Sunflower Experimentation Day

We love sunflowers at our house. My mother was from Kansas and so of course, sunflowers are about her. But my sister and I love them a lot, too. Here in Portland, we grow a stand of them in our garden for the color and forthe birds ad squirrels.

This photo is from our garden last summer, to show you the sunflower wall! My sister put in a row for me the first summer we lived here and they keep coming back.  Thanks, Sis.

So Sunflower Soap. Yesterday we wanted to experiment with different soap bases. We made a batch of Sunflower Soap with Velona Oakmeal Soap and one batch with Velona Shea Butter. We added Avocado Oil, Turmeric Powder, and split the batch, with one half more intensely colored than the other to produce a two-layer effect.

Mike hand-painted the molds with pigments from Mad Mica: Redrum in the center, Spicy Tomato and Pot o’ Gold on the leaves. We also painted a little crushed black pepper for color in the center to try to get a ‘seed’ look, and for a slight hint of spice to go with the Organic Lemongrass Essential Oil.

I love the detailing and the hint of sun sparkling off the leaves

So to recap: one soap with Oak Milk and one soap with Shea Butter.

Here’s how they came out.
 

I suspect the experienced soap makers reading this won’t be surprised, but Mike and I sure were.  Neither of is sure, yet, about which color we like and if we want to do something different with the center. We’re leaving the black pepper out next time as it didn’t really do anything to the bar.

I will say, these bars are going to be difficult to scale because of the hand painting of the micas. Mike is using detail brushes to place the dry mica in the mold.

Once we’ve got them were we like them, these beautiful sunflower soaps will be our Mom Bars in honor of my mom,  We’ll do these as a limited edition for Mother’s Day with proceeds going to the a local reading program for children.  

So what do you all think? We’ll be making another round of these next week after we spend a few days using them and getting feedback.

Thanks,

Val, Mike, and Eva