I just got back from a trip to Hawaii, Maui and Kauai to be exact!  A little rainy, actually while we were in the pool one evening during a light rain, KA-BAM, freakishly heavy rain and lightening and thunder!!  But still a warm winter in the high 70s and 80s.  Very nice.  Not too many places were you can wear shorts and a tank at 8am in the winter morning. 

Anyway,  I purchased some handmade soaps while I was there.  WHY?  Why would I purchase handmade soap when I can make it myself?!?  Why not!  I like to try out others peoples' soaps.  Sometimes I'm attracted by the fragrance, the color, or the packaging. 

1. Indigenous Soap – purchased at Oceanology Whalers Museum in the Whalers Village Lahaina, Maui  [a small but really interesting and free museum about whaling in Hawaii]
http://indigenousoap.com/
Aina

I got it because I liked the packaging and it was the first soap that I saw that wasn't melt and pour and one that I hadn't seen in multiple touristy places.  Although now that I look at her website she's in multiple stores mostly in Oahu.

2. Surfing Goat Dairy – Maui up-country
http://www.surfinggoatdairy.com/
Lavender and Papaya

This is a great dairy.  You can watch them milk the goats.  They have some yummy goat cheese and there were so many cute goat kids running around in a pen. 

3. Island Soap and Candle Works
http://www.islandsoap.com/
Hawaiian Sea, Relaxation Bar, Mandarin Lemongrass, Orange Passion, Anise Poppy Seed

I wanted to go to their stores because they make the soap right there in the store.  Their racks look so cool with all of their soaps curing.  I watched them mixing up a batch of soap.  They had an electric hand drill mocked up over a pot to do the stirring  They seemed to be stirring their batch for a long time, long enough for the soap maker to go to the coffee shop next door and get some coffee.   Mine would have come to trace long before theirs.  But then again my batches are considerably smaller and they are probably doing room temp oils and lye water.  I usually have a hard time waiting for my oils and lye water to cool down to room temp.  Or maybe the combination of oils they use is really slow to trace. 

Soap meringues!  I saw someone do this on You Tube and thought it was so very cute, so I thought I'd do it too.  They are pretty much smaller versions of just the tops of soap cupcakes.

And here's some perspective:

These are pretty much guest soap size, but how cute of a guest soap!  It's like a dollop of whipped cream!

So, here's how the soap cake slices look 4 weeks later.  Yup, the cake has darkened.  The frosting has retained most of it's lavender color.  Yay!

Here's a comparison from the fresh soap to the 4 week old cured soap.  Fresh is on the left and now is on the right.

    (my lavender nails match!)

It has darkened quite a bit. Looks more like a chocolate cake rather than some kind of light mocha vanilla cake.  I wasn't sure how to package these slices.  They are huge soap bars,  I tried cellophane, but it didn't work, so i went and purchased clear bags and tied it with a ribbon.  If I had a lavender ribbon I would have used that, but light blue was the closest in color and size that I could come up with at the time.  I think it looks good.

I don't think I'll do this size of a soap cake again, unless it was a special request.  It's just too HUGE for me to do for myself.  If I do a cake a gain I'll just use my log mold and make a rectangular log-style soap the next time.