2nd Attempt at Drop Swirl

Anybody wants to have a yummy chocolatey bath/shower?

 

Made this yesterday for my second attempt at "drop swirling" for the soap challenge by Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks.  I used my usual basic recipe from Everything Soapmaking Book using Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil and Castor Oil.

 

I used  "rich chocolate" fragrance oil for the brown batter and "lemon cake" fragrance oil for the white batter.  I am quite pleased with the result, you can see the brown drop swirling into the yellow base but the white swirl with the brown and yellow is not a very impressive color combination.

Pictures below were taken yesterday after I put the batter in the mold:

I still need a little more practice being a little louder and less mumbling while the video is on.  The videos were taken as I was working on the soap and since I don't do a lot of planning for long beforehand, there's a lot of talking to myself.  Please mute and fast forward as you please.

 

ENJOY!

)

Winter 2014 Soap Swap

 

These are the soaps that are going for the soapqueen winter 2014 soap swap.  I used Brambleberry Energy fragrance oil blended with Lavender 40/42 essential oils.  I hope the soapers who will be receiving these soaps will enjoy them.  The colors for the second batch is not as pronounced as I had intended since the soap started thickening as I was pouring the soap into the condiment bottles, I was not able to add more colorants to make it darker/brighter.

 

Below are pictures of the second batch.  I had intended for the colors to be bright orange and black combination but both muted down to pastels.

 

For this second batch I used a new silicone mold. It's supposed to unmold the soap easier than my other mold.  I must have missed something in the direction since the soap did not easily came out of the mold as expected.  But it finally did after some prodding.

 

 

More reading on the different colorants and how to get the colors you want and how to unmold soaps easier in store for me.

 

Happy Soaping!

Soap Swap - swirls

As I was surfing other soap blogs on how they can keep on soaping without filling up their houses with soaps, I learned that most sell their soaps or give away to family and friends.  For now,  I am giving to friends and family as well.   I would like to eventually be able make consistently great batches of soaps and sell them as well.  I am glad I luckily I happened upon the soapqueen's  post regarding soap swapping which Bramble Berry host a few times a year. 

Since I just started soap making, this will be my first time and I am very excited to join.  I still have to learn to formulate my own recipe.  But I don't want to take the risk of failing an experiment for the swap.  So I made the same recipe I did for my Spoon Swirl soap. 

Basically the idea is to make 12 soaps at least 4 oz. each, mail the box to Bramble Berry before the due date and you get a box of 12 different soaps back.  We just have to use their fragrance or essential oils.  My first batch makes only 2 to 3 oz. soaps.  But my second batch made 9 soaps which  were a good 4 oz. plus each.  So I will need to make 2 batches for the swap.

 

I used Bramble Berry's Energy fragrance oil blended with Bramble Berry's Lavender 40/42 essential oil.

 

As for the pouring technique.  I used a cardboard as a divider, but realized too late that I did not have enough colored soaps so I poured uncolored soaps alternately with the colored soaps.  Then I swirled it before adding my top layer using 3 condiment bottles.

My plan was to do a Mantra Swirl but can't help myself and did a few rows horizontally as well which would make it a  widely spaced Taiwan Swirl I guess.

 

Hopefully, it will turn out fine.  We shall see in a few days when I cut them.

 



Spoon Swirl Cold Process

 

 

This recipe came from The Everything Soap Making Book.  After reading this book and watching a few more youtube videos, I just can't wait for my first batch to cure.  The temptation to try another recipe and another swirling technique is just too much and I finally gave in. 

Ingredients:

 

 

Lye 4.8 oz.
Water 10 oz.
Olive Oil 1 lb. 2 oz.
Coconut Oil 8 oz.
Palm Oil 6 oz.
Castor Oil 1 oz.

I used up all of my Olive oil from Bramble Berry and had to add some of  my kitchen olive oil to get the weight needed for this recipe.  My excitement change to anxiety when I poured all the olive oil and still it was not enough.

Learned to line my mold in a way that my soap came out without folds this time.  It was a little tedious since I don't really know what I was doing. 



My colorants did not blend well with the oils I used to dilute them in.   So I just added more colorants to the divided traced batter instead.  The episode with the olive oil then the colorants made me forget to add the lavender essential oil I planned to add for this soap.  So this batch is going to end up being an unscented soap batch.  Hopefully it will still be as moisturizing as it should be.

 







Before swirling
 



After spoon swirling



First Chopstick Swirl Cold Process Soap - Sliced

First Cold Process Soap Cut

  I am pretty proud with these soaps.  My first ever cold process and they turned out.  I  cut them today after about 48 hours of being insulated.  The shape held firm with every slice.  It was dry and soft enough for cutting.

 

 The blue/red mica I added just settled only on one side of the soap.  But the blue color swirls gave that  handmade look that I always admired from other online soap makers.  I also have to learn how to cover the mold yet still keep the sides smooth for a more straight/smooth sides. 
Now the waiting to see if the soap will perform as they should. Hopefully they will give lush, luxurious bubbles that easily gets wash off and leaves the skin feeling soft and moisturized.  Have to wait 3 to 4 weeks according to the instructions.  Temptations abound.  Can't wait to use them.

My Very First Chopstic Swirl Cold Process Soap

 

My very first handmade from scratch soap.  A friend told me to just dive into the craft and make it.  So here it goes.

 

My mother in law used to make soaps as well and gave me her apparatus, lye and others.  Since I have been watching, reading and learning soap making from Anne Marie of Bramble Berry.  I decided to buy most of my ingredients from her company.  This recipe came from the kit I bought from Bramble Berry.

 

For my very first soap my ingredients are:

 

Coconut Oil (A friend gave me a jar of extra virgin coconut oil from the Philippines) = 6 oz.

Palm Oil = 6 oz.

Olive Oil = 9 oz.

Castor Oil = 1 oz.

Water = 7 oz.

Lye = 3 oz.

and an ounce of Cranberry Chutney fragrance a dash of red/blue mica and blue colorant and a sprinkling of dried lavender on top.

 

The left container contains all the measured oils and the right is the lye/water mixture.

 

I am not sure if this is the right trace soapmakers described but once I get this consistency I poured the soap into two bottles with colors.

 

The left is the blue and right a red and the middle just the uncolored soap.  I might need to add more colors to my next batch.  We shall see.

 

Here is my very first 2 pound swirled cold process soap.  I can cut them into bars within 24 to 48 hours but I have to wait up to 4 to 6 weeks to completely cure the soap for using.  Waiting is something I am not good at.