Finished castile soaps!

Here are my finished castile soaps!



I had some teddy bear embeds from before so I placed them on top of some of the soaps individual soaps.

Very cute! 

I also got to use my tank cutter for the soap log.  

That's always fun, and it makes really even and consistent cuts and does them super quickly!

So now these will sit around for a good and long cure.  I mean really really long.  People say a year is good. 

Made soap after a long hiatus!

So the last time I made cold process soap was in March 2011.  What a long hiatus!  I had to take a break from soapmaking because I am pregnant and all of the fragrances were making me feel nauseous!  I store my finished soaps in the garage and I couldn't even go near the garage with out feeling like I had to gak!  The first trimester was the worst.  I'm about at the end of my pregnancy now and I wanted to get back into soaping.  I missed it.  So I decided to make some soap today.  A real simple 100% olive oil castile soap.  No color, no fragrance.  It makes for good and gentle baby soap too.  I still have some from before that I can use, but I wanted to make some more.  So I used 4 pounds of olive oil to make soap!  Yup that's a lot of soap!  It was so fun.  So castile soap takes a long time to cure so I'll let these sit around for a good, long time before I consider using them.

Cupcakes, Cakes, Pies - yeah, yeah, been there done that...

Ah, but what about soap ice cream cones!!

Yup, that's right I made soap cones!

These soap cones are really BIG.  They are about 9 oz.  My usual bar soaps are around 4-5 oz.  Here's the size in comparison to the cupcake soaps.



And here's a cute three item collection



I saw silicone ice cream cone muffin molds.  So I got 3 of the molds and used one to make soap cones.  I think I might keep the other molds, at least one, for food use.  They would make great edible cupcakes and either use frosting or real ice cream as the top.

I thought the cone part would darken a bit more.  I used Summer Melon Spritzer FO and it has a little bit of vanilla in it, but so far it hasn't darkened at all.  Interesting.  The 'ice cream' portion I used Grape Juice FO and I tried a purple swirl cone.  The purple didn't turn out quite as dark as I wanted and the mixture got too hard and it's looking a little lumpy.  So the soap cones are looking more pale than I wanted, but they are supercute anyway!  Since these soap cones are so large I suppose one could cut them in half either from top to bottom (might be tricky) or cut between the cone and the top. 

Packages at my door!

More packages arrived at my door! 

I got my cyclomethicone, dimethicone, Dry-Flo, Isopropyl myristate for lotion making.  My goal is to try and make my lotion have more slip, less drag on the skin.

I got more fragrance and essential oils.  Oh boy.   I have GOT to stop purchasing any more fragrances.  I have so many 1-2 oz bottles.  It's pretty rare that I have actually repurchased any particular fragrance because I love trying out new ones.  I got some Lily of the Valley.  Oh WOW!  I did not know what Lily of the Valley smelled like, but I kept hearing people say it's a great fragrance.  Holy moly no kidding!  It's so refreshing.  Usually I'm not a big floral person, mostly I'm a fruity/clean fragrance type, but I really like this FO. 

I'm expecting to get some more silicone molds, bottles for lotion, more mica colorants, MP soap base.   More stuff to make more soap!

Dimethicone/cycomethicone?

What the heck are dimethicone and cyclomethicone?  They are unmodified silicones.
The following is directly from this website:

http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/silicone_use.html
"Silicone Use with Skin and Hair
Unmodified silicones stay on or near the surface of the skin. Not only are the molecules too big to physically enter past the upper living cells -- they associate with the upper layer of drying skin -- but they also cannot penetrate cell membranes due to their large size. They also dislike both the water and proteins inside cells.
Cyclomethicones are unmodified silicones. They evaporate quickly after helping to carry oils into the top layer of epidermis. From there, they may be absorbed by the skin. Cyclomethicones a similar function in hair care products by helping nutrients enter the hair shaft.
Dimethicones are also unmodified silicones. They form a barrier layer on the skin which must be renewed as the skin sloughs off. Dimethicones coat the surface of the hair and lubricate it, improving combing providing detangling, and thus, hair loss and breakage.
Silicones form a protective layer which helps prevent transdermal water loss -- a very useful characteristic for many products. Silicone gums provide instant shine to hair. Silicones act to help seal moisture into the hair, which helps prevent many kinds of damage. "
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What are Glycerin, Isopropyl Myristate, and Sodium Lactate?  They are emollients and humectants.
The following is directly from this website.
http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/emollients_and_humectants.html

"What are emollients and humectants?

Emollients are ingredients that soften and soothe the skin. They may be naturally occuring, such as fixed oils and glycerin, or they made be man made, such as silicone oils or isopropyl myristate. Their moisturizing qualities are provided by the chemical composition of the material itself.
Generally, emollients are added to such products as creams and lotions to provide extra moisturization or to help relax fine lines and wrinkles.
Humectants also soften and soothe the skin. They are usually derived from vegetable oils, but can be man made. Humectants derive their moisturizing abilities from water which they pull from the nearest available source. "
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While I might be able to give out a tidbit of information regarding some ingredient or technique I recommend everyone do their own research.  I don't know everything and won't ever claim to know everything! 

Lotions changes for next time?

So, I've been using my lotions for almost 2 weeks.  No break outs.  Seems good so far! 

However, I do notice that my lotions have 'drag' to them.  The texture is creamy for sure, but there is some drag on the skin.  I've purchased some dimethicone, cyclomethicone, and isopropyl myristate.  They are known to provide more slip to lotions.  Also I ordered some modified corn starch (Dry-Flo) which is supposed to provide a little more velvety feel to the lotion.  I've also read that Sodium lactate which I already have for soap making is a good less sticky alternative to glycerin.

So, next time I make lotion I'll try some of these additives and hopefully it will reduce the drag on the skin.

My 2nd and 3rd batches of lotion

So here's a photo of my second and third lotion batches.  Remember the first one had the cider vinegar in it.  I'm not sure I'm going to keep that one around.  If you can get over the vinegary smell the lotion is quite nice, and cider vinegar is supposed to be a good tonic for the skin, but it's got a potent vinegar smell.  This might appeal to other people, but not to me.  Frankly, I can make it without vinegar so why should I waste time using something I don't really like.

So my second batch was the OOH lotion (sans vinegar) called so because it has Olive Oil and Honey in it (I like how that acronym works out).  This recipe I got off of the internet and it's a really nice one.  Very thick and creamy.

The next batch I tweaked a facial cream recipe I found.  I tweaked it to products I had on hand.  This one is a little looser in consistency, but I think that's because I accidentally put in a little too much aloe vera juice.  This cream is a little lighter in consistency and feel than the OOH lotion which actually works out well for a facial cream/lotion.

The packaging:  I got some of these Malibu/Tottle tubes, printed labels on vellum paper and ran them through my Zyron sticker maker.  I think they are simple labels, but they came out looking great!

So, now I'm testing. I'm using the OOH lotion on my body and the Facial Cream on my face.  I have pretty normal skin on my body and oily skin on my face. 

Recovering from yesterdays Excel blunder!

So yes, I was able to reconstruct my data base, sort of.  I lost all of my comments, but I don't think I had too many.  What I really want is the list of recipes and fragrances that were used with each batch and the date that the batches were made.  I am so glad that I had this blog to reference!  It is my soap diary; my journal!  I don't care if no one reads it.  It can be for me and me alone.  It has already served a very useful purpose!!  If it helps anyone else - YAY!! 

Take home message - MAKE BACK-UPS of your files. DO NOT ASSUME you will remember to hit SAVE AS instead of SAVE.  So if you're going to do any kind of huge modification to a document make a copy of it and use the copy to screw around.   HOLY SMIHOLY did my eyes become huge saucers when I realized too late what button I had clicked. 

Anyway,  I feel better today.  All was not lost.

So, assuming I was able to reconstruct all or at least most of my database, I have made 106 pounds of soap!!  Wow, that's a lot of soap!  And I have had and am still having lots of fun doing it! 

My arms are shaking

I made butter today.  Yes, I made butter, as in butter for toast.  I saw this video on YouTube and had to try it for myself. 



I totally forgot to leave the cream out to let it sour so mine came out of the fridge, so it was cold.  I was shaking and shaking and shaking for 20 minutes before it finally started to separate the butter from the buttermilk.  My arms are now shaky and tired.  But I did make butter!  Since I didn't let it sour the butter is pretty plain tasting so I did add a little salt and it's a really nice homemade butter!!  It's a light cream color and not the yellow that you see in store bought butters.  Most of the yellow color in those butters are added coloring.  There are some variations in butter colors depending on what the animal eats, but usually natural butter isn't super yellow. 

Anyway, I think next time I'll let the cream sour.  Having the cream at room temperature will make the process go much faster and the sour tang will give the butter and buttermilk some more flavor.  I have to let my forearm muscles recover before I try this again. 

OH MY GOD!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!

One wrong click of a button and data goes bye bye!! 

So, I have a database on my computer on Excel which lists what soap formula I used, what fragrance I used, the date that the soap was made, and any notes or comments.  Well, I decided to start a similar one for Lotion making.  So I took my soap one deleted all the info except for the heading and column titles.  I started to fill in my two entries for my lotions.  And then I hit SAVE, not SAVE AS, but SAVE.  Yup, that's right I just wiped out all my data since November 2009!  O H  M Y  G O D !!!!  This list is really important to me because it's my soap making history.

So, I have, for the past 4 hours tried to extrapolate my list.  I have some printed recipes, I have some soap labels with ingredients and fragrances listed.  I have an old list of half of 2010 productions.  And I have my blog.  Tediously, I was able to re-create my database.  I have lost all of the comments that I made regarding each batch.  Bugger!!  At least I was able to get the recipes down and the dates of creation.  Whew!  At least not ALL was lost.

Molto bene!

I made my second batch of lotion.  This time I used citric acid in stead of cider vinegar.  Oh so much better!  I left it unfragranced.  So it smells of honey at first which fades nicely.  It's a very creamy recipe that is not greasy.  Ooooo...  I think this is another bath and body product that I could get into!

First time

I LOVE the Woodfield molds!  My bastile soaps came out so easily from the silicone mold.  Smooth edges, a nice satin feel.  I used my Tank cutter.  Yay!  Cuts so easy! Every cut is even and straight.  Ahhhh.....  Interesting though the wire cut produces a pebbly surface.  A knife leaves a smooth cut surface, but the wire doesn't.  I think it drags through the soap more and leaves a slightly textured surface and light swoosh marks arc across the surface.  I don't think I mind that much though.  I think I would prefer a smooth surface, but to be able to cut even and consistently is more important to me.  I don't do huge production work, but I do love how quickly the Tank cuts!

The bastile soaps turned out great!  The pomace OO produces a slightly darker bar.  But they are plenty firm.  The soapcalc.net lye calculator says it will be hardness of 15 and cleansing of 0, but don't believe that.  Castile and bastiles are plenty hard.  At 8 hours after making the soap my bastile soaps are not mushy or soft.  In fact, after a good cure they are bricks!  And yes, they do indeed cleanse.  They are, afterall, still soap.  They don't lather as much and are kind of "slimy" when wet, but they are a very mild soap. 

Yeah, I definitely think the pomace olive oil I had last time was adulterated with some other oil.  My current pomace bastile feels nothing like the soap I made last time.  I'll not purchase that pomace olive oil again.

What's up next for experimentation?

I've experimented with different soap recipes and additives.  Animal fats, different vegetable fats, and different liquids - coffee, beer, animal milks.  I don't think I'm a big fan of animal milk soaps at least for unfragranced.  They have a faint 'barn yardy' smell.  A kind of grass, hay, earthy smell when I use it in the shower.  Animal fats make a nice soap, but I think I'm going to try to stick to vegetable fats.  Not that I'm vegan or even vegetarian, but I don't see a super need to use animal fats.   It's always there as an option if I want to use it in the future. 

So what's up next?  I would like to try coconut milk for the liquid.  I can't imagine it would have that same 'barn yardy' smell as animal milks.  Or actually any non-animal milks (almond, rice, soy, etc) would be worth a try.  I'd like to also try pureed carrots or cucumber.  Those might be interesting additives.

I took a look at the Key Lime Pie Soaps.  The tops are continuing to turn more brown while everywhere else seems to be keeping it's color.  It's been 2 weeks.  I think it's really interesting that only the tops are turning brown like the tops have a fine dusting of cocoa powder.  Will the vanilla color stabilizer continue to work with the rest of the soap?   Hmm.... stay tuned. 

Bastile Soap and Lotion and taking classes

I made some Bastile soap today (Bastardized Castile Soap) 90% Olive Oil and 10% Castor Oil.  I made one pound of bastile made from light olive oil and one pound made from pomace olive oil.  I wanted to see the difference.  In the past I used light olive oil and the soap turned out a nice white color, really nice.  I also made it using pomace olive oil before.  But I think the pomace olive oil I used was adulterated (mixed up with some other oil).  The soap never really hardened and is kinda weird. 

So, I made more of the light olive oil batch and trying out a different pomace olive oil.  I also used my new Woodfield double mold.  No color, no fragrance.  One of the mildest soaps one can make.  It's in the oven right now.  CPOP.  I warmed to 170F, but just turned it off once I put the molds into the oven.  Once the soap comes out the molds I will try out my new Tank cutter!  Exciting!!  Using my new goodies.

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I have been using my OOH cider vinegar lotion. And... yeah... too much of a vinegar smell for me.  Next time I'll definitely use citric acid instead.  But I have this vinegar batch.  I have read that some people have used citrous fragrances with this lotion.  So I mixed some Sparkling Grapefruit and Orange Peel FOs and it's better.  Doesn't totally cover the vinegar smell, but it's much better.

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I think I'm going to take some classes at Nova Studios in Richmond Point, CA.  They have a couple of classes in March that I find interesting: 3 Types of Body Butters and Healing Balms and Salves.  Sounds like fun!

My first lotion and coconut oil in the hair

So, I made lotion for the first time.  I used a super simple recipe from thedishforum.com, which is a fabulous place to get information regarding soap making and other bath and body products. 

It was really cool and easy to do!  This particular recipe called for among other things olive oil and honey, so it's OOH Lotion!   The recipe also called for cider vinegar.  Well,  the finished product still smells of vinegar (which I was warned about) with a little honey.  The recipe had an alternative, using citric acid instead of the vinegar.  The vinegar smell doesn't last on the skin, but I think next time I'll use the citric acid instead.  That way I'm hoping I'll just smell honey.   The lotion came out really creamy and thick.  So cool that with the right ingredients, oil and water emulsify to make lotion!  I did put a preservative into the lotion to keep the germies away.  Neato!

I also tried coconut oil in my hair.  Interesting...
So I melted coconut oil and fingered into my hair.  I left it on for a few hours while I did other things.  I took a shower to wash the coconut oil out.  I wasn't sure how strenuously I should try to shampoo the oil out.  The oil also made the shower floor a bit slick.  I blow dried my hair.  Well, it seems a bit softer.  I think I'll have to try this again to really see how this works.  I also have heard avocado oil is good for the hair.  I may have to try that one as well. 

Eh, it's all about experimentation and having some fun.  I have all of this oil and butters that I use for soap making why not try out other uses for them. 

Discoloration update on the Key Lime Soap Pie Slices

It's been 6 days since making the Key Lime Soap Pie.  I used Vanilla White-Color Stabilizer from Natures Garden Wholesale Candle and Soap Supplies. 




Interesting...  So the soap has discolored in areas that were exposed to air right after I poured the soap.  The areas that were up against the mold have not discolored.  The cut surfaces have not discolored as well.  The discoloration is pretty light, a light tan color.  So, overall the vanilla color stabilizer seems to be working, sort of.  I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it discolors any more.  I suppose if this is the most it's going to discolor I'll only use the color stabilizer when I use a log mold.  That would limit the surfaces that touch air when I pour. 

Water marble nail art

I tried water marbling nail art.  I've seen some videos on YouTube.  It was a little messy and it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but I think it was OK for the first time.  Kind of a neat look.

Soaping up with my salt soap bar

I've made more salt bars.  I made the same recipe 100% coconut oil at 20% superfat.   Last time I used table salt at 75% of the weight of oils.   This time I used fine grain sea salt at 100% weight as the oil or 1:1.  Coconut oil is one of the few oils, once saponified, that can withstand high salt concentration and still create nice lather. 

So here's how my 1:1 salt weight to oil weight soap.  It's definitely less bubbly than my prior soap bar with less salt.  I think next time I'll go back to 75%

Here's how it lathered.  This is my first soap video!

Haul: New stuff - well new to me

I was on one of the soap forums and discovered a member was selling some of her items.  SCORE!


What is all of this?  Well, the two molds on the left are Woodfields molds.  They are silicone lined wood molds.  The top one is a two one pound double mold and the bottom is a 4 lb log mold.  I have been looking at these Woodfield molds as well as similar Uplands molds (out of business) for a long time!  This seller was getting rid of her gently used Woodfields!  Yay!

The white divided tray mold is an HDPE mold from Soap Hutch.  This one holds 4.5-8 pounds depending how deep I pour the slab.  I was looking at these as well, but these are really expensive, so never thought I'd ever get one.  Yay!

The black item on the right is a Commercial Quick Cutter soap slicer from For Crafts Sake affectionately known as a "Tank".  I have drooled over this one, but never thought I'd ever get one.  For one thing I'd be locked into only one width of soap cutting.  This one is set at one inch increments.  But this opportunity wasn't to be missed.  The seller hadn't even used it yet, so it IS new!  Yay!!



If I had purchased all of these items new it would have been ludicrously expensive!!  But second hand these were a sweet deal!  

Love them, love them, love them!!  I can't wait to use them!

Key Lime Pie

I made a Key Lime Soap Pie! 






This Key Lime Pie fragrance has vanilla in it so would turn brown, but I used a Vanilla White-Color Stabilizer.  I'm hoping that it will keep the soap from turning brown. We'll see.  It smells really good.  Lime with a creamy vanilla sugar.  I think I would have preferred a more tart lime smell, but it's still good.  I used green and little blue mica for color and I swirled it with the uncolored batter for the main pie; then the uncolored batter piped on top.  I used one of my silicone round cake molds.  This is just under 3 lbs of soap (a tad over 2 lbs of oils).  I'll pop this out of the mold tomorrow.

Key Lime Soap Pie Cut!

Couldn't wait!  I just cut the Key Lime Soap Pie!  That was only about 4 hours after making it.  The soap heated up, but I just left it out uncovered.  I waited until it cooled down before I popped it out of the mold.  Never thought I'd be able to cut it that quickly, but it came out great!


Here's a slice.


Super cute!  Right now they are about 3.75 oz per slice.  Which will probably cure out to 3.5 oz in the end.  I think next time though I will add more piping around the edge and less in the center.  I like the piping to look more built up along the outside.  Yay!  OK, now we'll see how well the vanilla white color stabilizer will work as the slices cure.

Waiting for lye...

No soaping this weekend.  I'm out of lye.  No lye, no soap.

I guess I could do some MP soap or make some balms...  Or just veg out...

My fingers are doing some internet shopping though.  Ordered some more Coconut oil.  Purchased more fragrance oils.  The path to soaping supply explosion is made up of 1 oz fragrance bottles!

I keep wanting to try treating my hair with coconut oil.  I hear coconut oil is great for hair.  Like a hot oil treatment.  Melt some in a bowl in the microwave, then finger through hair and let sit for some time. Wash out.  I'm curious.  Maybe I'll try that this weekend.

I was thinking of maybe trying out a soap "pie".  I would use only one of my round cake silicone pans, then pipe the top.  It would look more like a pie, cut it into wedges like pie slices.  Hmmm, maybe.

Oh I just saw this photo of a Dragonscale weave chainmail collar necklace at Urbanmaille.com (click on this link).  God, look how it just drapes on the neck!  Sleek and bold.  For a 16 inch collar it takes over 3000 rings and a little less than a POUND of silver!  Weighty!!  I've made Dragonscale bracelets in the past and I love them!

These are my Dragonscale bracelets. This one is all sterling

This one has colored anodized niobium rings and sterling rings. 


The bracelets are weighty and bold.  Wow to have a whole collar!  It's gorgeous!  Hmmm....  maybe I need to get back to making jewelry. 

Cut soap mimosa and jasmine-honey

OK I cut up my Mimosa cake.  Looks great!!  I forgot to leave aside some natural color soap to pipe the top, so I just piped using the same orange color.  I cut them into rectangular slices, but I did do a couple as a wedge just to see; they are right angle wedges instead of the equilateral wedges that a round cake would give.  The layers stuck this time.  I did gel...



which brings me to the not so good news.  I totally forgot that Champagne FO has a flash point of 140s and the Orange Peel FO is probably even lower than that!  Citrous fragrances are notorious as faders.  I have been trialing using less fragrance for my soaps.  I have used Champagne in the past and used 1 oz per pound of oil (ppo) and it is really strong in the soap. I even gelled that one.  So I have been trying out 0.75oz ppo.  In this Mimosa soap I used 1/3 Champagne and 2/3 Orange Peel. 

Well, the cakes look fab, but the really juicy fizzy orange smell has faded.  It's still there, but when I compare it to the cupcakes and purse soap from yesterday that I did not force gel upon the fragrance is not as strong.  The Champange FO might have been strong enough to withstand gel, but there was less of it than the Orange Peel FO.   And I think much of the Orange Peel burned off during gel.  We'll see how the fragrance holds up as it cures.  Maybe this will be good for people who like light fragrance. 

And the experimental process continues.  Next time I do a cake I definitely will stick to this rectangular cake style rather than the round.  I like it.  This cake probably weighs 3.5 lbs.  My round cake weighed 7 lbs.  If I try this combo of Champagne and Orange Peel again I won't CPOP, so no gel.  I'm hoping that the layers will continue to stick together because the layers were matte and not smooth as glass like the round layers that came out of the round silicone mold.  I think also I will need to add a deeper orange color to the soap.  It's a peachy orange color and I think I want it a bit darker and more orange.

*****

I also made a soap fragranced with Jasmine-Honey, which is similar to Lush's Flying Fox (so I've read).  I love how this turned out! Natural with a purple pencil line, green, then natural dolloped on top.


I love how sharp the line turned out.  I gelled this one too because of the pencil line. I have heard that if you do this (which is lightly sprinkle powder color on top of one color than pour the next color) you should gel  so that the layers stick.  Otherwise the layers could fall apart.  The layers could also fall apart if you sprinkle too much powder color.  But I think I did a good job.  The fragrance withstood the gel is strong at 0.75 oz ppo.  I also made a couple more flower soaps with bears (you can see in the background) with the extra soap.   I love those bear soap embeds.  They are so cute.  I love how they look on top of the flower molds.  Wouldn't those be great as a baby shower gift for the parents or as a favor from a baby shower or a baby's first birthday!  I'll have to make some more.

Yesterday's soaps unmolded and cut

I just unmolded and cut the Love Spell soaps.



I love how all the colors came out.  The embeds came out good as well.  Each slice has a heart and star in it, in whole or partial.  Depending on where it was cut in along the mold you can see a star, a heart a little bit of both, or nothing.  even the ones with nothing will reveal a heart or star as it gets used.  The extra bits of soap that I plopped into the flower mold came out cute as well.  The ducky is glow in the dark plastic.  Looks like it's floating on colored marshmallow fluff!  Same with the bear.  The bear is actually CP soap as well so all of that soap can be used.   The fragrance is sweet and fruity.  It's supposed to be a dupe of a Victoria's Secret fragrance I think.

I also unmolded the soap out of the purse silicone mold.  I wasn't sure if it was going to turn out.  There's a different flower design on each side.  It's got a lot of detail.  There are stitching lines in the design. 



And for perspective on the size of this cute soap:


I made my this particular recipe a really hard bar so maybe that's why it came out so well.  This is a really great mold, but it's pricey so I only have one.  That doesn't lend itself for production work in CP.  It's better suited for making MP soap, as MP can be unmolded much quicker than CP soap making. 

I'm just about ready to 'frost' the soap cake I made yesterday.  Here are the layers I'll be frosting.  Not very exciting right now.

Soaping

I got to soaping today.  I wanted to try and use up my tallow.  I don't think I'll purchase more tallow.  I'll probably just stick with vegetable fats and oils.  But I had some tallow left.  I still have a small amount left.  I have some lard left over in the fridge as well.  I'll have to weight those out and make a batch that uses those up.  I have a small amount of palm kernel oil as well.  I also wanted to use up rice bran oil.  I used about 2 lbs, but still have about 1lb left.  Rice Bran Oil is supposed to be a good alternative to Olive Oil.  But I personally didn't notice a huge difference so I'll just stick with OO.  I'm trying to narrow down the oils and butters that I have lying around.  I'm trying to simplify!

Anyway...

I wanted to make another soap cake.  But this time it won't be a round cake, more like a rectangular log cake.  So I poured 1 inch into 2 of my loaf molds.  Tomorrow I'll unmold them and "frost" them.  I mixed Orange Peel FO and Champagne FO.  So they will be Mimosa cakes.  I had a little extra today so I made a couple of cupcakes. 

I also used Love Spell FO to make another soap loaf.  I divided the batter into 6 and mixed them with 6 mica colors which I plopped into the mold a little at a time.  I also embedded white hearts and stars.  I'm really excited to see what this soap will look like when I cut it! 

Soaps from Hawaii!

I just got back from a trip to Hawaii, Maui and Kauai to be exact!  A little rainy, actually while we were in the pool one evening during a light rain, KA-BAM, freakishly heavy rain and lightening and thunder!!  But still a warm winter in the high 70s and 80s.  Very nice.  Not too many places were you can wear shorts and a tank at 8am in the winter morning. 

Anyway,  I purchased some handmade soaps while I was there.  WHY?  Why would I purchase handmade soap when I can make it myself?!?  Why not!  I like to try out others peoples' soaps.  Sometimes I'm attracted by the fragrance, the color, or the packaging. 

1. Indigenous Soap - purchased at Oceanology Whalers Museum in the Whalers Village Lahaina, Maui  [a small but really interesting and free museum about whaling in Hawaii]
http://indigenousoap.com/
Aina

I got it because I liked the packaging and it was the first soap that I saw that wasn't melt and pour and one that I hadn't seen in multiple touristy places.  Although now that I look at her website she's in multiple stores mostly in Oahu.

2. Surfing Goat Dairy - Maui up-country
http://www.surfinggoatdairy.com/
Lavender and Papaya

This is a great dairy.  You can watch them milk the goats.  They have some yummy goat cheese and there were so many cute goat kids running around in a pen. 

3. Island Soap and Candle Works
http://www.islandsoap.com/
Hawaiian Sea, Relaxation Bar, Mandarin Lemongrass, Orange Passion, Anise Poppy Seed

I wanted to go to their stores because they make the soap right there in the store.  Their racks look so cool with all of their soaps curing.  I watched them mixing up a batch of soap.  They had an electric hand drill mocked up over a pot to do the stirring  They seemed to be stirring their batch for a long time, long enough for the soap maker to go to the coffee shop next door and get some coffee.   Mine would have come to trace long before theirs.  But then again my batches are considerably smaller and they are probably doing room temp oils and lye water.  I usually have a hard time waiting for my oils and lye water to cool down to room temp.  Or maybe the combination of oils they use is really slow to trace. 

Soap Cake - 4 weeks later!

So, here's how the soap cake slices look 4 weeks later.  Yup, the cake has darkened.  The frosting has retained most of it's lavender color.  Yay!

Here's a comparison from the fresh soap to the 4 week old cured soap.  Fresh is on the left and now is on the right.
(my lavender nails match!)

It has darkened quite a bit. Looks more like a chocolate cake rather than some kind of light mocha vanilla cake.  I wasn't sure how to package these slices.  They are huge soap bars,  I tried cellophane, but it didn't work, so i went and purchased clear bags and tied it with a ribbon.  If I had a lavender ribbon I would have used that, but light blue was the closest in color and size that I could come up with at the time.  I think it looks good.


I don't think I'll do this size of a soap cake again, unless it was a special request.  It's just too HUGE for me to do for myself.  If I do a cake a gain I'll just use my log mold and make a rectangular log-style soap the next time. 

Soap Meringues!

Soap meringues!  I saw someone do this on You Tube and thought it was so very cute, so I thought I'd do it too.  They are pretty much smaller versions of just the tops of soap cupcakes.

And here's some perspective:


These are pretty much guest soap size, but how cute of a guest soap!  It's like a dollop of whipped cream!