Just wanted to take a minute to thank Liz and all the gals at Wickedly Chic for featuring A Woman with Scents as their Indie of the Week. What an honor to be featured in this great online publication!

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Defining "Natural"

Soapers have always debated the meaning of "natural". It's a word that means different things to different people, but upon Googling the definition I find:

Definitions of natural on the Web:

existing in or produced by nature; not artificial or imitation; "a natural pearl"; "natural gas"; "natural silk"; "natural blonde hair"; "a ...

existing in or in conformity with nature or the observable world; neither supernatural nor magical; "a perfectly natural explanation"

functioning or occurring in a normal way; lacking abnormalities or deficiencies; "it's the natural thing to happen"; "natural immunity"; "a grandparent's natural affection for a grandchild"

(of a key) containing no sharps or flats; (of a note) being neither raised nor lowered by one chromatic semitone; "a natural scale"; "B natural"

unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct; "a cat's natural aversion to water"; "offering to help was as instinctive as breathing"

(used especially of commodities) being unprocessed or manufactured using only simple or minimal processes; "natural yogurt"; "natural produce"; "raw wool"; "raw sugar"; "bales of rude cotton"

someone regarded as certain to succeed; "he's a natural for the job"

related by blood; not adopted; "natural parent"

a notation cancelling a previous sharp or flat

being talented through inherited qualities; "a natural leader"; "a born musician"; "an innate talent"

(craps) a first roll of 7 or 11 that immediately wins the stake

lifelike: free from artificiality; "a lifelike pose"; "a natural reaction"

I choose to use the bolded definition in describing my soap. I use natural oils and butters (and other wonderful goodies) to manufacture soap using simple or minimal processes. Are my ingredients all natural? Not necessarily...again, this depends on your definition. More later...

Lavender Woes

Have I told you lately how much I hate to soap lavender? Not that I don't like the scent...I could slather in it and be perfectly happy, which is, I suppose, the whole reason I suffer through the soaping.

I just don't get it. Regardless of using EO or FO, my soap loses trace once I add the fragrance. I've soaped hot, I've soaped cool, I've waited until I thought I had a nice medium trace before adding fragrance, and I've added the fragrance to the oils before adding the lye. It just doesn't matter. I always get the same results, which end up being rebatched into something closely resembling the soap in the picture. In it's former life, this soap was a beautiful white with a lovely purple swirl. (I promise, this soap IS actually white, not the yellow that it appears...I never claimed to be a photographer.) I thought everything was okay, until I went to unmold it. Mooshy smooshy on top...rock hard on the bottom. Soooooo...I chunked it up and threw it in the crock pot, smooshed it in the mold, and this is what I got.

It's kind of cool in a Van-Gogh Starry Night way, but not at all what I was going for. Although I dearly love Van-Gogh, I'd call this a failure. What do you think?