Soap Cures

Pomegranate Soap freshly poured and swirled.

I don't mean that soap cures diseases.  I do mean that soap has to cure, or age, before it's good to use.  When we make a batch of Blissology soap, we can't just sell it the next day or even the next week.  How long soap cures depends on a few factors.

 
When soap is poured into molds, it's a thick liquid consistency - ideally.  Sometimes particular fragrances will speed up the process and make it get thicker faster so sometimes we're glopping in soap that looks more like mashed potatoes.  Even though it would still be okay to use, soap that moves too quickly sometimes ends up being cosmetically challenged or downright ugly. 

Large block of Angel of Shavano soap.

In either case, we wait for about 12 hours before we try to unmold the soap.  If we're using particular molds, we can often pop the whole thing in a warm (not hot) oven to make sure the saponification (making of soap) reaches the "gel" stage.  We prefer to do it this way because the soap seems to become usable faster.  We can shave off several days of cure time and get soaps back in stock sooner. 

Sometimes soap is still too soft after 12 hours to get it out of the mold or cut it without risking damage to the bars so we'll give it another day before trying again.  What is best is after the first twelve hours, the soap is firm but not so hard that cutting is difficult.  Once soap is out of the mold, it gets put into a tray to cure.

Beautiful Life soap cut and ready to cure.

Blissology soap ages for about four weeks before it's ready to use.  Some soap cures longer and some soap, like our Beautiful Life Spa bars, are ready much sooner.  As the bars cure, they get harder and more mild.  Very fresh soap hasn't completely finished saponifying so it can be harsh to skin.  The longer soap ages, the more gentle it becomes. 

We wait as long as possible before packaging Blissology soap because it loses water as it cures and shrinks.  If we wrap them too soon, the paper slides right off the bar.  For this reason, we generally package days before a market or show and as orders come in.  That in itself is a whole 'nother process!

Angel of Shavano

It's been hard updating lately because there really hasn't been much news. At least on the business front. Other things in every other aspect have been busy.

We've mostly just been restocking and restocking. Like our Angel of Shavano soap. If you've ever smelled Thierry Mugler's "Angel", then you'll know what this smells like. It has hints of lots of different fragrances including sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, plus faint notes of fruits and citruses. It is meant to arouse fond memories that one cannot quite place with smells reminiscent of chocolate, honey, and caramel.

So that's the Angel part. You might wonder what "Shavano" is though.

We live at an elevation just under 8,000 feet, surrounded by mountains in all directions. Out of our kitchen and living room window is the perfect view of the Collegiate Peaks in the Sauguache mountain range. It's one of the "Fourteeners", mountains above 14,000 feet, and has an interesting visual feature to it.

On the eastern face of the mountain is a deep crevice that forms the shape of an angel usually for most of the spring. Can you see her in the picture? (Picture was taken by Steve at ColoradoGuy. I couldn't take one myself right now because the whole mountain is covered in snow and the angel isn't visible.) Look for a big "Y" just below the summit. The legend goes, that there was once a great drought and the Indian people of the valley were suffering. A Ute Princess went to the mountain and prayed for her people. She was told that she must sacrifice herself so that her people could have water again. She did, and now every spring when the snow melts, it is her, crying for her people and renewing the valley with fresh water.

In our soap, we added calendula petals too. It looks pretty, smells pretty, and has a nice story to go with it. Needless to say, it sells very well locally! We think you should have a piece of our beautiful mountain too - every time you wash!

The last picture I wanted to share is what Angel of Shavano looks like when it first comes out of the mold. It's so smooth and pretty-smelling!