Soap Press.
Moulds.
The "variegated" colored soaps are produced by adding the various colors, such as smalt and vermilion, previously mixed with water, to the soap in a melted state; these colors are but slightly crutched in, hence the streaky appearance or party color of the soap; this kind is also termed "marbled" soap.
Almond Soap.
This soap, by some persons "supposed" to be made of "sweet almond oil," and by others to be a mystic combination of sweet and bitter almonds, is in reality constituted thus:—
| Finest curd soap, | 1 cwt. |
| " oil soap, | 14 lbs. |
| " marine, | 14 lbs. |
| Otto of almonds, | 1-1/2 lb. |
| " cloves, | 1/4 lb. |
| " caraway, | 1/2 lb. |
By the time that half the curd soap is melted, the marine soap is to be added; when this is well crutched, then add the oil soap, and finish with the remaining curd. When the whole is well melted, and just before turning it into the frame, crutch in the mixed perfume.
Some of the soap "houses" endeavored to use Mirabane or artificial essence of almonds (see Almond) for perfuming soap, it being far cheaper than the true otto of almonds; but the application has proved so unsatisfactory in practice, that it has been abandoned by Messrs. Gibbs, Pineau (of Paris), Gosnell, and others who used it.