Hiatus Over! Cherry blossoms, Rain, and Chamomile to soothe the soul..

I am so excited with everything that has been going on in my life. I know, I know, it's been nearly a year since I posted, but guys -- man, have I got some catching up to do!

Instead of the BMW hire I had been hoping to get, I started working at ZF Transmissions in Gray Court, SC. It was a plant job, and I was doing some German translation, which was super cool, but my shifts were 12-hours every single day of the week. No days off, nothing. I made one whole batch of soap for a coworker for a Christmas gift to his family the entire time I worked there. 

A blend of Lemongrass, Listea, and Lemon essential oils with poppy seeds for exfoliant!

After Christmas, I started speaking to a long time friend of mine -- I've known this boy for about 13 years now, we've known each other since we were kids. I really wanted a fresh start, to just move out of the state that seemed to harbor all my troubles. After lots of consulting with friends and coworkers, I decided it was the best move for me. My friend, Jay, lived in Washington state, so it was a daunting prospect. Slowly, between December and January 12, I began giving away/donating my stuff to friends or Goodwill, shipping out necessary items, or giving things to people for safekeeping. I flew out January 12, leaving my car to my uncle and signing it over to him. I landed January 13, with barely anything to my name aside from the stuff I was waiting to arrive and a lot less baggage.

Some people call it running away. I just saw it as a chance to start over.

I got a job in a call center not far from home (it was about a 35 minute walk) to make money while i slowly built up my soapmaking stash again. One of my friends from SC is actually moving up here with me this summer, and he plans on driving the trip, so he'll be bringing some of the stash I left in SC for safekeeping with a friend. On top of the job, I've also acquired a new car! (New to me, of course. I'm broke!)

The move wasn't easy, BUT -- I am here to show you how amazing my life has gotten! With some amazing soaps tied in.

I know I've said it before, I dont usually post personal stuff on here, but I feel like my old loyal readers (Jenny! <3) would like to know why I dropped off to nowhere. I'm here to tell you it was every bit as worth it as it was needed.

First of all, Jay and I have started dating. He was my childhood crush, which we touched on at the time when we were kids, but he was incredibly loyal and was already seeing someone. So I moved on, and we sort of inadvertently kept chasing each other for nearly 14 years. With me starting over and actually living where he is, I figured I would go with the advice my dad always gave me: your soulmate is usually your best friend, and you never even realize it. He married his best friend 23 years ago, and they are still every bit as in love as when they started. So here we are, taking a chance for us for once.

Jay and I out on the bluffs. I havent smiled like that in years! Also, ignore the white streaks in my hair.

I also picked up snowboarding, and ATVing. Which are both as dangerous and crazy as they sound. I can't tell you how many weekends I've spend barreling down the aide of a mountain while cartwheeling, the affectionate term Jay uses for my wipe-outs, considering I tend to fall hand over heels the whole way down.

So with Washington, the first few soaps I made sort of resembled the new change in direction. First, I made a cherry blossom scented soap, with my usual recipe, using the Brambleberry FO (shipping is so much better when you live pretty darn close to it!)

These are EVERYWHERE here.This one is in my friend's yard.

I used the normal recipe with the FO, and then I did a mica oil swirl on top. Inside, I used charcoal for black and a red mica from The Conservatorie to really make it pop, and did a simple swirl inside.

Next, I main a soap using BB's Rain type FO. Appropriate, for the mists that seem to plague WA weather.

This one I did TD on the bottom and a blue swirl on top, also with mica oil swirls. I got on a kick, what can I say?

I also made a Lavender Chamomile Huggies type, which I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE.

It was lightened using TD, mica oil swirl on top of purple, with little sugar pearls on top as well. I learned not to CPOP those like I usually do though -- sugar pearls turn into black blobs when baked. :(

I appreciate all of you for following my blog and being interested in where this crazy journey takes me. My next soaps are going to be an Amber soap, a new Lavender, and Warm Vanilla Sugar! Stay tuned~

Soapy Swap Update #2!

I was excited to find a package slip in my post office box this afternoon, as it meant the rest of my soapy swap soaps had arrived! As you guys know (if you're been reading), I participated in both the melt and pour AND the cold process swaps, as it was my first one, and I wanted to have a large sampling of other soaper's work to examine and analyze and pour over and sniff and USE. Because it's what I do! Yaay, OCD.

So, without further ado, the soaps!

I got a soap from QUEBEC. How cool is that!? Unfortunately, I don't speak French. :( I DO know that the name translates to The Daughter of the Sea (Yay Google!). First off, this soap is incredibly adorable! It's a very crisp rosy scent, though I don't think the fragrance is mentioned. The name of the soap is Apple and Pink, and it's made using Magdalen Island's Honey, which I've never heard of before. This bar is very sturdy, and I adore the mica swirls on top! And the little rose :O

Next up is Fresh Linen & Lavender from Joyful Sundries!  I love the simplicity of this packaging. The ribbon of cloth makes a lovely subdued compliment to the naturally colored soap. The top has hints of lavender blossoms, and the scent is definitely a keeper.

Cinnamon Ridge Fragrance Company used Cranberry Pomegranate -- which is also another favorite of mine. I used to use little car fresheners that smelled like this soap does! It's interesting to see the soaps packaged in muslin bags -- I'd never considered that one before! Maybe a packaging switch is in store in my future... 

Oh man. I could eat this. Seriously. It isn't an overpowering fragrance. They used Dark Chocolate and Cream Cheese Frosting FO, and oh my god, I think I may have found an artificial chocolate scent I enjoy. It's also naturally colored with cocoa powder, and I love that I got a round soap! I've been wanting to make some for a while, but I have no containers, except for a grits one I've been saving -- though that would make a sizeable circle. Okay, before I eat this one, I need to stop sniffing it. Or maybe just one more little one...mmmm.

And from Bubblin' Glenn, we have their Lounge Lizard soap! Love the swirls with this one -- their activated charcoal black is SO INCREDIBLY BLACK. I wonder how much they used! I need my blacks to be that dark. And stiking the label TO the soap! Very nifty idea, and probably saves a lot of time. Not sure about the scent on this one; it's musky and lightly minty, but it wasn't included in the description. :(

I've never smelled Tea Tree oil before. Cue my surprise when I took a decidedly strong sniff of this one out of the bag. COUGH. Yeah, lesson learned. :) Raven and Rain Soap Co send their Rosemary Tea Tree Oil Shampoo bars, which is EXCITING because I want to try shampoo bars but havent because I'm chicken and my scalp can decide to be -quite- flaky. So I'm very terrified to try anything that isn't Head and Shoulders or Pert Plus (do they even make this one anymore? I remember my grandad using it). Not sure if tea tree oil would do the trick for me with that one though...I do need to invest in tea tree oil, however. ITS SO DANG EXPENSIVE. It makes my soapy-trickle funds sad.

I LOVE THIS SOAP. It literally smells like I just popped open a Ginger Ale. I can't even process this! Oy! And I obviously cannot drink this one. :( Sad Ashley is sad. This soap is lovingly brought to you by Pine Place Market Soaps, and I have now decided that I need Ginger Ale Fragrance Oil IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. Love the sparklies on the white embeds, too.

Maitri Bath and Body LLC gave their Beau Brummel soap, scented with "a heady tobacco fragrance." Not sure if that includes marijuana, but it sounds like it. :) And this one is a Goats milk soap! Awesome! I have something to compare my goat's milk soap to. Which I'll post cut pictures of later by the way. ;)

COFFEE BEANS. I smelled them INSTANTLY. Yum! This soap is from Rustic Relevance.  While I'm not a huge fan of leather fragrance oils (yuck) I DO think that the natural coffee bean aroma compliments it nicely. Smells like my great grandfather, who loved his old leather jacket and always had that coffee-tobacco smell about him. :) Love the very low-key packaging to it. I LOVE KRAFT COLORS. There, I said it. I can be admitted now.

Mud Creek Alchemy scented their soap with Spiced Mahogany -- which smells incredibly enticing and masculine and yum. I might have to see if one of the boys wants this soap. And it's HOT PROCESS! So happy to have gotten one of these. I started with hot processed soaps myself, but they seemed so squishy. This one does have sodium lactate in it, though -- I also have to invest in that stuff, too! I'm too impatient to wait 3-4 days to unmold my soap, so I'm usually stuck cutting it out of my HDPE molds after 24 hours.

Ida Rose's soap is scented a very light Spearmint Eucalyptus. It comes off very clean, and not heavily minty.  Also enjoy the textured tops on this one, very nice and simple. 

Lavender Chamomile! Yay! I loved this Huggies scent (we use wipes to clean up the kitties sometimes) and I absolutely ADORE this packaging! Too time consuming for me personally, but very lovely. This one is made by Susan's Handmade Soap. Love the fact that the soap bar is kept simple as well, with a nicely textured top.

SO, those are my CP soaps for the CP part of my BB soap swap! So many repetitive letters, haha. :)

Thank you all for listening to my crazy ramblings, and as always, happy soaping!

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?

Soap gremlins and Mica swirls

So I wanted to try the peacock/bouquet swirl, and the above photo is the soap I got instead.

"But it isn't even close!"

No, I know. Because soap gremlins.

I HATE soap gremlins.

Granted, I was using a fragrance oil I knew accelerated, I just forgot HOW FAST. Tried adding more water, nope. Got stuck in my soap condiment bottles. Ohmygod. Dumped bottles out into soap, layered, hoped for best.

Instead, I got CRAYOLA BARF. Oy.

So I rebatched, sliced the soap up nice and thin, put it in a crock pot (it was still soft and squishy after 3 days from all the water I added) for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Plopped into mold. Still smelled of Freesia, silly white florals, and had a lovely lavender color to it:

Brushed the top with some oil-mica and glitter.

Decided to try a heavy olive oil recipe with my other planned batches for the day, to slow things down a bit. Soaped a green tea and willow silk/shea soap with french green clay, wanting to try the oil/mica swirl again. I was impressed! Soaped well, smelled beautiful, and look at the SWIRL!

This is after drying a bit. Yay!

Wanting to take the opportunity to use the gremlin-free soap time, I started on another. Purple sandalwood, colored with a purple mica and activated charcoal. Smelled yummy and odd, musky. This is BEYOND my favorite mica swirl to date:

SO PRETTY. <3 Finally, after all those tries, I got it. Took me long enough, LOL. Can;t wait to see the inner swirls with the green tea and sandalwood soaps. Exciting! I'll just have to wait longer to unmold due to extra olive oil. Here's another pic of the lovely purple swirls!

So happy with my soap results today. The gremlins were beating me down for a while.

And here's the paradise soap cut!

Love the hanger swirl, just wish the colors had come out brighter. I'll get usage rates down soon! The green and purple seemed to do fine, so we'll see. :)

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY SOAPING!

Mica Oil Swirl Experimentation

Ever since seeing everyone's lovely soaps for Amy's Great Soap Challenge 2013, I loved the mica oil swirl the most. I recently ordered new micas from The Conservatorie, and I was ready to try them out!

First off, they all blended beautifully into my sweet almond carrier oil. And I love the shimmer they have! Gorgeous. As an over achiever, I wanted to do a four-layered soap using a hanger swirl, with the mica swirled top -- repeating all four colors. I'll tell you now, lesson learned.

I scented the soap with a blend of 2 parts Almost Paradise (RusticEscentuals) to one part Just Peachy (also RE). I was keeping my fingers crossed for NO SOAPY GREMLINS.

Well. So much for that.

The soap base accelerated really fast with NO FO. Oy. It was my first time using tussah silk in my lye, however. I hope that doesnt become a common thing. I seperated my FO blend into four parts, splitting them into the colors, just in case of acceleration.

Good thing I did. I layered green, blue, orange, and then yellow -- by the time yellow was layered, it was THICK. Ugh. I grabbed my hanger, swirled really fast and swirly, then plopped droplets of the mica-oil mixtures on top. Swirl away!

 

Even with the thick batter, it didnt seem so bad for a first try/ The orange and yellow blended into the top layer anyway, and the blue is showing nicely. The green was a tad light, I think I might have been stingy with my mica, but overall I like it. I think I'll call it Summer Paradise.

Layering wise, I was thinking ground, ocean, and then a sunset-ish picture. I'm quite happy with it in the mold, I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to unmold my beauty to see if I REALLY like it.

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY SOAPING!