Soapy Sunday

I've been up since 6 am this morning and it's now 20 to 6 in the evening.  I've been soaping all day, 12 hours! But what a work day. I had mixed up a batch for this morning of tea tree oil soap as I have a customer waiting for it.  Then I brewed up some ginger chai tea from my favourite steeped tea lady Julie.  She had sent me a link to a girl who makes tea soaps and so got me on the journey to make some.  

Brewed the tea and went through my fragrances and found a honeydew ginger that I thought would go nicely with the theme.  I just received an order of micas from TKB Trading and one of the colours I got was China Jade. Beautiful mica with gold shimmer and true Jade green! 

Love the colour.  I've heard so many soapers rant about their micas and pigments and now I know why! 

I did this soap in three layers here's the first.  When I mixed the brewed tea with the lye it turned this beautiful caramel colour.  After I poured it I sprinkled freshly ground chai tea leaves on the top.  Second layer: 

Poured the China Jade coloured soap onto the first tea layer. Third layer:

I am anxiously waiting for my piping set from Nuture's Soap and Royalty Soaps as I've been so vamped up about piping.  Today I took the rest of the China Jade and put it in a ziplock and should have waited because soap was still soft but whatever piped it on.  Fun I can't wait to get the set ! After piping I sprinkled on more full tea leaves and iridescent glitter am  happy with the result.

I can't wait  to cut it tomorrow ! 

 My next soap in the Steeped Tea Series today was Tonia's Pumpkin Matcha.  I mixed my oils and added two teaspoons of matcha to them. I'm using a new recipe that I just love olive, coconut, palm, sweet almond oil, avocado. I've been collecting rain water too this summer and it makes a softer soap then distilled.  I've got more outside and will freeze it over the winter. But now back to soap. 

I had enough Pumkin fragrance for this batch. 

You can see how green the matcha is in the bowl. 

I used the left over ginger chai tea and rainwater and when I added it to the matcha oils it turned the perfect pumpkin colour! I was worried up to this point because I didn't want the soap to be green.  Perfect ! I had two old pumpkin soaps left over from last year and thought I'm going to cut them up and throw them in like confetti. They were still good soaps but now are rejuvenated.  Soap never goes bad really and these still had the pumpkin scent in them.  

FUN! 

Poured it into the mold and sprinkled on top some  pumpkin spice and a tad of allspice to finish it up! I can't wait to cut this one tomorrow.  It really smells like pumpkin pie! 

Lastly.  I just sold a full batch of tea tree soap and had an order for two bars so I made that again too.  This was done in 14 hours and was perfect when I took it out of the mold.  The batch makes 6 soaps. Two are gone already leaving me four but that's good for now. I love this bar it's so fresh and pure. Same recipe as above. If you are interested in getting the formulas from me I'd be happy to indulge that info but really if you are wanting to make soap there's secrets that we like to keep.  It experimental for each of us.  Research, watch YouTube, have fun with it. Thanks for continuing to stop by my soap kitchen come back  soon!!! 

 

The Egyptian Bar and L'il Country Pure

With my daughter and boyfriend in town from Calgary I had ten busy days with them but managed to sneak in a few soaps.  I ran out of the Black Bar as everyone calls it.  So I made up a batch of that. It's still one of my best selling bars of soap.  With activated charcoal, bentonite clay added to it this one deep cleanses your skin.  Skin detoxing.  This one rids your skin deep inside your pores removing dirt and oils leaving your skin soft and nourished.  Great for acne, psoriasis, skin rash, $8.50 a bar.

Added black iron oxide to really make it black! Unscented pure soap. My friend and client from L'il Country Hairstyling in Kaministiqua, has one busy shop.  Situated in the rural area of Thunder Bay, she does very well.  She has soap customers now too who request plain unscented soaps and so she and I came up with this beautiful pure white soap. 

I call it L'il Country Pure.  Made with coconut milk, olive, palm, castor, shea butter, it's a luxurious silky bar.  She buys them all.

 

 Autumn Leaves.  With fall fast upon us I came up with this fall Camoflauge themed soap.  Fragranced with sweet taffy.  Aroma of caramel, vanilla, maple sugar it's a sweet tangy warm scented soap.  I love the colours! So there we have it.  There's always time to make soap.  There's more coming too! Today I'm making Tea Tree Soap again.  I sold the last bars to a customer.  She bought the whole batch.  I love this bar and will continue to keep this one in stock.   Please come back to visit soon.  With soapy love, we shall see you soon! Bye now 

Tea Tree Antiseptic Bars

I had a client ask me if I made tea tree soap.  I said yes I do.  She placed an order for 6 of them.  She also asked if I made soap with sweet almond oil. I said, yes I can.  Then I researched and found a perfect conditioning, antiseptic recipe that contained both ingredients.  Both requests in one bar, how perfect!  This is a fantastic recipe too!  I researched tea tree oils and found it comes native to Australia and New Zealand in a shrub called Melaleuca Alternifolia.  The oils are extracted from the leaves of the plant.  Turns out that tea tree oil is antibacterial, anti fungal, antiseptic and has been used over 100 years for it's medicinal properties. Great for acne, skin itch, psoriasis, insect bites and stings.  Its also known to help in the head lice department.  Common problem this time of year with the start of school. It's very strong in scent and smells medicinal.  Either you love it or you you don't.  I love it. 

Recipe: olive, avocado, coconut, palm, tea tree oil, distill water, sodium hydroxide. I added just a dollop of lime green gel colour and it mixed perfectly.  Use soap calc if your going to attempt making it.  I ended up with another order after making these.  Looks like this one will be a regular stock item from now on. 

Love the lime yellow colour 

Beautiful result. Thanks for reading see you soon!!! 

Coconut Soap

I had a request from a client to make 100 percent coconut soaps.  I have been hesitant as coconut can be drying to your skin. So I've read. But watching YouTube and other soapers I learned that if you superfat it by 20% it turns out to be a silky shampoo body bar.  They say lotion bar but after making them they are hard like a rock. I had such a response I got tons of orders.  So thank you Cheryl! My first batch I only made a small one as I wanted to trial run it. Here's the results 

I used a silicone mold "butterflies" (I found this at the superstore, great find!) these bars set so fast I'm glad I did it this way so there's no cutting involved. And.,,,,gorgeous 

I used 10 ounces coconut oil to make these four, distill water, sodium hydroxide, 1/2 tsp coconut milk powder. Use soapcalc to get your measurements.  It's the only calc I use. Thanks for stopping in and happy soaping! I'm selling these at $4.50 cdn. 

Black Eyed Susan

Black

Eye Susan's grow wild in the Thunder Bay Area.  When I was born I apparently had dark black eyes and my father nicknamed me Black Eyed Susan.  My eyes are just dark brown now.  After seeing these flowers over the last few weeks in full bloom it was my inspiration for soap. I thought about how I was going to make it and here are my results. 

The base is the plain white soap with green lab colour swirled in to represent the stems and petals. 

On top of the base I poured a layer of canary yellow gel coloured soap and added brown oxide coloured soap on top and swirled it in to represent the brown eye. 

A full layer of yellow with a bit of green swirled in to represent the petals again and leaves.  The brown eye in the centre. 

I had left over green so I poured that on top of the eye and spooned the rest of the brown on top.  I swirled it into the green and to me it represents the forest background. This soap is fragranced with Mystic Orange Moinshine fragrance from Natures Garden supply,  it worked well in this soap leaving lots of time to work. V

This fragrance is a dark citrus blend,  it's not strong or overpowering.  It is mystic and I can't wait to cut this one up. 

Thanks for reading and come back for the results! 

Happy long labour day weekend! Savour all Gods creations, stop and smell the flowers, take time in your life to enjoy the beauty of life and the all things that God has given us to enjoy.  Till next time bless you all for following me. Bye !!!