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?

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!

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!

Cinnamon-Clove Textured Soap

I've really been wanting to experiment with textured tops and soap. I always see these amazingly detailed soaps, but I always pour at too thin a trace. Well, tonight while making soap I realized that my scent was accelerating very quickly, and hit a nice gloppy medium-heavy trace. Time for textures!

I wanted to swirl this one like I had swirled my charcoal detox bar, with a deep black against a nice dark red. Which is the other color, by the way. It's hard to tell in the picture. That brown is a grungy burgundy, promise!

I used Bramble Berry's Merlot mica, and activated charcoal (yay deep blacks and clear lather!) and layered the black colored soap int he bottom of my silicone pan. Next I zig-zagged the red in, and folded it into the black with my spatula. We'll see how well that works tomorrow when I cut the bars -- but man, once I took a wisk and detailed the top, it became so lovely. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

Here are some more:

Look at all that texture! <3

And it smells of delicious cinnamon-clove. Mmm. Maybe more of a fall scent, but I had a few customers specifically ask for bars like this. Yay!

Bramble Berry's M&P Soap Swap: Oatmeal Milk & Honey Cybilla

So I've been hankering some more soap making recently, and have been struggling to get up the urge to just DO IT. It finally happened today, as the stress of a failed motherboard in my gaming rig and my starter being shot in my car culminated into an "I NEED TO SOAP" distress. Soaping honestly gives me time to myself to really focus on something other than what's going on around me. It's an escape, and the only thing I'm thinking about is the soap. No kitties, no lovers, no car, job, home, etc. Just soap. measuring, calculating, taking notes about the process, what changes, what's different, what was successful, etc. I record these in my soap-book, where I keep ideas for soaps, recipes, and new scents I want to try cataloged.

With the Bramble Berry Soap Swap coming up, I knew I needed to get to work on my second batch for the M&P swap! I chose to do Oatmeal Milk & Honey Cybilla, since I had that one on-hand from the sample scents sent out with last month's order. I also LOVE how that kind of fragrance colors white M&P base.

For this one, I wanted to incorporate organic jojoba meal and dry oatmeal into the bars. I only had normal white glycerin base on hand, non-suspension formula, so I knew ahead of time this bar would end up "layered". With that fact in mind, I embarked on filling my molds!

I heated the soap base int he microwave, adding fragrance and the jojoba meal into the melted mix. After stirring for a while to make sure the meal was incorporated, I poured it into my acrylic log mold. 

IT SMELLED AMAZING.

Seriously, I've never smelled an oatmeal milk and honey fragrance I literally wanted to eat. Most of them seem to be too sweet smelling for my liking, and some even turn my stomach. But this one was so fresh and delicious, mmm.

Once it was in the mold, I spritzed it with alcohol, and then added a layer of oatmeal. I also sprayed this down with alcohol, causing some of it to sink down into the bottom of the loaf mold.

After waiting several hours, I popped it out of the mold and cut it! Yum!

The meal and oatmeal stayed ont he top or bottom of the bar, so I guess that means someone can decide whether or not they want exfoliation during their shower, LOL.