The Soap Queen blog will be doing a multi-part tutorial on making these fun Pinwheel Soaps, starting tomorrow.
Starry Night Soap
I appreciate how detail oriented these Starry Night soaps are by Crater Lake. Having recently had a major disaster with impatience and soap, I am inspired to pull out my soaping goodies this weekend and try to work on details. Maybe some soap designs for the Fourth of July coming up?
She says this about her creation:
This is a very cool bar of Hemp Soap – poured , not painted. Each bar is a full 4 ounces and is scented with Nag Champa. I used titanium oxide and mica as colorant.
She also made a brilliant Geometric Soap. The colors are delightful and the texture on top extraordinary.
Baby Red Pandas
Consider this your CuteOverload for the day.
(FeedBlitzers, it’s a video on the actual Soap Queen Website. It’s of adorable baby red pandas, guaranteed to make your ovaries thump and your vocal cords to start cooing in an uncontrollable manner)
Make Soap from Bacon Fat
Thank you to Bob Pritchett from Logos Bible Software for alerting me to this super cool Bacon Soapmaking Video.
Just a small safety note, weighing out oils is better than volume measurements if you’re making cold process soapmaking recipes. But, even without that pesky scale part added in, this is a fun instructional video!
Click here to see the 5 minute video on rendering fat, cold process soapmaking and making soap that looks like bacon.
A Solid Thumbs Up!
A big hurray for Manolo Brides! They courageously tried our Bridal Soap Favor Kit … and the soaps came out beautiful! Despite having no microwave, they persevered and melted their soap in the oven (channeling the Pioneer ingenuity of old).
They blogged about the entire experience here, along with photos. Check out their very successful final soaps – they look great!
I especially loved their little asides, like this one:
Note to other soap makers: They provide you with A LOT of fragrance–don’t use it all unless you’re olfactory challenged. Seriously.
THE VERDICT: I’ve never poured soap before, but it was definitely easy. All told, I probably spent about two hours on the whole project. At $31.55 (plus the cost of a little organza for wrapping) for forty favors, the price is right. You could, however, buy the bits individually to customize your soap. There’s hemp soap and goatsmilk soap and all manner of nice adds. In conclusion, I could see this being a fun weekend DIY fest for a bride and her ‘maids.
I give it a solid thumbs up.
Read the entire post here.
Review of National Stationary Show
Dear goodness, an entire site reviewing the National Stationary show. I am in delighted squealing heaven.
Thank you Poppytalk!
Pich Posh Green Mean Machine
I love buying insane amounts of bath products to use. It’s a great education – checking out what formulations and colors people use in their products and comparing it against what worked well and what didn’t work so well.
In this case, I tried the Pich Posh Green Mean Machine, or at least that’s what we’re calling it here. Pisch Posh calls it their Kiwi Frappe, solid bath oil.
It comes in an exceedingly well packaged little tube o’ Frappes, with the classic Pisch Posh great graphic design. I was hopeful that it would be an explosion of fizz, flair and moisture. One out of three ain’t bad (email subscribers: there’s a video on the blog)
This Frappe was a delightful scent, a luscious bathing experience and my skin was touchably smooth and soft after getting out of the tub. For those of us with more mature skin in need of daily moisture drinks, this is an excellent option for keeping your skin moist and supple and smelling sweet.
If you want to make something like this yourself, I’d start with a recipe that looked like:
2 oz. (parts) Baking Soda
1 oz. (parts) Citric Acid
1/2 oz. melted Mango Butter
.1 oz. fragrance oil
La Bomb Color Key West Lime
Or you can buy them pre-made (3 for $7.25) from Pisch Posh here.
Natural Red Testing
I thought I had found the holy grail of reds – an all natural colorant that would stay gloriously magenta in cold process soap.
Alas, my hopes were dashed within 45 minutes as the entire color morphed into a lovely color of decaying potatoes.
Back to the drawing board …
Pich Posh Green Mean Machine
I love buying insane amounts of bath products to use. It’s a great education – checking out what formulations and colors people use in their products and comparing it against what worked well and what didn’t work so well.
In this case, I tried the Pich Posh Green Mean Machine, or at least that’s what we’re calling it here. Pisch Posh calls it their Kiwi Frappe, solid bath oil.
It comes in an exceedingly well packaged little tube o’ Frappes, with the classic Pisch Posh great graphic design. I was hopeful that it would be an explosion of fizz, flair and moisture. One out of three ain’t bad (email subscribers: there’s a video on the blog)
This Frappe was a delightful scent, a luscious bathing experience and my skin was touchably smooth and soft after getting out of the tub. For those of us with more mature skin in need of daily moisture drinks, this is an excellent option for keeping your skin moist and supple and smelling sweet.
If you want to make something like this yourself, I’d start with a recipe that looked like:
2 oz. (parts) Baking Soda
1 oz. (parts) Citric Acid
1/2 oz. melted Mango Butter
.1 oz. fragrance oil
La Bomb Color Key West Lime
Or you can buy them pre-made (3 for $7.25) from Pisch Posh here.
Sushi Cupcakes
This is what the crafty artist says about this cupcake design on the Craftster Forum:
3 days, 3 pounds of white sprinkles, 3 pounds of butter, 1 pound flour, 2 pounds powdered sugar, 1 pound sugar, 110 green cupcake foils, 10 bento (lunch) boxes, 10 chopsticks later, 1 bag gummy worms, and 1 bag gummy fish later
Cool! How is this Made?
If you missed the “Why does this soap cost so much” question, click here to read the answers and discussion on this important craft show question.
Make sure that you have your own personal answer to this question so that it rolls easily off your tongue when asked. And, please add your own thoughts and answers in the comments. This is just a starter answer to get you thinking.
Cool! How is this stuff made!?
(smile)
Generic Lotion Answer: Making lotion is this super cool process that involves mixing oils and water together. Using real oils is the reason my lotion is so good and luxurious for your skin. Unlike big store brands that try and sell you waxy water, I actually put real oil like XYZ and XYZ into my lotion. The oil provides your skin with a barrier against environmental stressors as well as helping to rejuvenate your skin to a moist and supple state.
A Real Cupcake
Thank you to an astute Soap Queen reader for telling me about Sugar Bliss, the cutest cupcakes I’ve seen for a while (at least a week!).
Feast your eyes … and if you’re lucky enough to live in Chicago, get delivery!
Delectable Bath Fizzy Treats
Yummy! Check out the delicious bath fizzy food-y treats that Bliss Soap in Seattle makes. Pssst, for those of you in Seattle, they even have a storefront.
These are mondo sized treats too – they are at least 10 ounces each for the two decadent dessert sized fizzies. Buy your own here. Of course, they also have “mini” bath bombs for those that prefer a more paired down version of bath time goodness.
I’m especially excited about their frosting. It’s some sort of soft concoction that is very different than the teeth-breaking hard frosting my bath cupcakes tend to be.
Gray Soap at Otion
This was basic test loaf (we’re planning Christmas fragrances already) that Otion made last week. I really like how Erik and his team worked in just a hint of gray for interest and to tone down the brighter oxide used in this soap.
Colors used are Ultramarine Blue Oxide and Vintage Gray Mica.