Today is one of those rare days when the streets are empty and the city is quiet. Most establishments are closed for the next two days in observance of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and a lot of people are either at the beach or out of town. My husband and I are just staying home. We love the peace and quiet. It’s also a good time for me to make soap and take photos!
Here in the Philippines, we only have 2 seasons: wet and dry. March to early June is considered our summer, usually the driest and hottest months. But these days the weather is so unpredictable. It’s hot, yet it rains intermittently, with storm warnings.
While many of you in the temperate regions are happy to step out of the cold of winter and make soaps to welcome the blooms of spring, I’ve jumped seasons and went straight to summer.
Presenting my summer soap collection:
1. Sea Bubbles – a fresh and airy scent with a hint of floral and fruity notes. This is my first time to use ball embeds and to have this kind of height and dimension, and top surface design. I would have preferred a better arrangement for the balls, but it was hard to control where they moved as I was pouring the soap batter. I only had a few balls so this is a tiny batch of 6 bars. I am having a hard time parting with them.
Sea Bubbles
2. Summer Breeze – light, breezy, fresh scent with apple and melon notes. Both men and women love this fresh and fruity fragrance.
Summer Breeze
3. Sea Sparkle – I think the embeds almost look sparkly against the blue, or I’d like to think so. This is a feminine scent with lilac, lavender and a hint of musk.
Sea Sparkle
4. Berries and Violets – juicy smell of berries, apples, and oranges with a touch of violet.
Berries and Violets
Of all the soaps I’ve ever made, I love the colors of this collection the best. But it wasn’t without failure. The ball embeds in Sea Bubbles? The yellow was from a batch that slightly overheated and had a wrinkly surface, and the pink was from a batch that traced too fast. The embeds in Sea Sparkle was from a batch that somewhat riced and had colors that looked anaemic. Just like the weather, soap making is not always predictable. 🙂
Soaps of Summer: The Collection
SoapJam 
All your Summer soaps are very pretty! I love the Berries and Violets though because light green and violet is one of my favourite color combinations. I would have never guessed there were failures in your soapmaking – all soaps look great and the colors of the ball embeds are very pretty!
It is nice to have some peace and quiet. I have always felt that Eatser is more cheerful than Christmas and maybe one of the reasons is the season it is placed in. Warmth and sunshine — what could be better in terms of weather? I hope the weather in the Philipines gets more stable so that you can enjoy summer.
Maya
Thank you, Maya. I can see why light green and violet is one of your favourite combinations. It’s my first time to do this combination and it’s becoming a favourite, too.
I hope you’ll have great weather this weekend so you can enjoy Easter even more. Happy Easter! 🙂
Your summer collection is lovely. My two favorites are the berries and violets, and sea sparkle. Your names are great too! It is interesting to read about how others live in different parts of the world. Here in Canada (west coast), we are into spring, but it is rainy. Looking forward to some sun.
Thank you for the compliment, Darlene.
I hope the sun will come out very soon so you get to spend some time outdoors and smell the flowers. I don’t envy your winter, but I envy your spring and autumn. 🙂
You see, even when dealing with failure batches, your soaps still look clean, simple done and fresh. They are absolutely gorgeous. I also like ‘violets and berries’ the best, maybe because I like all colours purple.
No sunshine here either, we had it surprisingly lot in February and March, and now it appears the winter has come back! No countryside picnics this Easter for this part of Europe!
Have a nice family time during the holidays!
Thank you, Maja! Curiously, in clothes, purple/lavender/violet colors are not my preference, but in soap it is one of my favorite colors.
Happy Easter! 🙂
I love your summer collection Silvia! I can see why you’re reluctant to part with your Sea Bubble soap, they are so pretty and fun! The Sea Sparkle soap is like a variation on sea glass, is that what you were going for? I love how each of them are so different and yet they complement each other so nicely and make a nice grouping. You’ve got me thinking more and more about scent combinations now.
Like Darlene said, we’re happy to be out of the constant rainy weather, but having some sunny days is sure nice. I kinda like the tropical storms you have there too, at least your rainstorms are warm, almost like having an unexpected shower without the soap. Oh wait, you do have the soap. 😀
Thank you, Monica! I am reluctant to part with Sea Bubbles because there’s only 6 of them, and I love the smell ! Do you have the Sea Glass F.O.? I am very curious how it smells. Now that you mention it, it does look like sea glass. However, i was imagining the sea at night, lit by a big bright moon, with tiny fish reflecting the light to create a sea sparkle. My thoughts were influenced by a scene from childhood. It was an early evening walk at the pier. The water was crystal clear and there were thousands of tiny fish, and they looked like they were sparkling.
Hahaha, you’re absolutely right about our rainstorms! 😀
Happy Easter!
Beautiful soaps! My favorite is the Berries and Violets (my favorite color is violet- hence my name-hee hee). I hope for warmer weather here. It is almost end of April and yet it snowed here a few of days ago! Also I may have an opportunity to visit the Phillippines with my mother next January or February. She is attending a class reunion & visiting family. I hope it is the cool dry season then. Are you by chance near Manila or western Visayas? If the schedules work out, it would be awesome to meet-up. 🙂
That would be wonderful if we can meet up! Please email me (click on my gravatar to find my address) when you have confirmed your schedule. Are you going to be in Manila? I am in Cebu but I do go to Manila from time to time.
Hope the weather brings you sunshine this weekend. Happy Easter! 🙂
All four soaps are stunning, Silvia! I especially like the confetti-like embeds in the Sea Sparkle. And the ball embeds are so summery and fun, and I love the swirls and colors in Summer Breeze and Berries and Violets. Bravo!
Thank you, Jenny! I didn’t plan on making the above soaps into a summer collection but when I put them together, I couldn’t help but think of summer. Happy Easter! 🙂
The berries and violets soap is gorgeous! Great job Silvia 🙂
Thanks Deirdre! I miss reading your blog posts. 🙂
Happy Easter!
Oh thanks 🙂 I’ve been meaning to get back into it, but I’ve been so busy with work. I’ll make more of an effort 😉
Happy Easter Silvia!
What beautiful soaps! I especially love the ‘Berries & Violets’ – gorgeous colours. Your soap stamp is so effective as well. I had one made a while back but can’t seem to make it look good – you definitely seem to have perfected the art!!
I hope you are well – I’m finally catching up on all the blogs I’ve missed over the last couple of months – it’s good to be back 😀
Happy Easter, Vicki! Are you all settled in your place? It’s great to have you back. You’ve been missed. 🙂
Ah thanks Silvia – we’re halfway there – living with my mum in the village where we’re buying our new home. It took us a while to settle on this new house, and the purchase is a long winded process, but we’re hoping to be in there within the next six to eight weeks fingers crossed
I just love love you do your swirls. Happy Easter to you too
Thank you!
Happy Easter, Vick! Your soaps are more and more beautiful, especially this full of colours summer collection!
Thank you, Nat. I’m sure you meant me, but wrote Vick because of her comment above. 🙂 don’t you just love the colors of summer? 🙂
Hi. I was browsing the net about kaolin clay and saw your blog. I love your soaps! They look so creamy and I bet they feel luxurious too 🙂 I started making soap last November 2013. I have made 12 batches since then and 5 of them I can call, “Pwede na..” 🙂 I hope to make soaps like yours some day. By the way, where do you buy your raw materials if you don’t mind me asking 🙂 I’m looking for a new supplier. And lastly, I love the blue on your summer breeze soap. What colorant did you use? 🙂
Hi Lesley. Thank you for your comment.
I am in Cebu, and I get my basic supplies from IPI (International Pharmaceutical Inc). I buy most of my fragrances and colors from the States. http://www.brambleberry.com is a good place to buy. It’s a one-stop shop for practically all your soaping requirements. The owner, Anne Marie Faoila, has a blog called The Soap Queen and it’s a fantastic place for learning anything about soap. The color I used for Summer Breeze is called Peacock Blue Mica. I bought it from http://www.theconservatorie.com. I’ve bought lab colors and oxides from Bramble Berry, but I buy mostly from The Conservatorie. They specialize in make-up ingredients, which includes micas and oxides that are great for coloring soap.
A soaper from Manila told me that The Fragrance world carries a lot of soaping supplies. I still have to check it out myself. I also stumbled upon Sogomi in the internet, but I have not tried it yet.
Happy soaping! 🙂
Is The Conservatorie and Fragrance World Philippine based? I buy my soaping supplies at Soap Scentral. I attended their soap making workshop last November. That’s where I learned how to make cold process soap. They carry a wide array of supplies from molds, carrier oils, fragrance and essential oils, extracts, clays and a lot more! 🙂 They also have micas. I just ordered recently and still haven’t got the chance to use them. You might want to check them out. They have a facebook page. Just search Soap Scentral. Also a fellow soaper told me of another supplier. The company is called Islas-Aromatica. They have a facebook page and a website. I heard of Sogomi Corp. Some of their carrier oils are cheaper than soap scentral and so are their essential oils but they only have limited choices.
Thank you for letting me know about Soap Scentral and Islas Aromatica. I hope to visit one of these days. 🙂
The Conservatorie is in the States. Fragrant World is in Makati. Here’s the info a fellow soaper gave me:
The Fragrant World located at 9390 Calantas St., San Antonio Village, Makati. Tel (632) 895-7815 or 895-8179
She advised to call ahead for your orders as it gets really crowded. 🙂
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Hi Silvia,
I just came upon your website, and I’m glad I did. Your soaps are stunning! I especially love the Berries and Violets soap since the colors go together so beautifully. Would you mind sharing which colorants you used for that soap and the proportions you used them in? Thanks so much!
Hi Leslie! I went over my notes and the only definite answer I can give you is for the color of the green portion: scant 1/2 tsp neon green pigment (from TKB trading) mixed with oil in 1500 grams of soap batter. I made my own mix for the purple (I hardly had micas at that time) with blue ultramarine, pink ultramarine, and red oxide, but I didn’t write down the exact measurements.