Saturday, May 18, 2013

Cherry Goat's milk

Now that I have your attention, an update on soapy progress!

A dear friend of mine's husband fell in love with a MP soap I did when I was first experimenting with soapy stuff. It's called Cherry Swirl, and it smells just like pull-and-peel Twizzlers (my girlfriend always has to have some to eat when I make soap scented with this FO, or she gets grumpy!) and literally bought all of it I had made, minus the two bars one of my Etsy buyers got. 

Cherry Swirl chillin' out on the counter after cutting
It's made with a clear glycerin base with goat's milk base swirlies in it. It's probably one of my favorite MP designs I did when I still had bases to play around with!

After a few months, her husband was dangerously low on the soap, and she inquired about a custom batch. I told her I couldn't repeat the MP soap, but I could give it a try with CP. I explained that since I hadnt made soap with it that way yet, that there was no guarantee it would stick, and if not I'd refund the money, and she could even still keep it if she wanted (as soap is soap is soap!). So I brainstormed for about a week, and made the cute little 2lb loaf!

Mica oil swirled tops!
I alternated pouring red/white/red/white high enough for it to break through and swirl nicely, and just cut the bars today:


SO happy with how they turned out! And they still smell delish, so everyone is happy!


I've also been meaning to try my hand at a goat's milk soap, so I got down to business today. Blended the frozen milk cubes and lye int he sink in a saltwater ice bath, keeping them very chill. I even melted down all my oils the normal CP way, as I usually use the room temp route. Tussah silk, however, will not dissolve in a lye solution that cool, LOL, so this soap is just goat's milk and shea butter. No fancy silk.

Trace came beautifully, though I added a heaping amount of TD to keep it a nice cream color (I bought a ton of very YELLOW shea butter, and MAN does it some through in my soap!) It's so hard to achieve a nice white with it that I may end up getting more ivory shea, as the money I saved buying the yellow I easily will spend on TD coloring it. Lesson learned, Ash. Great way to kick yourself! ;)

And I was even able to make a lovely textured top! I blended some of the dredges of the soap batter with a TINY teensy bit of liquid aqua color, to give a nice off-white look, and blended it into the creamed base, making pretty peaks. It's scented with Clothespins, a very, very brisk, clean fragrance from Rustic Escentuals. I wanted to use lavender originally, as it seemed more traditional, but I already have a lavender soap. Here's the lovely textured details!


Very fun. So how has your week been lately?


4 comments:

  1. Those are beautiful soaps. Your swirls turned out beautifully and your friend's husband must be so thrilled to have great smelling and beautiful soaps to use.

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    1. Thank you so much! She was joking with us the other day that they have 6 whole bars of Lever 2000 that will never get used, haha. I told her I could probably figure out a way to turn them into laundry detergent, since it isn't "nice enough" for their bodies and it's practically detergent anyway. I hope he's happy with them! :)

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    2. Or give them away to a shelter. That'd do double duty of helping some people smell a little nicer and getting them out of the house. ;)

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    3. Very true! I have plenty of soap scraps that I need to donate, haha. :) All from my earlier soaping days, usually only because I wasn't particularly happy with the bars.

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