I Heart Soap

Last night I got two more batches done: Chai Tea and Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey.  Both smell SOOOOOO good!  I find that when I am using fragrance oils that discolor I just leave them pretty plain so that the discoloration decorates the soap more naturally.  Here they are:
I sprinkled just a bit of chai tea on the soap to keep up with the rustic look that HP gives you.
This one has loofa embedded into the soap and just a bit of oatmeal again for a more rustic look.  I can’t wait for the discolor to come through.  It’s almost like magic every time it happens.

This and That

Every Sunday I go out and sell my soaps and such at a Farmer’s Market.  This is my first year doing so and I can say I have learned a lot.  For example, I need to have far more stock before the season starts.  Right now I am making soap every couple of weeks or so to keep up.  Because of this my CP soap making has been put on hold because I don’t have time.  I have been trying out a few bases from Bramble Berry.  I recently got LCP base.  I have heard that this one can be slightly drying than the others so I have tried out a few new additives such as coconut oil, avocado oil, palm oil, and honey.  So far I like the experimentation.  Here’s a few pics of my table at the Farmer’s Market and my newest creations:

Passionfruit Rose Guest Soap
Pineapple Cilantro Guest Soap
Oatmeal and Honey (Unscented)
Gardners Soap (Tea Tree, Lavender, Peppermint)
Lavender Love

I want to get back into making more CP soap but I think that is going to have to wait until I have a bit more time and it’s a tich cooler since we really don’t have any a/c.

3 more

I have been a soaping machine lately, and by lately I mean yesterday and today.  You all saw what I made yesterday and now I get to share my latest 3 batches I just made this morning.  Here they are:

This one is Chamomile Lavender (Huggie’s type) in my silicone flower mold.  Smells great!

This one is Caramel Chocolate Espresso.  The soap balls are scented with Caramel Sundae and the rest is Chocolate Espresso with coffee grounds for exfoliation.  This one should discolor.

This one is Carrot Cupcake that I attempted to do an in the pot swirl with.  It also decided to gel on me (oh well).  Smells great though and I can’t wait to see what this one looks like when it cures.

So there you have it.  5 batches in under 24 hours (love!).  I may make a few batches tomorrow depending on when we get home.  I am now off to my parent’s house for a BBQ.  Num!

Soapy Saturday

Got my supplies all out and ready

Got my colors all mixed in some glycerin

I made a 4 lb batch of soap that I split into 2 batches.

This one is Plain Jane.  Unscented and not colored

This is the one I used all the colors on.  This one is also scented with a blend of Sweet Meyer Lemon Fo, Moroccan Mint FO, and Cedarwood EO.

Busy Girl

I have been a busy girl who has been hording all her pictures on her camera.  I recently have been working more on holistic care type things.  For example I am into herbal infusions (great way to get your vitamins and minerals), making my own tinctures (I have Echinacea brewing now), my own salves and infused oils, and my own medicines like cough syrup.  I love it.  I think I may find myself getting my masters (not like a 2 year masters) in Herbalism.  I can see the benefit for myself and my family but also when I use oils and herbs in soap.  Anyways.  My last post I talked about 3 soaps I had made: caramel sundae, Italian Olivo, and Mandarin Myrrh.  Here’s the freshly cut and out of the mold photos:

Caramel Sundae (look at all that ash!)

Mandarin Myrrh (I added a bit of Coral Mica to half of each bar)

Italian Olive (Capri Olivo and Basil, Sage and Mint Blend)

Here’s what the bars look like now that they’ve had some curing time:

Caramel Sundae

Mandarin Myrrh

Italian Olivo

I love all three of them but I think I really love Mandarin Myrrh (it’s from Bramble Berry in case you would like some too!)  All of them have no zap (yay!) and are discoloring beautifully.  Here’s a few pictures of my infusing oils and my tincture:

Aren’t they beautiful!

Echinacea Tincture (Started on 5-14-11 will be ready on 6-26-11)

Anyways on my plate today is some natural cough medicine and maybe a few more batches of soap.  Have a wonderful Sunday!

Soapy Sunday

Yesterday was a soap day for me.  I had a few ideas going through my head and some new scents I wanted to try out.  I decided to make 3 batches.

1 batch was a 2 lbs loaf with a blend of Capri Olive and Basil, Sage, and Mint.  I added tomato powder to this one as well as some soap balls I made from some of the extras of an older batch.  So far it’s still too soft in the mold to try and get out so I have it sitting on the curing rack for a few days and then we will try again.  This batch had lard, coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil.  I am finding more and more that I really like lard soap.  I cannot wait to cut this batch and see how it looks.  For some reason it turned out much lighter than my other batches (I only had dk olive oil on hand).

The second and third batches I used one of my favorite molds.  I really need to get more of these.  I love that I don’t have to worry about cutting these.  They are already a perfect size.  I made a 2 lbs batch of coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil soap and split it into 2 batches.  The first batch I used Mandarin and Myrrh FO which will discolor to a light tan.  I added a bit of coral mica to 1/2 of this batch in hopes that when it discolors that 1/2 will look slightly different.  We’ll see how that works.  It smells wonderful and right now I get a lot of the citrus notes.  I cannot wait to try this one out after curing!  The other batch I didn’t color because I used Caramel Sundae FO which will discolor to a dark brown.  I love naturally colored soaps due to the FOs.  This one smells just like Caramel too!  For some reason it made more bars than the other batch (even though I weighed it out) but oh well.  🙂

I still have some oils left and lard so I am thinking I might be able to get one more 2 lbs batch in possibly tonight maybe tomorrow.  I have this Carrot Cupcake FO from Nature’s Garden that I want to try out.  It was one of my best sellers in my MP soaps and I would love to see how it behaves in CP.   I also tried to get some more stuff together for a small little craft show I am doing on Saturday at the local elementary school.   So what have you all been up to this past weekend?

New Items on Etsy

I posted 3 new linen/room sprays on my etsy store today.  The great thing about these sprays is that they are also body safe.  You could, if you wanted to, use them as body spray.  They would make a great addition to any Mother’s Day gift!  Check them out for more information! 🙂

100th Fan Giveaway!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  WE’LL DO ANOTHER GIVEAWAY SOON!

I’ve been a very busy little crafter lately.  I have been getting my Bramble Berry soap swap ready and sent off, then I made 25 samples for the June Out Of The Box Sampler (you can find them on etsy), then I sponsored 2 soaps for a 3000 fan giveaway. whew!

But what makes me the happiest is all the people who are interested in my crafts.  It really makes a girl feel good.  I have officially over 100 fans at my facebook page (facebook.com/soapyjoes115).  So let’s have a giveaway kids!  You could be the lucky winner of this:

This is over 11 oz of sugar scrub cubes in a variety of floral scents.  Take one or two in the shower with you, get them wet, smoosh them in your hand and use them to slough off any dead skin.  This bag is unmarked but is made with a clear mp base (from brambleberry.com), white sugar, grapeseed oil, fragrance oil, and various colorants.  So how do you win.  Go to my etsy page: www.etsy.com/shop/soapyjoes look around click on some of my items, check them out, then come back here and tell me what you would get if you had $15.00 to spend.  I will pick a random winner on Wednesday at 9pm (central time) and will post it here.

EDIT: If the soapyjoes facebook page gets 200 fans by Wednesday at 9pm Central Time I will draw two names.  The first name will win the sugar scrub cubes and the second name will win a super secret gift from me 🙂 

Good Luck!

What did the soap gods decide?

They decided that they would save me and form an awesome looking bar of soap.  Now of course it has to cure and then we can try it out and see how it really did but so far I am in love.  Here is the progression this poor little soap had to take:

I literally glopped the soap into the mold and smooshed some older MP pieces I had.  I used plastic wrap to help smoosh it all down.  Then I just let it go.

It got very hot and started to go through gel phase.  The MP started to melt and mix together.  I started to get excited to see what it would turn out like in 24 hours.

Another shot of gel phase.  I just let this thing sit on the dinner table unwrapped but with some plastic wrap on top because I find that if I don’t I tend to get ash.

So when I got home today I got the soap out of the mold and started to cut it and this is what I found!

I love it!  I hope it turns out after cure.   I think it is so pretty.  The floral smells nice and spring like.  I love happy accidents!

Appeasing the Soap Gods

Soap making really is an experiment.  Especially when you try a new recipe with an untested fragrance oil.  Tonight I decided to give lard soap a try.  Lard is supposed to be very moisturizing and skin loving.  I combined the lard with coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil.  Everything was going great.  I could see the beginnings of trace forming and then I decided to add the FO.  Now my original plan was to divide the batch and try a swirl or layering method in a loaf mold.  Instead I was getting soap on a stick.  I do think I got the FO mixed in because I was able to blend it for about 1 to 2 min with my stick blender.  I glopped the whole thing into the loaf mold and decided to just go for it.  Sometimes you have to put faith in the soap gods and let what will happen, happen.  I added some MP pieces I had made a few weeks ago to the top.  This soap has heated so much that the MP is melting which is actually making the top look like stained glass.  Now the soap in question is going through gel phase.  I am going to let it sit in the mold for 24 hours and see what happens.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow so that you can see the changes this poor little batch is going through.  Who knows this may be a happy accident.  Or, it may be a disaster… soap making is an experiment after all!