I've been a bit quiet recently, the start of the main re-enactment season kept me busy with other projects for a while, but it didn't stop me plotting and planning the next stages of the Victorian Soap Project.
I spent a chunk of yesterday trying a recipe thats technically not Victorain at all, but I loved the idea of the scent combination. This one came from a soap formulary dated 1912 and is a shaving soap scented with peppermint and patchouli. Its an incredibly 'modern' smell, in a way, though I suppose to be utterly accurate it reminds me of classic 1960s hippy blends and had me humming offkey 'Iron Butterfly' songs whilst I was stirring the boiling soap. I hope it matures as nicely as it smells now, I'd love to add this one to the range. I've done it on the 'vegetarian' base that we developed in an earlier stage of the project.
I'm also dithering a bit and could do with some opinions. Because of the hot-processed nature of these soaps, they don't take pouring into fancy moulds at all well, the soap comes out of the pan looking like molten sticky lava crossed with mashed potato, and sets with a certain amount of this rustic texture remaining in its appearance. Original Victorial soap factories made enormous batches so that the slices cut avoided this, and also pressed finished soaps in a mould to perfect the cake shapes. I'd dearly love to get hold of a working Victorian soap press to experiment with this side of the process (if anyone knows of one, please do let me know!)
The first installments of the Victorian Shaving Soaps were made as round
'hockey puck' shapes, with an option of a pair of small spherical soaps
that fit well into the dents in traditional shaving bowls or can be used
in a shaving mug. I made these by cutting slabs, then using what is essentially a biscuit cutter to slice out the discs, the 'scraps' got immediately moulded into the balls. All fine in itself, but its not all that efficient and they are a pain to pack attractively. I'm wondering about doing the range in the same plain, squarish rustic cut slabs that the rest of my soaps go out in, but I need to know what my potential customers think. I want the soaps to work well in use, but they also need to be tidy in storage and display when I take them to an event for sale.
Would you take a moment to record your preference in the poll to your right?
One final thought, a few of you haven't yet had your Crowdfunder soaps. I haven't deliberately forgotton anyone, but wanted to do a second batch of some of the soaps before I sent those out. If you know you responded to my email asking for your addresses and choice of fragrance but haven't had your soap, its in progress and should be going out in the next few weeks. If you aren't sure if you got back to me, please feel free to email and I'll check the records :)
