Anne-Marie Faiola, Author at Soap Queen

Cupcake Soaps

March 28, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

In my yoga class today, the instructor had cupcakes on the brain. She made 300 cupcakes this morning and talked about them … a lot. I’m saving myself for wedding cake tomorrow (one of my friends is getting married), so I am satisfying my current sweet tooth craving with soap.

From LilyBay Soap, this cupcake looks good enough to eat. $3.95

Sweet and Tranquil has done an admirable job of making me drool on my keyboard. $4.50

Cupcake N Kisses has a great idea for keeping little boys interested in bathing. $5

You Go Girl Soaps designed a Creme Brule cupcake to rival most real desserts. $5.50

Soap Kitchen lives up to their name with this luscious cupcake soap, made with real peanut butter. $6.00

Celebration Soap Recap

March 28, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

If you missed the article on how to make these soaps, here is the how-to tutorial. Click here to see how to make this very easy, Celebration soap.

All commenters to the Soap Queen blog for the next 7 days will be entered to win the kit to make this soap. It’s the exact same soap mold and products that I used on air. Hopefully it will bring another soaper “Good Press” luck too.

PS – Mori on TeachSoap Forum, the second bar of soap is what happens when you use a “bleeding” color in melt and pour soap.

And she’s teaching for us!

March 28, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I love this suggestion from Soapmaking Weekend Intensive teacher, PJ, on the TeachSoap Forum.

To make a yellow soap base appear more blue-based sky clear, “add just a tiny bit of ultramarine blue to the base which makes you think you’re looking though the sky.”

Thanks for that great tip. If you’d like to learn more, in person from Paula, click here to learn about the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive at Otion in July.

Mother Day’s Lip Balm – Passionfruit Rose

March 27, 2008 Filed Under: Lip Products

Making a matching lip balm for Mom with Passionfruit Rose is easy. Ingredients like Mango Butter and Shea Butter are nourishing to the skin and help provide a barrier against environmental irritations.

This recipe uses:

1 oz. Mango Butter
1 oz. Shea Butter
.7 oz. Beeswax
.5 oz. Castor Oil
.5 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
Passionfruit Rose Flavor

Merlot Mica
Rose Pearl

Measure out, by weight, the individual items. Melt the beeswax with the liquid oils in a double boiler. The beeswax takes significant time and energy to melt. Melting the beeswax in the microwave may take up to 10 minutes and is not recommended due to the extreme heat needed to melt the wax.
Add the Shea Butter and Mango Butter to the melted wax and oils. Allow the heat of the wax and oil to melt the butters. Stir well.

By weight, use 1 – 3% flavor. Start with the small amount (1%) and flavor to taste. Freeze some knives ahead of time and dip the frozen knife into your lip balm. The lip balm will harden instantly, allowing you to taste and try the product prior to pouring into containers.

Add color to preference. The list of Bramble Berry lip safe colorants is here.

Once the color and flavor is fully mixed in, pour mixture into lip balm containers, label and you’re all done.

Savor Soaps on Etsy Front Page

March 27, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Congratulations to Savor Soaps and Karen’s Soaps for hitting the front page of Etsy. We already knew Lisa from Savor was cool before this latest exciting recognition. Read her interview with the Soap Queen blog here.

Etsy Soapy Splurge

March 27, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thank you to Soap Queen commenter, Michie, from Oats & Honey for the heads up on this super cool soap.

I purchased literally half of Alkali Soap’s Etsy store and she now has only three bars left in her entire store. Quick – you can buy the last of them here if you hurry.

Mother’s Day Rose Soap Project

March 26, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Mother’s Day is coming right up (Sunday, May 11th). It’s never to early to shower the woman who gave you life with gifts galore.

We’ve designed some easy soap, lotion and lip balm projects around the flavor fragrance Passionfruit Rose. It’s an edible fragrance oil so it can be used in all manner of products, not just soap and lotions.

A big shout out to the Otionites who spearheaded the fun creativity of this project.

You’ll need:

Flexible Rose Mold (exclusive to BB!)
Labcolors Canary, Red & Emerald
White Melt & Pour
Clear Melt & Pour
Droppers
Passionfruit Rose Fragrance & Flavor
Rubbing Alcohol in a spray bottle

Step One: Melt 2 ounces of clear melt and pour. Color it with one drop of Emerald Green Labcolor (or any green you have). Draw up the melted green soap into a dropper. Carefully dropper the melted soap into the vines on the soap mold.

Step Two: Repeat step one with a yellow, red or any rose color you’d like. Dropper the melted soap into the rose. If you are using clear labcolors, the bubbles will show through the front of the rose so be sure to spritz away any bubbles that form with rubbing alcohol.

Step Three: Once the roses and vines have set up, carefully tilt the soap mold and outline the vines on the side of the soap mold. Hold the mold steady as the green soap hardens in the vines.

Step Four: Melt the white soap in the microwave. Add Passionfruit Rose flavor fragrance and stir the fragrance in fully. If your soap is steaming, it is too warm and will melt vines and roses.

Step Five: Spritz the vines and roses with alcohol to help adhesion of the white melt and pour layer.

Step Six: Slowly pour the melted, scented white melt and pour into the mold. Spritz the back of the soap, once poured, with alcohol to get rid of any pesky lingering bubbles.

Step Seven: Wait for soap to harden fully. Gently pull mold away from sides of soap and carefully push soap out. Marvel at your creation. Wrap it and label it with love.

Hints for getting layers to stick:

Fresh soap is best
Use the same brand of clear melt and pour as white melt and pour
Alcohol between layers helps adhesion
Pouring layers quickly helps adhesion

Visit to Healsburg Soap Company

March 25, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Our visit to the Healsburg Soap Company was definitely one of the highlights of our Napa Wedding Weekend. I met Jen at the Soap Guild show in 2006. She introduced herself after my talk and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve even signed up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon together. Fingers crossed that we both get accepted.

Jen carries a variety of product– from CP soap, to shower steamers (bath fizzies with a cool packaging name and look), liquid soap, pet products and sugar scrubs. Her packaging is professional, inviting and uniform in appearance.

Jen opened up her store in November of last year. As you can see from my (not so great) photos, it’s a cute store with a wide variety of products. Jen has space in the back for her soap production. Check out the video (below) of the store. She’s packed a lot of product in that little space!

She also took us to this amazing candy store where I promptly spent $28 on candy and have chowed down on it from the last week. Not surprisingly, I appear to be gaining a winter layer of fat on my tummy now. The $28 of chocolate, eaten single handedly over 7 days, probably contributed to the layer of adipose tissue.

Seeing the success that Jen has made of her business made me happy, proud and inspired me to really clean up our displays at Otion. I loved her aesthetic sensibilities and definitely can learn from her success.

Spiritually Intelligent Leadership

March 25, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Thank to The Daily Good for this thought-provoking small article on leadership:

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. — Peter F. Drucker

“What makes a great leader? Some say it is the ability to give a clear sense of direction. Some, that it is the ability to make tough decisions. Others, that great leadership is the ability to command and control, or, conversely, to inspire loyalty in those led through strong emotional empathy. I think that great leadership depends primarily on vision–not just any type of vision, but one that we can appreciate intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.” This article outlines the 12 principles of spiritually intelligentleadership.

Microsoft Soap – Set Up

March 23, 2008 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

To make the Microsoft Small Business Summit soap (or any soap using Water Soluble Paper), you will need the following:

White Melt and Pour Soap
Clear Melt and Pour Soap
Fragrance (non-yellowing)
Water Soluble Paper
Optional: Dropper & Glitter

Knife (to cut the soap)
Spritzer Bottle filled with Rubbing Alcohol
Pyrex (or heat safe container)
Spoon
Soap Mold (I like Milky Way Molds)

Water Soluble Paper is a super soluble paper that can be printed on with an inkjet printer or written on.

Step One: Design & Print your Project

Since Water Soluble Paper is $.60 per sheet, try to fit as many logos, photos or wording onto a full sheet of paper. Print a full sheet using an ink jet printer. With a fine mister of hairspray, finely mist the entire sheet. The hairspray helps to keep the color from bleeding once the paper is embedded in the soap.

Step Two: Test

Cut the logo, the photo or the wording out of the paper. Test to make sure the object easily fits inside of your chosen mold.

What is Water Soluble Paper (Video)

March 23, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The Microsoft Small Business Summit soap demonstration relies heavily on Water Soluble Paper. Here is a brief video of Water Soluble Paper in action. FeedBlitz subscribers, you’ll need to click through to the Soap Queen blog to view this 30 second clip.

Microsoft Soap – Drop In

March 23, 2008 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Day One – Set Up

Step Three: Cut & Melt Clear Soap

Cut the clear melt and pour soap into small squares. Melt the soap in the microwave on bursts of 30 seconds until the soap is fully melted.

Step Four: Fragrance & Pour

If you want fragrance, this is the time to add it. Keep in mind that some fragrances will yellow your clear soap or make it cloudy. Test a small amount of fragrance in your base prior to making an entire production of soap. Pour your melted (and fragranced) soap in a thin layer. Fill up 25% or less of the soap mold. Allow a skin to form.

Step Five: Drop In & Position

Once a skin has been formed, slowly place the hairspray-treated water soluble paper onto the clear skin photo side down. Allow soap to harden enough to support another layer. The paper has a tendency to slide to the sides of the molds. Keep an eye on it and push it back into the middle of the mold if it does this.

Microsoft Soap – Backing

March 23, 2008 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

Day One – Set-Up
Day Two – Drop In

Step Six: Final Layer

Once the first clear layer is fully hardened, melt the white soap. The white backing will help the photo show up well. The cooler and thicker the soap is, the less bleeding you will get with the water soluble paper. Allow the white soap to cool until it is no longer steaming. Add fragrance now (optional). Do not spray alcohol in between layers. The alcohol wets the paper and makes it more prone to bleeding. Pour the white soap slowly over the clear soap and photo layer.

Step Seven: Spritz and Wait

Spritz the back of the white layer with the rubbing alcohol. Wait 4 to 6 hours before popping the soap out of the mold. Wrap quickly with saran wrap.

Happy Easter!

March 23, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Happy Easter!

These soaps were made with the Milky Way Chick’n’Egg mold, White Melt and Pour, Non-Bleeding Pink Liquid Color, Non-Bleeding Yellow Liquid color and Non-Bleeding Red Liquid Color.