Gittin' Down With The Swirl!

Funneling, funneling through the town, soapy bells are ring-ing…LMAO!

Okay, here are the next new batches I’ve made: Verbena of My Existence and Melting Pot, but for you plain folk: Lemon Verbena and Sandalwood and Musk.

When I make soap, there’s always a story to be told. It’s never a matter of choosing scents solely based on the description of the supplier. I must inhale and FEEL something. I don’t just make soap to sell soap. Okay, in part, but I make soap mainly because it’s cathartic and the scent I’ve chosen has or has had some type of impact on my life. So let’s get started:

Verbena Of My Existence:

I love all things lemon. Lemonheads, lemonade, lemon squares, lemon cake (my grandmother’s specialty), Mike’s Hard Lemonade… but this lemon is special. It’s so sophisticated and feminine and…soft for lack of a better description. I first became enamored of this scent when I visited a L’Occitane shop many moons ago. It blew me away. It smelled like paradise and transported me to some upscale resort on a private oasis.

Melting Pot:

This soap got its name because it’s scented with a modge podge of international flavors. Soft, powdery Indian musk, alluring African Sandalwood, and cedarwood. Swirled like Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life, this soap is how I envision a world with no prejudices, no wars, no political strife…One can only hope…

I utilized the funneling technique to achieve the design these soaps. I discovered an easy peasy technique from The Soap Queen’s blog. You take an old plastic container (I used a margarine tub) and poke a hole through bottom.  The key is you have to have a container that’s wide enough to rest on the walls of your soap mold or it’s basically fruitless. You could have someone hold the funnel for you while you pour or try the chopstick method where you criss-cross them then tape them down and let your funnel rest in the middle. You could also do the faux funnel pour. Been there. Done that. Don’t work for me… You also need to have a very thin trace in order to achieve this swirl. Really you only need to emulsify your oils to the point where everything is mixed. By the time you pour your last or next to the last bit, your soap batter is beginning to thicken if it hasn’t already. Ask me how I know these things…

So this concludes batches 4 and 5. Next up…Black Coffee.

 

Bitch Post #12: You Call It Castile, I Call It Baloney!

Time for a new pic...I look nothing like this anymore, lol!

I haven’t done a bitch post in a long time, and I’m long overdue! Bitching is so therapeutic, and one of my biggest pet peeves is misinformation (or misleading information)-of any kind. When I see listings for Castile soap, the first thing I look at are the ingredients, and guess what? Eight times out of ten, I’ll see something like this:

Olive oil, coconut oil….

Wrong. WRONG. WRONG!

A true Castile soap has only one oil: Olive. If a soap has filler oils even in the most minute amounts, then it cannot be called a true Castile soap. Amy from The Olde Crone has a good word for those soaps: Bastile, or bastardized Castile soap. One thing about Castile soaps that I like but others may find a real turnoff, is the lather. The lather is dense and creamy-not very bubbly-although I’ve seen some Castile soaps that have cured for up to a year (I personally can barely wait 3-4 weeks, yet alone a year for a soap to cure) and the lather was sick-as in frothy and abundant. 

Stone Washed Denim

 I have made only 2 Castile soaps in my three years of making cold and hot processed soaps. The first one I made back in late 2008? I called it Stone Washed Denim, and it was scented in a clean cotton scent. I did notice that the bars were still kind of soft even after about a month, so I let them sit. And sit. And sit.  I would say these bars did not fully cure until about month 3. I sold the last bar probably about 6 months after I listed it, and it was rock hard. That experience deterred me from making another Castile soap-until now.

Castile My Beating Heart

Castile My Beating Heart

This new batch of Castile soap I call Castile My Beating Heart (after Sting’s Be Still My Beating Heart). It’s colorless and scented in a blend of chamomile, neroli, and sweet orange essential oils. I’m not a big fan of chamomile, so I wanted to get rid of what I had. It’s a little too strong for my liking, so I cut it with the sweet orange, but it didn’t do much good. It might as well be chamomile soap. Any way, I CPOP’ed this batch, and it’s made a noticeable difference in the cutting and curing time. I waited a day to actually un-mold and slice the soap, and my knife glided (Why did I almost type glode as in ride/rode?) right through it. There was no sticky residual soap left on my knife. After 3 weeks, the soap is about 90% firm, but I’m going to let this one cure for at least another month. I sprinkled the tops with calendula, cut lemongrass, and poppy seeds because it was just too naked. So….

I know there are varying opinions on this subject, and I welcome your thoughts.

Side Bar: Speaking of long overdue, this blog was long overdue for a makeover. I'm a colorful person (Absolutely no pun intended), and I needed my blog to reflect that, so KA-BLAMMO!!!  I told my new graphics designer to go buck wild-like Skittles on acid. I not only wanted you to taste the rainbow, but swallow it...You like?

A New Resource For Snewbies!

Yes, I made that word up! A snewbie is a soap making newbie. I get questions all the time about how I do what I do, or what the science is behind making soap and so forth. Believe it or not, it's hard for me to articulate how I do what I do because I don't follow the rules. I initially learned how to make soap from the ground up-meaning I've read books, and I've watched video, and I've practiced, practiced, and practiced some more! Now that I'm comfortable and confident with the process, I've made changes, adjustments, and bent-more like twisted-the rules to suit my own personal style. Because of that, I've admittedly abandoned some of the fundamentals. I was recently given the opportunity to read a brand new e-book all about making soap. It's called The Super Soap Making Book: A Beginner's Guide To Soap Making.

Let me just say that I was very skeptical about reading yet another book on how to make soap because everyone does things differently, and I have a one-track mind. In other words, don't confuse me or try to make me go against everything I already believe in! I can't take it LOL! But I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It's both entertaining and informative-just my type of instructional read. I especially love the section on the history of soap. I did not know (okay, did not put together in my feeble brain) that Palmolive soap was named so because it's two main ingredients before it became commercialized were palm and olive oils-DUH! I just thought palmolive was a real word-double duh!

I also love how this book breaks down the main types of soap making: cold process, hot process, melt and pour, and re-batching. Everything is detailed in plain speak-You know how us soapers tend to speak a language only we know which in turn confuses the hell out of a non-soap maker. This book also offers easy, doable beginner recipes, as well as entire chapters on the business of soap making and useful tips and resources.

Enough yakkity-yak. Snewbies (and you old-timers), this is a worthwhile read, and no, I was not paid to write this review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

CPOP Soap: Blackberry Sage

I have been dying to try this technique for so long, but being the creature of habit that I am, I live by the mantra "If it aint broke..." I am impatient in every aspect of my life. I constantly need instant gratification. Sad, but true. I'd love to try HP (hot process) soap making some day, but I'm just being lazy about it. Truthfully, I love cold process soap making-except I hate the long cure process. So, I discovered the best of both processes: CPOP-cold process, oven process soap making. What's that? I wanted to know too, so I went in search of some answers, and found them on the soapcrafters.com site:

"In CPOP soap after the soap reaches trace and any colors, fragrance, or additives are mixed in, it is poured into an oven-safe mold and put in an oven that has been pre-heated to 170 degrees. The oven is left on for an hour. After that hour, the oven is turned off and the soap is left in the oven for another 11- 12 hours."

DISCLAIMER: I did not follow the recipe posted on the SoapCrafters site.

I used my own recipe using olive, palm, coconut, castor, and avocado oils. Here's a shot of the soap after letting it bake for an hour. Note that I'm using a wooden mold and I set it on an old baking sheet (which you can't see.) It goes without saying that if you try this, you must use an oven-safe, heat-safe mold. Silicone would work well also. It looked faded and pasty as if the life had been sucked out of it.


Here's a photo of the soap un-molded after more than 11 hours in the stove (I'm not basting a turkey here, so it just sat in the oven overnight.) So far, so good. The soap looks fantastic! It's as hard as a brick and looks ready to go! An added bonus to cpop-ing: It fills your home with delicious fragrance for hours!


And here's the final product-cut and nearly ready for use! I have to say that this is one fine looking soap! It's smooth and hard and show no signs of botchery (yeah, I made that word up, LOL.) I did the tongue zap test, and no zip, zap, or zing! By my calculations, this soap will be ready the 1st week of January. Now how's that for cp soap making!?

Funneled Soap-A Botched Soap Tale

If you're a soap maker or a fan of handmade soaps then you've probably heard of the funneling technique. I'm not sure who created it, but it's the perfect way to make swirls for the swirl-challenged like myself. I got the original tutorial here from Lomond Soap. It's a very simple concept, but realistically, you need two people to do this neatly. You should have seen me trying to tie these wooden skewers all criss-crossed so I could get my funnel to stay in place. I'm still laughing my ass off at the mess I made.

Anyway, the scent I used was Cranberry Fig from Sweet Cakes, and I'm not a huge fan of cranberry or fig (but I love cranberry juice and Fig Newtons-go figure!) I mixed a little Blackberry Grapefruit in to try to take the edge off the fig, but it didn't work. The brick color is red oxide and the violet is ultramarine violet. I went a little too heavy on the red, but getting back to the story, I only added my fragrance to the red batter. While I had my funnel nice and centered, I began to pour both mixtures simultaneously. I had a good flow going (literally) til the dang red batter seized on me mid pour. Can you believe this sh$%!? It clogged my funnel all up, so I had to move with the quickness! The bottom and middle parts look okay, but the top is botch-y. I had to spread it like cake icing, but it's not bad. It smells really wonderful-if you're a cranberry and/or fig fan. I used the last of my palm oil (from Columbus Foods whom I've learned uses sustainable palm oil. Thanks, Joanna for the knowledge) to make this one. It also has avocado, castor, and soybean oils. I think it's a keeper. Tomorrow I'll post yet another new soap!

Getting Down With The Swirl!

(Pic taken from Burnt Mill Candles & Soaps)

That's a little play on words because this phrase actually means different things to different people. I'm using this term to mean swirling soap colors. One of my biggest challenges as a soap maker has been how to achieve all those beautiful swirls that you see in many of your favorite cold processed soaps. I briefly mentioned this a few posts back when I talked about Saponifier mag's Best Swirl Contest. I also mentioned that they were offering a book dedicated to the various swirl techniques: cold and hot processed swirling, swirling in the pot, swirling with multiple colors, even m&p swirling! I had to have this book! It was available in 3 formats: booklet form, cd form, and a PDF download. You know which one I got right? The instamatic PDF download baby!!!

I tore into this book, and guess who was one of the guest "swirlers"? Misty from Burnt Mill Candles & Soaps! Misty, you didn't tell me you're a published star!!! I always wondered how you made your soaps look so beautiful, and now I do. It's going to take some practice, but I'm going to give it a try. I'll post pics soon!