A plastic mould containing 4 bars of sparkly red hemp oil soap is sitting on my table hardening right now.

Yes, I’ve decided to give melt and pour soapmaking a try. It seems to be a nice companion to aromatherapy because I can use essential oils to fragrance the soap. The inaugural batch has been tarted up with benzoin and patchouli essential oils, and tea rose fragrance oil.

Some explanations. 1) Benzoin is a thick oil that smells like a combination of vanilla and chocolate – smells as divine as it sounds. 2) The difference between essential oils and fragrance oils is that essential oils are 100% natural – extracted from the plant, and fragrance oils usually have some synthetics added, and wouldn’t be used in true aromatherapy. However, fragrance oils still smell nice and have their place in homemade cosmetics and toiletries – not least of all the fact that tea rose fragrance oil is much, much cheaper than true rose essential oil.

Once I use the soap, I will give a more detailed review.

Oh, and details on my San Francisco trip are coming – I got my picture back earlier this week and I am so pleased with them – now I just need to get the best ones on the site. There is also some huge news that I need to share soon, but I need to tell more people offline first. (it seems that more and more people I know offline are reading this site, and that’s neat.)