Thank you PJ for sending photos showing what she’s doing with our Ceramic Soap Dishes. She’s selling the Buddha Soap Heads with the Ceramic Soap Dish as a gift set.
That is one great looking gift! Thank you for sharing.
Rare Bird Finds Designer
Thanks Rare Bird Finds for picking me as the Guest Designer for last week! Click here to read my fave picks. It was hard to pick just five!
Anti-Talc – Day Five – Stuffing
Click here for Day One – Set Up
Click here for Day Two – Fragrance and Color
Click here for Day Three – More Fragrance and Color
Click here for Day Four – Sparkle Mica
Filling the powder containers is straight-forward. The powder is slightly heavier with the addition of fragrance so is less prone to poofing all over.
You can scoop directly into the powder container, as shown, or pour in through a funnel to reduce spill possibilities.
You’ll notice that the powder shaker containers are only 90% of the way full. This is because if you pack them too tightly, the powder will not be able to be shake loose for the initial first uses.
Push the cap on tightly either with the heel of your hand or your fingers. Once the cap has been securely fitted, the cap will not come off so be sure that you’re ready to cap and be done with your project before you hit that point of no return.
All you need to do now is clean-up and label your powders. Check back this week for a cool label template for the powder shakers used in this project.
Thank You Commenters!
As a “Thank You” to all of the Soap Queen’s regular commenters, one lucky random comment from the last seven days (Sunday to Sunday) will be drawn tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. to win three 2 ml Nature’s Gift Essential Oil Samples (Atlas Cedar, Eucalyptus Smithii and Lavender High Altitude) as well as two of Cobalt Blends perfume oils, Lux Vixen and Doll Party.
It’s Snowing!
It’s snowing in Bellingham and part of Washington. The snow makes everything pristine and beautiful and not surprisingly, there aren’t many cars out driving around.
We have a skeleton crew here at Bramble Berry, still working hard to catch up on orders after the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend.
Even with the snow, Otion had a decent day for sales on Saturday. I guess some things are worth venturing out for – like soapmaking supplies!
Lori’s Suggestions
A big thank you to Lori Nova from The Nova Studio for sharing her wealth of knowledge and expertise with the Soap Queen Blog.
Lori has this to say about powder projects:
- Lori Nova said…
Hi Anne-Marie,
I’ve been enjoying reading about your powder experiments and wanted to share a few suggestions. I teach a class on making body powders and do it similar to how you do it, but I have the students first combine all the powders into a plastic ziplock baggie – drop the fragrance in one drop at a time spread around the powder (i think it blends better not to blob it in). Then they mix first in the ziplock baggie for about 3-5 minutes before sifting through a fine mesh sifter several times.I think there is less dust & less sifting this way. For an adult body powder, I use a bit of kaolin clay to help with adhesion (since cornstarch and arrowroot have poor adhesion), and if I’m making a powder for babies i’ll include some zinc oxide too. Also, I would suggest doing the sifting/packaging outside if possible 🙂 to keep your house and your lungs cleaner. These are just a couple things that came to mind.take care, lori (at) thenovastudio.com
Anti-Talc – Day Four – Gold Mica & Mess
Click here for Day One – Set Up
Click here for Day Two – Color and Fragrance
Click here for Day Three – More Color and Fragrance
Making a shimmery evening dust to enhance your shoulders and collarbone is easy with a little bit of mica. The best micas for enhancing shimmer without making it look too obvious are gold, light pinks, silvers and white.
Why mica? Micas provide shimmer and sheen, while adding a sophisticated subtle amount of color that does not look garish or overpowering. Micas provide shimmer because a mica is a flat platelet that reflects and refracts light, similar to a diamond in the sun.
Depending on the amount of shimmer and sheen you want, 2 Tablespoons of mica in 16 ounces of powder can provide a healthy glow. In the photo above, the blob of yellow is the fragrance oil and the mica is on the right hand side.
Some ideas for mica in powders are:
Golden Decolletage Powder
Shimmery Fairy Dust Powder
Teenage Rave Powder
Sparkle Cheek Enhancer
Making powder is a messy operation. The powders are lighter than air and float everywhere. It’s delightful when the powders are floating gently out of the shaker and onto your skin. It’s not so delightful when the powders are floating gently all over your counters, into grout crevices, and into your lungs. A mask helps that last bit. The rest can’t be helped and you’ll want to keep a damp rag close by to stay on top of the cleaning process. If anyone comes up with a better way to keep the house clean during this process, please let me know.
Tomorrow, I’ll be in Seattle so will finish up the Talc Project instructions Sunday.
Why no, I really don’t want your business
I recently emailed the Membership Chair for more information about prestigious women’s entrepreneur organization. I’m interested in expanding my support team, getting some new mentors to help me be a better leader and also, share experiences about growing a business in a shaky economic climate. The group seemed like it might be a good fit.
The membership fee is high – over $5000 per year – so I emailed the email listed on the site to start a dialogue about benefits. For that kind of money, I need to know I would gain that much in return – extra knowledge, experiences, mentorship and networking.
I emailed two months ago and never heard back. I just emailed again this week and got this in return.
I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.
Two thoughts come to mind:
1. Why am I chasing them to give them my money?
2. I wonder how many potential members actually go fill out the spam form? How many potential members are they losing there?
For an organization that costs $5000 per year, I’d expect a timely response to my first email and also a red velvet welcome mat rolled out to entice me to join.
What am I missing? Am I being too harsh?
No Powders Today
I do have more to post on the Anti-Talc powder project but they will need to wait until tomorrow. The day has gotten away from me.
But, I did make some cute soap this morning at Otion in our Sunnybrook mold using melt and pour. Notice how every chamber has something different in it?
I’m off to speak at a Whatcom Young Professionals panelon “Adventures In Success.” Wish me luck!
Cupcake Bath Fizzies
Thank you Michelle (LoveMichie) from Oats and Honey, for sending this fabulous photo of her Bath Cupcakes (learn how to make your own here).
She says:
I was inspired by your bath cupcake post and decided to make my own! The cupcake is scented with pineapple and the frosting is scented with coconut, I also added a hint of vanilla to make it smell more cake-like. The frosting was made by whipping cocoa butter and coconut oil, was a little soft and didn’t harden well (added too much coconut oil).
I added a candy flower because I had some lying around. I hope you like it!
It’s a wonderful looking bath cupcake and Pineapple Coconut is the perfect foil for dreary weather. Thanks for sharing!
My Run this Morning
I’m so excited about my Chi Running course. This is my fastest run in a long time (yes, I know it’s still a snail’s pace). And, best yet? It was mostly pain free (no knee pain, no achilles heel pain) except for the actual exherting myself part. I would have rather been making soap than running in 34 degree weather. =)
Bubblewrap as Soap Liner
What an ingenious idea from All My Soap – bubble wrap as the mold liner. It adds texture and depth and gives us all something to do with the copious amounts of shipping material we’ll receive this holiday season.
Anti-Talc – Day Three – Color & Fragrance, Again
Click here for Day One – Set Up & Ingredient Explanation
Click here for Day Two – Fragrance & Color
As mentioned yesterday, there are a two main ways to color your Talc Powder:
1. Micas – Micas are a natural product that form a flat platelet. This flat platelet is then colored, either with natural or non-natural colors, to form a shimmery, diamond-like color. Micas form the base of most eye shadows and provide the shimmer you see in lipsticks and nail polish. In body powders, micas add a subtle color with a little sparkle.
2. True Tones, Labcolors or other FD & C water-based colorants – These colors are normally used in soaps, lotions, bath fizzies and provide color in most make-up, including lipsticks. These water based colorants are a little trickier to use in dry powders but provide a more defined, bright color. Per use, they are more economical than micas.
The photo above shows the color achieved with Fuchsia True Tone color in the powder. It took just 3 mls (a full dropper) of color in 8 ounces of dry powder to get the bright color in the photo above.
3. Other Additives – Spices, ground herbs, and ground flowers can add color, texture and even scent to your powder. Many times, these items can be scratchy though. Be sure to check the grain of the product to ensure that it won’t irritate skin and doublecheck that the product is skin safe. Also, ground spices and herbs may leave fine bits of herb detritus, often colored, on the skin. Test batches are very important when using spices, ground herbs and flowers.
This is a recipe that uses ground herbs:
2 oz. Tapioca Powder
1 oz. Arrowroot Powder
1 oz. finely powdered dried chamomile flowers
1 drop Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil or fragrance oil
2 drops 10x Orange Essential Oil
3 drops gardenia fragrance oil
Here’s another powder recipe using ground lavender buds:
4 oz. Tapioca Powder
1 oz. powdered lavender buds
1 oz. powdered rose petals
optional: 1 tablespoon zinc oxide powder
1/2 teaspoon Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil or Rose Fragrance Oil
1 oz. powdered lavender buds
1 oz. powdered rose petals
optional: 1 tablespoon zinc oxide powder
1/2 teaspoon Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil or Rose Fragrance Oil
Other options for adding fragrance: Some people add their fragrances or essential oils to their powders and allow the entire mix to sit for weeks, shaking daily, prior to shifting. The thought is that the fragrances may better permeate the entire batch if the fragrance sits in the powders before sifting. I haven’t found this to be the case.
Another option to cut down on fragrance clumping is to spritz the fragrance onto your dry powders with a very fine mist spritzer. This does cut down on clumping. However, that first spritz can cause the light powder to poof up and out, covering the surrounding area with a fine dust.
Another option to avoid clumping is to avoid adding fragrance directly to the dry powders altogether. The trade off is less scent in the final product for minimal clumps. Add a fragrance or essential oil saturated cotton balls to a sealed container (zip lock or canning jar) filled with the dry powder mixture. Leave the cotton ball in the dry powder for a week (1 or 2 cotton balls per 16 oz of dry products) and shake daily to impart a subtle scent without clumps like the photo above shows.
Check back tomorrow for making sparkle powder and also a bit of a mess.
Cupcake Bling from Sears (?!?!)
Even (perceived) stodgy ol’ Sears is jumping on the cupcake trend bandwagon with this cute cupcake pendant. The white and rose gold (with real diamond accents) pendant certainly looks very bling-y.
For $119, it would make a pricey stocking stuffer but it’s a sure way to any cupcake-lover’s heart.
Thank you to the astute Soap Queen reader for telling me about this find.