When a lovely fragrance comes along, I can’t resist testing it in a bar soap. Many times, the fragrance doesn’t pass the smell test — see what I did there? There are three main criteria I need to satisfy:
Does the scent hold after a 4-6 week cure?
Does it accelerate my soap batter, making it difficult to pour into the mold?
Does it discolor over the length of the cure?
These are really the biggies. Cost sometimes plays a part, but usually it’s these things. So after I test all these nice fragrances, what happens to the test bars? They sometimes make it into my shower. But quite honestly, I already have SO many bars of soap that are marked “for personal use only” that I thought it might be nice to share some of these with you. Trust me, I keep the super ugly ones. I’ve told my husband, “There are so many ‘personal use’ bars that if I never make soap again, I will never have to make soap again.”
If these test bars, sometimes they are just one-offs, interest you at all, you can find them HERE.