Plants, Flowers and Soap inspiration!

I know alot of our wonderful followers have come over from Ishbel's Naturally Made Soaps blog site. For those of you who don't know me - i'm the other half of Puro- currently running the Portugal side of things. Although I've been making soap for many years now, it's not my only passion! I'm a Horticulturalist, specialising in Planting and Garden Design. It's no surprise that alot of our soaps are inspired by the nature and landscape around us, and you'll have to forgive me if my blogs go off on one sometimes into the world of plants and gardens!
It's not only about the inspiration that goes into our soaps but also about the ingredients- I'm always trying to grow things that we can perhaps incorporate in our products- Lavender for instance- and knowing where our ingredients come from is really important to Ishbel and myself.

I was recently asked to design a garden here specifically for crafters The garden was to include lots of plants suitable for use in making toiletries and soaps, creative cookery and dying fabrics. How happy was I being involved in a garden which would have soapmaking ingredients and pigments etc. in!! Above is a photo of the garden in construction- as it's planted up over the next few weeks, I'll add some more photos to show you how it develops.

I also visited Wisley recently and I can't tell you how inspired I was!! Not only from a gardeners point of view but also as a soapdesigner!
Ishbel mentioned to me this week about us designing an orchid soap- just look at these amazing orchids from the new glasshouse-how about that for inspiration!
Shelley