Soap Challenge #3 - Mica Swirled Tops

I am a little behind on my challenges...  I'm really enjoying doing them, but as this is a pretty busy time, I haven't had as much time to play with these new techniques as I wanted.  Having said that, I was a little apprehensive about doing mica swirled tops.  I've seen blog posts by Emily at Sheih Design Studio with her amazing and creative mica tops, and I was a little intimidated to try myself.

I looked at what cool micas I had that would be good for a swirl, found that I had a beautiful gold mica from Brambleberry and built a recipe around that mica.  I had some lemongrass essential oil and wanted to try a blend with spearmint EO, and the colors that made the most sense to me were yellow and green.  I had some spearmint leaves for some texture in the soap, and I felt good to go.

I colored the bottom half yellow, used a cocoa powder pencil line, and made the top green so that I could use the super pearly white and gold micas for the swirl top.  I didn't have any pipettes, but luckily, I had given my husband a molecular mixology set for Christmas which had pipettes, so I repurposed a couple (shhh, don't tell him...)

Here's what the wet soap mica swirls looked like:

I was so pleased with how these turned out!  They kind of look like a tapestry, honestly.  I stuck them in the oven overnight to gel, and the house smelled so good.  The blend was lemongrass, spearmint, and frankincense EOs, but it smells kind of like lemon cake to me right now.

Here's what the soaps look like when cured:

Still looking good!

Some of the beauty of the swirls was lost when the bars were cut, but I really love the colors. If I had a better close up, you could see the spearmint leaves as added texture inside the bar.  Unfortunately, the light wasn't great this morning for pics.

I'm definitely doing this technique again.  I want to try it with textured tops, too.  It was easier than I thought, and it makes these soaps look so polished and fancy!

The only thing I noticed when unmolding, though, is that the mica on top was starting to rub off on my hands...  Has anyone who has tried this technique noticed the same thing? Did I use too much mica?  

~Chrissy

66 bars of soap on the table ... 66 bars of soap!

So, I worked pretty hard the other night, used up all the log molds I have, and made a bunch of honey oatmeal soap.  I have a palm- and coconut- free recipe for my sensitive skin friends, and I thought I would mass produce some honey soap.  I made 2 large batches - 33 bars each.

That's a whole lot of soap, you say.  Yes, I know, because I had to carry it all out to the garage to cool down, and then back inside once it was cool...

 Here are the first logs I cut into:

These are my 2-lb log molds.  I love them, but I haven't used them much lately.

I love how creamy this soap looks!

I had a 5-lb loaf, too, but I don't have pics of that one.  Interestingly, the freezer paper was all damp when I unmolded, and I had to peel a bunch of little paper bits off of the soap log.  I've never had that happen before.

Here they are after cutting.  The color will lighten in a few days.  I have them curing in their own room so that they do not pick up the scents of the other soaps, since this is an unscented, uncolored batch.

Unfortunately, these batches were not without their issues.  When I tried to unmold the SH mold, I really struggled getting the edge pieces away from the soap.  I should know by now that there's a reason they're difficult to get pulled off, but I just muscled through, and here's what happened when I twisted off one side...

Yep, soap was not ready to be unmolded.  The edge piece has a chunk of my soap attached now.

I will let these 3 logs just wait a little more.  I will unmold them when they're ready and not before :)

~Chrissy

Soap Challenge 2013 - Elemental Swirl

For week 2 of the Soap Challenge, the technique is the Elemental Swirl.  Here is the link to her blog with the pictures of other soaper's creations as well as a little more info on the Elemental Swirl.

I really struggled with what to do with this elemental swirl.  I wasn't sure about the colors to use (I have a relatively limited selection of colorants - mainly oxides, micas, and natural colorants).  I wasn't even sure about what scent I wanted to make.

So, I looked at DesignSeeds for some inspiration:

Inspiration photo from DesignSeeds at:  http://design-seeds.com/index.php/home/entry/flora-tones20

I love these colors, and I figured I could get close enough with the colorants I have.  For scent, I have had a spearmint and ginger EO blend on my list of things to try.  To balance it out a little more, I added some coriander EO I had laying around (This is a very expensive soap - these EOs aren't cheap...)

I rolled up my sleeves, turned on the Elton John Pandora station on my computer downstairs and started creating.

Here is the soap log before and after cutting.  I really love how the colors turned out!  I didn't have very high expectations for this soap, but it was really fun to do, and I like how it turned out.  The "green" smell of the EO blends and the flower-like colors really make me wish spring was here already.

Here are some of my favorite shots of the cut soap.  The swirls turned out great, but I wish I had poured a little more forcefully to get a wavy pencil line.

One more for good measure:

The colors aren't exactly like the DesignSeeds palette above, but I am proud of how this soap turned out!

~Chrissy

Amy Warden's Soap Challenge 2013 - Tiger Stripes

Hey everyone - I have not been as active on the blog this past week or so.  It's getting to be spring here (finally!) and there is so much to do!  I'm working on some pretty exciting things that I should be able to share in the next month or so.

This post is my submission (even though I am blogging too late to be included in Great Cakes Soapworks' list for this week) for her Tiger Stripes challenge.  Many of you are familiar with the challenge, but for those of you who are not, Amy Warden has hosted Soap Challenges for the past two years for soapers to try out new techniques in soap designs and styles.  I didn't participate in this challenge last year, but I am very excited for this year.  She has 4 challenges:  Tiger Stripes, Elemental Swirl, Mica Swirl Tops, and Leopard Spots.

This is the first soap my husband and I worked on together, and it was pretty fun!

He even did the swirls on the tops for the left and center logs!

I decided to use purple, black and white for my tiger stripes in a Black Raspberry Vanilla scent, since I needed to make some more in that scent.  I am using Rich's 3-log set-up of my mold, and I needed my husband to help me out with the pouring.  The reason I used the 3-log set-up is that I wanted to try the tiger stripes at thin trace, medium trace and thick trace to see how this impacts the soap design.

At least that was my theory :)  I really struggled to get the soap even to medium trace for the last log, which was odd.  I guess I was so nervous about it thickening up too quickly that I was light-handed with the mixing.

Here is the first log we poured - it has weird soap flakes on the edges where it was cut.  This was actually the last log cut, and even though I wiped the wires off between cuttings, I may not have wiped well enough...

The second log did not turn out how I expected at all...  I think it's because we didn't do a great job of pouring directly on top of the soap batter line beneath, but it turned out some pretty awesome soaps:

I love the faces on these bars - there were probably 3 or 4 bars that had these faces.  The rest were some kind of impressionistic swirl :)

The third log was the most tiger stripe-like.  In between pouring each log, we stick-blended and whisked the batter to get it to thicken up a little more.  These looked the most clean, even though they weren't exactly what I was looking for:

Here are my favorite two of the bunch:

The faces on the second loaf just crack me up!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

~Chrissy

Spam!!

I have been paying attention lately to how popular this blog seems to be getting, which makes me really proud!

One new measure of popularity that I seem to have achieved is my very first spam comment!  I haven't come up with a plan for how to deal with spam comments yet (I hadn't figured I'd get them yet...)

Image from Tom Sweeney, startribune.com

Question for you bloggers out there - how do you deal with non-offensive spam comments?  I do not mean for illegal things or porn sites (which will immediately be deleted), but in my instance, a comment was made with a link goes to a website that sells dog shampoo.  Up until now, I haven't moderated comments, and now I need to develop a plan to address spam.

I'd love to hear how you deal with it!

~Chrissy

Dog Shampoo Bars Update

The dog shampoo bars are finally able to get animal tested :)  Fortunately, the two dogs were very dirty and stinky; perfect test subjects!  I only wash them about once a month, and with all the melting snow outside, they're definitely in need of a bath.

They hate baths - I'm sure they find them extremely degrading.  This is how their baths normally go:  I convince one unsuspecting dog to come in the bathroom with me.  I stick it in the bathtub (and they both start to freak out).  I get the one in the tub wet, get it all sudsy with my liquid dog shampoo, rinse it off, and wrap it in a towel to dry off a little.  Then I *try* to dry the first one with my hair dryer.  The wet one will run around the bathroom, rubbing his / her head, back, sides, and everything else on the floor (or me) as I try to get them to sit still while I attempt to get them as dry as possible.  Once released from the bathroom, they both run around the house like nutburgers, rubbing their entire bodies all over the carpet, furniture, and anything else they can find.  Then, it's time to repeat the process with the other one, who is so much harder to corral into the bathroom, since he / she knows what's coming...

So, with that bit of background, here's how today's dog bathing went.

Hobbes (on the top) was the unsuspecting first dog.  The soap bar I made is right next to their usual shampoo from a big box pet store in the picture on the top left.  This part went as expected with both Hannah and Hobbes.

Then, it was time for the washing.

Man, wet dogs are nearly impossible photo models!  They also look so tiny when wet, like oversized rats.

It's tough to see from this picture, but the soap wasn't bubbly at all. It was definitely a creamy lather.  I rubbed the bar on their wet backs and chests, got a little more water on my hands, and spread the soapy lather on their legs, feet, and necks.  I didn't wash their faces, as I am sure the soap would sting their eyes...

You can see that they do have the soap lather all over, and they didn't seem to mind the smell of the soap (neem oil, tea tree, eucalyptus, and lavender).  I rinsed them off, towel-dried them, and here's the surprising part:  Neither one ran round like crazy headless chickens when I released them from the towel!  They sat very nicely while I hair-dried them.  Hannah was her normal crazy self after I let her out of the bathroom, but she didn't act nuts as long or as intensely as in the past.  I'm not sure why this is - maybe the soap didn't irritate their skin as much as the liquid version?  Not sure.  I will test again next month to see if I get the same results.  This alone is enough reason for me to continue to use this soap :)

Finally, they were dry and ready to be bribed with treats for "final pictures":

It's hard to tell here, but their hair is so nice and shiny (and soft!!)  They both have different kinds of hair - Hobbes has a lot of thick, fluffy hair, and Hannah has less hair and it's courser and more wiry. They both feel amazing right now, though, and they haven't been rubbing themselves on the carpet or itching at all.  Since I washed their heads and faces with a wet washcloth (and not soap), I can definitely tell a difference between their clean hair and the unwashed hair on their heads.

While I wish this soap was bubblier, it seems to be a winner for the two puppies!  If anyone else has tried the recipe, I'd love to hear your feedback on it.

Hobbes wanted to show off what a good helper he is and also his football sweater, which we'll (hopefully) be able to put away soon!  Hello, Spring!

Have a great weekend everyone!

~Chrissy

New Soap Hutch Mold!!

I am so excited (does it seem to anyone else that I start many of my posts with "I am so excited"?) - I got Rich's Soap Hutch soap mold in the mail in the past week or so, and I couldn't wait to use it!!  Rich at Soap Hutch was such a pleasure to work with - we talked on the phone and emailed a number of times to make sure my mold was just right.  He has the capacity to make a custom mold for each order, and he was very interested in making sure he knew exactly what I was looking for.  After a number of conversations, we got the specs settled, and I just had to wait as patiently as possible for it to arrive.

It was definitely worth the wait.  It is such a beauty!  It's configured to make either 2 or 3 10.5-11" long logs, a 9-square divided slab, or smaller logs as I need when working on new soaps.  As he put it, it's a great mold for design and creation (and also good for general production for me based on my current soap volume!)

Here is the slab mold set up - I have pictures from previous posts on the 9-bar divider.  

Here are some photos of the log settings - The slab mold can be divided into 2 3.5"x11" logs.  

With 4" tall walls, there is plenty of room for fancy tops on these logs.

It's a little difficult to see here, but there are dividers that can divide the logs vertically into 2,3,or 4 parts.  You can set the divider at any of the 3 grooves in the end pieces.  I cannot wait to design with this :)

It also has blocks to divide the logs into smaller blocks, so I can play around with  smaller batches to try out FOs, colorants, recipes, etc.  This is going to save me a bunch of time and bucks.

The slab can also be configured to make up to 3 2.5" wide logs:

Here is the configuration for 11" long logs.

You can see here that the logs also come with vertical dividers to divide the soap logs in half, and they also come with blocks to make smaller recipes that are narrower.

In short, I love this mold!  I am so happy to be using it, and expect to see it in many pictures to come!

~Chrissy