I wanted to make a different soap and I was running with the idea of using a rose scent but wanting to add some other elements so that the soap wouldn't be TOO overly rosy. I also realized that by making a rose scented soap, I was treading on the territory of 'old lady land' because most of the women I've met in the past that have been over the age of 70 all have some sort of perfume or lotion that they apply VERY liberally in the scent of rose. But as I like the scent of roses, I wanted to walk on the wild side and take the plunge to see what I could come up with. So I played around with scents and combined the rose with the scents of some citrus fruits and apple. The rose is definitely there but the fruit brings it down a notch into what I think is a more appealing overall aroma. It kind of reminds me of a rosy skittles scent.

Additionally, I was itching to experiment with alkanet root to color my soap. Alkanet root (Anchusa tinctoria) is an herb that has been used as a dye for ages. The first reported use can be found in the works of the Greek botanist and scholar Theophrastus (c. 300 B.C.). Usually alkanet root, after it has been ground into a powder, is diffused in oil to achieve the tint you want, ranging from purples to burgandies. It is documented that the powder CAN be used directly into soap batter but the results are sketchy. This is what I wanted to find out and I got something completely unexpected. I wound up with a black soap that when used actually foams up white. Pretty cool! Also my result gave me my wanted modernization of a rose soap, complete with groovy name! My ingredients are as follows:


goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
alkanet root powder
fragrance


Also, as you can see in the photo, I got to use some of my previously made soap chunks. For this soap I used pink. I like the way the chunks turned out in the soap. I may use more next time because I think it's really neat.