Cut into the Blue Lagoon

I feel a little better about my soap now. But not that much though, because the waves are missing (I guess its the calm blue lagoon). I really expected the center to be a bit more consistent like it was with my Strawberry cream soap. Oh well can't win them all. The soap is still pretty wet. I added the amount of water I would for a regular batch and then at trace I added in the oat milk. I should have subtracted the water. It will take this soap a bit longer to cure. I think this is the perfect candidate for my Fan experiment. I will weigh each bar and half I will leave to dry normally and the other half I will put in front of a large fan. I will weigh them each day and see what difference there might be.

Craft Show Today

Well I have been really busy the last few days getting ready for this craft show. It will be the last of the year and I am glad for that. I figured I would post a few pics of the stuff I am taking before I jump in the shower.


Here is one of my San Juan Winery soaps ready to go to the craft fair.


This is my Bee Magic Cream. I love it. I use it at night to remove my make-up and as a cold cream and for keeping my feet and elbows nice and soft.Straglers

The pic above are soaps I am getting ready for the Black Mesa Winery. In the back ground you can see all the wonderful eggs I collected this morning. The Hens have been busy.


Here are some of the soap dishes I made for the show.




Here is how I make my tags. I print them out on mailing labels and then stick them to heavy scrap book paper (decorative card stock). I then use decorative scissors to cut them out.

Here is some of the soaps packaged and ready to go.

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt Soap

I needed a break from sewing and decided to tackle a new soap.  I had never made salt bars before and had heard that they were difficult to master.  From al

l the articles I read most soapers use either 100% Coconut or real close to that for the lather.  I have a hard time using that much coconut oil just for the fact it can be so harsh.  So I went 40% Palm Kernel ( I Have A Ton Of Organic visit me at www.abodynatural

soap.com), 20% coconut, and then I split the difference between soy and olive.  I was worried with it setting to quickly so I let the oils and the lye cool down to under a hundred (Plus this helps to create a light soap).  

I decided I didn't want any colorings so that the pink in the Himalayan salt would be what gave it color.  My son said it looked like a strawberry shake.  Hmmm I scented it s

age but now maybe I should have scented it strawberry.

So far so good.  I haven't cut it yet but I hear that it can set real hard so I will keep an eye on it.

Found Problems with Fragrance and my Balls

So Last night I made some more wine soap and with some of the soap left over from previous batches of wine soap I made Soap balls. The Balls are not real uniform mainly because they are going to go into another batch of soap. So I will have balls in my soap. I did get a little creative with a couple, but I knew another challenge was facing me.

Well lets get to my learning experience. I have been pretty lucky as a soap maker and have not had very many failed batches. Lately though I have had some difficult ones. The first batch of wine soap I ever made was difficult. I thought it might have to do with the wine itself. That really didn't make since to me since I have made soap using many other liquid additives. But I thought Wine does have alcohol and more sugars than other liquids I used. Well now after several batches I am to the conclusion that it is my fragrance. Below is an outline of the symptoms.

Batch 1:

Oils and lye mixed fine along with colorant Mixed in fragrance and wine at same time.

Batch started setting up extremely quick and had to glob (is glob a word) it into the mold. I assumed I had played around with the coloring of it so much that by the time I got around to the fragrance and wine that it was already setting.

Batch 2:

Everything went well put ingredients in at the same way as before but this time did not play around with the coloring since I figured out how much to add from last time. I got the soap into the mold just fine and as I was getting ready to go relax the soap started to separate. Arggg I rushed it back into the pot and started with some heavy mixing. As soon as I got it back to where it should be It started hardening quickly. I globbed it back into the mold and hoped for the best. The next day I cut it and it was fine. Couple weeks of curing I PH tested it and it turned out fine. No problems

Everything went well put ingredients in at the same way as before but this time did not play around with the coloring since I figured out how much to add from last time. I got the soap into the mold just fine and as I was getting ready to go relax the soap started to separate. Arggg I rushed it back into the pot and started with some heavy mixing. As soon as I got it back to where it should be It started hardening quickly. I globbed it back into the mold and hoped for the best. It did get very hot and I at one point thought I would have a volcano on my hands. The next day I cut it and it was fine. Couple weeks of curing I PH tested it and it turned out fine. No problems a really lovely soap.

Batch 3:

I assumed on batch 2 that I added the lye to the oils to hot and that was what was wrong so with batch 3 I made sure that the oils and lye were at a good temp and tryed it again. Seperation agian!!!!!!! I also with much handeling and cussing (not outloud I have young ears about)got this soap to also work. Now I had decided that it was the alchohol or the fragrance to blame.

Batch 4:

Last Night I decided to tackel the wine soap agian. This time I added color at light trace and then the wine. Everything is fine soap looks beautyful. OK trace is about light to medium and looks like everything is going real well......UNTIL I add the fragrance. The soap immediatly starts to seperate and the thickness is completly gone. So Now I know the culprit. MERLOT WINE FRAGRANCE. I put my trusty stick blender to use and whipped that soap back into shape and once it got to a heavy trace agian I poured it into the mold and hoped for the best. This morning the soap was great, although lighter in color than it should be, and I have a light ash on top. I can wet wipe the ash away so that is no prob. The color maybe I will have to wait until I cut it to really know.

I don't know if I can find a replacement fragrance This one is fab in cured soap it smells so good just like red wine. I may have to fight with it on every batch. This last batch really wasn't much a fight now that I expected it to happen and was ready. So I may keep the fragrance. Hmmm I'll have to think on it.

This time some sewing and soap

So I hadn't really been sewing much lately.   But Now I have the bug . I found this site that gave me the idea of using a plastic shopping bag for a pattern. I spent all last weekend sewing and making soap. 

Both my honey and my little man were out of town for the weekend so I was able to totally mess up the house spreading out all my crafts. I had soap in the kitchen and the dining room table was taken over with my serger and sewing machine. I had fabric strung out through out the entire living room. I really just took over the whole house. I was in complete heaven. 

The first Shopping bag that I made has many mistakes, But the rest of them turned out pretty good. See I can learn from my mistakes (or at least some of them).  So all of the bags I made are with recycled fabric.  The first one I am giving to my mom since it was fabric from her table cloth that she has me hem.  I really like the fact that they can be turned into their own pocket for storage.  They hold a lot also the one has a Huge jug of orange juice and gallon of milk in it

One of the bags is actually a trick or treat bag for my son.  He picked out the fabric.  It looks like it has webs and spiders hanging off the sides.

I also made a few soap bags. I am running low and I am going to have to 

pick up the pace if I am going to be ready for the craft show.

I also made soap. Lots of Black Mesa wine soap. Wow their wine is really good. I like their whites and blushes. I have always been a blush wine drinker more that a red wine. But thier red wine is really killer also. I am also making them some small hand soaps for samples and to put in thier bathroom. Due to the nature of wine drinking your supposed to smell the wine. So I had to celophane the soaps. I hope that that doesn't cause a problem down the road.

Soap Cupcakes

So I decided to make a dozen little cupcakes last night after my son went to bed. For some reason it took forever. I normally love working with soap using room temperature lye and oil. Mainly because it gives me time to work with it and be a little creative. Last night though it took forever for it to stiffen up for the icing part (or at least it seemed like it). I took quite a few pics and will post them tonight.

These will be my attention getter's for the craft show. Last craft show I had the cupcakes and a bunt cake soap. They drew people to my stall and ususally they purchased some sort of soap.

I used a 7up pound cake scent from natures garden for these. They deal more with candels but they have fragrance oil for soap also.

Wine Soap 2

OK finished taking pic's of the wine soap. I really like the smell but the chocolate undertones of the wine didn't come through as much as I would have liked. I really needed to add more cocoa than I did. Maybe I will order a chocolate scent. As the soap first started to set I thought oh no I need more color but now as it is curing I am starting to like the color. I added in a Merlot wine scent from Natures Garden It really has the deep grape wine smell but lacking the slight alcohol notes you would expect with a wine. Granted I did not want it to smell much of alcohol. So when making the soap i used half of the liquid for the lye solution (water) and then add the other half Slushy (Frozen, this way the sugars don't scorch) wine once trace started this gave the soap a more realistic wine smell. I did lose the chocolate tones as stated above but I will remedy that next time by adding more Cocoa.

Lavander and Rosemary soap

I decided to divide up the lavender and rosemary into two batches. The first batch of soap I decided to go all natural. What I mean by all natural is no additives and colorants. It makes for a plain looking soap but I prefer that. I ground some of the fresh lavender and infused it in my olive oil for 2 days. I Ground some more of it and as my soap was just about to go into the molds I add it and some Lavender EO. After putting the lavender into the molds I then topped it with lavender flowers. I must say the soap smells wonderful. Below is the result.





I also decided to make some whipped soap using a combination of the lavender and rosemary. I like making whipped soap normally because it gives me time to play around with it. The cool temperatures of the lye and the oils create for a slower reaction. One of these days I will try to get some pics of the process and post that.

I did grind up the fresh lavender and rosemary together and add it to the soap as I blended it. I also added colorant and some Lavender and rosemary EO to this Batch. I love the pastel colors of whipped soap. It is still in the mold so All I have is pictures of that and not the cut bars. Will post those later.

I had a little extra as usual and had to put it in to a small square mold.

Lavander and Rosemary

A friend just gave me a ton of fresh lavender and rosemary. My brain is whirling with all kinds of ideas. I may have to search the web a little to settle on what to do with this fragrant batch. I do have some Lavender EO and Rosemary EO. Hmmm. Any suggestions would be great.

I did just finish up a tea soap. I used a organic Jasmine and Green tea from the local herbalist. This is such a fragrant tea that the first batch I brewed I ended up drinking and really had to refrain from consuming the second batch. Pics of that soon.

Introduction

Hi Everyone,

This is my first ever Blogg. I decided to start a blogg so that I could share my experience and learn from others about one of my passions """Soap""". When I say soap I mean Natural Cold Process Soap. I am a little into melt and pour also but mostly CP.

I may also post once in a while on my other love and that is polymer clay.

Here is one of my creations:

This particular soap is made with a process called whipped soap. Where the lye solution and the oils are all room tempreature. I enjoy this process mostly because I can use a little more creativity. I like to break out the cake decorationg bags and go a little wild. I used a imitation of Drakkar for the scent.

I have this soap in my web store www.abodynaturalsoap.com

I Welcome all comments and thank you for visiting.