I thought why not try something new an make scented soap? The easiest and safest way appeared to be making hot process soap from soap flakes. Hot process means: You melt old soap or a new, unscented bar of soap. I bought unscented curd soap for the experiment, the brand name is  Dalli (non-perfumed dalli care curd hard soap). It’s very basic soap for all kinds of purposes, and it is rather soft and easy to grate and work with. I am pretty sure there’s something similar available everywhere.

Linked below is a very nice tutorial video from “Elly’s everyday soap making”. She has a small soap business, so she is working on a level of professionalism I can only dream of. But this procedure is so uncomplicated and safe that it’s easy to follow the steps. What you need is a cheese grater, a bain-marie (or a pot-in-a-pot-cooker), some essential oils you like and soap. And time! You don’t want to do this in a hurry. It can take a while, so better get a good audio book ready.

Just in case you don’t see the embed, here’s the link. Make sure to leave her a like!

Youtube Video: How to use soap for making new soap

If you only want to use your soap to scent your wardrobe and never use it on skin, you don’t need to worry about an essential oil dosage that might irritate your skin. But if you want to take a dive into essential oils and their use in soap or aroma therapy, here’s a lot of information: Everything you want to know about essential oils

There are some basic rules, for soap making as well as making your own perfume (or oil blends for a diffuser) though.

The scent of some essential oils fades rather quickly. Those are mostly citrusy oils, the first scent impression you get. They are called top notes. Other oils last longer, the richer and often flowery scents. These are heart notes, or middle notes. Those heart notes define the main character of your soap’s scent. Then there are base notes, those oils last longest. They are often woody and deep, Sandalwood or Vanilla for example.

To be honest, I felt slightly overwhelmed by all the information and blend options. Sure, I do know some scents from baking or flowers, but other than those I know to smell nice together? I wouldn’t know what blends well. So I did what I always do when I dive into something new. Research it and attempt to structure it.

The result is this: It’s an incomprehensive list of the more common oils and some blend suggestions, according to the information out there what blends well with what. I didn’t test them all. Essential oils are expensive, and I didn’t want to waste what I have on scent-tests with random combinations. I narrowed my testing down to the combinations that have been tested by others and seem to be well-blending. I went by the heart notes I wanted and looked for matching scents for the top and base notes to go with them. I colored them according to their use, I found it easier to work with the information that way. Some cotton pads, some drops of oil together: I found some favorites pretty quickly.

So if you want to make some Lavender soap e.g., you can see which top notes and which base notes might blend well, and try if you like the smell of those together.

If you try this the first time, you might want to take notes. How much soap flakes, how many drops of oil, etc. If the result isn’t satisfactory, you can grate it and make a new attempt.

I hope I didn’t bore you, I had fun making these! The darker one is an Orange-Lavender-Cinnamon mix, and I added a pinch of nutmeg (yes, the spice). That’s  where the brownish spots come from. It smells lovely and rich. I did follow Elly’s instructions to get rid of the air bubbles, but obviously wasn’t that successful. The lighter one is a Tangerine-Neroli-Cedar mix with one drop of food-coloring. This is so much fun! Lots of Christmas gifts for my friends :).

Have fun! The next post will be about dolls again, I promise!

But since my dolls are in a closet for light and dust protection, there are easier ways to make them smell a little nicer. I use to hang moth balls in the closet, because some of the doll cardigans and wool wigs attract them. They smell of lavender, and the dolls or rather the doll’s clothes smell of it, too.

I am not particularly fond of the moth ball smell, so I thought why not try something else? My mom used to store her soap in the wardrobe, and all her clothes had that very specific scent. When she passed away, I inherited an antique cabinet- and her soap. A more than fifty years old bar of soap, and it still smells lovely.

I learned that “soap in the wardrobe” thing from her. And since I love scented bars of soap, this post will be about soap, scent and other not exactly doll related things. It’s hard to find soap with a long lasting scent over here, since all the regular soaps you use to find in the drugstore are bio-this, hyper sensitive natural-that, and even if they do smell nice, it usually doesn’t last. Neither on the skin nor in the box.

The fifty year old soap is a bar of Roger Gallet Mignardise, and this scent has been one of my favorites for years, along with Fleur De Figuier and Bois D’Orange. It’s quite expensive, and although it’s perfect to put in the wardrobe, I wouldn’t want to use it for washing my hands. Even though it doesn’t make your skin dry like some of the bio-olive oil soaps I tried.

Two other brands I love to use even for washing my hands are Borotalco (Italian soap with a unique scent of lemon and baby powder) and Jabon Maja Clàsica (Spanish soap). I fail to describe the scent of the Maja soap, it’s warm, spicy and exotic. Borotalco adds a lovely fresh scent to your towels in the drawer. Both are tolerably affordable for daily use. I love to have nice smelling hands.

Italian and French soap making has a long tradition, and some brands and scents have been around for decades. Italian Nesti Dante soap or Saponificio Artigianale Fiorentino soaps for example. You can get those as single bars as well as gift packs. If you enjoy fruity or flowery scents, those might be worth trying. These are lovely wardrobe scents as well.

I like to use soap bags in the shower, and since I had 2 yards of a wide lace I couldn’t make use of for anything else, I used it to make lots of soap bags. You put the soap in and use it while it’s in the bag, just in case you’ve never seen something like it. They are quite popular over here, you have a much better grip on the bar, the soap dries quickly and the bag adds sort of a peeling effect.

And last but not least, I made wood squares for the doll cabinet and my wardrobe. These are sawn off a squared timber, and I left them rough. The rough surface makes it easier to saturate the wood with fragrance oil. I use carnation and cinnamon most often (and my dolls smell lovely of this mix now), and lavender for the wool drawer. For some reasons I get a headache from using aroma lamps or incense sticks indoors, and these wood pieces are my choice for a more subtle scent.

And now I am curious: Do you like good old soap bars? If you have that one scented soap you wouldn’t want to miss, what would it be? Do you place something with scent near your dolls to make them smell nicer? Let me know in the comments 🙂