A failed batch of peppermint mocha cheesecake ~ and other soapy fun

I made my Christmas gift soap this week. Problem is I won't be giving it for gifts. What I'd planned to be such a luscious soap: peppermint scented, coffee and cocoa for color with chunks of real chocolate turned out crumbly and is now getting all white and spotty. The symptoms all point to incorrect measurement of oils and/or lye.

I've never had this happen before so I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. I'm still trying to decide if I will re-batch the whole lot; melt it all down and re-pour and see if that fixes things. But then I'll lose all that marbled, swirly, chocolate chunk effect. But I can't give it away like this anyway so... I'm not sure what I'll do. It sure does smell wonderful in my house though, all that peppermint goodness. And a failed batch of soap isn't truly failed. It will still clean, it just might not look pretty.

On a brighter note Brienne and I felted a few pieces of soap this afternoon. My mom picked up small bits of fleece rovings for me at Common Ground Fair earlier this fall for this very purpose. They've sat on my soap shelf tempting me for over a month and today I finally tried it. And I don't know that I was terribly successful at it either.

I didn't do any research on how to do it, I just remembered what I'd read about hot water/soapy felting in general; recalling 5 Orange Potatoes recent felt post and the kid's felted snakes they made back in March. Next time I'll rub the soap on our sushi roller; saw this trick when I was researching after the fact.

That's all the soap news today. Brainstorming what soap I could make to replace the failed peppermint mocha cheesecake. Thinking I'll do another batch of Orange Clove Pomander, one the loveliest soaps I've made to date.