The smell of first rain......

Despite complaining about palm oil earlier, I decided to try it out again in this soap since I was superfatting it at 8%. Maybe it would not be as drying as I thought it to be. I must say the smell is absolutely divine. The combination of the Vetiver, Cedarwood and Petitgrain EOs gives it the smell of earth drenched with the first showers of monsoon. 

Vetiver, cedarwood & Petitgrain

This is the first batch that I have attempted without Olive oil. I like using Olive oil in my soap because of all its wonderful qualities. I have used Sunflower oil, Rice Bran oil, castor oil and of course, coconut oil. I substituted Olive oil with Rice Bran since it is very similar to olive oil in terms of its composition and also in what it contributes to soap. This was also my first attempt at doing the in-the-pot swirl. I must say, I am pretty happy with the results. The moisture that is visible on the soaps is due to the fact that we did have a bout of very heavy rains right after I made this batch. But they are all nice and dry now. Waiting to use it. Tomorrow I shall post about my two batches of soap using the clay that I ordered...........