Soap for Daddy

It's ridiculous, but soapmaking has been on my must-do list since...September? First, I wanted to find a new cold-process recipe, being heartily dissatisfied with my old one, so I requested a bunch of soapmaking books from the library, then waited for them to be held for me, then picked them up and read them all, then didn't like any of the recipes in them, either, so then returned them and requested more books.

So then I found a recipe on a soapmaking DVD that I liked, but had to return it before I got around to copying it down, so then had to request it again, then copy it down.

Then had to track down the ingredients. Waited until a Wal-mart trip (ugh!) to find the cheapest coconut oil, only to discover that they don't sell coconut oil at Wal-mart, so waited until the next discount day at the local indie grocery store to find the next cheapest coconut oil.

Waited until a trip to a different place to find castor oil.

Waited until a trip to Indy to find the super-cheapest olive oil.

Did a bunch of other stuff.

Used some of the coconut oil for granola, so had to wait until the next discount day at the local indie grocery store to buy more.

In the meantime, my poor Matt ran completely out of bar soap. The girlies and I use liquid Dr. Bronner's, but Matt is a man, and apparently a man needs bar soap (?).

Cold-process (and hot-process, just because I want to) bar soap is on its way, I assure you, but in the meantime, I set out all the supplies for the girls to make "soap for Daddy."

Vegetable glycerin melt-and-pour soap is so super-easy, and a quick and satisfying craft project, as there's pretty much no way to mess it up. I dragged out all the essential oils, and let the girls sniff and sniff and sniff and each choose two to mix into one soap for Daddy:

Sydney choose geranium essential oil and cinnamon essential oil, and Willow chose geranium and pine. It's funny, because a few weeks ago I permitted Willow to choose an essential oil from the grocery store, and after much sniffing and sniffing and sniffing, geranium was the oil that she chose--she apparently has excellent taste, because it's been a popular oil around here!

As with everything, the waiting is the hardest part:

Fortunately, we had to take Willow to ice show rehearsal, so after spending a hour there, and then another hour at the gym, by the time we headed home, the soap was...

Perfection! Matt apparently thinks so, too, or else he's just VERY grateful to have bar soap again, because he was just as excited to receive his soap that night as the girls were to give it to him.

And as the eyewitness on the ground, I can tell you that the soap has been well-used every morning since.