The Chamomile Lavender fragranced soap above is a great use of color and stamping. Irena at Ginger’s Garden does a wonderful job mixing color, scent and decorative touches like these adorable dragonfly stamps.
Beeswax in Melt & Pour
Often, new soapmakers will be dissatisfied with their melt and pour base – believing it to be too soft or not as long lasting as commercial (detergent based) bars of soap. Adding additional waxes makes intuitive sense. After all, waxes are hard! You would think that extra waxes in your melt and pour soap would make your soap extra hard. This is not the case.
In the photo above, you can see that the beeswax does not want to mix in easily. In fact, the wax is pooling at the tops of my little experimental bars.
Once the bar is popped out, it’s a matted, dull color. It is not shiny and appears to be pitted.
When you touch a bar of soap, it should be hard. Being able to squish it between your thumb and the table is bad.
I made this mess with a gentle press of my finger. Ick! The beeswax not only softened my soap but it also made it dull looking with pock marks. To add insult to injury, the soap lathers badly – perhaps because beeswax is not a natural lathering agent.
The moral of this story? Beeswax is not an effective hardening agent in soap. A better solution is to pop your soap out of the molds and leave them under a fan for a few days to help wick off excess moisture and speed the drying-out process of the soap. This will produce a much harder bar than adding beeswax.
Alphabet Soap!
Bramble Berry got the cutest mini alphabet soap mold in stock. It will be on the site for sale next week here. The mold is also food grade so you could use it for chocolate as well. I spent 4th of July playing with the mold and designing some fun word projects.
I poured regular white melt and pour base into the molds. I did not scent or color the letters because I wanted them to stand out in the soap.
I was happy with how crisp and clean the lines were once the alphabet pieces came out of the mold. I ended up having to push fairly hard to get the pieces out. Next time, I will stick the entire mold (soap and all) in the fridge for a few minutes to loosen the letters up. Any time melt and pour is exposed to cold, it forms condensation and glycerin dew. Don’t leave the soap in the fridge for more than 15 minutes at a time to minimize the glycerin dew and condensation
I used Labcolors Aqua for my colorant. Since Labcolors are water-based, the soap stays shiny and clear – perfect for showcasing white letters! I also scented with a fragrance that would not cloud the soap – Pink Grapefruit from the Cybilla Line. There was no way to get the letters placed into the mold evenly without a fair amount of pushing, shoving and generally getting my fingers all soapy. The secret to not getting air bubbles under the letters is to put the letters in at an angle. This allows the air bubbles to flow easily up the side of the letter.
Here are all the letters, happily in their molds. Notice that I wasn’t entire successful with the “B.” The soap started getting too hard so I abandoned the straightening project in the hopes that the “B” would look arty.
Check in tomorrow for photos of my final soaps – and to see what else I did with the alphabet blocks!
Did you get burned on the 4th?
If you’re like many Americans, you used the wonderful mid-week holiday for sitting in the sun and hanging out with family and friends. If you’re like Nicole at Bramble Berry, you also toasted yourself beyond a nice tan and all the way into a red burn.
Aloe Vera is a herb for minor burns and cuts. In a study published in the Journal of Dermatological Survey & Oncology, 27 people with burns were treated with aloe or with “standard” medical care. The Aloe group took only 12 days to heal compared to the 18 days in the standard care group.
For Nicole, we’ve got her spritzing Aloe Vera directly onto her burned skin every 30 minutes. It’s not providing the cooling effect she wanted, so we’re thinking of dropping in some Peppermint EO for its cooling feeling.
Moon Valley gets national press
A big shout out to another local Washington
company Moon Valley Bees & Botanicals. There is a significant plug in the February Herbs for Healthmagazine. Their Lotion Bar was featured in the “Product Showcase” along with a full color photo of their packaging and the bar. I bought their Lotion Bar at the Pike Street Market a few months ago because I was so enamored with their custom molding for the Lotion Bar. The mold helps differentiate their lotion bar from others in the crowded bath and body care market.
Boar Soap
This is one of the more um, realistic bars of soap that I’ve seen. The mold looks very intricate. Buy your own Boar at Hapaculture. It’s a reasonable buy at $7 for 6 oz.
Gloss.com Out of business?
Gloss.com has officially closed its doors. It appears that Gloss.com was having pretty significant traffic issues. According to Alexa.com, Sephora is ranked as the 4,306th most visited site on the net. Gloss.com is 105,838th most visited site. That’s a large difference in daily hits. This lack of eyes on the site probably resulted in low daily sales. It’s too bad – diversity in suppliers generally brings pricing down, customer service rises and the perks increase as everyone tries to compete with one another.
Burt’s Bees defining "Natural"
Beauty Brains has a well reasoned post on Burt’s Bees new campaign to get the term “Natural” certified.
Here’s a teaser quote:
…most concerning is the implied notion that “all natural is good” and “all synthetic is bad.” Such a simplistic approach only serves to spread misinformation and fear.
Bella Beautiful
I just got this yummy package of goodies from Bella Lucce. It’s a super good deal – $20 for samples of almost all of the scrubs that Bella Lucce offers and a few creams thrown in.
My favorite scrub from Bella Lucce is the wine based scrub. It smells delicious and has just the right amount of scrubbiness. The other one I really like is the Pumpkin Glow Body Scrub.
I appreciate Belle Lucce’s packaging, graphic design and well thought out promotional support (lush photos, strongly worded copy, comprehensive full lines).
Browsing their blogtoday, I saw that they are expanding to the Middle East. They have several outlets selling their products in Dubai. Good for Bella Lucce for finding new markets and going where consumers are demanding designer products and premium pricing.
Just bragging …
We got this from a customer today. It was a nice respite on Monday.
You have a great web site.
Best prices I could find.
I received my order in 24 hours after I placed it!!
It was correct!
Thank you was hand written not only on the invoice, but also on the box-a nice touch.
You gave me a great coupon.
You gave me a sample-a big sample-to try out.
My end cost was $5 less than what I was quoted!These days great customer service is rare. Yours is appreciated! You have found a loyal customer in me. I can’t wait to place my next order.
Perfect little girls mold
These adorable little pony molds are made out of a high quality silicone plastic that is durable and lasts for years. They’re $11 and each little pony is 2 oz. I think that they are perfect for princess parties or children’s birthday parties.
Success! Bath Cupcakes Deluxe!
Bath Bomb Cupcakes – Instructions
I used the Wilton Easy Decorating Frosting Kit. Having the extra tips were perfect and made the cupcakes look ultra professional. Two days later, the frosting has dried to a hard plaster-like cast and will easily make it through the mail with proper packing.
1 part Citric Acid
2 parts Baking Soda
2 parts Baking Soda
Additives: SLS (for lots of Bubbles in the Bath) or Bentonite Clay (makes a harder bomb)
Example Recipe:
4 oz. Citric Acid
8 oz. Baking Soda
1 oz SLS
.25 oz. Salty Carmel Ice Cream fragrance
5 drops La Bomb colorant
Witch Hazel in a Spray bottle
8 oz. Baking Soda
1 oz SLS
.25 oz. Salty Carmel Ice Cream fragrance
5 drops La Bomb colorant
Witch Hazel in a Spray bottle
Mix Citric Acid and Baking Soda so there are no clumps. Add the SLS or Bentonite Clay. Mix in the fragrance and color. If consistency is not a dry pie dough consistency, spritz on witch hazel until dry powdered product easily sticks together.
For the frosting:
3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder/Powdered Egg Whites
1 lb. (By weight) Powdered Sugar
5 Tablespoons warm water
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
Optional:
few drops Butter Cream Lip Flavor
few drops La Bomb Color
3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder/Powdered Egg Whites
1 lb. (By weight) Powdered Sugar
5 Tablespoons warm water
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
Optional:
few drops Butter Cream Lip Flavor
few drops La Bomb Color
Mix Meringue into warm water first. Add cream of tartar and Powdered sugar. Whip on medium speed for 4 to 7 minutes. Frosting will form stiff peaks and harden within an hour (or so!). To make it smell better, use a dab of Butter cream flavor oil. We used Rosy Pink Lab colors to color our “frosting.”
Bad Bombs! Bad Bombs!
These glorious frothy white peaks showed great promise. I was borderline euphoric with glee. It was not my original hope of non-Royal Icing but at least I had something to show for my hours of toiling over citric acid. The happiness lasted overnight.
Upon waking, I eagerly stole out into the kitchen, happier than a child on Christmas morning. I was not rewarded for my premature glee. The phrase about chickens, eggs and hatching springs to mind.
My glorious bath cupcakes had flattened out overnight. Sad. Disappointing. And also, foul smelling. In addition to being flat, they smelled vaguely like wet dogs.
I went to work, deflated myself.
None of my staff were the least bit sympathetic.