Pumpkin...I think

Well, I decided to try my hand at a "Fall/Autumn" fragrance.  I checked my little stash of fragrances and managed to dig up "Sweet Pumpkin Spice".  I tried it last Fall, but only with a sugar scrub, which received pretty good reviews.  It does smell yummy.  Like a spicy pumpkin pie.  You take a sniff and you feel the Season's changing.... 

So here we go.

I decided to stick to a basic recipe.  I have been struggling lately with how soft my soaps have come out when I am trying to unmold them.  I have been playing around with the oils and butters, and just have not been doing a good job in creating a nice hard bard.  Even adding Sodium Lactate, which helps to make a harder bar, was not helping. 

So we go back to my standard recipe of Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Shea and Mango Butter, Castor Oil and...Pumpkin Puree :)

No...I have never added any puree's to my recipes before and this will be my first time.  I checked out the Forums and did some research with my helpful "Google" and jumped in with both feet in! 

I must say that I am either getting a little more confident or just starting to finally get the hang of it!  I seem to be a little more organized now in measuring my oils, getting my lye water ready, cleaning up , putting stuff neatly away, and making sure not to create much of a mess (and not to drive the Hubby crazy - he he ). 

I got my lye water ready.  Melted my oils and added my puree to the oils and blended away.  I added my lye water to the oils - doing well so far!  Since the fragrance oils has some vanilla content I knew that it would darken my soap so I decided to split my batch in two.  One I colored with titanium dioxide to make white and lighter and the other half I added a bit of orange oxide hoping that some of the dark discoloration will keep some of the orange color (this half I added the fragrance oil to it).

Luckily the fragrance behaved well with the soap mix.  It allowed me to play around and do some swirls.  Sadly when I unmolded it I noticed that the vanilla in the fragrance oil turned the soap a dark brown shade.  It will continue to darken as it cures so I am a little disappointed that the orange pumpkin color did not make it through.  Hopefully the white will remain since I find that the contrast is pretty neat.  Here is a pic.

I hope you enjoy!  Thanks for checking out my blog :)
Happy Soaping! - Roxana