Thusday Inspiration: Freshly Fallen Snow Soap

Last week, East Tennessee was blanketed with a 3 inch layer of fresh, white, fluffy snow! Snow is a rarity 'round these parts (did you read that with my Appalachian accent?), so it was so nice to take some time off from school, watch it fall, then enjoy a few hours of play time with my kiddo in the "snow drifts"... Not sure if 3 inches of snow can be called a snow drift, but whatever!

So, after doing some research and planning, I decided to use the snow as my inspiration and made some fresh snow soap!

Adding the lye to the snow

I started out with some fresh, clean snow, collected right on the ETSU campus. I added my lye directly to the snow, letting the chemical reaction melt the snow down as the lye dissolved. While the lye cooled to room temperature (it didnt take long), I prepped my colors: titanium dioxide for white, ultramarine for a bright blue, and charcoal for gray.

The soap is scented with a really lovely fragrance, filled with notes of grapefruit, agave, ylang ylang, willow, and lavender.  It's a nice, fresh scent with lots of lightness. I did not want to use a traditional winter scent, like a mint or pine, but rather wanted to use a scent that would be loved year round.

Here's the "wet" soap still in the mold:

And here is a Vine video I made while I was swirling the soap: