Thursday, December 11, 2014

SOAP Panel with Bramble Berry

Recently I was chosen to participate in Bramble Berry's Winter SOAP Panel.  I never expected to be chosen, and about did a cartwheel when I got the email!  

Then my package came.  8 mystery fragrances to play with!  The girls and I all took turns secretly sniffing and sniffing, writing down our thoughts.  

First Impressions in the Bottle:

1 - Fruity
2 - Chocolate.  
3 - Citrus 
4 - Sweet Sour/Tart Candy
5 - Musk.  Masculine.  Cologne
6- Baby Powder
7 - Christmas Tree!  Maybe a hint of berry?  But without a doubt - Christmas tree in a bottle!
8 - Hard to put a finger on.  Masculine

Then it came time to make SOAP!  I made 8 one pound batches.  I left most of the soap batter uncolored to see what the fragrance would do.  I didn't stick blend unless I had to due to ricing.

Performance:

1 - Started to get thick with hand stirring.  No ricing, discoloration to tan.
2 - Slow mover.  No ricing.  Discolored dark brown.
3 - Discolored tan
4 - No discoloration, easy to work with. 
5 - Moved quickly, slight darkening 
6 - Thickened quickly, ricing.  Discolored greenish brown
7 - Slow mover.  No ricing or discoloration
8 - Fast mover.  Discolored to a yellowish brown

Now it is soap.....

Amazing how much a fragrance can change after it is soap!  Only a few fragrances are similar to the out of bottle scent.  Several did a complete 180!  I am including photos - these are unedited and raw!  

1 - Pineapple!  This was a total surprise!  LOVE!



2 - Chocolate and perhaps raspberry?  

3 - Blood Orange.  LOVE!

4 - Tart, sweet candy.  Nice!

5 - Musk is gone.  Smells dirty.  

6 - Floral.  Where did that come from?  But not bad.

7 - Still a Christmas tree!  Lovely!

8 - Smells like dirty smoke.


Summary: 

In case you can't tell, I do not like 5 or 8 at ALL.  Blah.  That is sad because they were quite nice in the bottle.  I LOVE 1 & 3, really like 4 & 7, 2 & 6 are okay.  And the only one that resembles it's scent in the bottle is #7!  Crazy!

Now for some fun!  Want to know what the fragrances smell like first hand?  You can!  I will be running a giveaway until January 15th, 2015.  You can enter HERE, or if you are a member of my Facebook group you can enter there as well!  I will be giving away 2 sets of soaps.   Enter HERE!  (Sadly due to shipping costs this is only open to US residents)





I had SO much fun!  I would love to test scents for Bramble Berry's SOAP Panel again sometime.