Sweet Sangria Soap!

So, a few days ago, I decided that I wanted to make a soap with Bramble Berry's Sugar Plum Fairy fragrance oil, but I wanted to call the scent something else. I usually stick to a fragrance oil's given name, but I wanted something more seasonal, more summer-y. I sniffed and sniffed it, trying to figure out what I thought it smelled like.





This fragrance oil is very sweet - lots of fruit and sugar notes. I thought it smelled like fruit punch or a jellybean. I came up with "Fruit Punch Jellybean," but I wasn't sure if I was wild about that moniker. So I asked my husband to take a whiff and tell me what he thought it smelled like, and what I should call it. He said it smelled like wine.

Hmmm. Now I really didn't know what to think. Wine?

Well, I could see that. I mean, wine is pretty much fermented fruit, right?

So I took my dilemma to the awesome Wonder Turtle Soaps fans and asked them what I should do. And one of the fans (actually, it was my mom, who is a big fan not only of my soaps, but also of me) suggested that if I thought it smelled like fruit and sugar and Ken, my husband, thought it smelled like wine, then maybe I should go with Sangria?
 
Of course! What a brilliant suggestion! My brain was so stuck on candy that Sangria probably never would have entered my mind. But, basically, wine + fruit + sugar = Sangria. And what could be better for summertime?

The suggestion inspired me to create something way cooler than what I was orignally planning. I was going to do a solid beveled square of merlot sparkle mica-colored soap with the Sugar Plum Fairy fragrance oil.

Pretty, but ... yawn.

But this Sangria thing - my merlot sparkle mica would still be perfect, and I could do a cool chunk soap in my loaf mold, the chunks being the "fruit" floating in the "wine."

I pulled out my trusty silicone brownie bites pan and poured fragranced squares of gold, orange, and green for my soapy fruits - lemons, pineapples, oranges, tangerines, peaches, green apples, what have you. After they set up (which seemed to take only FOREVER), I cut the squares into chunks.

Next, I fragranced and poured some merlot-colored soap into my loaf mold, filling it just short of halfway. I quickly spritzed my chunk embeds with rubbing alcohol and dropped them into the merlot-colored soap in batches, using up half of my chunks. I gave the first layer a final spritz, acknowledged that it looked like some sort of weird stew, and let it harden up.

Then I repeated the step above - more merlot soap and the rest of the embeds.

And then it was time to wait.

Ugh. The waiting ...

The next day, I felt that mix of excitement and nervousness that I always feel before I unmold and slice a loaf soap. The soap cut beautifully and looked very much like I had hoped it would.

And it smells a lot like a Sangria - sweet, sugary, and fruity.

Great success! (And thanks again to the Wonder Turtle Soaps fans - I have so much fun with you guys, and you all keep me so inspired!)

Check out my Sweet Sangria soap at Wonder Turtle Soaps on Etsy and pick you up a bar or two or so of this yummy, summery soap!


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