I'ma Nerd

 

You know you're a nerd when gel phase excites you!

 

Cherry Blossom Kiss V2

So I made some soap...Cherry Blossom Kiss. I went a little too heavy on the colorant. I wanted a pinkish tint, not a full-blown red. It smells dee-vine though:)

Queen Of Shaves!

Ok, maybe not...just yet! During my retail days, I worked at an upscale apothecary that carried a brand of shaving cream called King of Shaves. I think we had more women buying that stuff than the guys, but anyway, I've always wanted to make a cold processed shaving soap. For some strange reason, I always thought the formula had to be really intricate (????). I found a really basic (meaning no exotic butters or additives) formula that I liked, and the only special additive was the bentonite clay to give it slip. I had a little bentonite left over from a giveaway I won last year. I wish it weren't so gray and dingy-looking, but I'm really pleased with the outcome of this soap. This one, too, is all-natural. Many have a different opinion of what "all-natural" means to them. Now, when I say all-natural, I mean no artificial colors or fragrances. The debate could go on. This soap gets its color from the bentonite clay, and it's scented in an essential oil blend of coriander and peppermint.

I love the look of a round shaving soap. I understand they were designed that way to fit into a mug so you could just swivel your brush around it to work up a really good lather. That's cool, but I know not one guy who does that. I actually had an old plastic tube mold that I bought years ago from Go Planet Earth. I loved that mold, but lemme tell ya: It aint made for CP soap! I actually had to cut the soap out of this mold to get it to finally release. RIP mold....

I do have a confession to make: I do not shave any parts of my body. Not my legs, and not even my arm pits. My sister calls me "crunchy". It's so funny that I don't have to shave because the hairs on my legs are really fine, and I have really light, fine hair under my arms. Some of you may find this really gross, but I haven't shaved my legs or underarms since 2009! My soap tester gives this one 2 razors up! She even told me she tried it in her hair as a clarifier because of the bentonite clay...hmmm...I didn't think of that one!

ps-I know this isn't the new soap from the Disaster post, but I wanted to show this one first...

Passion's Promise Soap

Here's my latest cold processed soap: Passion's Promise. That name just came to me out of the blue. It was originally called something else, but I'm really trying to tone the names down a bit. This one's scented in a very "grown up" blend of sandalwood and amber-LOVES IT! It's subtle, yet alluring, and I've got a lot going on as far as the colors go. It's yellow, red, purple, and green. When I inhaled this fragrance, I just saw wild, vivid, lusty things happening, and I wanted the look of the soap to reflect that.

It's also one of the biggest bars I've ever made. Each one is about 6.5 oz or more. I'm not thrilled with the soda ash that formed on top of some of the bars, but I'll just buff those away before listing them. I'm really anal about that...These should be ready in another 2 weeks:)

Cherry Blossom Kiss...Soap

Ok, the photo sucks, but the soap doesn't...

One of my favorite old-school songs is Juicy Fruit by Mtume. There's a verse in the song that goes:

Cherry blossom kiss is what you're givin

Makes my body hot, it keeps me sizzlin
Do what you want, I don't care
I'll be your lollipop
You can lick me everywhere...

Okay, so it wasn't a song for children, but it's stayed in my mind for 28 years, and well, I needed a name for this cherry blossom-scented soap. And you know me: Plain ol' Cherry Blossom Soap just won't do...

I could inhale this scent all day long. I'm also making a matching lotion to go with it, and perhaps, a perfume. I'm still mulling it all over. But for now, I give you...Cherry Blossom Kiss Soap!

Peppermint Spark

Here is my 3rd, and probably final holiday soap for 2010. It's called Peppermint Spark, inspired by the traditional Christmas candy Peppermint Bark. I cannot tell a lie: I've never had peppermint bark! But it looks so friggin good! It's like a sophisticated York Peppermint Patty to the 25th power. My version was inspired by this photo. It looks so different than traditional peppermint bark, and I'm so non-traditional, so this was perfect.

Source

The bottom layer is colored solely in Hershey's cocoa powder and scented in a heavenly nutty-chocolate fragrance. The middle layer is scented in a cool, tingly peppermint, and the thick, drippy layers are a combo of peppermint and chocolate. This is a very limited edition soap-only 9 bars. If you'd like for me to reserve one for you, drop me a line. Yumlicious!

Meet Lothario!

I've been dying to name a soap Lothario. I don't know why. I just love saying "Lothario." So here they are. Okay, I need to start planning properly before i actually execute. The intent was to have one of those cutesy chocolate lines that I see on all these soaps, but, my dumb self did not get a clue-in time. I'm thinking, "Oh, I'll have a chocolate line to separate the uncolored layer from the dark layer..." But duh, you cant see the line because it's the same friggin color practically as the dark layer! I should have layered the uncolored part....dummy! Another faux pas was I wanted to make the dark layer a black cherry color because that's the main scent, but I used way to much black oxide, and I was left with this purplish thing.

With all that being said, the soap smells great! Like I said, it's black cherry with a little smooch of cassis (because I wanted to get rid of that literal drop left in the bottle). Yeah, this soap is very lotharious (yes, I made that up) indeed. Oh, and it's made with olive oil, organic palm oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and castor oil.

VICTORIOUS!!!

Like I said in my previous post, the key to a successful salt bar (in my opinionated opinion) is using a silicone mold with individual cavities. That way you don't have to line the mold or worry about the damn thing crumbling up when you slice it. I also changed the scent completely. I was not feeling the floral thing-I'm just not a floral lover at all. So....without further ado, meet the new and much improved Buffy The Dead Skin Slayer! She's gorgeous, aint she? I love her beautiful peachy exterior and her dead skin-slaying weapon of choice is dendritic salt covered in sharp, crisp bergamot with a couple of splatters of what else but blood orange-the perfect weapon for sloughing and annihilating flaky, peel-y skin!

I'm really loving this one! And it's a very limited edition. I'll only have 6 bars in stock. These are pretty hefty weighing in at almost 6 oz each. These bars are rough and rugged-like I like my men, hee hee. I will not be prettying these up. So, whattaya think?

The Fruits of My Labor...All Shot To Sh....

Happy Labor Day!

Since I had a 3-day weekend away from working for the man, I decided to take the plunge and make my first cold process salt bar. It looked fantastic in the mold (why didn't I take a picture??). It was a lovely shade of pale pink and it smelled divine-very floral and feminine. Then I cut it, and this is what I got:

Chopped and screwed soap! In my research, I read that the soap sets up fast-okay, I get that. What I didn't realize is that I should have sliced the soap immediately after it did set. After about 2.5 hours in the mold, it was rock-hard. As I cut the first slice, it literally crumbled-f#%$%! As I cut the second slice, it crumbled worst than the first-sh#%$! And so on, and so on, and so on....

Thank goodness this was merely a test batch. Lesson learned? Don't make salt bars in loaf molds. I'm sticking with my individual cavity silicone molds thank-you-very-much. One of my FB fans told me I had instant soap samples, and you know what? She's right! I'll be giving these away with every order til they're all gone, and that's about 20 orders' worth! Now back to the salt mines....

Simply Soap

I’m so fortunate not to have sensitive skin to the point where it’s irritated by perfumes or fragrances. A huge part of me is dictated by scent. It determines my mood. It brings back memories of important events in my life. It helps to start and end each waking moment. I decided to create a soap for those who can’t or won’t tolerate a lot of scent in their soap. This one is lightly scented in with the blissful aroma of peppermint and rosemary. I didn’t color the soap at all, but the slight tint you see is from the raw shea butter that I used. Have I mentioned enough how much I now love shea butter? I’m seriously thinking of making it a permanent ingredient in all my soaps, but this stuff is really expensive. I only use raw or unrefined shea butter because I’ve been reading that refined shea butter actually removes a lot of the moisturizing and healing properties its known for during the refining process. I also learned that shea butter is a natural SPF (not significantly so, but every little bit helps!) Loving my shea butter..

Deep-Seeded Has A New Look

I love my 2 lb silicone molds that I got from Wholesale Supplies Plus, but I have to admit that I'm not crazy about how small the soaps are when I cut them. Yeah, yeah, I could just make more than one batch at a time, but I'm lazy and like to do everything in one swoop. So I've decided to use these strictly to test new fragrances to see how well they sell, and if they do great, then I'll upgrade them to my tried and true wooden slab molds that I buy from Candles and Woodcrafts.

Old Version

With that being said, I've upgraded my old Deep-Seeded to a bigger and brighter version. It's scented in cucumber melon and the seeds are poppy seeds. I love poppy seeds-in and on soap. I don't like poppy seeds in my food though. Weird, huh? Anyway, I'm using my new oxides from TKB Trading Co-love these! They're so pigmented-a little goes a long way. I love how these turned out. The ends are a little crumbly from my cutting them to soon after un-molding them, but once you use it for the first time, it all comes back together.

Side Note: I know this is tacky, but....If you were one of the commenters who "won" one of my Neo Deo samples, please e-mail me-thesoapseduction@verizon.net with your mailing address so I can send your sample! Thanks:)

Gilded Chocolate Soap

Finally, a chocolate-scented soap I can truly be proud of! The key? Why adding real cocoa powder of course! I scented this soap in Chocolate Truffle, and it's totally colored with Hershey's cocoa powder (and the natural darkening due to the vanilla content.) This soap smells so much like a real Godiva chocolate (I much prefer Godiva to Hershey's, lol) that I literally want to bite into it. I wanted to really create thick, swirly peaks at the top, but I didn't whiz the soap long enough. I compensated for it by brushing the top with this irridescent mica powder to give it this fabulous golden sheen.

Now that you know what's on it, here's what's in it: Rice bran oil (rich in protein, minerals, and vitamins, especially E, and absorbs easily into the skin ), organic palm oil (a tad costlier, but very eco friendly and a natural anti-oxidant), and avocado oil (uber-moisturizing). This soap will be ready in two weeks-I just couldn't wait to share:)!

Fake Tan

I was inspired by all the Jersey Shore and Jersylicious hype. I've never watched a single episode, but they're all over the gossip and entertainment blogs. What struck me was how horribly tanned some of the cast members were-some to the point where they looked burnt orange. So here I am with Fake Tan. You won't get sunburned or melanoma from using this soap, but it should bring a smile to your face-just as Snooki's trademark bumped up hairdo does whenever I look at her. Fake Tan is scented in bergamot, mandarin, coconut, and mango and is made with primarily olive and avocado oils. This one's still slightly tanning but will be ready in about two weeks!

Don't forget to enter the Lily Queen giveaway (if you haven't already!)

OMG (Oat My Gosh) Soap!

Okay, here's the story behind this soap: I absolutely love Usher's new song, OMG! I find myself singing it all the freaking time. I was in the process of actually making another batch of Milk & Honey soap when I started singing OMG, and then it all came to me like an epiphany: Don't just do the standard oatmeal, milk & honey soap. Do oatmeal-with a twist! There's no OMH scent at all in this batch. It's actually almond and tangerine scented. Different huh?  Doesn't it look like a big ole granola bar? I'm really digging it. This one's made with olive oil, sunflower oil, organic palm oil, coconut oil, and a shot of castor, lol...

Oh, I forgot to also mention this is my very first goat's milk soap! I had some powdered goat's milk, but wasn't quite sure how to incorporate it into my batch. What you do is add the powdered milk to 2-3 oz of your oils, mix well, then add to your soap batter at trace. Worked like a charm. Oh, and I only used 1 tbsp of goat's milk powder per 8 oz of water. Since this was a small batch, I only used 1 tbsp. Nice.....

A Little Contest: Name This Soap and Win It!

For once in a really long time, I am stumped for a name for my latest soap! Here's the scoop: I intended for this batch to be another Edward Cullen, but I didn't have enough soap balls for the top, and I apparently didn't use enough scent, because it's virtually unscented. What I did use was bergamot & mandarin with blood orange essential oil, but it's barely detectable. Therefore, I need a cheeky, sassy name for it. It can be a play on words, a saying, whatever...The name just needs to fall in with my other stuff. The cheekier the better. Thank you Lisa for inspiring me because I have been spending too much time trying to figure this out...

The contest will end, oh, I don't know...a week?

Finally...A Coconut That Holds Up in The Lye Monster!

I'm a day late and a bubble short, but last fall Joanna at The Soap Bar had this contest for the best coconut soap. I have tried many coconut fragrances, and each time they morphed in the soap-either you couldn't smell it, or it was just off. I did make a semi-successful batch with mango coconut although that one was really faint. I decided to try one last time, and you know what? The dang fragrance has been discontinued!!! It's Coconut Cream Pie from Wholesale Supplies Plus, and it's gone!

The holes you see in the soap are not lye pockets, but a design experiment gone horribly awry. I attempted to put some cut soap in between, but it reached trace really quickly, and it just looked horrible. I tried to swirl the holes out, but it was too thick by then, but it's all good. I channeled Holly over at Sparklebrook and sprinkled some glitter on top to jazz it up some. I'm very pleased with the turnout. It actually smells like coconut!!!

Killa Vanilla

Using a vanilla fragrance can be a killer in your soaps (cold processed and hot processed. Stabilizers only work for me in melt and pour.)-especially if you have a certain aesthetic in mind. I learned that the hard way, but as I mature in my soap making ventures, I've learned to go with the flow and work with, instead of against, the brown-headed beast!

 (As of this post, the soap is now twice as dark-and delicious)

I intentionally added a white swirl (unscented of course) to this soap because I knew it would turn doo doo brown as it cured. I also added powdered milk to this recipe-my first attempt. I added 2 tbsp to a little bit of my soaping oils, mixed very well, then added that to the main batch at a light trace. It reminds me of a cheesecake brownie, but it smells like a sweet, sticky bun. Since I'm weening myself off of all these sugary delights, I might as well shower with a soap that smell like them instead.

I Call This One Loofapalooza

(I was too lazy to re-shoot these...)

for a few reasons:

1. It's grungy-looking with a dirty-denim-tannish exterior.
2. It smells like..umm..a guy? But I can totally see chicks using this soap.
3. Duh...it's got loofah in it! The top is actually blue, ground loofah.

I'm slowly getting out of my rut. Slowly.

Some New Soap

 

 Fresh off my April Fool's coup, I almost forgot about this little number. I am making some major changes at TSS, and it's a lot of work. I hate work, lol. This is supposed to be fun. Anyhoo, I'm still playing with my newest obsession, that brushed-mica look. This soap was looking too much like Melony Gardenia even with the pale pink inside. I solved my conundrum (I have a co-worker who uses "big" words like conundrum to try to make herself sound extra intelligent...) by bringing out the pink by brushing the top with this magenta-like mica. I'm liking it now. Oh, I forgot to tell you what it smells like. Duh...I blended peppermint, patchouli, grapefruit, and fir needle essential oils. Umm, it's a little different. Name is pending..

Next up, I'll have a sneak peek of my new website. I'm so psyched!

A Nameless, Green Soap

Green is the color of life! The color of success! The color of most of my soaps, lol! If you haven't figured it out by now, green is my favorite color-jade, emerald, peridot, lime, pistachio, mint, booger...

BEHOLD:  My latest green clean: ummm, I have no witty name yet:(

It's scented in lemongrass and sage, and I sprinkled the top with cut lemongrass. I'm so ig'nant: I thought lemongrass was yellow and smelled like lemons-DUH! It's grass, HELLO!! It's very sweet and fresh-smelling. I loves it! Okay, I know I'm not the only one with a DUH moment. I'm not ashamed to admit that the light bulb flickers sometimes...

UPDATE: I've decided to name this delight Splendor In The Grass...