Dirt Diver Soap

Another old favorite...

It amazes me that there is an actual fragrance that smells like dirt. I, mean, actual, potting soil dirt. Call me weird, but I love it! And so do a few other kooks who can't seem to get enough of it.

I'll admit that I'm not brave enough to shower with this one, and I love using it as a kitchen soap.

The Verbena of My Existence

The evolution of a soap...Lemon verbena is one of my most favorite scents. It's soft with a hint of lemon and flowery essence with a buttery-like finish. I never design this soap the same. Come to think of it, I almost never design any of my soap scents the same...This soap is part of a holiday gift set I'm planning. It will be a variety of lemon scents. Pics to come...

I decided to keep the design simple this time.

When I was young and fancy...

Another Castile Soap

Another Castile soap…scented in essential oils of lemon, sage, and ginger…Again what is Castile soap? It is soap made with a formula of 100% olive oil-meaning no other oils or butters were used in the making of this soap. This soap is still so friggin soft even after 3 days in the mold! I steeped some grated lemon peel in my lye solution to give it a sunny yellow color which of course you can’t see cause I didn’t angle the soaps right duh…I sprinkled the tops with some dried calendula.

I’ll have to let this soap cure for at least 3 months-just in time for the holidays. I’m hoping it will be rock hard by then…

It's Loofahpalooza 2k14!

New year. New look...I love putting "stuff" in soap lol and loofah is one of my faves. The grocery store near my job was selling footlong loofah's for around $4 and it was divine intervention because I swear I was looking for loofah on Etsy and other suppliers. Score!!!!

Anyway, this one's about as all-natural as it's gonna get-no coloring and scented with litsea cubeba (May Chang). It's very sweet with a heavenly citrus aroma almost like a flowery orange for lack of a better description. I love it! Yup, that's about all I can say...

The Big Damn Chocolate Bar...Soap

 This is one of my faves because I'm a lazy soap maker (meaning I have no patience for intricate design and pattern). It's so easy-no frills, no fuss, no pomp and circumstance...This soap mixture really reminded me of whipping up cake batter. I added real cocoa powder to my soap oils, then whipped til thick. I used a proprietary blend of chocolate fragrances, then poured into my mold. To keep the soap from looking too "ordinary", I whipped it to a very thick track so I could create swirlies on top. And that's it...

I Made Soap!

Just a few photos of my latest version of Bay Rum...

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:)

An Old Favorite

My all-time favorite scent...ever? Me think so...

 Black Raspberry Vanilla

I wish they made bubblegum in this flavor

I shall expand this scent throughout my product line

A Sample Box Soap

 

I'm getting my feet wet again. I have not made any soap since August! Caribbean Queen is one of my favorite, yet most challenging soaps to make. I love the scent-very tropical and fruity. The technique on the other hand, requires a quick hand. This is only my second time making this particular soap because I incorporate 4 different colors. However, in this photo, you can really only see 3, maybe 3-1/2 lol...I used yellow for the base, then swirled green, purple, and what was supposed to be a pinkish/red, but it turned out lavender, so it looks like purple, lavender, and green.

But it's all good! It smells heavenly, and it's for a sample box I'm participating in this month.

Just A Few Pics

I made 2 batches over the weekend! Major feat...seriously. I'll post the deets when I cut and photograph them:)

African Black Soap

 I've always been curious about African Black Soap. I read on all kinds of forums how wonderful it is for the skin, specifically, problem skin which I was born with it seems, so I decided that I wanted to make some. But when I read how the soap is actually made, I was like "How in the hell am I supposed to do that???" So I gave up....

Well lo and behold, one of my favorite suppliers, Elements Bath and Body offered an additive called coconut carbon, which is purportedly one of the active ingredients in the making of African black soap, I jumped on it. Of course, I was hoping my soap would look traditionally like this:

But this is my result:

Duh...of course, it's gonna be black. The coconut carbon is a fine, powdery substance, much like activated charcoal, and a little goes a long way. I scented this batch in a blend of eucalyptus and tea tree essential oils and sprinkled some dried calendula on top just because...I can't wait to personally test this soap. I love the medicinal smell of it. I wish I would have made these in my cubed mold though. Maybe next time...

So Yeah, It's Been Six Months...

I had no idea it's been this long since my last post! This blog was my baby for four years, and what turned into a mini hiatus turned into a missing persons alert. Seriously though, all this social media stuff made my head want to explode you know? I've all but given up Twitter and Facebook, and I've been creating sparingly. I need my mojo back!!! Come back mojo!!! Hope everyone had a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan (If I missed something, sorry...). We survived the Mayan prediction of the "end" (But really, I think that can be interpreted in so many other ways-like the end of human kindness and compassion.) Let's all make soap and be happy!

Anyway, I did sneak some soap making into my life. Here are a few pics:

Black Raspberry Vanilla-My love for funneling has not grown tiresome yet

 

There's Beer In My Soap Soap: My first and probably last beer soap. I made it with MGD Lime beer and scented it with patchouli and lime EO. I love it, but it's not selling at all. Like my "hops"? They're dried calendula, lol!

Perfect Rose soap: No artificial colors or fragrances. I used French red clay and palmarosa EO

Goatmeal Soap: It's scented in Oatmeal Milk & Honey and made with powdered goat's milk and oats. I love this one! It's like taking a shower with an oatmeal mask, lol.

Sorta Kinda Back From Oblivion…With New Bubblage!

Hello lovelies. It’s been a while.  This blog was in need of a good dusting so I thought I’d post a couple of pics of some soap I made almost 2 months ago! These are about 75% all-natural (The coconut oil is non-organic, and there’s no such thing as organic lye which you absolutely must have to make soap, and I used oxides to color some of these.) These soaps are also scented in pure essential oils (very expensive essential oils compared to synthetic fragrance oils). I’m still training my brain that when it comes to essential oils (or EO’s as I will refer to them) that less is more, and that many of these scents have a very noticeable plant-like aroma (Duh…) I’m so used to my fruity, bakery-scented fragrances that smell so sugary-sweet and dainty, but there is something simplistic, yet elegant about a product that is scented with a straight essential oil. But enough of the chit-chatter, let’s get to it, shall we?

First Up is Your Ass is (Lemon)Grass. I really love the smell of lemongrass. It’s so clean and uplifting. It does have a slight lemony aroma, but if you’ve never smelled lemongrass before, don’t expect this to smell like “lemons”. Lemongrass is said to have anti-depressant, anti-bacterial, and sedative properties. I mixed a little bit of cedarwood with this one. I wanted to merge two contrasting aromas (dainty vs. dashing), but dainty won out. I think you can detect a small hint of the cedarwood, but not much methinks. Of course I had to top it all off with a few slivers of cut lemongrass.

 Next up is Mary Jane. I made this soap with organic hemp seed oil, and it stinks so good. I put no added scent in this particular batch. I wanted the hemp to be the star, but sadly, the natural aroma has faded significantly as it cured. The only saving graces are the natural greenish color, and the lather in this sucker! I have a bar of this one in my shower now, and I love working it up in my wash cloth just to see the bubbles form. Oh, for those who don’t know, hemp seed oil is derived from the seed of the hemp plant, cannabis sativa (yeah, the same plant  used to cultivate weed, grass, herb, reefer, smoke, kush, …marijuana). Okay, I’m slightly exaggerating. This particular cannabis used to make hemp seed oil is grown for industrial use (Yeah, sure…so they say…) Anyway, it makes one lovely soap. I just love the frothy bubblage this one produces…

A Little Handmade Soap 101

 Image courtesy of All Saints Regional Catholic High School

I tend to have a one-track mind. Because I make soap and have befriended a lot of soap makers and soap buyers, I expect everyone to know what I'm talking about when I use soap making terms like "trace", "superfat", and "seize".  But not everyone does-not even some newbie soap makers. We have to remember that when we're communicating to our customers and potential customers, we have to speak in layman's terms, but that doesn't always happen. I can't tell you how many shop announcements or soap descriptions I've read that contain a lot of soap speak. I know what they're talking about, but does the average online shopper looking to buy some handmade soap know what you're talking about if you tell them all your soaps are 5% superfatted and cure for a minimum of 6 weeks? You mean the soap is sick before you sell it? WTF?!

So, I've decided to create a little glossary for you to familiarize yourself with a few terms you may run across when you're buying soap. This in no ways cover it all, but here are a few basics:

The Main Types of Soap Making

• Cold process or CP: A method of making soap without utilizing any external heat source
• Hot process or HP: A method of making soap utilizing an external heat source (such as an oven or a crock pot) to speed up the saponification process
• Cold process/Oven Process or CPOP: A method of making soap by preparing it the cold process way then putting it into a warm oven (generally 175 deg or less) for an hour to accelerate the saponification process
• MP/M&P: A method of making soap utilizing a pre-made soap base by cutting and melting it down then pouring it into a mold

Common Soap Making Terms

• Saponification: The actual process of soap being formed by combining a base (your fats, that is oils and butters) with an alkali (your sodium or potassium hydroxide) to produce soap (your hardened fats and glycerin)
• Superfat: The un-saponified or "leftover" fats that remain in your soap once the saponification process is complete. Many CP or HP soaps are superfatted to retain some of the moisturizing properties of the fats used to make the soap.
• Cure: The period of time between making the soap and the soap actually being ready for use or sale. You will commonly see that many soap makers allow their soaps to cure for 4-6 weeks. This allows for all of the water to finish drying out of the soap thus making the bar harder, and to also increase mildness. Cure times vary depending on the method of soap making used. For HP and CPOP, the cure time is much shorter, often being ready to use in 3 weeks or less. There is no cure time for MP soap because there are no caustics (lyes) or added water involved.

Miscellaneous, But Good To Know

• Surfactant: A detergent-often used in commercial "soap" bars to increase lather (such as sodium lauryth sulfate)
• INCI: The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients-the scientific naming of ingredients other than the English equivalent. All soaps labeled in the US should contain the INCI names.

 This concludes your introductory lesson as this only scratches the surface. There will be more to come.