Rusted Soap

I have never once been mistaken as someone for whom less is more. 

It doesn't even make sense to me mathematically.

So it wasn't that much of a surprise when Amy said my Easter-inspired soaps weren't exactly rustic enough for this month's Rustic Soap challenge.

 

I had been thinking: it's an egg. Like on a farm. Farms are rustic, right?

And I'd shaped these by hand, like without a mold. Isn't that rustic? Hmmmm.

I tried a few more in what I thought were earth tones, but my family took one look and declared... Nope. Still not rustic.

What was I missing???

Apparently sparkly mica isn't rustic. Who knew? Sigh...

So, I put them aside and made the next batch using only clays and tea powders for colorants. Sadly, they don't sparkle one bit. 

See? Not even a little. 

This challenge included some sort of packaging, and again, I was stumped. 

I consider shimmery organza bags and velvet ribbons to be sort of a baseline, so what was I to do?

Apparently, very little. 

Don't get me wrong, as it still took me forever to come up with this. Striped cotton ticking in tan and black, and a custom, home-made label printed on simple kraft paper. 

The background printed too light to tell, but it's intended to look like an old fence. The fonts are Janda Apple Cobbler and Bernard MT Condensed.

My husband says they're still not rustic enough, as they should be just a single, dull color. I disagree. After all, they literally look rusted. Hello? Rusted? Rustic? That can't be a coincidence...

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In case you're wondering, I made these from cooled hot-process soap dough, using this recipe:

• 30% Lard
• 25% Coconut Oil 
• 20% Costco Mediterranean Blend Oil
  (50% canola, 40% olive, 10% grapeseed)
• 12% Castor Oil
• 10% Shea Butter
• 3% White Beeswax

I skipped my usual sodium lactate and used 40% water, which is almost twice as much as I normally do, so they take much longer than I'm used to harden!

I like to make up a big batch and keep in a gallon ziplock for when I (or my daughter) need some soap dough to make something with. I usually scent it with Cucumber-Melon (from Nurture Soap), as everyone loves that one, but I did this batch using Indian Sandalwood (from Nature's Garden) as it's more exotic and the scent lasts forever. Like years, even unwrapped.

To make these two bars, I:

1. Measured out 9 oz of dough, and broke it into little pieces with my fingers
2. Spritzed the pieces with water
3. Tossed them in green tea, yellow Brazilian clay and Australian black clay
4. Started squishing them together, working out a design as I went
5. Plopped the whole mass onto a silpat mat
6. Shaped it into one long bar
7. Let it sit for a while to harden up, and then cut into two

The process is pretty straight forward, and is based on the same idea as a pencil line. But, it does take a bit of practice to get the ratio of colors right, and to keep the sections from coming apart as they dry.

For this soap, I was going for more of a stone look, so I pulled the shapes into longer sections to make them look more like veins of marble or granite. The middles could of course have just been a solid color, but it's more fun to me if the designs to go all the way through the bar. Here is the backside of one: