Soapy Swap Update!

As most of you know, I participated in this past Bramble Berry soapy swap, with both Melt and Pour soaps AND CP soaps! I still had some of my soap base lying around, and figured I may as well give it a hot!

I just received my M&P soapy package today, so here are the soaps I got!

All fragrances are from Bramble Berry's line.

All of these scents are wonderful, so I'll just go through the list!

This soap is from Mommy You Soap It! And is a Grapefruit Lily scented soap. It's a nice soft peach color fading into a soft cucumber green, and smells like a soft, sweet floral. The packaging is also super cute!

This soap is CRAZY AMAZING! It's from Wizard At Work from Etsy, and is scented apricot freesia. It's also a sweeter scent, and normally freesia is overwhelming on it's own, but I really adore this one. AND THE LAYERS. So impressed.

This one comes from Naturella Chandelle & Savons, scented with money Love. Hints of banana and coconut are present in this one, a nice sweet fruity scent. 

Oklahoma Red Dirt Soap from Okie Crowe! First off, this is some LOVELY packaging! It's got a layer of newspaper underneath the label to help hide some of the shrinkwrapped back, and I adore this concept because of recycling products! It also has the cutest red metallic "made in Oklahoma!" sticker on the top.This is scented with BB's Amber fragrance; which if you havent smelled it, it's a wonderfully spicy-yet-musky scent. This is definitely in the top of my favorite's list!

Next is The Mu from knittysnaps, scented with chocolate espresso. Which means it's an auto-fave, as I LOVE coffee scents. It's chocolatey-sweet with just a hint of coffee, very alluring.

And Me'Shea's Goat's Milk MP Soap, scented Peach Champagne. I LOVE THIS SCENT. Oh jeezus. It's sweet but not overly so, and kind of just smells "clean." But still sweet. And the top of this soap is super interesting, it's very soft anf fluffy -- I'm guessing it's "whipped," which works well with a peach champagne design!

This one is from Marilyn Payne Designs, and is (obviously) cherry almond scented. I love the lollipop theme for this one, as it's not so much almond as it is cherry. Smells like a cherry tootsie pop, minus the chocolate undertones. But it isn't an overpowering cherry! Some of them make me feel slightly sick if sniffed directly from the bottle, even though cherry is my favorite.Love the rainbow swirls!

And from Sudsie Q Soaps, we have White Tea & Ginger! First off, I really enjoy the white tea fragrances, they always smell so simple and clean, very nice without overpowering. The ginger adds a nice spicy note to it, and I love her color choices! The label is super cute, too, it wraps around the tops much like Anne-Maries do in her soap labeling tutorial. I want labels like these! <3

The next one is a very interesting blend from Once In A Blue Moon Soap and Bath. Not sure what the title of this soap is, but it's scented with rosehip jasmine -- which throws a curveball for it's sweet appearance. It's decked with cupcake imbeds and chocolate morsel embeds, 

It's a very floral scent with very sweet designs, lol!

Take a look at THIS! I LOVE the way Rosemary molded this soap, appropriately scented Fresh Bamboo. Her bamboo design is colored white, and the rest of the soap is a nice, soft green. The scent is lovely, too, and in the package are two really adorable, thin soaps. When we get our house, I know what's going in our guest bathroom to impress people!

I almost forgot one!

This Energy-scented soap comes from Key-Tones Soaps,  and is a lovely molded design accented by gold soapy paint! LOVE this scent, it's a nice sweet citrus!

And last but not least, the most epic soap:

IT'S THE DEATH STAR! This soap made me incredibly happy, as my household LOVES Star Wars. <3 The scent isnt named, but it smells like a deliciously spicy lavender, and is a nice, dark purple color with lavender buds embedded inside. This comes to me from Elly Ice at Frozen Water Designs, who gets total props in making a Death Star soap! <3

Thanks to everyone who created these beautiful, amazing, gorgeous soaps! I can;t wait to see what my CP package holds!

Until next time, happy soaping! :D

Peacocks and Coffee

So today I finally got around to making some soap!

Ten pounds worth, to be exact. I even took some pictures of the "during" to share with you guys. :)

First off, I wanted to make a odor-neutralizer soap for the kitchen sink, inspired by the gardener's soap from Soap Queen. In several books I've read about CP soapmaking, it's suggested to completely replace the water in the lye solution with double- or triple-brewed coffee. Utilizing this technique, while adding the used coffee grounds, I attempt making a kitchen soap. :)

I thought it was cute that my little ball of tussah silk perched on top of my triple-brewed (chilled) coffee. It goes into every batch, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Pouring my (now steaming) coffee-lye mix into my oils to melt them. Room temperature soapmaking is the only way I go, just because I'm too impatient to wait for temps to stabilize.

Mostly melted, only slowly stirring with a spatula. Went ahead and added coffee grounds before stick blending, to make sure it was only a nice exfoliation that was added.

Blending! Random blue tint.

You can barely, BARELY see trace here. Time to pour!

This is after letting it sit several minutes. I wanted a textured top, but my original batter was too thin. I waited, and finally sprinkled fresh coffee grounds over the top of the soap for smell and texture. The soap is scented very lightly with RE's Morning Blend fragrance, a nice, slightly sweet coffee scent. I took a spoon and folded the coffee grounds into the soap batter to make sure they stick, and to add that lovely swirly texture. :)

Onto soap number two!

I've been wanting to do a peacock/boquet style swirl for ages. I tried once, except the scent was a floral and it accelerated way too fast, so I just dumped everything together. My second attempt had the base soap accelerate as well, though my stripes were unscented. It didnt come out as nice as I'd hoped.

I guess third time is the trick, because I certainly succeeded with this one..

Before the bouquet/feather grouping. :) I scented this one using lavender, peppermint, and eucalyptus EO (smart move, they move slower) aaaand a hint of musk. :)

I only scented the base soap again, which is a spatula-swirl style with the blue, green, and purple. Colors from the Conservatorie.

And then the dividers!

I can't wait to unmold these! :)

So, is there any technique you tried and tried at again, or one that was difficult to master?

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!

Let's get down to business...

...and make some soap!

Thursday I lost my day job -- don't worry, the reasons were silly, the company is intensely conservative, and I'm glad to be rid of them. I just need to find somewhere else to do my business. Better news is, however, that I have more time to make soap!

Exciting!

I got my molds in from MRDORIGHT on Etsy, and I was excited to try them out. Today was my "catch up on soap dishes/soap until I drop" day, which included me washing my soap dishes four or five times today, because after I finished one batch -- it became time for the next!

This was my first batch, done using MRDORIGHT's 18-bar slab mold. I'm so happy with this purchase! Everything was easy to put together, and the bars look lovely already. Can't unmold until tomorrow, but dang it -- they're gorgeous. This one I'm going to call "Energize" -- scented with a delicious blend of Yuzu and Lemon verbena, it's strikingly citrus.

Here's a better image of the swirl pattern from above. Fizzy Lemonade and Tangerine Wow from BrambleBerry, done in a simple spider web swirl.

The second batch was a slight bit more of a nightmare.

I wanted to use Whisper, a scent I found at Rustic Escentuals that smelled amazing -- I'm guessing it was a heavy white floral scent, because this was the FASTEST acceleration I've had to deal with yet! It was scary -- hardening in the pot and everything! OY!

I'm terrified with how this will turn out. The base layer is white, with a purple top, and I *attempted* a hangar swirl, though it was so thick I probably just made rivets in my soap. :( This one may just end up on my clearance rack..

It smells wonderful though, even now. The apartment smells of citrusy florals. Weird.

Batch number three!

I'm very impressed with this one. The base is white for this also, but it's layered. The top is a nice light pink -- I used purple labcolor, though it changed in the pot. Fine with me, as the lavender I scented with this suits the nice pink top, and I like the contrast of the shade with the lavender buds that are a striking purple. <3 Lavender buds were also mixed into the soap mix, for a nice little surprise.

My second attempt at a man-bar. Batch 4!

Scented with Eucalyptus blend (which smells very, VERY MAN. Mmmm.), this is a grey based soap, simple, topped with whisk swirls and black glitter. Just for shoots and giggles -- because what man DOESN'T need glitter? :D

The total weight for all of this soap is around 16lbs! Whew! I basically soaped until my palm oil was so low I couldn't make another batch. Which means ordering, and waiting, and ew. My coconut oil is low too, so it looks like I'll be hitting up the Chemistry Store soon. Oy.

All in all, 3 out of 4 of the batches were fine. The last grey batch had a slight acceleration, but nowhere near the Whisper. Needless to say, I think I'll save whisper for a future uncolored soap, or just add fragrance last, after coloring. Definitely not a swirler.

Thanks for reading, guys, and HAPPY SOAPING! I'll update with cut pics of these later. <3

Galactic Soap - First CPOP

After seeing Anne Marie's post on CPOP on her Soap Queen blog, I wanted to try it. Beautiful CP swirls but with the HP processing -- what more can a girl ask for? Especially one as impatient as I am! Before I started, I noticed my oven's lowest setting was 200F, quite a bit over the 170F that was recommended. I preheated the oven to 200, but let it sit a while off, so it cooled down. Once it was around 170-180F, I knocked it to warm. One step down!

I made up my soap, choosing to use activated charcoal, titanium dioxide, and fizzy lemonade pigments from Bramble Berry. I also wanted to try a spooning technique I saw on a blog post, though now it eludes me. :( (If anyone knows what I'm referencing, let me know and I'll give credit!)

Layering the first bit of soap. I gues the concept here is plopping it down in somewhat straight lines. Or drizzling.

Looking at the pictures, I realize I got much wider in my lines. Which explains why this didnt turn out the way I wanted it to. :(

Cant have swirled CP soap without a lovely swirled top! Kept this one simple, as I love the mantra-style swirls.

In the oven!

I left the mold and soap in there overnight, popping it out around lunchtime the next day. The colors were SO VIBRANT, especially the fizzy lemonade. It just POPPED.

However, I didnt turn off my oven for about an hour and a half, causing the top to get these little bubbles in them. It made a weird texture, but I ended up leaving it on the bars. Apparently, this happens when you bake your soap! Oops! :)

Here you can see the textured tops. Look how bright the yellow is! Wow!

I packaged this bar very simply, and I'm calling it Galactic. It's scented with SnC Cucumber Melon, but it faded/baked off a bit in the oven, so it isnt as strong. Other people don't notice, but soapmakers might. We're an odd bunch. ;)

As always, thanks for dropping by, and Happy Soaping!

Shopping, new soap supplies, and LYE.

With tax refund money in-hand (sort of. Close enough. You get what I mean!), I was able to do some heavy soap-shopping, which is very exciting (after some bills and groceries and ((UGH)) ordering new parts for my gaming rig. Ew.). Here's what I'm getting, hopefully very soon!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/82736171/56-lb-hdpe-no-liner-soap-mold-molds-and?ref=shop_home_active

This is my first purchase from Mrdoright, and hopefully (although I've noticed people either LOVE these or HATE these, with no middle ground) they will work for making several large batches at the same time. I'll hopefully be setting up a wholesale client account with a lady around 45 minutes away from me, but still -- very cool!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/95725742/soap-mold-lye-glycerine-based-no-liner?ref=v1_other_1

This is the other item I got from Mrdoright, so I can make beautiful column and peacock swirls in something bigger than a 9x9 silicone brownie pan. I love my brownie pan, so don't get me wrong, but it's become my "test batch" pan.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Z9LUDG/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I really want to start shrinkwrapping my soaps, since it's easier than putting them in a cello bag, trimming the bag, and then taping it all shut gift-style. OY! So time consuming. And thanks to Soap Queen's tutorial on wrapping soaps with plastic wrap, this should do the job nicely!

http://theconservatorie.com/

I also ordered several micas from The Conservatorie, very excited! They're some of the pigments that Kenna uses over at Amathia Soapworks. I've been very jealous of her lovely, shimmery, and very very VIBRANT colors, so I had to order some to try for myself!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EDBEZM/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

QUICK! For other soapmakers reading this, Essential Depot has their lye on special for 1.99/2lb container, plus 9.96 shipping. This is the cheapest lye option I've found, so I ordered 5 of them (since you get an extra 5$ off -- and 10 lbs goes a looong way!)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ARQVM5O/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This came in just yesterday, YAY! I had been using a cheapo all-plastic stick blender, and though it worked well, cleanup was annoying. There was always dry soap somewhere in a nook or cranny. I'm excited to be able to detach this one.

I was also able to go ahead and by my Magic Swap Express items for both my CP and M&P soap swap! I will be shipping all 24 of my made bars out early next week! <3

More soaping may happen tonight in my 5lb wood mold and my 4lb vertical mold, we'll just have to see.

Have a lovely evening, fellow soapers, and HAPPY SOAPING!