# Swap photos / critiques



## Kalne

I took the liberty of taking photos while I had my camera out today. 

First two are the soaps wrapped. The pics do not do the soaps justice but I didn't know if you'd want a close up of each one. If you do, I can take more tomorrow.

I apologize if I got any of the names mixed up. Please correct me if you see any I got wrong.










Back Row: Tammy, Heather, Denise
Front Row: Vicki, Beckie










Back Row: Kathy (Kalne), Sondra, Anita
Middle Row: Beth, Tonya, Michelle
Front Row: Linda, Stacey (hsmomof4)










Back Row: Tammy, Denise, Vicki, Kathy
Middle Row: Becky, Linda
Front Row: Denise, Heather, Beth










Back Row left - Anita, Back Row Right - Michelle
Middle - Stacey
Front left - Tonya, Front Right - Sondra


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## Kalne

In no particular order, here are the entries. I included slight descriptions since once I take the wrapping off I forget whose is whose. LOL

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds


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## Sondra

Thankyou so much!


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## Caprine Beings

Thanks for starting the critique Kathy! What a fun swap and I am so glad I did stay in it. I almost dropped because of the dog attack but making the soap gave me something else to think about. So thank you all for the much needed diversion. You all did such wonderful jobs and everyone deserves a pat on the back. I am writing on a couple a day so it will take a couple of days.

Becky-DixieDoesAlpines--I'm hungry! And this bar looks SOOOOOO tasty! Nice bar Becky. I really am not going to use this one for a long while :biggrin. So I can't tell you if it bleeds or not. An excellent fragrance, something in between cotton candy and bubblegum. I like the layers of pink, white and purple and the blue/green chunks. I am putting it up now, so I don't eat it! 

Vicki McGaugh--Mint Sherbert Ice Cream Cake. Bright party colors! Very lovely soap and one of the whole familys favorites. Right now it is sitting by the computer so I can hog the smell :biggrin. Swirls and layers on this one. I see six colors? Red/pink, blue, yellow, green, orange and white. Are there any more I didn’t find? A definite WAKE UP scent. I love it. Bleeding very slight.

Mill-Valley (Beth)--China Rain. Very beautiful smaller bar. Excellent Job! Reminds me of a yummy piece of candy :biggrin. Nice soft fragrance. Your colors are well blended and the layers are holding together wonderfully. 
4 colors> purple chunks in cream, pink, and burgandy layers
Bleeding: Slight

Faye Farms (Heather)-- DGI Color Swap. WOW! Very eye catching bar with COOL colors. Psychadelic Man! Every tye-dyers dream of blending :biggrin. And the scents are very lovely. I keep turning this soap cause its so intriguing . NICE JOB! 
5 colors> Swirled blues, mauve, black, orange and cream/white.
Scents> Peppermint, Orange, and Lavender.
Bleeding: minimal

Kalne--out Kathy I have briefly gotten to see this bar. Lindsey has wisked it off to her room. The scent is heavenly and I’ll bet Linds never resurfaces that bar. Anyway, a beautiful complementary color combination of green, purple and natural. I really like your slivers in the natural, it turned awesome. 3 colors, one scent. Awesome wrapping :biggrin.

Linda Carney--As usual Linda you have made a superb bar of soap. I liked the edging and thought that was an interesting addition to the bar. Kinda like a mica ribbon. Very lovely round bar divided into three sections, green, blue and white, and lavender with green tea. So with the lavendar part did you use alkanet? Just curious as I have had some really beautiful hues of lavender with alkanet. The scent is heavenly, I keep washing my hands over and over again. Very nice job. One day you should make a video about doing round logs in designs like this. 

CaprineBeings (Tammy)-- Mosaic Pine is a soap I won't do a whole lot of...ever! And I would rename it "Pain in the Trunk". There is so much work involved in the design. I am proud to present these monsters to you though and hope they hold together for you. This is my first attempt at this technique, a reverse embed. This bar is made in several stages. The first is the easiest where I made some brown soap scented with "My Knotty Pine" EO blend. Wow that was sooo hard, lol. Second stage, using cardstock I made free-form molds of trees. You have no idea how hard it is to make 16 measured tree molds, the folding a bending and such. Place tree molds into a long mold and tape ends to long mold. When pouring green scented soap pour a little into each tree shape and move on. Then go back and fill the rest of the tree molds. Once the trees are a little solid press to the center some precut brown pieces at the end of the tree. Allow tree to become solid then remove cardstock from edges. Remove trees and clean out long molds. Measure trees when placing them back in the long molds so trees are centered where you want a bar. Make a white soap batch, unscented. just before trace split the batch and make one half batch blue. Pour the white half batch at the base of the trees and the blue at the top of the trees until they meet. It is recommened that if you try this technique that this particular stage needs to have two people pouring and not one. The soap sets up too fast going it alone, so I really am sorry if they fall apart. Cut soap and dry. This soap will bleed, I haven't played with oxides very much and this was a nice way to get in some experience. I could have blended the colors better on the white and blue but as mentioned I was going it alone. I know it doesn't lather much. And the scent for me is just right. Not overbearing like some pine bars. The size is just too big for my liking but hey I actually cut off about on inch from its original size. I was lucky to get most of them in the bags. The insert you all should proabably frame. I love that pic of Lindsey and Merci, that was a very happy day for both of them. I no longer have it as my computer forced me to recover and ALL my pics were wiped clean But it is not lost forever...when I get my bar back I am going to scan the insert to my computer again whhheeeww! Any way have fun with the bar, I am looking forward to your opinions on it. ( I am amazed that you all find it to be a Christmas tree! As with others this bar did not turn out as visioned. I originally wanted a dark night sky with the embed above the sky and snow.)

Mystic-Hollow Goats (Tonya)--I think you have captured a bit of Earth in this bar. I love the earth tones blending and swirling together. Tan, beige and dark brown. The fragrance even has an earthy tone to it. I really like this bar. Small amount of bleeding.

hsmomof4--Eucalyptus/Spearmint.I really love the swirls of greens, white, and neutral in this bar. Its very nice bar of soap. I'm not sold on the scent being called Euc/Spaermint though. I use EO's for my Euc/Spearmint and so I'm spoiled with the real scents. Not htat I don't like the scent, its fresh and clean, more like Spring Rain or something like that. I amletting your bar sit for awhile longer as it is sweating.

Sondra-- Deep Doo Doo. What did you use as a mold for these Sondra? I like the shape, unique in its own. And I like the slivers and cunks in it too. I don't think it looks like "Poo" The scents are intriguing as well, a nice clean and spicy smell.
4 colors> Brown chunks, green chunks, and yellow chunks in a beige/tan base.
Scents> Cleo's Treasure, Cinnamon, Honey L'Octaine.
Bleeding: None

Anita Martin-- Christmas Medley. Okay Anita I have to say this is my ALL TIME FAVORITE. The inlay of the star-fabulous! Love the look of the bark topping and the bottom layer. Very nice job!The scent is quite exotic too. 
3 colors. Beige, brown, and tan
Bleeding: Slight

Aja-Sammati (Michelle)--Naughty At Heart. What a wonderful blend Michelle! A great Modern/Contemporary swirl of cream, red, and green layers surrounding a brown cube insert. Every time I turn the bar my nose is treated to the mingling scents of Peppermint, spearmint and spices. Very nice job. 4 colors> 3 swirls one solid. Bleeding: slight from center.

Necie (Denice)--Visions of sugar plums/WinterSky. Winter Sky is a nice six color layered soap. White, Lite green, looks like a lavender, lite blue, cream, and brown. The brown is bleeding into the cream color making it look tan. Its too perfumy for me but others like the scent. Visions of Sugar Plums I also think is too perfumy, but thats just my own preference. I like the shreds in this one, they remind me of herbs in a bar. I like the size of this bar much better than the WinterSky. It fits much better in my hand.

Tam


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## hsmomof4

Kathy,
thanks for getting this started and for taking the pictures! I will add more (I think) after I have used them more. I just pasted Kathy's descriptions and I'll add my comments.As I mentioned, I am going to add some more comments now that I've used the soaps more. They'll be in red.

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap--one of my kids took them out of the bag and so I'm not sure which is which! I thought that they were attractive soaps. The layers seem to be holding together well on the layered soap and the colors look nice together, and I like the look of the speckled soap...reminded me of a cookie. Not a lot of lather, but I didn't notice any bleeding. I'm trying to be helpful here, so please don't take this the wrong way, and I'm not sure how best to word this, but the soaps smell (initially) as if either you or someone in your household smokes. After using the soaps, that smell went away, and I could smell the underlying fragrance better (especially on the layered bar). You might consider aging the soaps somewhere that you keep smoke free. (Now, if nobody ever smoked around these soaps, or maybe the packaging? then I don't know what to say!) The layers are still holding together well. The smell of the soaps has definitely improved. Interestingly, on the layered soap, the bottom (at least, I think it's the bottom...I think that the brown is the top) is being used up more quickly than the top. You can definitely tell a difference between the layers.

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top --A very pretty soap. Smells nice, too, and has nice lather, though it bled a little. Interesting shape. One of the favorite soaps here this weekend. One thing, though, that I don't know if you are already aware of is that your labeling includes medical claims that basically make your soap, as far as the FDA is concerned, not soap any more and subject to different regulations. Is it coffee grounds in the soap? I can't remember what you said..they are a little scratchy...I would like it better if they were not in there, but that's just me. Still a very nice soap.

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap --I like the scent and the label is really cool, but the bar is a little soft, especially the section with the brown speckles (though I thought that section looked really pretty). What did you put around the edge? That bled a little when we first used the soap, but once it washed off, the bar doesn't bleed any more. I thought that the colors seemed kind of random, though.Good for you, though, on using what you had on hand and for coming up with a way to do multiple colors in a PVC pipe mold!

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks--Not as ugly as I expected, given what you said about it! :biggrin Actually, while not exactly pretty, I don't think I'd call it ugly, either. It is a little soft but it has a nice lather and an interesting smell (sort of like anise?). No bleeding.This soap has really grown on me. I love the rounded shape...very easy on the hands, and I keep coming back to the scent.

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl--what gorgeous swirls! Very pretty. No bleeding. That white is so very white. Smell is not very strong, decent lather.After using it a bit more, I noticed a tiny bit of bleeding, but not very much considering the black in that soap. I don't really notice it in the lather so much as I notice it when I am rinsing off the soap. But I have a white sink, so probably you wouldn't even see it otherwise. The lather is much nicer than what I originally thought.

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed--we wanted to eat this...it looks like some fancy brownie or fudge or something! A very nice looking soap, if a little big...it's kind of intimidating to use at first. Nice lather. I didn't notice any bleeding.Ok, a little bleeding, but not too much and the lather is fantastic. Such big bubbles.

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed--this soap smells wonderful and looks pretty, but on mine, anyway, the embed caused the layers to separate some. I think that with continued use, it's going to be in a number of large pieces. The dark brown (black?) bled some. Nice lather.I don't have chunks yet! I really do like the way this soap smells and feels, and I usually really prefer FO soaps to EOs, from a scent perspective.

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green--the layers and chunks are neat, if a little busy, and they seem to be holding together well. Nice lather, smells kind of fruity? Didn't bleed.Still holding together very well. 

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls--Was even prettier after use. That is one big bar! A little soft on the top layer. Smells nice, but I really don't smell anything besides the litsea. (I could feel the peppermint, though, when I took it in the shower!) The layers are pretty and are holding together well. Even though it's a lot of different colors, it works. Nice lather.Yeah, that red/orange color bled a little, but nothing else seems to have bled. And the top seems less soft than I thought originally. It's holding up well, and it's gotten a lot of use. 

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose--very pretty bar, one of my favorites in appearance. Not a lot of lather but enough, and a nice smell, but not very strong. The soap is a little soft. I like the colors you chose for the layers/chunks, it all blends together nicely and the layers are holding up well. ETA: the scent does last though...I washed my hands before I went down to the barn this am and I could still smell it partway through chores.Layers still holding together well. 

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl--There's actually some blue in there, too, but you can't see it! I think it turned out pretty well, considering my relative lack of experience. I used Spearmint/Eucalyptus FO from WSP and I really like the fragrance. For the swirl, I used TD for the white, ultramarine green and UM blue, some green mica in with the green, and some chlorophyll with the green, too. I put the colorants into measuring cups with spouts and poured out some of the soap into each individual color and stick blended to mix. Then I poured the colors back into the bucket and stirred very minimally and poured. Left over color poured on top to swirl some more. On the other hand, my label came apart (at least on my bar) and had smudges and I still need to work on getting the website to show (it says that it's black, but it's not and you can't really see it) and I am going to be reworking the way I list ingredients. Of course, until I get my website working, I guess not having it show is not a big deal, but I need some other form of contact on the label!

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree--wow, I didn't realize it was that much work! (I thought you would have poured one big green log, maybe with a brown embed at the bottom for a trunk, and then carved the tree shape into the edges while leaving it as a log and then put it back in the mold, and poured white, then blue. But maybe that doesn't actually work, I have no idea!) A neat design concept, though. I didn't notice any bleeding, really, the lather was nice. I like the pic of Lindsey on the label. I could have used a slightly stronger fragrance, but I think that it's hard to get a nice balance with pine, and a little fainter is probably better than too strong.Funny how your impressions change. I still like this bar, but the scent on mine is rather faint...I think it smells stronger on one side of the bar than the other?? Not as much lather as I thought originally, but the bar has a nice feel to it.

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds --Appearance-wise, this was my favorite soap. Really beautiful. The colors worked wonderfully together and I liked the shreds/layers combination. Everything seems to be holding together well. The wrapper was nice and very professional looking, but it would be nice to be able to see the soap (at least a little) without unwrapping it. Smell is lovely and the lather is decent. My 18 y/o dd snagged this bar for her bathroom. 
Still holding up to being in the 18 y/o dd/guest bathroom. I don't get to use it as much as I'd like because of where it is.


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines

Thanks for getting this going...I've had a houseful of guests and very little computer time! Will do mine Monday.


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## mill-valley

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap
_These are both pretty bars, I prefer the layered one as far as looks alone. The scent is almost undetectable to me but I haven't used them yet either. Love your labels!! I used the speckled one yesterday, very nice and moisturizing! Scent came through much better wet...also very nice! The layered one is also a very nice scent...nice and strong when I used it._

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
_I really like this bar, didn't think I would like the scent but changed my mind. The colors are very nice in it too, nice swirl and the shape of the bar is easy to hold. Good lather, didn't seem to bleed much at all._

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
_Another of my favorite scents. It's got to be challenging to do colors in a round soap...how did you do it? I really like the sparkly edge on it. The colors don't especially match the scent but they are pretty just the same. It's still on the soft side; I dropped it in the shower and the side dented in. Still really like this scent although it's different from my CLV._

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
_These are really neat looking too! Like the scent, smells good enough to eat. Lathers up nicely, no bleeding._

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
_This is one scent I am going to have to try myself, not a big EO fan usually but I really like this one! Swirls are amazing! It does bleed black. Nice lather and like the scent even more after using it._

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed
_This is one of my favorite looking soaps! Has more of a Western look to me than Christmassy, I could see doing a men's soap with this design. Even dh who could usually care less about soap thought it was cool...very rustic! Scent is really nice too! Nice lather and scent is even better in the shower, very moisturizing!_

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
_ Smells wonderful...another EO blend I'm really liking! Mine cracked when I used it, but lovely lather, moisturizing and the scent was even better wet. Colors turned out very pretty, the diamond is a nice touch although it did crack the soap._

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
_Really like the scent on this one, also very good lather. Scent could be a little stronger for me. It did bleed pink but the colors match the scent very well, nice and bright!_

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
_Very pretty, wow these are big bars! Smell exactly like the name. Lots of lather; they do bleed pink. Love how clean and fresh it feels with the peppermint and tea tree in there. It is on the soft side. _

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
_These turned out pretty much as I expected except the chunks were supposed to match the middle layer's color...but I forgot the chunks were from a non-GM batch. After looking at all the other soaps I decided I would like them a bit larger. This scent is a big favorite with everyone here. Also the ziplock was just to keep everything together for the swap...not a normal part of packaging ._

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
_This is also a favorite scent of mine, very pretty bars. I like your labels. This is one of my favorites to use...I like the ripply sides, seems to really whip up the lather and the scent is enough to make you feel fresh without being tingly._

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
_These are really neat looking! I think the scent is just right myself, and the colors are very eye-appealing. Not much lather, but very moisturizing!_

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds 
_Very pretty bars, wow! I love the color combination and the scent. I could see these in a fancy bed and breakfast somewhere. I like the packaging too although it would be nice to be able to see them before unwrapping. Nice lather, very hard bar. I didn't notice any bleeding._

Well, now that I've sniffed, ogled and used each of these soaps....have to say there is not one that I don't like. This has been a huge learning experience for me, so :thankyou to everyone who participated and especially Becky for hosting. I had been anxiously waiting for a swap since I started making soap. I am now convinced that my soap is nice enough to sell but I still have some more tweaking to do. :biggrin


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## MysticHollowGoats

Fun! What a nice looking bunch of soaps...good job ladies  Right away my 12yr old DD asked me if she could have about half the soaps in the box LOL
I also copied & pasted Kathy's great descriptions and will comment on the soaps as I use them. Thank You for including me in the swap :biggrin 
I would like to add that I am a tiny person LOL with a wedding ring size that is a 4, about the size of an 11yr old girl, so many of these soaps seem HUGE for my tiny hands. I am using slices off one end of the soaps.


Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
There is actually 3 colors of brown in this soap (if you can find them  ) Tan as the base color, scented with a non-discoloring vanilla (obviously a slight discolor :shrug) Light brown with specs, colored with nutmeg, scented with chai FO. A dark chocolate brown colored with cocoa powder (always bleeds some) also scented with chai FO. The label is only supposed to give information on goats milk in generally but after reviewing I can see how it can be taken as a claim. I have made some slight changes as to be sure there r no claim confusions. 

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
I really like the nice clean look and feel of this round bar, the sections have perfect clean, straight lines! Great refreshing scent and a nice clear, easy to read label. I know what a pain in the rear creating a round label can be, good job!

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
Love the unique shape. When I look at the bar it reminds me of a homemade fruitcake. My mother is a Harley rider since before I was born and the scent of this soap reminds me of one of her biker friends...a mix of his Cologne and leather. It brings back fond memories. Great lather and very moisturizing at the same time.

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
The colors/swirl are just plain amazing. This is my favorite scent of the swap! Love the size and shape of this bar.

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed
Smells and looks yummy enough to eat! Great rustic look which I am partail to. Good lather and a great feeling soap.

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
This is one that I keep coming back to get a good whiff of. A wonderfully refreshing and uplifting scent. The colors and swirls go together beautifully, the embed definitely is striking but it goes to the very bottom of the soap which caused it to crack. The lather is good with both big, fluffy and small creamy bubbles. I did not use the embed part yet.

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
When I look at this soap it reminds me of an old fashioned ice cream parlor! The chunk color just pops out, yet all the colors go very well together. Smell like the berry smoothies you can get at Costco, yummy! The packaging is great, though the font could be a bit larger. Really good lather.

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
Beautiful blend of colors and scents that just scream sherbet! This one BIG bar of soap that would just keep on going and going...like the energizer bunny 
The bottom lay is still very soft and moldable...could be our humid weather though. Great big fluffy lather!

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
Love the packaging (without the baggy ), love the scent and the layers are perfectly even. Has pretty colors that go well together and the bar is nicely cured. Little bit of work to begin lather but is wonderfully moisturizing, great shaving soap. I like the size and shape of this bar.

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
Green is my favorite color so naturally I really like the looks of this bar, the white is a great contrast. I can see some slight blue across the top of the bar....not sure I like the idea of glitter going into my septic though. The scent is really great, good fluffy lather. Also like the crinkle cut look...nice bar of soap.

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
Love the name and scent of this soap. The confetti look of the shreds is great, colors look really nice together. I used this one in the shower and shaved with it which worked out nicely. The packaging is very professional, caught my eye right off the bat and I could still smell the scent through it. All in all just beautiful!


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## Anita Martin

All of these soaps are just so fabulous! I'm so excited to have so many different ideas for doing interesting soaps, especially for gifts, as I can spend much more time on gift soaps than on sales soaps! It's also nice to be able to smell so many scents I have not tried before. This is so much fun and so inspiring!

I've been using a new soap every night in the shower, letting it dry and then putting it back in the package with the label so I can look at it some more! 

1) Sondra, Harley's Goat Milk Soap, Deep Doo Doo. What has Harley done now to be in Deep Doo Doo? This is a funny soap. The scent is very mysterious. Every once in a while I get the scent of Root Beer from this soap! I like the unique shape. It fits nicely in my hand. 

2) Vickie, Nubian Soaps, Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake. I am seriously tempted to take a bite out of this soap! It has a nice, strong scent and is just beautiful. I used this soap night before last and I LOVED it. It was so lathery and pepperminty! I also liked the fact that it's a BIG bar, and if I had bought it, I would have felt I had got my money's worth. It seems it will last a long time. I've been thinking of making smaller bars, (I have the same mold as Vickie), and I probably will do some smaller, fancier ones, but I really do like the big bar and will continue to make those my staple. 

3) Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm, Lime Coconut Verbena. This scent is really nice, much more pleasant to me than my Coconut Lime Verbena. What is the source? It's a beautiful soap. I used this soap last night. It lathered well. This was my first time with a round bar, and it does take a little getting used to, but it's a nice, handy size. I can't wait to hear how you did this bar in a pipe mold.

4) Little Flower Farm, Eucalyptus Spearmint. The top of this is absolutely beautiful! I like the ripple cut too, and the colors go all the way to the bottom. Very pretty with a nice label.

5) Kathy, Lomah Acres, Belladonna. An absolutely beautiful bar of soap...beautiful wrapper too. I love the way you picked up the colors of the top two layers in the imbedds. They look like herbs. The little card inside is a nice professional touch. This soap is very nice, great lather. I did lose the scent though. My sniffer seems to be getting weaker as I get older.

6) Beth, Mill Valley, China Rain. I like the layers and the scent is nice. I had not smelled that one before. I also like how you brought some of the low layers onto the top with the soap shavings. 

7)Denise, LunamaJo, Visions of Sugar Plums andWinter Sky.That's one heck of a layering job on that "Visions". When I open the bag I smell something a little weird. I am thinking it's the colongey smell and then the two soaps mixed together. It's not my favorite scent and I can't seem to tell them apart scent wise. I'm putting them in seperate bags and then going to try using them in a few days.

8) Tonya, Mystic Hollow Farm, Chai Nilla. From a man's point of view, this was my fiance's favorite! He loved the smell, the swirl and the packaging. The biblical picture on the label is really nice too. I tried this soap and it's really nice, kind of a chocolatey smell. Nice lather and feels great!

9) Tammy, Caprine Beings, Tree Soap. This is the only soap I've actually used so far. The tree is a little soft, but such a nice touch! Wow, I can only imagine how much time that took! It lathered well, and only bled a little, but I've never cared about that! What a unique soap, and the picture of Lindsey is adorable. 

10) Heather, Faye Farms. I really like this soap and can't imagine how you got so many colors in it without it setting up on you! I can't figure out what the scent it but it smells lovely! It's a nice, handy size too. I used this soap last night and it is wonderful! I love the scent and all the colors make it beautiful. I don't know if it bled or not, I didn't notice if it did. Really nice and lathery too.

11) Becky, Dixie Soaps, Spumoni. I love this soap! It's my favorite! The label adds a nice touch and it's just so pretty! I've been using this soap the last couple of days and LOVE it. It's so fresh and pretty and looks lovely in my shower. It lathers great and the colors are beautiful. Didn't notice any bleeding, but my wash scrunchy is pink, so I probably wouldn't notice it anyway.

12) Anita, Shantara Acres Farm, Christmas Medley. Yep, this soap is MUCH too big. I discovered I'm no good at math, or something like that, and placed my stars too far apart, so had to cut the bars big in order to get the whole star in each soap. I used the maximum liquid and the layers still set up too fast. There is actually candy in the bottom layer. I was using red hots as coloring, (since my colors never came in the mail) They might have worked if they had melted completely, but they didn't. They are soft, however. The bottom layer was scented with lemon curd, but somehow morphed into something else when I added the top layer of pink sugar/peppermint. The star is citrus EO's. Normally I shrink wrap my soaps, but this was a late soap and I was afraid to shrink it. I apologize for the handwritten label, my computer ran out of ink at the eleventh hour and I had no choice but to hand write them....Grrrr. The twine was my desperate attempt at finding some sort of wrapping....while meeting with the realtors at my fiance's house...I actually liked the way it turned out, if only I can figure out how to make the bars smaller and still include the whole star...the star was made in a silicone mold I got at walmart in the candy making section. They just pop right out! 

13) Aja-Sammati Farm, Naughty at Heart. I wish all my bars were cut that nicely! Very pretty soap. Nice layering. I like the warning on the label.I can't smell the soap as my nose if full of fragrance right now but it looks yummy. I used this bar of soap last night. It broke apart on me  It still worked great though. I love the middle chunk, what is that fragrance? The bar is nice and lathers well, smells great too! Once I opened it up and used it, the bar had PLENTY of fragrance. I just love a strongly scented bar.


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## Kalne

I hope you all are willing to share your techniques and answer some questions! 

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
I absolutely love the muted colors of the layered soap. The scent is a little perfumey to me, but nice. I'd like to know what you used for the colors and how long did you wait between layers? It looks seamless.

I like the speckled soap, the shreds add just a touch of color yet it has that 'natural' look. I like the use of shreds over botanicals that come off on my skin. Scent is nice.


Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
While this soap is not colorful I love the way the top layer swirls into the bottom and the contrast of color is good. So, how did you get that top layer down into the bottom layer like that? The scent is very nice and I like the packaging.


Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Wow....this is amazing! How did you make it? The sides look painted? I love the colors. The texture of the green tea leaves in the natural soap next to the colored is just an unexpected element yet it works so well. And what a cool label? What kind of paper is that? Did you have to cut those out or are they precut labels? Like the scent....very clean and just 'soapy'.


Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
I too would like to know what you used for a mold. Loved the label, LOL! I'm not crazy about the scent. Would like to know what you used to achieve the yellow color....I can't seem to manage it.


Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
Bravo for you swirling so many colors together! I would have ended up with mud. I love the smooth feel of the bar and how white the uncolored portion is! What kind of micas did you use? The scent is mild and refreshing.

Anita, Christmas Medley
Very cool and rustic looking! The scent is very nice. This one's going to take awhile to use up. How did you make the stars?

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
I like the scent and the embed is very striking but the bottom of my bar cracked all the way across and I can see the embed is coming away. Maybe your embed was just a little too large with not enough soap below it to help hold it all together. I have all but given up using a wavy cutter. Even with my cutting guide I can't cut straight yet yours are nicely cut.

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Nice colors! What did you use? I esp. like the green color. The scent is somewhat fruity, I like it. And your bar is hard and smooth.

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
These colors are way cool....love that blue/green stripe color and you've got yellow too. I can't get a good yellow. And another white/very light soap. Another thing that eludes me. I guess this is a challenge for next year since I see it *can* be done. Good scent(s).

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
I like the muted colors of your layers, pretty and simple with that dash of purple, very nice. Your China Rain smells nothing like mine. Yours is more 'fresh' while mine is 'powdery'.

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Spill the beans, Stacey. Your swirl on top is what I want to achieve and I just can't seem to do it! Very nicely done. And how did you get that wisp of white throughout your bar? Was this an in the pot swirl or did you just swirl in as you poured or what? Nice refreshing scent.

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Kudos to you for attempting such a difficult visual effect! The scent is not so overpowering as a lot of pines are.

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
I came close to what I was going for except for the shades of colors I ended up with. And my base soap wasn't nearly as light as I would have liked. The packaging is similar to what I used for my holiday shows and it was/is a hit. Though my labels aren't layered and color coordinated.


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## hsmomof4

Kathy,
it was in ITP swirl. I looked at a swirl tutorial on The Dish. She did like 6 colors plus a background and it looked way cool. Here's the link: http://www.thedishforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=111700 
You'll have to register to see it, but it's worth it.
The white was using Titanium Dioxide for one of my colors.


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## Sondra

Have to say my only disapointment in this whole swap is that I have no idea what the brand name of most of the scents are so would not be able to use them myself. I have used none of these soaps yet.

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap
(as for the speckled WinterSky I love the just clean smell of this soapbut not alot of color for this swap)
(Visions of Sugar Plums, have to say I like this scent and the layers look fairly nice and even. Seems to have maybe a bit of ash on the top.

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
( not sure if I like the smell yet will get back on that. Nice dark brown swirl down into the bar.. So what I see is 3 colors the beige of the soap , chocolate brown top and dark brown swirl. Soap looks nice)

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
(Soap feels a little soft but haven't used it. Beautifully done, Would like to know what you used for the natural coloring in this soap The outside edge look like a ribbon was around it, very nice. I love the fresh smell to this soap.) 

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
( Well as said before I will not repeat this soap. the colors used in it were given to me and were Pecock liquids. I made the yellow/brown/ green using soap scraps and rebatched pouring onto parchment paper in a cookie sheet then cutting into strips abt 3/8 in thick. then made a batch of soap and layered the strips and pouring soap then more strips. more soap etc. My mould, Rod made for me because he doesn't like the sharp edges to wash with  he routed out 2 x 2's so I have rounded edges. I used Honey L'Octaine and Cleos Treasur from Lillian)

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
( This soap is way beyond me as to how you got so many swirls into it. Very nice job looks kinda like a pasley print. The peppermint out shines the other scents but is a fresh smell) 

Anita, Christmas Medley
Star embed
( I like this mix of peppermint and pink surgar not overpowering with either) The embedded star is really neat and such a nice touch for the holidays. )

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
(I like this with the spearmint in there makes a good combo. swirls and swirls, then that diamond, very nice)

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
( lots of nice clear layers and embeds very pretty, right now I think I have sniffed too much and can't even get a scent of this one, so will comment later on the scent)

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
( Well once again from Vicki we get a beautiful swirled top, then layers of colors very pretty. Peppermint candy ice cream is what I think of here) 

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
( layers are very even and smooth looking with the little embeds very nice bar of soap. Will comment later on the scent) 

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
( nice touch with the white, light and dark green swirls. I also like this scent using the spearmint and euclyptus)

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
( Tammy you are just a glutton for punishment, molding all those little trees. Very nice winter bar. Nice clean but not over powering pine scent)

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
( kathy those little shreds are really neat in this soap, layers look nice and neat also. Will comment on the scent later)


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## Kalne

Well my bar has 4 FOs in it. The *main* scent is "Lick Me All Over". I made it in a pink and white soap and changed the name. Tried selling it at the summer markets and did not sell a SINGLE bar. Then when I started my fall shows I wrapped it in white paper with lipstick lip prints all over (printed, not real LOL) and put the real name on it and not only did it sell out, but I got special orders for it. I find it mixes well with other scents.

In my swap soap, the purple layer is the Lick Me mixed with some Black Raspberry, the green stripe is Red Delicious Apple (which I label as 'Green Apple' LOL and it's a great seller), and the uncolored soap is Lick Me mixed with Cucumber Melon, all from Nature's Garden. I was going for a garden theme but not flower-y.


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines

I'm starting my reviews but it will take me a day or two to finish.

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
Not as colorful as some of the others, since it is brown but I do see 3 colors. I like the scent but I really like the packaging here! Rustic and attractive look.

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
This is at my kitchen sink. It is a bit soft but has great lather. It smells very different from my CLV but I like it. I love how you rolled the log in mica, and the design is fantastic!

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl

Anita, Christmas Medley
Star embed

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
My soap was 3 different pinks but the bottom and middle layer ended up looking about the same during cure. The bottom layer was scented with Brambleberry Passionfruit Rose and colored with Pinkberry lab colorant. White layers are scented with Candle Science Fresh Fruit Slices. The green is cut up Mint Julep soap, colored with Pearl Green mica and scented with patchouli and triple peppermint. The middle pink layer was Passionfruit Rose again this time with rose mica. I then poured more of the white layer and swirled it with soap with pink mica.

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds


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## Faye Farms

I'll start mine too but it will take me a few days to work my way through all the soaps. I haven't use many of them yet. 

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap
I too noticed the cigarette smell when I initially opened the soaps. My mom didn't. After I had opened up the bag and it set out for a day I didn't notice it anymore. Your 6 layered soap was a hit in our household. We loved the beautiful natural looking colors and all the layers. Very beautiful! I'd like to see more color in the confetti soap. 

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
Pretty rich brown swirls. We really liked the corrugated kraft paper as a wrapping. Enjoyable light scent. Didn't lather up much but the lather had a really nice silky feel to it. 

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
Nice strong scent. I love round soaps and really liked the mica on the outside edge-nice touch. The soap was a bit too soft. I'd love to see a soap that is entirely like the blue swirled area. I love that blue!

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
I love the shape of your soap. It fits nicely in my hand and is easy to hang onto. Your scent combo is interesting. It's hard to place what kind of scent it is. I would of never guessed it was Cleo's Treasure and Honey L'O. 

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
The way I colored this soap is becoming one of my favorite ways to add a lot of color to a soap. I used micas from TKB for this soap. Most of the mica colors I mixed myself. It's amazing how much you can change a pop mica by adding a touch of black to it. I used the walmart recipe and added cream for extra liquid. I chose the EO's because they would be slow moving. For swirling, I mixed up the soap and brought it to a light trace. I always add my scent with my oils. Then I divide the soap up into separate buckets (one bucket for each color), add color, and mix it up. Then I just start pouring into my log mold. I pour a thin stream the whole length of the mold. The more you can alternate the pouring of the colors the more swirled together it will be. I then used a hanger to mix it up a bit more. 

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed
The look of this soap was a big hit in this household. My DH commented favorably about this soap (which he usually doesn't have much to say about soap). We liked the rustic/chunky look of the soap and the twine tied around it was the perfect packaging that really tied the look together. We also like the hand written label. It made us feel like we were looking at grandma's old recipe book. Enjoyable, strong scent.

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
I like your labels. I like the part of the label that gives all the reason why your soap is special. I like the red and green layers. The swirling is pretty. The embed caused my soap to crack in half. Nice minty scent.

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
Nice colors and layers. We liked the shape of the soap. It looks like a big dessert to me. 

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
Beautiful colors and I like all the layers. Nice scent too. The top did crumble a bit when I used it though. Is the top whipped soap? Lathered like crazy.

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
Beautiful colors. We really like the packaging too. I like the size of the soap as well. 

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
Beautiful swirls. I really like the wisps of white throughout the soap. It doesn't smell like Eucalyptus/Spearmint to me but it is still a nice scent. Just smells like a spa scent to me. 

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
Cute label for the packaging. Nice pine scent. One side of my bar looked nice but the other side looks like you had some issues when cutting. Maybe chunks of the soap stuck to the knife or something? I can't make out it's a tree on the side with issues. 

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
Nice scent. Now that you said you scented some of the soap with green apple I can pick that out now. Very enjoyable. We liked your packaging a lot. Very upscale. I liked the insert. It doesn't bother me that you can't see the soap. I don't know how you display at shows but most of my soaps are fully wrapped. I always have a naked sniffer out for folks to see what the soap looks and smells like. When I opened your soap it was like getting a special little gift. The layers and shreds are great.


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## hsmomof4

Sondra,
in case you want to use it, the Euc/Spearmint I used is an FO from Wholesale Supplies Plus. It's supposed to be a dupe of the Bath and Body Works Aromatherapy Euc/Spearmint...which probably explains why it doesn't smell like E/S if you used EOs. But that scent from BBW is one of my faves, so I had to try this FO. Now I need to get more, because I used it all up!


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## Sondra

Thanks Stacey


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## Caprine Beings

Heather, the side having issues...lets just say thats Tammy having issues with creativity and looking out the soap room every five seconds to see how the poor girls were fairing. This side was the one that gave the soap its name although my intended name for them was Lone Pine. After cutting the excess off though most of them turned out lovely on both sides.
Sondra if you want the EO mixture I can send it PM.
Tam


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## [email protected]

Wow, this has been fun. Not only did I learn alot, but now I have all these beautiful soaps for inspiration!  I hope you don't mind that I, too, will prolly have a bunch of questions. I posted that I didn't want to *use* the soaps, and was already coniving a sneaky plan to maybe just cut off a bit of soap from the end or bottom of bars to use. LOL I may still try that and if I do, then I'll add to this post.

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap 
This was my first use of color. (After joining the swap, I ordered mica and clay that I planned to use, but it took so long to get here-almost a month-that it was too late to use for the swap.) While waiting for the ordered colors, I got the liquid color from Hobby Lobby and was just experimenting with layers to see if I could do them, as the swirls I've tried to do haven't worked.  I did the layered soap in 3 batches. I would add color for the *light* layer, split the batch in half, pour the light layer, add more color for the *dark* layer and pour, then make the next batch of soap. Green, Blue, Red. The colors are alot more muted than my *vision* of them was. :/ Next time I would do one large batch and split it into 6ths, as there was separation issues in-between the batches with the majority of the bars. The speckled bar is the result of the 'sepation issues' bars. I shredded them and added to another batch of soap. The layered bar is scented with 3 different FO's from southerngardenscents.com (Tony's). Christmas Memories, Frankincense and Myrrh, and Ginger-with one scent being used in each batch. The speckeled bar, of course, has the same scents, with more of the Christmas Memories being added to the 'new' batch. I think the layered bar has more of a 'spicey' scent and the speckled bar more of a 'piney' scent.
Ash on top....yes...all of my bars seem to have this. <shrug> What causes it? I've read different opinions where some wipe it off with a damp cloth and some just leave it--I tend to be the 'leave it' type. lol
Thank you, Beth, for the compliment on the labels.  They are always evolving. I've already changed them to look more like my business card (sent in the candy swap), with the pic of my doelings rear side and my 'Have You Been Mooned?' slogan, and the pic and name of the soap at the top above my herd name.
Cigarette smell, huh? :/ Guess I'll have to figure another spot to cure. I *loooove* my curing spot...next to the woodstove. Fan blows around the stove and onto my soap. I use the max amount of milk recommended by the lye calculator and my smallish bars dry in a little over a week and large ones in about two weeks. It's the least smoked in room in the house-too HOT! lol And being an old farmhouse, the curtains move with a stiff breeze from outside, so plenty of ventilation. :/ Maybe the basement-never smoke down there, unless I happen to have one in my hand when I'm switching laundry around. <rolleyes>

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
I like this bar. Nice size. Scent and colors 'match'--says *warm*. Personally-my type of soap. Soft, spicey scent; rich, deep coloring; rustic without being plain. I like the hand-printed scent on the label-nice personal touch. Neat swirl--like cream in coffee, in reverse.  Any tips on how you did it?

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
COOOOL! I like it!  Refreshing scent. Refreshing colors. This would make a great 'spring' soap, morning shower soap.... (or anytime hang-over soap  lol). Colors...hmmm...my bar-where the tea leaves are looks purple-ish to me ?? and the blue section doesn't look swirled ?? --I like the combination of colors, and the 'ribbon' around it pulls it all together nicely. And, Yes! HOW did you do this? I can only imagine cutting a log of soap length-wise....let alone a ROUND log...no way! I would end up cutting out through the side. Tell me there's an easier way?!?

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
ROFL! I love the label. Showed it to the old man and he just snorted and said 'Hmph! Ain't never smelled as bad as you do after trimming buck hooves!' LOL One big ugly bar? Not so much. Nice shape, nice scent. I smell the cinnamon. Something mysterious....sultry....is that the Cleo's Treasure? Can't really make out the Honey. Pretty embeds/chunks....rebatched, huh? Might have to try your method. 

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
OMG! I *will* learn how to do this! It's gorgeous! Does the Ayrshire cream make a whiter soap than GM? Or is it just that you added the cream at emulsion? I use 100% GM in my recipes, but for colors like this, I might just try adding it later if that's the secret. I used 'Wizard's Sage Green' mica the other day and it looks like brown clay. ICK! Who wants to wash with a hunk of mud?!  Are *pop* micas different? I'm new to this...maybe that's a dumb question? <shrug> I like the scent of this soap too. Nice strong citrus-y mint. I don't smell the lavender, but the scent is relaxing, so maybe the effect is there. 

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed 
Yup, this is one BIG bar!  Country/Western/Rustic. If you were in Texas, I bet these would sell like hotcakes. Neat idea, though. I'm gonna figure out a way to use this. Maybe smaller embeds-candy molds-could do Christmas, Baby Shower, Easter,....without all the separate large theme molds. I like the scent. The citrus, mint, and....I get a hint of cinnamon-maybe from the redhots?-all blend nicely without being too strong. The twine and hand-written label added to the 'old-timey' feel of the bar. This soap could go soooooo beyond Christmas. 

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
I adore this design. When I first looked at it, I thought 'How cool! Amish Checkerboard in reverse but appropriate coloring'. LOL-Yes, I know-I'm strange. If the embed did not touch top and bottom of the bar, I don't think it would have the same stunning effect, yet therein lies the separation issue. <sigh> Scrumptious scent-like a bag of mixed hard candies. YUMMM! Adds even further to the character. This bar is a true work of art, with each interpretation being personal and individual. BRAVO! (If you continue to work on this type of design and solve the separation problems, please let us know. I would love to be able to create a 'pieced' bar like this.)

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
Another one that I'd never have thought of, but will have to try-layers *and* chunks.  I like the use of three different shades of the same color (on the bar I received they all seem to be different), and the green chunks add a special splash. Very *girly* and *sweet*. The soft fruity scent matches perfectly. I can see little girls grabbing a bar--"Pleeeeease, Mommy, Pleeeeeeeeeease????" lol The pretty, frilly label adds to this. (It is very busy, though. I have a hard time reading it-maybe larger font/bolder lettering.)

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
Very nice large bar. Layers, swirls and chunks work beautifully together. Name, color/design, and fragrance match perfectly. This bar gives me some wonderful ideas. My sister has been pestering me for a kid's line of soaps-tutti fruity, bubble gum, etc. Now I've thought of a few I can do with scents that I already have. 

Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
Very nice layers. Is there a trick to blending them so smoothly? Beautiful. I like the use of the chunks in the top-like a little added extra touch. The colors are very romantic, as is the scent. I like this size bar-fits in my hand perfectly-and the trimmed edges are a nice, smooth finishing touch. This would be the perfect soap for a relaxing, hot, candlelit, bubble bath before going to bed....(if I only had a nice big tub instead of just a stupid small shower. grrrrrrrr lol).

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
This is one of my favorites. Green is my favorite color and this color of green is gorgeous. I like the white. I've heard that TD can be chalky, but this isn't at all. Makes me think of the lake-the wispy, ripple of the swirl, the wavy swirl on top-like white caps, the ripple cut edges and the shimmer to the whole bar, pulls the whole effect together. What can I say...I'm a pisces...I like water. lol Nice soft minty scent. This bar is like a sophisticated 'Irish Spring'. I'm not fond of Irish Spring, but I love this soap. (Never heard of using chlorophyll..??..what does it do? May have to look into this.)

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
WOW. The design of this bar is amazing....and soooooo very beyond me. lol Even after your explanation, I still don't 'get' it. Thanks for the warning on how labor intense it was, I don't think I'll be trying to figure it out any time soon, but will keep it on the shelf for inspiration.  I like the soft colors and soft piney scent. No separation-very smoothly blended. Nice winter/holiday design. Love the pic on the label and the heart shape. Boy...cut, fold, punch, tie.... It is very apparent how much effort and work you put into everything, right down to the smallest detail. 

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
This is my favorite.  Very upscale and professional. When I first got it, I didn't want to open it. Beautiful wrapping. I opened it veeeery carefully and WOW. My first thought, too, was: 'Why on earth would she cover this gorgeous bar of soap?', but then it made sense- it's like opening a wonderful gift. I could see giving these as presents to all my bestest girlfriends. I like the purple/green color comination and the shreds are so fine...what do you use to shred? How cured is the soap that you shred? My shreds are much larger. Like the scent. Soft, fruity. Would be a wonderful summer bar...like a mid-summer's garden. Or a mid-winter bar, to sit back in the tub and dream about summer! lol


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## Aja-Sammati

It will take me a while to get through them too- very nice bunch of soaps everyone!! I won't use most of them them, especially since the emphasis was on color, lol, after all, Vicki said it didn't matter if they bleed! I certainly didn't use my normal recipe for this swap- I used one I could play with.

*Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap*
I like the effect of the layers, and though the flecks don't show up as well, I like the idea. I really like the aqua layer- I am excited to hear how you got that color, as I would like to use it. I also detacted a cigrette smell that detracted from the fragrance, but I believe it was more on the label, because it disappeared very quickly when I left the label in the bag. The fragrance is a nice, slightly spicey holiday smell, and I bet it would make good candles, also. The flecked bar is being used in the public restroom of my vet's office right now 

*Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top*
I like the different shape of your bar, it fits in a hand very well! I like the swirl, and it goes with the fragrance. I have never smelled chai-nilla before, or even just chai... :lol but I like this, and I might add it to my line as a trial.

*Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap*
I love the label, the size, the shape, and the idea! I haven't smelled a lot of CLV, but the fragrance is a little perfumey for me, though I like the sharp top note (lime, I am guessing). What a lot of work you put into making this bar...the blue section on my bar has a tiny swirl of white in the middle- almost like a moon- too bad it is still a bit soft. Though the fragrance doesn't rreally "go" with the look of the bar, I still like it.

*Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks*
I really like the yellow color in the chucks, a sunshiney color! What did you use? I know it gave you fits- the kids loved the name, of course. I only smelled the Cinnamon EO, not the honey or cleo's treasure. It was too soft when I opened it, I could squeeze it and leave marks. I used it to wash my hands, and the cinnamon isn't too strong of an after scent.

*Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl*
Wow, I love the mica swirls! The teal & apricot are especially appealing to me. I like the EO blend you used, good balance of mint & lavender. The soap has a very nice texture, smooth & silky.

*Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed*
I love the overall appearance of this soap! The layer with the pink sugar in it was not popular around here, but we love the blood orange star. It has a lovely, rustic look, very natural and homey. It does pick up lint/hair very readily. This one is actaully going into the shower today  The pink sugar does become very strong in water, and overpowers the other fragrances even more. Very bubbly, happy lather! Soap gets prettier as it is used, the star embed holds up very nicely and looks great as the top of the soap wears away.

*Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed*
This soap looked great when I first cut it...recipe was 35/30/20/15 (organic palm/coconut/olive pomace/sunflower) on the layers. The embed was calculated to be harder, & had grapeseed in it (which didn't make the label I think). I used vanilla fo & cinnamon with black oxide for the embed, and let it sit for almost two weeks in hopes it wouldn't bleed...it turned out to be 1- too hard to set well in the layers, and 2- too big for the mold, leading to me having to smoosh it too far into the layer, thus splitting the bottom layer. The bottom layer is 3X Peppermint EO with red oxide (may bleed!), made the layer, waited about 15 minutes for it to set, then pushed in the embeds and let set while I mixed the top layer. Top layer is spearmint EO with chromium green oxide. over all I like the embedded look, but next time I will trim the embed smaller to not split the layer. I'll also have to find a vanilla that doesn't bleed, or just go with no vanilla & stronger black oxide to get a nice dark color. The recipe got hard very fast, which was intentional, but too fast for the embed that was already aged...live & learn! I will try again :lol

*Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green*
A favorite with everyone here, eventhough Rebah is having sneezing fits (apparently allergic to something in it. lol). The colors are very nice, and the chucks are well done. Good overall effect. Soap has a siky texture to it, though it is a bit sticky on the top. I like the paper you chose for your label, but it is a bit difficult to read. I smell mint & a floral? This soap was snagged by my youngest (10 yo) for the shower, but I think she is getting help in using it up- it is going fast! The lather isn't as bubbly as some others, more creamy, and not as much. Bottom pink layer is changing color a bit as it wears away, more of a brown tone to the pink. Still popular with the 10 year old 

*Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls*
This bar smells like the melted mint m&m's in my daughter's mint brownies. The bar seems kind of soft all over, which I haven't noticed in any Miss Vicki bars I have had before. Is is just the age of the bar? The blue layer is much harder than the pink swirled on the bottom. The yellows/orange bled through the label, so it now has polkadots and is slightly damp. Very good display of colors!

*Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose*
One of my favorites- I really like this fragrance, soft and pleasant. The beveled edges and raffia are a very nice touch for wrapping. The layers are very nice, and the chunks in the top layer are perfect. My favorite color is the burgundy layer. Where did you find burgundy oxide?

*Stacey (hsmomof4), The Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl*
This does remind me a lot of BBW Stress Relief. A very nice swirl, the whiter portions make a nice contrast. A very pretty bar! Your website needs to be in darker ink on the label...I didn't see the "the" on it, littleflowerfarm has sheep...but lots of tattoos, which I don't think is your thing! This soap has a fantastic bubbly lather- the fragrance is masculine in the shower, makes us think of shaving soap. You have given me a great idea for using my stress relief fo- shaving soap! Rebah said she thought it had a green tinge to the lather, but I didn't notice any. Nice soap- beautiful when wet.

*Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree*
All of that work, on the worst week of the year for you, had a good turnout. The fragrance is a very nice blend, and I don't usually like 'tree' essential oils. I love the trunk in the bottom of the tree! I'm going to keep my eye open for tree cookie cutters now...to send to you! The bar is still kind of soft, and I will leave it for a while longer before trying it. I love the blue color you used.

*Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds*
Beautiful soap! These colors are not usually ones that I enjoy together (think Barney), but in this bar they are perfect! The fragrance is very nice, but unfortunately I figured out which one in the box I was having an allergic reaction to- instant congestion & sneezing! I wonder which of the 4 fragrances you mixed together I am allergic to? lol, I need sniffies of each I guess, so I can figure it out! The packaging is gorgeous, very upscale, I love the little card inside the wrapper! It looks very time consuming. Do you wrap all of your soap that way, or just ours? Beautiful job- one of my favorites from the swap.


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## MysticHollowGoats

As everyone can see my soap is not as tall as most, which makes it easier for me to get my swirls all the way to the bottom of the soap.
I do an in the mold swirl, using a slab mold and pouring the colored soap at different heights from a glass measuring cup. My only trick really it that I use an iced tea spoon to do the swirling, it helps to cup the colored soap and bring it down. Just a circling motion from one end of the mold to the other.


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## mill-valley

My layers....I mixed up in three seperate batches, one right after the other. By the time I got to medium trace, the bottom layer was fairly thick...no trick to it really. It was about peanutbutter consistency maybe. I am also very new to colors...loving all the ideas here. Not even just color but trying different recipes out...think I'm going to tweak mine some more.

Kathy, where is your China Rain from? Mine's from Brambleberry.


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## NubianSoaps.com

I am going to be the late one with critiques, sorry, life and all.

Yes it was supposed to be a whipped cream soap top, which did perfectly until I tried to wrap it  They did dry on the cure rack here harder, but were crumbly when you used it...bummer. All the colors except the pink clay that bled are Peacock colors, oh and green ultramarine. The Orange went rust for some reason.


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## Faye Farms

I soap using a pre-made lye solution. I then make up the rest of the liquid with milk or cream. I used to use just milk but I have started soaping with a 40% solution with a lot of my recipes. I wanted the maximum amount of dairy I could get while still soaping with a 40% solution so I started using cream. I think the added fat of the cream makes a difference in my recipe. I'm really liking the results. I don't believe the Ayrshire cream turns out any whiter than goat milk. I usually just add my cream in with my oils at the the beginning of the recipe. For this particular recipe I did hold back a portion of the raw soap and not add any scent to it. I then put some TKB Satin Pearl mica in this portion of soap. I was rather shocked myself how white this became. The Satin Pearl mica has mica in it and Titanium Dioxide. This is the first time I have used any sort of Titanium Dioxide. I used TKB mica for the rest of the micas. I guess the big thing about the POP micas is that they represent the colors of the color wheel. If you have an understanding of the color wheel you can blend your micas and get the colors you want. I'm just an experimenter that throws colors together until I like what I get.


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## Linda Carney

I keep thinking that I'll get my critiques posted but have been busy these past few days with Thanksgiving and other commitments. Sorry for the delay....hope to get it posted this evening.

Linda


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## hsmomof4

You know, I have to say that the more I use these soaps, the more I like ALL of them! We have nearly all of them by the sink in the kitchen (except for the one my daughter stole for her bathroom and one in my shower) and I use a different one each time I go in there! :biggrin


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## Linda Carney

Ladies -- sorry again for not posting this quickly -- I did ravage the box the night before Thanksgiving and had enough presence of mind to grab a notepad and preserve some of my initial responses. I have been so bad about mismanaging my time and dealing with life on a crisis management basis :-/ I keep promising myself that I will do better, but finding that I do not keep many promises these days....
Thank you for hosting this swap Becky -- great job getting everything out very quickly! Ladies your soaps were all very good, I always love to see what everyone else is doing, so much creativity in this group!!
==============================================================================

Critiques
Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap
Not tons of contast with Winter Sky, the scent reminds me of comet cleanser.
Visions of Sugar Plums  -- I keep sniffing at this one and cannot really find a distinctive fragrance to settle on, I am looking for a foody/fruity or spicy scent and keep smelling the other cologne scent, I think from the other bar. I do like the layers, they are totally even! The colors very much go with the theme. The logo on the card is cute, the cards are pretty and eye catching.

Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
Absolutely love the textured cigar band of corrugated paper with the rafia band. It is also amazing to me how no soap has to be a specified size/shape just as long as the look works, your symetry is wonderful. I can only see 2 colors in your bar and am assuming that the brown is vanilla. That cocoa brown is classic and has given so much drama to your swirl! Again I love your label and wrapping.

Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
This didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it, it is still very soft, even now. And the label claims natural colorant -- I guess they really aren't are they?! The fragrance is not especially original or seasonal or themed with the colors -- just looked for something I already had that wouldn't force me to make batch after batch trying for acceptablity...oh well! I took my recipe and divided it into thirds, made each section separately, in the morning I mixed and poured the green section, rolled the pipe to coat all the way around and sealed the top of the pipe with a temporary plastic cap then used saran over the top to keep it in place and carefully layed the pipe horizontally on a towel to keep it from rolling. That evening I did the lavender section, the next morning I finished with the blue section. I left it in the pipe a little longer because I didn't want to ruin it with my impatience. When I unmolded and cut the bars, it was still soft -- I guess I used too much water, generally I rinse the remaining lye out of the container I stirred it in, not much of a difference when I am doing a large batch but 1 pound batches more care must be taken. So once the bars were cut I wanted to use a stamp with mica but realized on the test bar that the whole bar would crack with any pressure so I just painted the edge with green pop mica instead. The labels are from onlinelabels.com clear matte 2.5 inches. Bethany Adams had done labels in a similar way last year with her peppermint vanilla striped bars. My inspiration came from a website that I found lomondsoap.blogspot.com -- Carrie has the prettiest nature ispired soaps. Her harvest soap is really pretty http://lomondsoap.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
I sure love the shape of your soap -- I would love to see your mold! I cannot believe how nice your soap came out as rebatch and the swirl on top is really neat! I have always wanted to have a rebatch swap! The scent is really nice and has a spicy flavor -- I'll have to try it myself as I don't really know what to do with Cleopatra's treasure myself -- it has such a weird corn chip after smell -- this combination of yours bypasses the corn!!! The little chunks just go well with the overall fragrance and all.

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
This is likely the most daring and dramatic use of color in this swap. How did you do it? The swirl reminds me of paisley! How did you get so much clear definition, very beautiful!!!

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed
I love this bar -- rustic country -- very cute! Creative use of scents, wonderful use of textures!! The scents just go to show how Pink Sugar is a very nice combination but either people love it or hate it. The star is a great element to your design.

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
The scent combination is really nice -- not a huge fan of spearmint, but that cinnamin keeps driving me back for more. I hate that the cigar band hid the black in the middle, it ended up being a sweet surprise when I unveiled the bar. I know you've heard this a thousand times now, I took off the shrink wrap and and broke the bar -- I have never considered myself as OCD but broken things annoy me and I was angry at myself for not using scissors to open the shrink wrap! Also am just noticing that the black oxide is bleeding into the other layers. It is a pretty bar and for Christmas it would be a fun black coal soap which is really part of your theme.... Lots of great information on the label!

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
Very pretty bar of soap but pink and green are my favorite colors! It seems like the layers are scented differently...nice combination. The presentation with the shrink wrap and paper label harmonize well with the composition of your soap. One thing I didn't like about your soap is the size of the print on the label -- very hard to read.

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
The layers are whimsical and even have the texture of ice cream! The multi-scents in each layer adds to the fun of this bar. I really like the chop stick swirl in the top!!Beth,

Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
Love, love, love this scent! The fragrance is both clean and fresh. Nice color combination and great use of symetry in the layers and how you put the label together with the rafia.

Stacey (hsmomof4), Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
Nice bar, nice swirl, the TD is a pleasant element with the tan and green. The scent reminds me of another BBW scent -- Stress Relief -- and the swirls make me think of water gently moving about...ahhh! The wavy cut just adds to that appeal for me.

Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
When I first saw this bar, I really was in awe, so pretty and the trunk was even there! Picture a moment in the NW forest, that is what I have both visually and in my shower! I am glad you shared how you made your soap, so much work! Is it only the pine that is scented? The thought of just the tree having scent is kinda neat... I do love your EO blend, does it have cedar in it? As always Tammy, your label is sweet!

Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
creativity rarely fails you Kathy! Great scent, great name and very nice combination of color and texture. I saw something similar a while ago on etsy done with royal blue and buttercream yellow and wanted to do something like it some day. The wrapping and labeling are really high end, feminine and eye catching.


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## Caprine Beings

Sondra--I know about gluttony Yes it was harder than going and purchasing cookie cutters but you just can't find big enough cookie cutters for what I wanted to do.
Linda--Yes, there is Cedar, Balsam Fir, Pine Needle, Frankinscense, Myhrr, and Sandalwood. If anyone has smelled Knotty pine, it takes all of these to duplicate it We used to use KnottyPine for firewood when I was a kid and I love that scent. It brings back alot of fun memories up in the Green Mountains in Wyoming, like my first solo drive in a rusty Intertrashanal (International) going down hill on an extremely rutty road while Dad and my Brothers retied the logs down (in motion) to the trailer...lots of fun! And yes, it is only the tree and trunk that are scented.
Tam

NW Forest....hmmmmm ideas are goin' on!


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## Caprine Beings

bump


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## hsmomof4

I've added to my original comments!


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## MysticHollowGoats

I have added some more reviews.


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## hsmomof4

Denise,
forgot to answer your question about the chlorophyll! I got it from Organic Creations. Here's a link: http://www.organic-creations.com/servlet/the-1043/liquid-chlorophyll-natural-green/Detail 
It adds a nice green color to the soap, and a little goes a long way.


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## mill-valley

I've just added the last few critiques to mine too....this has been so much fun!!


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## SherrieC

I have to tell you, my husband and I took Pilgrim (buck) back over to Denise's house on saturday. She said do you wanna see the girls soaps? and John was like a kid in a candy store! his eyes lit up and he was like "was this from a swap?" and then he looked at me and said "why didn't you get in on this one." He stood there and sniffed every last bar, and checked out labels. Well we all three did, but lol apparently I'ld better play too on the next swap! :rofl


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## Aja-Sammati

Lots of fun- got some great ideas! I finally finished my notes, great idea adding addendums in a different color, which I started doing as we are using the soap  Great swap!


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## Kalne

LOL, Sherrie!

Michelle....my guess is the Lick Me All Over.....my dh can't use it, it makes him itch, so it seems there's *something* in that one.

The paper I used to wrap mine in is scrapbooking paper and I have started using it on half of my soaps. It adds some pretty colors to my table and I just love the look of it. My normal label isn't as fancy though. I had to glue the ones on for the swap and that would definitely be too time consuming in mass quantities. LOL But the printing and style is similar. The card insert was just for the swap but I'm going to start doing something similar in my others as well. That way people have something to keep to help them remember what they had and where they got it since the paper will get tossed.


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## hsmomof4

Kathy,
that's a very good idea!


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## mill-valley

Michelle, my burgandy oxide was from Brambleberry...just saw the question.


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## Caprine Beings

Bump again.


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## LaManchaPaul

HI ALL:
I posted a thank you under the sticky. Please read my heartfelt appreciation. When I tried to count the ways, became confused :crazy and restarted; tried again and again only to become more confused. In frustration, I finally gave up and posted the count that I had. I am not surprised that I wasn't even close at the guess. hehehe HOWEVER I am so happy :rofl to be the winner. 

I'd like to critique the soaps using these headings. As I have farmer skin and sensitivities, don't take my comments too seriously. If you'd like something different please PM me. 
Presentation

Aroma 

Sensation of use

Thanks for the fun game. LaManchaPaul


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## Sondra

Sounds good to me Paul will be a great help to us all coming from a man and his neighbor.
[quoteI'd like to half each soap bar and share with her. She said that she'd enjoy doing a critique as well on its use. 
][/quote]

Wonderful idea


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## hsmomof4

I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say!


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## Caprine Beings

Yes me too!


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## Caprine Beings

WHERE OH WHERE are the reviews on that puzzle swap box??????? Inquiring minds WANT to know!
Tam


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## LaManchaPaul

Soap critique 1/2010
For those who think the task of this review is ease WELL think again! 
For all labels, I’d recommend a town, state and phone number in bold display. It seems that some soapers labeled the soap just for the winter soap swap, but one never knows when a prospective customer would want to call….
I asked students (individually) to pick the ONE that they would buy. 
Briana 13 Mill Valley China Rain
Nancy 13 Mill Valley China Rain
Mario 15 unable to pick Loved all
Sergio 18 Dixie Soap Raspberry Vanilla
Diana 21 Dixie Soap Raspberry Vanilla

Well, for me it was hard to pick one. I struggled and changed my mind again and again. For presentation and for fragrance, I pick Anita’s Christmas Medley. I will use it first. 

I’ve completed the first phase of my critique. Please understand that it is not my intention to criticize any one of these. Each and every one is simply wonderful and special in its own right. Thank you for allowing me to participate. This is a great experience. 

Here is my post of Presentation & Aroma 

A Sensation of use post will follow

Denise (Necie), LunaMojo - Winter Sky and Visions of Sugar Plums
6 layer soap and speckled soap
TWO very nice bars in a clear bag gave me the feel of double the pleasure smell with extra value. Nice idea. Lunamojo is an interesting name. Close enough to “Damp Moon” in Spanish to give Newage feel. Nice smells, Nice Labels. The chunky speckled soap is nice but the multi layered colors of chocolate to vanilla is intriguing. I can’t wait to try them. 


Tonya, Mystic Hollow - Chai-Nilla
Brown swirled top
Mystic Hollow is such an intriguing name which it alone would make someone want to try it. Nestled inside a corragated wrap, tied with a bow and dainty string, this soap is very attractive. Tri-colored brown with wavy swirls the Chai-Nilla is beautiful. The soap, paper, label and string colors are all well matched. The up-front goat on the family-farm logo gives a real homey and quality touch. Very presentable. I like the “Handmade by:” line on the label and the “Handmade Goats..”. For sure, you would want to use “Goats’ Milk” for us English fanatics. Consider a font different from your Mystic line and bold it for these lines. Consider “Homemade” on one of these lines. It appears that the label is used for more than one of your soaps. Consider writing the soap name in calligraphy adding to the Mystic Hollow. This soap is very, very nice with a soft aroma drifting up from the bar that is marketable to men and women.


Linda, Cedar Leaf Farm - Lime Coconut Verbena
Round soap
OH the lime smell comes through very nicely. I love the angles in the round bar, making me wonder how the heck that was accomplished. Nice label, nice colors WELL, just NICE everything. I really like this bar.

Sondra, Harley's Soap - Deep Doo Doo
brown embed with green and yellow chunks
Uuut ooohO. Oh my, what a name grabber!!! Of course “Sez” looks like “Sex” to us dirty-minded old men with bad eyesight; so it was the first word I saw. It certainly caused me to seek out the meaning of the soap. This soap and its package have a definite manly look and feel, even to the embedded green and yellow chunks. Perfect inside a zip-lock bag, the large and differently shaped bar has appeal. She would want it for her man. The goat driving the Harley is just too adorable. I had to chuckle. Not strongly fragranced, it smells like it’ll get the ugly off!!

Heather, Faye Farms - EO blend, peppermint/lavender/orange
5 color swirl
Oh yes, very Christmasy… In a Snow-Patterned clear cellophane bag tied with a Christmas ribbon, this soap is nicely marbled with some soft swirling of lovely colors. The swirls aren’t angry; they aren’t too blended, but just right. Opening the bag gives a blast of peppermint and curious blends. Very refreshing. I think that the label was designed especially for the soap swap. It is busy, but fits if that is it’s sole purpose. Belying these review, us men like succinctness. 

Anita, Christmas Medley 
Star embed
A most interesting looking and smelling soap. Two soft browns layered like ocean waves with a creamy star fish floating in the middle. Tied with a quad-twisted hemp type string with the label attached to the bottom, it looks very chunky – even hunky. Nothing about it is smooth except the star making it intriguing and uniquely classic. Very attractive and I can imagine that a display of these on a cobalt-blue or red-colored dish would be the talk of the season by shoppers. The strong yet pleasant mix of spice and mint is striking. The handwritten label on the bottom stays with the motif. If I were told me that I could only purchase one of the soaps in the box, this would be it. The label should have a 98 percent improvement on the penmanship, but wow I love the smell. 

Michelle, Aja-Sammati Farm - EO blend, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon
green top, dark brown diamond embed
What an interesting and delightful bar of soap. Cleverly colored with an inserted diamond. Very intriguing, very nice bar. 

Becky - Dixie Soaps - Spumoni
Bright pink layers with white and green
Very nice soft colors with matching soft smell. Super nice bar. My old eyes couldn’t make out the words on the label. Though matching in colors, the fanciful designs on the label take away from the beauty of the bar. Perhaps an inclusion of the Dixie Soap logo would take away from the busy label. Hey this soap is sweeeet! 

Vicki - Nubian Soaps - Mint Sherbet Ice Cream Cake
multi-layer colors, pink, blue-green, yellow, white top with swirls
The packaging is simple, yet very presentable with the soft colored soap snugly sitting inside a clear cellophane baggie, tied with a chocolate colored twist-tie. The colors are nicely layered and distinctly separate with swirls of beauty on the long-side, giving credence to its wonderful name. The label has nice font size with darkness contrasts placing the important information prominently visible at first glance. The soap’s name is sharp and distinct with the Promotional name in font perfect with a royally feminine logo. Clearly this soap is marketed to the fairer sex with sensuality its focus. Very pleasant to the eye and almost makes the mouth water just looking at it with the soft lightly minty smell permeating the air. The big six ounces looks like a real deal… NICE SOAP! However, I’d suggest that you save the choc tie-twist for the men’s soap selections. Consider a different twist or hot gluing a delicate string to the twist to stay on the softer side consistent with this wonderful soap. 


Beth, Mill-Valley - China Rain
3 color layer, beige, pink, rose
DO NOT let the simple protective baggie fool you. The simply tie with a goat-head label holds a bar of wonderful smelling soap. Wow. Pleasant colors with clean and fresh fragrance. Nice, very nice.

Stacey (hsmomof4), The Little Flower Farm - Spearmint/Eucalyptus
Green and white swirl
What a very nice almost mint immediate smell. It reminds me of a commercial beauty bar. Very nice mixing of greens and swirls of beige. I particularly like the baffle cut visible outside of the snug fitting green paper leaving the edges exposed. These cuts go well with the raised texture swirls on the side of the bar. That artistic touch seems deliberately coordinated. Label and logo are simplistic with a religious, relaxing feel. I am left wondering what the AMDG on the label means. You might want to list some contact info on the label because I am certain that the buyer would be a repeat customer who wants to share your soap with friends. 



Tammy, Caprine Beings - Mosaic Pine
Christmas tree
A Picasso pine tree on the bar is simply priceless. The heart shaped label attached to an appropriately classy twist is a nice addition. Really this is nice enough to trademark “my knotty pine” beautiful with an expectedly harsh and fresh pine touch.


Kathy (Kalne), Lomah Acres - Belladonna
Purple top, green layer, green, purple, pink shreds
The bar is tightly wrapped and completely covered in pastel flowers and leaves paper with a small label. What a nice clean fresh smell emanating from the beautiful little package. One knows that there is a delightful bar inside. 

I believe that if in competition with other soaps on a display, that ones with soap showing might prevail as opposed to a completely wrapped bar. The packaging does not take away from the product.


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## NubianSoaps.com

Yes Paul, I will delicately glue a pretty ribbon to close nearly 300 bars of soap per day, 3 days a week  But dang loved your discription, somehow I need to put that on my website  Vicki


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## hsmomof4

Vicki,
if you wear a frilly apron and high heels while you do it, you get bonus points! :biggrin


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## NubianSoaps.com

Somehow I think photos of me in that getup would sell for more than the soap  V


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## Caprine Beings

HA! :rofl


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## LaManchaPaul

Vicki, your chocolate tie will not stop a single sale, for sure. IMHO it's just a tad uncomplimentary to your wonderful soap wrapped in a delightful cover. I liken your soap and its tie to a beautiful sensuous lady with a soft breeze of fresh softness as she walks by while everyone looks on. Her hair is flowing; she’s dressed in a long silky dress with a lengthy slit on the side all in goddess style. But she’s wearing cowboy boots. hehehe


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## laughter777

you just described me on my wedding day!


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## Sheryl

> you just described me on my wedding day


 :rofl :rofl :rofl

You silly girl, you did not!!!!!! :rofl

By the way, I took a peek at your web site. I am so jealous. My very first horse and my best friend was an Appaloosa. Everyone always made fun of me and my "stupid, ugly, app" But he was very loyal, and the best horse I ever owned. He died back in 2000, he was 27 yrs old. And I was out on the road at the time. I still miss him terribly. I bawled, blubbered, and cried my heart out for two weeks after I lost him!

Some day, I wish to own another Appy. :sigh

Your animals are georgeous!

Sheryl


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## Sheryl

> if you wear a frilly apron and high heels while you do it, you get bonus points!


OMG Stacy.....I about peed my pants laughing over this one. The image of Vicki dressed like this while packaging soaps..... :rofl I see the high heels being thrown into the pasture, and the apron in the trash can!!! :rofl :rofl

Sheryl


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## LaManchaPaul

SO, Rebecca, did a critique. However, it is in a table with the headings below. It's somewhat hard to read, but I can't figure out how to remove the info from the table. Here goes:

Name	Package	Scent	Lable	Color/other

Dixie Soap	Shrink wrap cellophane - The bar shape is a little irregular – which is fine for home made soap.	Not too strong. Clean and fresh. Gives all of the necessary information. Exemplifies the name of the soap. Nice Logo	Blue Swirl gave initial impression of mold.
Christmas Medley	Matches the home-made character of the soap. Does not protect the soap in transit or on the shelf. Nice scent – strong, but classic Christmas	Label – hand written. Ink had run a little, so that this may not be the best way to mark the soap. Has necessary ingredient list, but needs name and contact information for repeat sales.	Appropriate to the soap. Very organic. The star inlay is exquisitely executed. Looks like a star imbedded in chocolate mousse. Great character.

The Little Flower Farm – Eucalyptus Spearmint	The matching color cardstock band is appropriate and makes an easy way to view the crinkle cut of the soap . The closure needs some work as it allows the label to become detached from the soap	Scent is not overwhelming, clean and fresh. Scent matches expectation.	Simple and straightforward front. Good ingredients list, and location. needs contact information for repeat sales.	The green swirl design was executed well and the crinkle cut held it’s shape. Very pleasing effect.

Caprine Beings – Mosaic Pine	Small plastic bag with gold crimp tie is appropriate to the soap. Allows a nice view of the design	Scent is not strong enough to really get the “pine” idea across. The soap is clean and fresh.	The heart with the picture of the owner and goat is great in its idea. With a little work to make the front and back the same this lable would really shine . Ingredients and contact information are good.	The execution of the tree motif and the snow and blue sky was really unique. Not an easy effect to master. Well done.

Harley Sez	Zip loc bag did not hold up very well in shipment. It makes it easy to check scent, but the bag breaks easily.	The cinnamon scent of this soap is not strong enough to match the soap smell. I had to read the ingredient list to make sure I had the scent right.	The label is cute, but Ugly,Ugly,Ugly and “Not to be Repeated” comments do not explain anything about the soap, like an inside joke. In this way it is a waste of use of space. The “don’t smell like one use” is very funny and for those of us who know about o’de goat, will appreciate this meaning. The chunks of color are nice but not evident enough to make the extra work worth it for the initial buyer. As a person uses the bar this will change, no doubt. The biggest thing that needs to be fixed is the shape of the bar. The shape is irregular and looks unintentional. 

Loma Acres	Beautiful , interesting paper cover. Keeps the product well protected. Shows well on the shelf. Doesn’t allow the buyer to check scent easily.	Belladonna scent is well balanced with the soap scent. Strong enough to enjoy, not enough to make it thru the wrapper. The label is very professional and straightforward. The front – two-layered tag is especially nice, high-end. Color coordination with the paper is excellent. The use of fonts to separate types of information is helpful and not overdone. All of the ingredients and contact information are applied. The colors are pleasing and the layering is well executed. The slivers in the soap are especially nice, visible from edge on each bar. Might want to provide a demo bar to vendors, wrapped in cellophane, so that the buyer can view the beauty of the bar in advance.

Multicolor Crinklecut bar	Shrink wrap cellophane - Completely covered but makes it difficult to determine scent.	Spearmint is recognizable and matched to the soap.	No label	There is an amethyst rectangle incorporated in the design. This shape caused the bar to split on the bottom so that the bar might not hold up under use. Nice idea, with a little work would be special.

Dixie Soaps - Spumoni	Shrink wrap cellophane - Completely covered the bar shape.	Spumoni scent is a mix of spearmint and something else. The scent is pleasing. Clean and fresh.	The label uses a pretty paper background. It would really help to have a larger font for the information. The busy-ness of the background makes it difficult to read. The pink layers are a pretty color. The chunk s in the center layer could be enhanced to further the idea of spumoni (a layered desert with fruit or nuts in one or more of the layers). 

Lunamojo	Plastic bag with a standard twist-tie allows the buyer to open to check scent. Nothing special to call a buyer’s attention.	There were two bars in the bag – visions of sugar plums and Winter Sky - Unfortunately, they both had taken on the scent of the Winter sky (I think). The scent was fresh and strong enough to hold up under use. I would like to know what the sugar plum bar scent was. The logo is distinctive, but small. The name is great. (Wet-moon – translated) I like the idea of using a picture to help depict the name of the soap, but the strength of the colors makes it difficult to read the ingredients. The location information is enough to allow for reorder – Maybe too much. I am assuming that each bar would have a label in their own bag. The two bars were hard to tell which bar went with which label. The Layered bar colors were very well done. The colors work well with each other and are the same value so that the bar works well together. The second bar is speckled. The color is not definable – could be violet. A nice bar. Just nothing distinctive.

Fay Farms	A beautifully snowflake-printed plastic cellophane bag, tied with white gift-ribbon.	The peppermint and lavender are primary scents which are balanced with the soap. The orange may also come thru as one uses the bar. Pleasing scent.	The simple label gets the necessary information on the soap. The label matches the size of the soap which is nice and this label being plain allows the special design of this soap to stand on its own.	The swirl design of this soap is exquisite. It is interesting and the colors are strong and did not bleed. A beautiful bar.

Mill-Valley – China Rain	Outer wrap was a zip-loc bag. If the zip-loc bag was a standard part of the presentation, this is a shame, because the use of a raffia tie and label makes a nice presentation on it’s own.	Scent is strong enough to stand up thru the use of the bar. The name of the scent is invoked by the bar. A nice clean rain memory. Thankyou.	The tied-on label is tactful and elegant in it’s simplicity. The only thing missing is a reorder contact. The graduated plum to beige layers of this bar are even and well integrated. There are small chips of pink color on top that are subtle and pretty at the same time. A class act.

Nubian Soaps – Mint Sherbet IceCream Cake	Twist Tie small plastic bag allows view the multilayer soap within. The scent mixture is a little too complex and does not balance well with the soap smell. The peppermint and tea-tree are not complimenting each other.	The label is well laid out with sufficient information. The name of the soap and the label and the coloration all work together. Good use of font, logo and byline. Nubians in Africa were women of color of legendary beauty. You may want to use this in your logo instead of a woman who looks like a greek sculpture (nice but a bit confusing) even if the GOAT MILK is Nubian….. Fun mixture of color,layers, parti-color flecks all match the name of the soap.

Cedar Leaf The label and the covering are integrated. The edge is painted. This allows for the buyer to view the pattern and color and note the scent.	The added fragrance for this bar is lively and distinctive, but the soap odor behind it makes this soap smell slightly old.	The round semi-transparent label attached to the bar is a great idea. In the non-competition bar, the vendors re-order location would be an important addition. This idea can be used with any shape of bar, matching the label to the shape as in this round item.	The colors of the three segments work together well. The Painted Green Gilt edge would be better as a flat color. 

Mystic Hollow Farm	The reverse corrugated cardboard wrapper is a great match for this bar. It allows for viewing the bar and determining the scent and enhances the sense that this is truly a hand-made item. The Simple string bow is a nice addition and provides for extra security for the wrapper.	The Chai-vanilla scents are evident and well balanced. They are well mixed so that there is no clear “soap” smell.	This label is great!! The Family picture Logo makes me want to meet the makers. The required information is available and readable. The extra information about goat milk and the benefits to skin serve as a well thought-through advertisement for other Goat-Milk products. Smart. The location to add a hand written scent is smart for the small batch producer that likes to experiment with different scents. The beige and chocolate swirl in this bar is yummy. The swirl is well executed the different colors are well differentiated.


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## NubianSoaps.com

My logo  I initially wanted the name Nubian Princess, no go, already taken. But I also didn't want my girl to be black, although I do have a very large african american client list and stores (with black son in laws and a brother in law), I knew most of my buyers would be white, so doing a multicultural looking gal on my logo was actually a much disgussed part of my logo, nearly naked with a toga also. So the play on words with those knowing what a Nubian dairy goat is, and Nubia....but honestly most think of it as a egyptian princess type of logo....Just some background. Vicki


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## hsmomof4

Ok, Vicki, I know that you've been busy and had lots going on, but I thought I'd bump this in case maybe you've gotten a chance to check out the soaps.  And in the interest of full disclosure, because I really respect your opinion and want to hear what you think about mine! :lol


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