Happy Halloween

Why do we call it happy when it's filled with ghosts and goblins? Weird.  Tonight I handed out Halloween Favours small guest size licorice soap bars dressed up in pretty Halloween Lace tied  in a pretty bow.  Added a biz card with instructions to wash your sticky candy afterwards.  Into a ziplock bag tied in a bow so not to get mixed up with the children's edible candy.  Listed all the ingredients in case of allergies.  So much better then candy!! A great treat to hand out and free advertising! Take a look:  

If I were the parent on the receiving end I'd be excited to get one of these ! Be safe out there all and watch your driving, keep your eyes out for those little ones running around tonight! 

Thanks Bitstrips!  

Fun

Pringles Can Swirl Bubblegum

I pinned a slow to trace recipe on Pinterest and by slow to trace it didn't want to harden up it sat in the can for two days so I stuck it in the freezer overnight.  Took it out this morning and took the chance of taking it out.  I'm pretty happy with the fact I got it out now it's got to unfreeze and that will tell the story.  Swirled with blue, yellow, purple, gel colourants, and pink neon mica.  Looks pretty cool!

Love the bottom piece it's the eye! Next time I'll use a different receipe tho. Took too long. 

 

Snow Taffy

I was originally going to funnel pour this soap but as soon as the fragrance oil was added it seized.  In a rush I jammed packed it into the soap mold and worried about it all night.  It was a problem turn good! I thought I was going to have to rebatch it.  Not the case. With beet root powder it turned taffy colour and white td turned caramel "ish" perfect for the fragrance in it. The only thing was these bars were huge so I trimmed off the bottom and made guest/travel sized bars.  The wonky end fits the theme  big and bulky. Like a flowerette at the top.  The trimmings I squished into soap balls.  Love them. Olive, palm, shea, hemp, crisco n/palm, castor oil, distill water, sodium hydroxide. 

Pink Lavender Swirl

So pretty.  Lavender should be purple but client wanted pink.  These are all natural coconut milk. Shea butter, olive, coconut, palm. Lavender EO and buds.  White TD and neon pink colour mica

A Blurb about Soap

When I first started making soap back in 2010,  I was afraid of it.  I researched and read books and researched and read and bought books until I said ok..... I'm ready.  Lye scared me at first not anymore, as long as you wear long sleeves, your rubber gloves and your goggles.  You know when you have some on you it burns, it's happened to me so I learned to dress like a soaper.   Keep vinegar by your side as it will alleviate the burning if you even get a spec on your skin you will know.  By spritzing vinegar on the spot it aliviates the burn. Keep pets, food, and  children away from your workspace. The last thing you want is lye spilling or bring mistaken for drinking water.  You know kids they see they take they play.  So try to make soap in your own space with no interruptions.  Pour your lye in a ventilated area.  It doesn't smell that bad but ventilated area is best.   I pour in the back porch right by an open window and I leave it there to cool down.  You could put in your kitchen sink with window open, it's a good place to cool off your lye. As for oils I started with the basics olive, crisco, coconut and still utilize those in my soaps today.  They make a good soap foundation.  Use a soap calculator to get your measurements for your recipes.  I use soap calc, I think it's the easiest one to follow.  You can add your recipe of oils add your additives in the notes and calculate it all out and save and print.  I keep all my recipes in a binder, so I don't have to calculate them each time.  Or guess.   I look over Pinterest, Soap Queen, Teach Soap, Soaping 101, many more on You tube and learn as I watch and find inspiration then I conjure up my own to mimic what I have learned.  There are so many beautiful soaps and I have tried to achieve those looks and I will say it's not easy.  I'm still trying to perfect my soap everytime I make it and it seems to me that everyone has a different style of soapmanship. It's what makes soap unique.  I love cold process soap, I'm not a fan of melt and pour.  I like the organic side not the ready made easy way out.  I'll do melt and pour but only for specific details and for customer requests   I am happy with my results and calling it "My a Signature Style".  Here are some of my "rustic creations" 

Egyptian Nites Skin Repair, best seller! 

Caramel  Apple Cider Breakfast Bar, copycat Lush porridge bar it doesn't look like theirs but it gave me inspiration to make these! Big and Rustic too! Love them.  You can go on the Lush Website and they list what's in their soap then you can try to mimic from there.  That's what I did here. 

Cleopatra Bars, part of my Eqyptian Series. Love these.  This is melt and pour embed and cold process combined, yes it can be done, experiment and try if they don't turn out you can always rebatch it.  As you can see these are all pretty Rustic looking....but I love them. They are mine.  I hope you enjoyed reading a bit of what I know.  Thanks for reading and Happy Soaping! 

Egyptian Nites Skin Repair

My most popular seller so far with my soaps.  Contains Activated Charcoal, which is known to draw toxins from skin. I have had reviews from my customers (See past blog posts) it seems to be helping with acne, psoriasis and rosacea acne as well.  My son uses it and his skin is clear.  All natural oils of olive, coconut, palm, shea butter, coconut milk make this a hard conditioning bar of soap.  The embeds are just for contrast they come from older soaps that I wanted to use and rebatch into something else.  The embeds are unscented. I sell these for $6.50 each

The ball is from the end pieces of the loaf it is pure soap no embeds.  I love the end pieces, I call them the Mother Bar, because they are always the rustic pieces and when the ends are small a ball of soap is Fun!

Busy Night Scrubs and Oils

Sugar scrubs.  Candy Cane Fragrance, Sugar, Organic melt and pour, coconut oil, blue gel colourant.  

They look frosty.  Sweet and Pretty.  I got twenty (2 clam shell blister pks)

Olive oil and beet root powder, full of antioxidants, contains cancer fighting agents, natural soap colourant. This will make a nice organic soap. 

Olive oil and Grapeseed oil.  Infused.  It's been sitting for at least two months with rosemary, green tea leaves, chamomile leaves and flowers, pineapple weed, chocolate and lemon mint leaves.  All from my herb garden. (Except the green tea) the green tea is from Kelly's Nutrition health food store in Thunder Bay.  It smells sweet and earthy.  Can't wait to make soap out of it!  We won't  need to add anything else to this.  Organic at it's finest. Thanks for reading