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!

Soap Challenge Club: November! "Squeeze Bottle Designs"

Well, this month I was able to make 3, yes THREE, attempts at the challenge soap!  Hooray!  I will be posting about the other two attempts very soon, just my favorite of them for the link up today!  And ho-boy am I in a rush!  I meant to post this yesterday, and now have a very patient husband waiting for me to get it done today!  Oops!!!

The soap is a mixture of lavender and basil essential oils, with 'piped' lavender buds and basil like leaves.  I use this soap in the kitchen as I find these EOs really help remove food smells from my hands (ie: garlic).

Without further ado, or husband frustration, here is the video!  I will extrapolate on the products I used in the next post!  So sorry for the rush with this one! 

Challenge Soaps

What challenge?!  Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks hosts a monthly Soap Challenge Club!  I've been able to take part in 4 of the challenges, but will only be posting pictures for 3 of them.  The 4th worked out fine as a soap, but I really don't like how it looks!

The first challenge was the Peacock Swirl [see Monday June 10, 2013 for the making of video].  Here is what it looks like today, TD specs and all!

[Peacock Swirl soap scented with 'pink sugar' from Nature's Garden, made in the Brambleberry 9 bar wood mold]

The second challenge was the Mantra Swirl, or Modified Mantra Swirl.  I went for the modified version.  Here is a PARTIAL video, unfortunately my batteries died part way through and I didn't have time to get new ones as my fragrance oil was an accelerator.

Here is the soap today:

[Modified mantra Swirl soap scented with 'tropical vacation' from Brambleberry, made in the silicone loaf mold from Wholesale Supplies Plus]

The third challenge soap I made was a 3 colour gradient soap.  I didn't get a video because I had temporarily misplaced my memory card (it was still plugged into the computer!).  I'm really quite happy with how this one turned out!

[3 colour gradient soap scented with 'mixed berries' from Aroma Haven/ Rustic Escentuals, made in the silicone loaf mold from Whole sale Supplies Plus]

And a couple group shots, just because!

[top: "Berrylicious", bottom: "Tropical Smoothie"]

[left: "Pure Sweetness", middle: "Tropical Smoothie", right: "Berrylicious"]

Next up: "Squeeze Bottle Designs" Soap Challenge Club, hopefully made tomorrow, will give spoiler pics but no video or final pics until the link up happens with the club!

Prince Soap... sort of!

This video has been sitting "in the drawer" for a while now, I wasn't sure if I would post it or not because the soap did NOT work.  I attempted this soap 3 times and finally decided that the fragrance oil simply doesn't like to work in CP soap.

This soap was made the day the Prince was born, and made in his honour.  I was SO bummed that it didn't work out!  But its the thought that counts, right?  I'm a huge Royal family fan, and just couldn't resist giving this soap a go.

Here is the video of me making the soap.  There is no video or pictures of what the soap became, all 3 times.  I was just too bummed each time to even think about snapping a picture.  Just imagine 12 bars of yellow caustic goo with a thin cake of crumbly soap floating near the bottom.  SO FRUSTRATING!!!!

Tomorrow I should have up the next post, a review of the soaps I've made for the soap challenge club.  And Thursday I HOPE to have time to make a batch for this months challenge!  I've been jonesing to get in on the new techniques!

I will do my best to make the challenge soap AND video it!  Thanks for bearing with me while I try to balance life, work, and soaping!

Recovery!

Well, partially!  I was unable to have the missing posts restored, so I shall have to redo them!  A couple months ago I -tried- to make some Dragon's Blood soap for my husband, and all seemed well... at first!

After I finished the batch, which seemed a bit smaller than usual, I located my olive and castor oil still sitting on the counter!  ACK!  Only time I've ever done that!  So I made a video of me rebatching the mess too! 

So embarrassing!  Can't believe I forgot oils!  My hubby doesn't like the rebatch as much, but it gets the job done.  Taught me to look twice before I get my lye added though!

Here are a couple of pictures of the bars today, 3 months after the initial oops; miss that green swirl!

Next up: "Prince Soap", which was a complete failure (all 3 times!), but I still made a video of it!  And pictures of the 3 soaps I've been able to do for the Soap Challenge Club (there is a fourth, but it didn't work out so well!).