Patchouli Royale ~ A Delightfully Perfumed Natural Soap

I made a luscious soap last night, half of which will make it into the shop, and the other half to be used as one-of-a-kind gifts for family & friends. I'm calling it Patchouli Royale, but I could have also called it Neroli Royale, or Royal Cologne Soap. Why the royal designation? Because it's over the top decadent. It is made with organic olive oil, organic coconut oil, raw yellow shea butter, and scented with a few different bottles of aged and vintage patchouli oils, petitgrain sur fleur neroli, bergamot, oakwood, vetyver, rose geranium, and linden blossom CO2 (the real stuff, not the natural isolate hydroxycitronellal that was floating around some time ago -- well, it's still around, but no real natural perfumer believes it's the scent of linden blossom anymore -- it's derived from citronella oil, not linden). This soap has all the hallmarks of a rich and deep eau de cologne. And it's kind of pretty.

I'm putting it up in the shop later today. I know, you've heard all that about 'curing' for four to six weeks, well, as long as it's gone through the process of saponification, which it has, and the pH level isn't crazy, which it isn't, and you use a water reduction method, which I have, and curing soap relates more to the release of excess water than anything else, well, then, it's kind of already there. Wait too long and it loses scent and may even become rancid if it got too hot during the heating of oils or overheating during the gel phase. Handmade soap has a shelf life, and each batch is different. Some last months or years, and others go off within weeks. 

More awesome stuff is getting made later today. Bath bombs, ooh, and some whipped body butters. It's going to be another busy day.