Soap Dough

Well I did it!  I made soap dough.  Now, I have never made anything in my life even remotely artistic.  Even as a little girl, I couldn’t get more creative than making balls and snakes with Play-doh.  Bee at Sorcery Soap™ is an artist and makes more beautiful creations than I could dream of.  But, she’s come up with this form of soap, and believes that people who use it will find their creativity come to life.  It’s hard not to believe her!  Maybe some of her magic dust will sprinkle on me and I’ll do something neat.  *fingerscrossed*

Thank you, Bee! 

Filed under: Soap, This Soaper's Life Tagged: Soap, Soaping

Soap a l‘Orange

I think this will be the final batch I’m going to make for our friend to take downstate to the farmer’s market, unless I decided to do an unscented/uncolored batch.  There are other soaps I want to put together, for family, friends, and me.  There are so many recipes I want to try!  And I got some new colors, too!  But for now, I have 2 dozen soaps for him to try to sell, and I think that’s a good start.  If they sell, you can believe I will be a busy soaping bee, lol. 

For this batch I decided to use the all natural essential oil, instead of using fragrance oils like I used in the other batches.  Options, you know.  I used a bright orange matte color, and some white French clay to make a slurry. 

Yeah, that’s bright!

Fortunately, the color that resulted reminded me of a creamy orange Creamsicle. 

Yum!  They smelled so good!

Maybe I should have called them Dreamsicle bars, but I think that name is copyrighted.  Not sure. 

Anyway, which do you think is better – the top shot without flash …

Or the bottom shot with flash?

I can’t decide.

cross posted on my daily blog

Filed under: Soap Tagged: Soap, Soaping

Emerald Shimmer Bamboo

I can’t believe I didn’t post this last week!  I guess gardening, you know.  I thought this time I would try the green mica.  I knew that would be really pale, so I picked the bamboo scent I had to go with it.

Mixing the white French clay with the green mica.

It turns out like this once you make a slurry with some of the soaping oils.  Looks pretty bold and bright, doesn’t it?  And it would probably stay that way if I was using something like a clear melt and pour soap base.

But, I’m doing what’s called cold process soaping, which goes through a saponification process because I’m combing oils of my own choosing with a lye-water solution.  That process generates heat, which can impact the pigments you use.  Also, cold process soap is opaque, so things like shimmery micas don’t have any light to reflect, like the clear melt and pour soap bases do.  Still, you can get a nice light shade of soap using a mica.  That can be a good thing, because I don’t think people want to feel like their soap is going to stain their shower stall, lol.

This is how it looked going into the mold.

And this is how it looked coming out!  It’s so pretty and delicate, with a light bamboo scent.

cross-posted on my daily blog.

Filed under: Soap Tagged: Soap, Soaping

Pale Orchid Soap

Purple Haze mica, Orchid Fragrance Oil, White French Clay.  I’m going for a pale lavender color and a delicate scent.

First, while my oils were melting and the lye solution was cooling, I blended my dry ingredients.

I pre-mix my dry stuff with a bit of the oils so that they blend into the soap solution better without clumping.  This is the slurry.  Bright, huh? 

Once everything is mixed, I poured it into my mold.  I love this little mold.  I get 8 bars, roughly 3 oz each, from a 1 lb oil solution.  The lye solution is about 6 or 7 oz so total I have about 24 oz of soap mixture.

Usually I unmold after 24 hours, but this time I waited 48, to see if that had any impact on how hard or soft the bars are.  It didn’t.  If I pressed hard, it would dent the soap, because they have to cure for about a month, give or take a week.  They will harden during that time as the moisture evaporates.  At this stage, they are still sticky, and if I did The Zap Test, (where you touch the tip of your tongue to the soap to test it) I would get zapped, because lye is still present.  Once the lye solution is fully saponified, The Zap Test won’t zap you and the soap is safe to use.  Testing homemade soap made with natural oils and essential oils isn’t nearly as gross as it may sound.  While I do sometimes use fragrance oils (or man-made scents) in some of my soaps, I use about half the recommended amount, as I prefer soaps that are not strongly scented. 

Don’t try this with commercially made soaps!  LOL  *gagspitptooey*

The close up glamour shot, ha!

Filed under: Soap Tagged: Soap, Soaping