this year?

Thank you for visiting my blog and please leave a comment! Don't be shy to express your thoughts on my first attempts! ...And hope to see you all sooner than next year's challenges!

Take care!

Updated: As I promised earlier, I took some more pictures (I adore soap porn), so here they are:

Состав ('Manmma Leo') / Ingredients: Сапонифицирани масла/ Saponified oils - Маслиново (Sodium olivate), Кокосово (Sodium Cocoate), Палмино (Sodium palmate), Рицинусово (Sodium Castorate), Авокадово (Sodium avocadate), Ши путер (Sodium Shea Butterate),  Сурутка (Whey), пигменти (pigments), мирис (fragrance).

Состав ('Papa Leo') / Ingredients: Сапонифицирани масла/ Saponified oils - Маслиново (Sodium olivate), Кокосово (Sodium Cocoate), Палмино (Sodium palmate), Рицинусово (Sodium Castorate), Масло од маслодајна репка (Sodium Canolate), Ши путер (Sodium Shea Butterate),  Какао путер (Sodium Cocoa Butterate), Сурутка (Whey), Активен јаглен (activated charcoal),пигменти (pigments), мирис (fragrance).

Состав ('Baby Leo') / Ingredients: Сапонифицирани масла/ Saponified oils - Маслиново (Sodium olivate), Кокосово (Sodium Cocoate), Палмино (Sodium palmate), Рицинусово (Sodium Castorate), Ладно цедено сончогледово (Sodium Sunflowerate),  Бадемово (Sodium almondate), Козјо млеко (Goat milk), пигменти (pigments), мирис (fragrance).

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'Forest Wind'

Новиот сапун за мажи!

Се уверив дека мажите, иако помалку ги купуваат природните сапуни, многу добро знааат што сакаат. Или, поточно кажано, што им одговата. Се трудам постојано да имам неколку видови на машки сапуни и навистина бргу останувам без нив.

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World Soap Challenges- Week Three

I'm maybe the last one to post on this (I mean third) week challenge!

But, better late, than never,right?
(Edited: I just don't know how I could forget to link this post) If you want to see what others made for this third week, here's the link of Amy's page!  You will find, as usual, so many beautiful creations there!

This soap has collected nearly 90 likes on FB SR page by now!

I never guessed it would be like this, but now you will see why!

The mica swirled tops are totally put astray here!

But before I show you an interesting picture, let's see the mica swirled top

first:

Wet soap and...

...cut

Now, time to reveal what has drown everyone's attention:

Do you see faces here?

Take another look!

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"Let's twist"

Иако сеуште немам направено сапун за третата недела од 'Soap Challenge 2013' (затоа што бев на пат), денес ви представувам еден сапун, направен пред повеќе од еден месец. Зошто не го прикажав порано?
Затоа што овој сапун настана за една посебна пригода. Покрај 'Captured', сапунот со цветчиња внатре, ова е вториот, кој што отпатува за Хрватска и Франција, како дел од сапунската размена со сапунџиите од тие земји. Не сакав да го представам порано во јавност, поради тоа што сакав да почекам сите да ги добијат своите примероци, како изненадувањето за нив би било ефектно. Сега, кога знам дека е стигнат на своите дестинации, ви го представувам:

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World Soap Challenges- Week Two!

It's almost unbelievable how many soapmakers has signed up for this challenges and I'm so delighted to be part of them. This second week task has been quite demanding- of skills, working time, utensils and afterwards, cleaning time, ggggrrrrrrhhh...
I don't mean to sound rude, nor to offend anyone, but first time I saw this technique, I wasn't that impressed. I suppose the layers with two contrasting colours aren't my style. Later, I saw some beautiful creations done by this technique, but I didn't try it until now.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this week soaps, I'm sure I will completely change my mind about so called 'Elemental Swirl'.
I watched the soapmaking video Amy had uploaded on her page, I bet her soap will be amazing. If you still haven't seen it (which I honestly doubt), here's the link.
Ok, my turn now. This is my version of 'Elemental' soap.

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'DIVA SOAP' on the World Wide Soap Challenges!

Hello everyone!
When I read about soap challenges Amy was about to organize, I immediately knew I would be IN!
It's so interesting to see others' works on the same theme.
 I've already visited her page (what you can do,as well) and seen so many great soap artists 'in action'.
I've tried this techinque before and I hoped for best. I decided to soap with no butters added, but in the first one I included avocado and sweet almond oil, along with 'great four of mine' (olive,coconut, castor, plam) and in the second sweet almond and sunflower oil.
I'm gonna say that I'm a real Murphy's friend, where he goes, there I am! Otherwise, I would have been able to make something like this.
First, I couldn't make to soap the whole week, then when I finally found a few perfect hours on Thursday night. I opted for essential oils (lavender and anise), what should have reduced a risk of premature setting up. The colours I wanted to achieve were not what I actually got. So, mix little bit of one here, little bit of other there,....and so on, until my batter started to thicken more and more. What I got is here:

I don't think it's something wrong with this soap, on the contrary, I find it pretty, but just not what I was going for.

Ok,that was on Thursday, I still had one day to give it another shut.
 This time I used the fragrance oil I knew it would behave (a masculline, pino type fragrance) and pre-mixed the colours that I thought it would match my desirable colours. But, Murphy is with me again! My soap batter was setting up on me! WHAT?? I didn't use butters, but I had new palm oil (with higher melting point + lower soaping temperature), included in my recipe, so I suppose, it's the one to blame. So, I didn't have a chance to pour faux funnel, so I poured the soap lengthwise. Actually, I think the result is much more tiger-like than expected. First round went fine, the others, up to the end were scooped with a spoon.
What do you think?

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Meet "Miss Karota Leo"

"Miss Karota Leo" е, слободно можам да кажам, прав луксуз, наменет за вистинска 'Дива' нега!

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"Honey Soldier"

Иако има машко, грубо име, овој сапун е, всушност, толку нежен, дeка им одговара на сите типови на кожа, дури и на најсувата.

Зошто мислам дека овој сапун е нежен и благ?

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From the country of windmills, tulips,Heineken- The Netherlands

Well, I could keep on writing this title mentioning Anne Frank house, Van Gogh Museum, channels, decadence etc,etc - this small country has so many attributes that I'm aware of. But, there is an extraordinary soapmaker living there,who I happened to get to know first among my soap friends from the whole world. As I have said so many times,  I'm so happy to have made friendships with other soapmakers, no matter how far they are. Ksenija is certainly one of these lovely people.

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"KO-KO-SOAP"

Овој сапун пристигнува за празниците кои што следат. А некако добро иде и со пролетта, која што изгледа се предомисли. Ова е мојот начин да ја повикам пролетта, можеби најпосле и ќе пристигне.

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