Posts Tagged ‘Fig’

Funky fig. And I don’t mean in a “oh guuurl, you look fuuuunkay!” way. I mean in the “um, baby, you smell a bit funky. You’re going to shower before we go out, right?” kinda way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a nasty smell, it just makes my nose wrinkle. I’m clearly not a ‘fig’ kinda girl. It actually SMELLS green… is that possible? Can smells have colours?

Either way, all I see is my grandma’s old fig tree that I used to climb as a little girl. This tree was the BEST tree to climb – long thick branches, spaced just far enough apart to give you room, but not too far that you could fall out. The only down side – the smell. Fig. Bleaugh.

Makes you wonder what I was thinking when I picked that fragrance huh? Or Sage Flower for that matter – although I expected that to be more flower and less Sage. Even though it’s nothing like sage and more like fig. Either way, the two together…? No real difference. So basically it’s fig and fig. It’s a friggen figgidy fig soap!!

I’ve made two batches so far. The one last night REALLY didn’t go according to plan. I really have to work on my ‘less is more’ ability and not put so much batter aside for my minimal swirls. I always over-guesstimate and as I hate waste, my ‘swirls’ end up being the entire top layer of my soap … 3 inches thick…. and unswirlable.

The Idea:

The… erm… attempt:

The idea – pretty, minimal, defined swirls
The attempt – appears to be shedding it’s skin like a snake
The idea – very minimal highlighted white swirls
The attempt – again, I go with shedding skin…

You get the picture though. The white I put aside was clearly WAY overkill for the delicate swirls I was inspired by. I see dainty swirls, I do a layer of cream to make a biggest loser contestant dehydrate through drooling. The idea creator probably swirled with a femininity I can only dream about, I swirled with a wooden spoon a giant is currently missing!

Short answer: Not. Happy. Jan! (Non-Aussies watch this to get that reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2akt3P8ltLM)

Anyway, moving on. I had enough scent left over to attempt a second batch – imagine my joy. Knowing that it accelerates trace a bit, I went back to the trusty loaf mold (decision aided by the fact my only tray mold still has skin shedding soap stuck in it), and went back to the less swirly approach. The glob, pokey, poke method.(TM)

The idea is a white ‘base’, green in the middle, then some more white, then green frosting - a soap term for ‘minimal’. But knowing my ‘dainty swirls’ ability, it’s going to come out more like white – greeny white smoosh – green. And just like a real fig needs sugar to pass the palate, I added glitter to help it look just a tad more exciting. Which of course I think I overdid as well – yup, that’s green glitter on green soap, applied at night time. /facepalm

I also poked the top until it looked ‘detailed’ because flat just wouldn’t pass muster with fig soap!

I’m thinking I might have to shove some pieces under friend’s noses once it’s ready to get their take on the smell. My childhood memories could be clouding my opinion here…

The fact I’m addicted to sweets and my mouth waters with scents like cheesecake, sugar cookie and caramel sundae also isn’t helping the poor fig soap either. It’s like an instant reaction to fruit. Sorry figs.

The possitive out of all this – my first green soap!! I’ve already done the ‘Wish it was chocolate, looks more like poo, brown‘ soap, so now it’s ‘thank god it looks like tree leaves and not snot’ soap! Woo Hoo!