Everyone else is thinking of the dog days of summer, and the last lazy time around the swimming pool before Labor Day and me…. I’m locked in a hot hellish kitchen getting ready for the Christmas rush.
Generally, when I’m making soap, I do scent “groupings” – like if I just soaped jasmine, I’ll do gardenia and vanilla and sandalwood. They go together, see? And the four different kinds of soap sit on the curing rack together, getting along nicely. In a similar grouping, if I just did pineapple, chances are good that orange and mango are on the list.
Right now, though, you know what I’m making?
EVERYTHING.
I (and by me, I mean Jesse) even added more curing racks in every nook and cranny throughout the house. And while he frantically builds shelves, I am setting up wholesale customers, taking new accounts, making custom orders, and stocking up on our own stuff. I have soap curing on just about every flat surface.
The only problem shelf is the custom order one. This contains soap batches for several different clients. It has rosemary/mint, tea tree/eucalyptus, peppermint/menthol/eucalyptus – so far, so good, although if you breathe deeply in there you don’t have to brush your teeth that morning, and your sinuses are nice and clear. But it ALSO has black raspberry, vanilla musk, pineapple/grapefruit, and ginger/lime. The two elements together are … not nice.
It smells a lot like a koala horked into a bag of Skittles.
If you wander into what used to be a walk-in pantry and is now a curing room, you will hit a wall of peppermint, pumpkin spice, cider, and sandalwood, topped off with a big batch of beer soap which is still in the early stages – stale beer funk crossed with cat pee. It takes beer soap a little while to settle down and stop smelling like a frat boy on Sunday morning, and we’re not quite there yet.
Tonight I will be making two different batches, I can’t even remember what, but I bet they smell godawful together. Probably Cranberry and North Woods – I won’t know until I get home and read the little scrawled notes I left myself.
This is the torture I put myself through for you guys.
I hope you appreciate it.
3 comments:
wow you're on a roll! Congrats to all your success and I can't imagine that much soap o_o
Awwww, speaking for everyone that reads this blog....we love you Jackie!
cool.
you make soso many soaps!
perhaps a candle or a fan?
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