Anne-Marie Faiola, Author at Soap Queen

Facebook and Instagram Photo of the Week (March 21st ~ March 27th)

March 27, 2015 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The longer you soap, the more soapy supplies tend to build up. Before you know it, your house is overflowing with oils, fragrances and molds. This week had tips on how to use and care for your supplies. For instance, if your wood molds get messy, you can use a soap scraper/cutter to remove any hardened soap and polish them with Simple Citrus Furniture Polish. Silicone molds are easy to maintain, and can be cleaned with 99% isopropyl alcohol, dish soap and warm water. Read more tips in the How to Care for Silicone and Wood Molds post.

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Once Upon a Dream Cold Process Tutorial

March 26, 2015 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Princess stories often include themes of true love, happiness, magic and morality. They are universally appealing. When these themes are mixed with plenty of sparkle and beauty, what’s not to love? This Once Upon a Dream Cold Process was inspired by the magic of fairy tale princesses. In particular, the new Cinderella movie served as a direct inspiration for the soft color palette and girly design. Of course, there is lots of shimmer and sparkle!

This project features a hanger swirl technique. Best suited for more advanced soapers, this technique involves layers and swirling with the use of a bent hanger or wire tool. Scented with the crisp and fresh White Rose Fragrance Oil, this soap smells as feminine as it looks. Like many florals, this fragrance does slightly accelerate trace, so be prepared to move quickly. Sparkly melt and pour spheres on top give the allusion of pearls for added charm and elegance. A big thanks to the.balm.boutique on Instagram for the “Once Upon a Dream,” name idea!

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How to Care for Silicone and Wood Molds

March 25, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Investing in quality soap molds take your products to the next level. Soap making molds come in various shapes, sizes and materials. Among the most popular kinds of molds are silicone and wood molds. With proper care, both wood and silicone molds will last for years.

Caring for Silicone Molds:
Silicone molds are great for both melt and pour soap, and cold process soap. Durable yet flexible, silicone molds make unmolding easy. Silicone molds also eliminate the need to line the mold with parchment paper, making them extremely convenient. The glossy inside gives soap a smooth and professional finish.
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How to Use 2-Part Silicone Molds on Soap Queen TV

March 24, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

If you’ve ever wondered how to use 2-part silicone molds, this Soap Queen TV Short is here to help! Made of durable silicone, the 2-part silicone molds are great for creating soapy embeds. Simply secure the two ends pieces together , and place the molds into a container to position the molds upright. Then fill up the molds, and trim the soap as necessary. Looking for the next step? Check out the How to Make Rainbow Heart Soap video to watch these embeds in action!

Have you used a silicone column mold before? I would love to see photos of your projects on the Bramble Berry Facebook page!

Best Selling Bramble Berry Fragrance Oils + Discoloration

March 23, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Choosing a fragrance from all the fragrances out there is a big choice! There are sooooo many good ones =) One important factor to consider is fragrance discoloration. Some fragrance oils change the color of soap due to various components within the oil. The most common type of fragrance discoloration is vanilla discoloration, which changes the soap to a deep brown. Fragrance oils can also turn soap various shades of yellow, tan, and orange. Fragrance oil discoloration can dramatically change the colors created in soap, so it’s important to choose your fragrance oil (FO) wisely.

Vanilla discoloration is a natural occurrence. Fragrances containing vanilla notes are created with a component called vanillin, which is the primary component of the extract of vanilla bean. Vanillin is the organic compound that gives vanilla its flavor, and is widely used in fragrances to impart gourmand sweetness. The chemical nature of vanillin leads it to cause a darkening or browning, especially of white products. This effect also occurs with natural vanilla extract. The higher the level of vanillin within the fragrance oil, the more darkening will occur. Even fragrances with a small amount of vanillin content of .4% (such as Almond Fragrance Oil) will still cause slight discoloration.
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Avocado & Dill Deviled Eggs Recipe

March 22, 2015 Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

With Easter less than a month away, it’s officially “egg” season. It’s time to decorate eggs, hide eggs and of course, eat eggs! Hands down, my all-time favorite egg dish is deviled eggs. It’s such a classic appetizer, and is always a crowd pleaser. These deviled eggs feature creamy avocado in the filling. The avocado gives a smooth texture, in addition to healthy fats. Fresh dill, pickles and dijon mustard give these eggs a nice tang.

I love to bring deviled eggs to parties. Boiling the eggs the day before makes prep a breeze. Sprinkling the top with paprika and adding a small sprig of fresh dill makes these eggs look extra fancy. If you really want to wow your guests, place the filling into a piping bag and fill the egg whites (I am not that fancy; I use a spoon to plop in the filling!). I also love deviled eggs with pickles in them (sounds crazy, but they’re delicious!).

I made these eggs during a simpler time…back when my house was still in one piece! Yesterday, I’m had fun getting away from the chaos and spending time with fellow soapers at the Central Soapers Workshop in Kansas City. I can’t wait to share my experience at Central Soapers; look for that post in the coming week. Also, the COHE team was in DC this week. If you’d like an update on that visit, be sure to join the Coalition of Handmade Entrepreneurs to get all the updates.
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Sweet Sea Dreams Roundup

March 21, 2015 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The ocean is an abundant source of inspiration. It’s full of color, texture, sounds and smells. For the past two weeks, the ocean influenced a wide range of projects. From eye shadow to cold process soap, the Sweet Sea Dreams projects featured plenty of sparkle, aquatic color schemes and fresh scents.

The Mermaid Tail Cold Process was inspired by the colorful scales of mermaids. This project uses the petal technique made popular by Kenna of Modern Soapmaking. A range of oceanic colors create interest, and really make the scales pop. Plenty of Iridescent Glitter is sprinkled on top to give a magical feel.

Can’t get enough sparkle and shine? The Mystic Mermaid Eye Shadows create a shimmery makeup look. Full of color, these cool tones are great for a night out or a special occasion. If you’re wondering how to apply these vibrant hues, the blog post also includes an application tutorial. If you have never made mineral makeup before, check out this Soap Queen TV video to learn how. It’s incredibly easy and fun!

The Under the Sea Nail Polish Collection on Tumblr completes your mermaid inspired look. With five colors to choose from, these shimmery polishes will make you feel like an underwater maiden. Creating nail polish is incredibly easy; simply add the colorants and glitters to the Suspending Nail Polish Base and shake! To learn more about making unique nail polish shades, check out the Talk It Out Tuesday: Nail Polish blog post.

Crazy about the blue and green color palette? The Mermaid Shell Melt and Pour soap features beautiful blue tones created with the Cellini Blue, Aqua Pearl and Opalescent Turquoise Micas. This project is a spin on this Clam Shell Soap Queen TV video. To create the textured clam shell look, a fork is used to create lines into thin layers of melt and pour. The result is soap that’s both realistic and eye catching. Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil gives these soaps a slightly sweet, clean scent.

Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil is also used in the Shimmer Sea Salt Scrub. The combination of skin-loving shea butter and coconut oil create a smooth, spreadable texture when applied to the skin. Fine grained dead sea salt removes dead skin, leaving skin feeling silky soft. The addition of Gold (light) Mica adds a subtle shimmer.

Looking for even more aquatic inspired projects? The Stormy Seas Cold Process uses embeds and layers of color to create a oceanic landscape. The Sea Clay Swirl Cold Process features sea clay and pink sea salt for exfoliation. Melt and pour embeds and plenty of glitter creates the look of stained glass in the Shimmering Sea Glass Cold Process. If you prefer working with melt and pour, the Inspired by the Sea melt and pour project creates guest sized sea shell soaps.

Have you created a ocean inspired soapy project? I would love to see a photo on Instagram, simply tag your photo with the hastag #SoapShare. Doing so also enters you into a weekly contest to win a Soap Crafting Book! You can also share your photos on the Bramble Berry Facebook page.

Facebook and Instagram Photo of the Week (March 14th ~ March 20th)

March 20, 2015 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

As many of you know already, it was a hectic week for my family and I. We are currently working on cleaning up after a boiler in our house exploded. The great news is my family is safe and doing well. You can read more about that in the Soap Queen Has a Mess to Clean Up post.

One of my favorite ways to reduce stress is crafting, so I’ve been squeezing that in when possible. This weekend I will be speaking at the Central Soapers Workshop, so crafting is definitely on the agenda! One of my favorite recent projects is the Mermaid Tail Cold Process, which uses squeeze bottles and a spoon to create scales. It takes a bit of planning, but once you get going the technique is simple. It creates an interesting and unique look. The soap has some sparkle from Iridescent Glitter and smells fresh from Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil.

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Mermaid Tail Cold Process Soap

March 19, 2015 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Mysterious and beautiful, mermaids are universally appealing. Mermaids appear in various folklore stories from a wide range of cultures, and became extremely popular by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid.” This cold process soap was inspired by scales of a mermaid’s tail. The base features a simple blue and white in-the-pot swirl to mimic waves of the ocean. Iridescent glitter gives this soap plenty of sparkle and shine, while Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil adds a fresh, clean scent.

To create the scale effect, this project uses the petal technique introduced by Erica Pence in the Artisan Soapmaker Ezine and made popular by Kenna of Modern Soap Making. The petal technique takes a steady hand and a bit of practice. First, small dots of soap are squeezed in a row. A spoon is pressed into the dot to spread the soap and create a petal/scale shape. Before attempting a large batch, you may want to practice the technique on parchment paper to get a feel for the movement. Once you get the hang of it, it’s surprisingly simple.

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Soft & Creamy Blush Sticks

March 18, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials

No makeup routine is complete without a touch of color on your cheeks. It adds a beautiful tint that makes your skin look bright and vibrant. While most blushes are in powder form, the Creamy Blush Sticks are full of skin-loving oils and waxes to add some moisture to your cheeks.

The cera bellina wax adds a smooth texture and shiny finish to the blush sticks, while cylomethicone helps them glide on smoothly. The combination of green tea seed oil and jojoba oil absorb quickly, leaving your cheeks moisturized and non-greasy. There are two shades to choose from – pink and coral – and both look great on a wide variety of skin tones. You can also customize a perfect shade for your skin. The sticks add a sheer tint, but the color can also be built up for a more dramatic shade. Scroll down to the bottom to see swatches of both colors.

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Mystic Mermaid Eye Shadow + Application Tutorial

March 17, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials

Basic eye shadow colors, like brown and gray, are great for everyday use. But every now and then, it’s nice to switch it up and try out new colors. This Mystic Mermaid Eye Shadow adds bold color and a subtle shimmer to your eyelids. They’re a perfect way to add some variety to your everyday look, or to create a glam look for a night out. This tutorial shows you how to create four mermaid inspired eye shadow tones. Scroll to the bottom for a demonstration on how to apply these shades!

The white eye shadow has a bit of shimmer from Super Pearly White Mica, which adds interest to your base color. It also works as a highlighting shade. The purple, blue and teal colors are great for shadows and contouring. You can also switch up the colors for a unique look each time. Dipping your makeup brush in a little water intensifies the color, giving you more color options.

If you have never made mineral makeup before, it’s incredibly easy! To learn more, check out this Mineral Makeup Soap Queen TV Episode. Make sure when you are creating eye shadow that you use eye safe colorants; colorants not approved for the eye area can cause extreme irritation. Click here for a list of eye shadow safe micas and colorants.

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How to Substitute Oil in Cold Process Recipes

March 16, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Selecting soap making oils and butters is a fun and personal process. Each oil and butter contributes various properties to the finished bar. For example, some oils may give a silky lather, while others may contribute extra moisturizing properties. Many soapers spend years perfecting their cold process recipes to create what they consider to be “the perfect bar.” The great thing about making your own soap is recipes can be altered depending on personal preference, or with what oils you have on hand. But be careful, not every oil substitution is made equally!
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Soap Queen Has a Mess to Clean Up

March 14, 2015 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

It’s the call that every parent dreads. It can start with anything but ends with, “And we called 911.” In our case, it started with “I heard a ticking, and then a heard a bang. And now smoke is coming out of the vents. So Lily and I are on the lawn outside. Jamisen is with his Dad.” I immediately logged into our nanny cams and saw the entire house was filled with smoke and every detector was going off – and rushed home. The fire trucks passed me on the way home.

When I got there, our Nanny of 3 years was outside of my Bellingham home with Lily in pajamas along with 7 trucks of firemen, my husband Chris and our redheaded 4 year old. And there we all stayed. For almost three hours. No one knew what had happened except that the gas levels were so high in the house that no one could go in. One fireman told me, “If anyone had tried to cook anything, the entire house would have been leveled.”

At some point, I got the genius idea to check the nanny cams again and saw this. It’s grainy and small but clearly something was wrong; there’s a wall missing beside the fireplace:

It turns out that our boiler blew up, directly into our kiddo’s playroom where Jamisen had been playing recently.

Thankfully, instead of blowing up like a rocket ship, the force of the blast took it sideways into our storage area, and not directly up into Lily’s crib (her room is directly above the boiler).

The nannycam caught the boiler explosion on video as it happened. And yes, it did happen on Friday the 13th!

There’s a few lessons here – and I’m sure there will be more after the fire and explosion investigation is over:

1. Inspect your boiler and hot water heater regularly. Many homes have boilers in their crawl spaces. When was the last time yours was inspected? There are some places that suggest that this be done yearly. Ours was last inspected 18 months ago and deemed safe.

2. Escape plans do work. Our family escape plan is that in case of emergency we all run to the garden. When the explosion happened, our Nanny instinctively grabbed baby Lily and went to the pre-planned location to call 911.

3. Document, document, document. We had read all about home inventories and how important it was to do them. And, we even sort of half-heartedly have one done from last year. But when faced with an actual insurance claim, it is clear that we should have done a real one. The paperwork and questions are daunting and, right now our heads aren’t in quite the best frame of mind to do them.

4. Check your homeowners insurance. We are lucky that the house wasn’t leveled. If it had been, we would have found ourselves dramatically under-insured for the rebuilding costs by about 40%.

5. Always end with silver linings. I recently talked about the importance of joy, and cultivating gratitude in your daily life on the Indie Beauty Podcast (this episode right here). We have spent the last 12 hours going over all the things we have to be thankful for; that Jamisen wasn’t downstairs (he had played there in the last hour), that the boiler blew sideways instead of up into Lily’s room; that we had friends to take us in … all of it. We’re focusing on that and the feelings of thankfulness, and how lucky we are, rather than the dull monotony of all the next steps. We are safe. Our house can be fixed.

Thank you to those of you who have reached out via social media already. I’m feelin’ the love! =) The entire Soap Queen and Bramble Berry community are amazing(!). I am so thankful for all the positive people in my life that are keeping me thinking about the good things and not the what’ifs! It also has been gratifying to see the message about boiler safety spread far and wide. Here are just a few of the news media outlets that covered this story:

Facebook and Instagram Photo of the Week (March 7th ~ March 13th)

March 13, 2015 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The weather here in Bellingham, WA has been gorgeous. The sunny days and warm temperatures have us thinking of sandy beaches. If it’s still cold where you live, you can bring the beach to you with our Sweet Sea Dreams promotion. As part of the promotion, several colorants are 15% off with the code: SWEETSEA. To see all the sale items, click here.

A combination of Cellini Blue Mica and Gold Sparkle Mica create a sea-inspired blue that makes the Mermaid Shell Melt and Pour Soaps stand out. To get a realistic clam shell look, several thin layers of soap are poured into the mold and a fork is used to create texture. The soap is finished with a fresh smell from Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil.

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