LOTION! As promised!

Finally I made a lotion video!  Hooray!  Pretty self explanatory; the first part is an explaination of what I add to my lotions, the second is the initial mixing, and the third is adding of the goodies (proteins and extracts, and -of course- a preservative).  My recipe is a personal formulation.  

For more information on lotion crafting please head over to swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com and read through Susan's tutorials (she also has a book!  AWESOME BUY!).

**DISCLAIMER - I am NOT a professional lotion crafter!  I've only been making lotion for ~2 years and am not awesome enough to give out my recipes!  Please drop by Susan's (linked above) blog to learn how to make lotion!**

Vanilla-Coconut Body Cream:

Unfortunately I forgot to nab a picture of the packaged lotion before I stuffed them in packing boxes that were headed to Canada.  I was up all night packing the boxes and it slipped my mind. =(

If you have any questions about my specific recipe please drop me a message and I will answer it asap, but I won't give out the recipe!

NOTE: I didn't forget to post the cutting video last week, I've just been trying to upload the edited video since then. =/  For some reason youtube keeps giving me errors, I think that the file may have been corrupted somehow.  I'll keep trying though!

Raspberry Vanilla Graffiti; a Column Swirl Soap

This months' Soap Challenge Club challenge was to do the column swirl, or column pour technique.  I've been wanting to try this one forever!  I chose black raspberry vanilla fragrance and did a 5 colour swirl.  This time, rather than type out a list of everything I used, I just said what it was right in the video!  Will definitely be doing this technique again, was a lot of fun!

Hope everyone enjoys the video!  Going to TRY and get some lotion made tomorrow evening, along with baking a lot of cookies and doing 3 million other things!  Crossing my fingers that I have the time!

Thank you everyone!

Camera REALLY highlighted the glitter in the second shot, but the one in the bathtub is more true-to-life colour (and glitter) wise!

Suppliers used in this video:

Brambleberry [My primary supplier]

The Conservatorie [No longer use due to high minimum order value]

The Sage [Use for odds and ends, never fragrances]

Other November Soaps!

For the November Soap Challenge Club I actually made (or tried to make) 3 different soaps.  Snowfall and Cranberry Orange Swirl will be in this post, and the soap I actually entered (Lavender and Basil) is in the previous post.  I also made a couple of other batches; one for the design of the Cranberry Orange Swirl batch and a big batch of Vanilla, Oatmeal, Milk and Honey for my family for Christmas.  Here are some videos and details for those soaps!

Snowfall 2013: One of my favorites by far, and loved by everyone who I've sent a sample to!. This was the first soap I did for the November Challenge, and probably the one I SHOULD have entered!

Details:

Mold: 9 bar birch mold [Brambleberry]

Colourants: super pearly white mica, ultraviolet blue colourant [Brambleberry], coral reef blue mica [TKB], and violet mica [Conservatorie]

Fragrance: fresh snow [Brambleberry]

Notes: squeeze bottles [Sally Beauty Supply]

Next up was Orange Cranberry Swirl which was to be my second try at the squeeze bottle designs challenge.  I decided to do a small batch of citrus (see 'citrus seize') and use part of that to do the squeeze bottle design so I could let it set up while I made the main part of the soap.  As you'll see in the second video here that plan didn't work so well!

Orange Cranberry Swirl:

Details:

Mold: 9 bar birch mold [Brambleberry]

Colourants: super pearly white mica, fizzy lemonade colourant, copper sparkle mica [Brambleberry], ruby red mica [Conservatorie]

Fragrance: orange cranberry [WSP]

Citrus Seize:

Details:

Mold: 4 bar crafter's choice silicone [WSP]

Colourants: fizzy lemonade colourant, copper sparkle mica [Brambleberry], ruby red mica [Conservatorie]

Fragrance: orange 10X [Brambleberry], grapefruit essential oil, lime essential oil [Essential Depot]

It may not have gone quite as planned, but I still love the way the soap turned out, and OMG it smells YUMMY!

I also made a 5 lb batch of soap to disperse amongst my family members this Christmas.  I wanted to do something a little less fancy and a little more homey. 

Vanilla, Oatmeal, Milk and Honey:

Details:

Mold: 5lb log mold with silicone liner [Brambleberry]

Fragrance: vanilla select, oatmeal, milk and honey [Brambleberry], lime essential oil [Essential Depot]

Additives: local honey [sorry, no website for them], coconut milk powder, colloidal oatmeal [Brambleberry]

Cutting video for Orange Cranberry Swirl and Vanilla, Oatmeal, Milk and Honey to follow... as soon as it finishes "processing" with youtube!

Squeeze Bottle Designs; Followup!

Alright!  A few details on the last post:

Mold: 9 bar birch mold [Brambleberry]

Colourants: lavender mica, peak green mica, gold luster green mica [Conservatorie], fizzy lemonade colourant, super pearly white mica [Brambleberry]

Fragrance: lavender 40/42, basil essential oil [Brambleberry]

Squeeze bottles  [Sally Beauty Supply]

I mix all of my colourants in small amounts of sweet almond oil [Brambleberry/ MMS], and I always add  1-2% sodium lactate [MMS].

Up next: 4 videos and 3 detail lists!  Hopefully a video of a column pour, and some lotion soon too!