This is a batch of Goats Milk and Lavender soap that I made yesterday. I decided to include some dried lavender buds from the garden as well. I wish you could smell them….. divine!!
Then I still had the soap-making mojo happening, so I made a double batch of Goats Milk and Rose soap.
These are scented and coloured with rose but have no petals. They’re cut in rustic slabs and also smell beautiful. They’ll be ready in 4 weeks or so.
I know people have been asking when I’ll be putting my soap in my Etsy shop, but the fact is that I can’t. Well, of course I can, but I’ve decided not to. In Australia the government makes you pay $400 if you want to sell your soap, because they class soap making as a cosmetic. Now I can see that $400 is cheap to set up a business if that’s going to be your main source of income, but I don’t want to spend my weekends manning a market stall. My housework rarely gets done well enough now, let alone if I was gone all weekend! Covering the $400 cost before even starting to pay for materials and time etc is prohibitive. At, say, $4 a bar that’s 100 bars of soap I’d have to sell just to keep the government happy before I even started chipping away at the costs of the materials. (At $3 a bar that’s 133 I’d have to sell. It’s not practical to do it.) As it is, my family and friends are keeping me busy with orders… some bartering and some with donations towards the oils and scents, so it’s all good. If you’re desperate to get your hands on some of my soap, I suppose you could send me an email and we could work something out.
I think tonight I might make some Goats Milk and Spearmint soap. I’ve been using the Spearmint balls of soap I made in January in the shower and the spearmint scent first thing in the morning is a lovely thing to wake up to. But then again, I have to drive to Doncaster with David2 for his piano lesson, so I might not have enough time this weekend. *sigh*
* And just for the puzzled people yesterday who didn’t listen to their English teachers during poetry classes: Onomatopoeia is when a word sounds exactly what it is describing eg: rustle, crackle, snap, ephemeral.*
Dancing With Frogs 
Oh, I do love a very aromatic lavendar soap. Yours looks divine.
Can I make a suggestion for your readers who may wish to buy beautiful handmade soaps? When I visited Tassie last winter, I came across a local producer, Natural Infusion. They can be found on Facebook and their web address is http://www.naturalinfusion.com.au/shoppingcart/
I have no association with these manufacturers of these products. I just stumbled onto them and having done the soap making course last year, I realised they used good products, so I bought a few bars. I loved them so much, I ordered a dozen to be sent to me for $50. I’m due to order another box. I love these soaps and I reckon that, given the costs you’ve explained, they are reasonably priced.
Bloody government – gets in the way of sensible crafting hey!
Those soaps sound lovely. I usually buy rose soap from our local produce market and really love it.
As for onomatopoeia, our school definition was ‘sound suiting sense’ a good pithy explanation!
I stand in soapy awe at your amazing soap creations – the all look FABULOUS!!! and I bet they smell divine too! It is such a shame that the license fee is so high, because it would probably be fun actually selling the soap at craft fayres three or four times a year, because I am sure people wouldn’t have seen anything quite like these. However, I am sure that your family and friends are delighted you have taken up this new craft.
…But to be classified as a ‘chemical producer’ ….other far less bubbly and aromatic thoughts spring to mind! Hope all is well in your world.
I didn’t want to ask about the soap, lest you had to say no thank you. Nevertheless, keep posting the soaps; for I enjoy hearing about them.
Mmm – I rather fancy the goats’ milk and rose soap … and it looks like coconut ice!
If you’re still producing later this year, I’m thinking of running another Christmas market — last year’s was a hit and my daughter Lily sold every bar of soap she’d made. You could post me some of yours and I’ll happily sell it for you, no commission, nothing.
Oh, and how in the bejaysus do you see the word “ephemeral” as onomatopoeic … or was that a trick addition to the list?
Hello – I don’ t know if I have commented before – I’ve gone to the beginning ot yoru blog and read it all.
I’m a teacher-librarian in an elementary school in Glassboro New Jersey USA
I love reading your blog, and about the soap you’ve been making. What a shame you can’t sell it on etsy. But then I would be tempted to buy some and I would imagine the shipping would be ridiculous from you to me.
Anyway, wanted to say hello !! Have a great day!!
Oh I love lavender soap, especially when it has bits of lavender in it! Yours looks lovely.
Ohh I do love the look of your soaps and you have inspired me to start hunting for new recipes and playing around. Thank you for that. I have to ask though how do you get that lovely rippled pattern on the top of your soaps? Is it from the mould or do you do it yourself? I’m very new to soapmaking (only a couple of batches under my belt) but I’m itching to get in and experiment. Thank you for sharing with us. As for the $400 because handmade soap is a cosmetic!!!!Hello don’t they realise we make soap because we don’t want all those nasties in the soap. Obviously someone behind a desk didn’t have anything better to do than make silly rules. Off my soap box now (pardon the pun)…vbg.
I am definitely going to have to make my own soap. I’ve put the second last bar that I have in the shower, and I went to look at soaps in the shops. I even went to the crunchy hippy store and I thought 1) 4 for $10! That’s ridiculous and 2) I bet Frogdancer and Suse’s soaps are WAY nicer than these. I feel myself being sucked into the vortex.
Steven and I have a running argument. A word will come up in conversation – say, ‘carrot’. And I’ll say, oh! Carrot is an onomatopoeia. To which he usually replies with a quelling look. But it is! It sounds like what it is. Or, say, ‘nipple’. Or ‘book’. Not ‘magazine’, though.
It’s a pity its so expensive to get the bit of paper you need to sell it.
bloddy government!! i obviously didnt listen to my teacher at school…. actually I know I didnt listen to her, she bored me to death. wish you had of been my teacher 🙂
‘Voluptuous’ – my favourite 🙂
How about teaching soap-making courses? I’m sure one or twenty of us would have a go at that – would you need to give the government a cut of *that* action as well?
Does your talent know no bounds?
I am in awe and very jealous of your skillz and the fact that you get to USE such beautiful creations. I can literally SMELL the lavender and rose/goats milk soaps looking at those pictures.
You are amazing. And energetic. 😉