Christmas is only four days away and I just can’t wait (family, family, family!). This month has been full of fun projects like our Hot Process series: Crock Pot Camo, CPOP Swirls, and HPOP Layers; interesting contests like our Make it Monday: #Christmas Schwag; and even a couple Facebook photos of the week (see here and here). We also celebrated this month of giving by going out on our annual Salvation Army Shopping Trip and holding our Bramble Berry Cooke Exchange (more on that later, but check out last year’s swap here). But, on with the show. Here’s the winner of this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week:
This week’s photo comes to us from Linda of The Enchanted Bath. Linda shared a gorgeous cold process soap made with our Turkish Mocha Fragrance Oil that had me drooling all over my keyboard (since I know what that fragrance smells like and in a word, it is ah-maz-ing). Using just the fragrance oil to color the soap’s main body, Linda added a touch of Titanium Dioxide to the frosting to keep it nice and white. She says that the Turkish Mocha “Smells delicious and it’s flying off the shelves at my store. I highly recommend this fragrance!” Thanks for being a part of our soaping community on our Facebook page Linda, I’ve really enjoyed watching you grow in your craft and try new things with your soaping. There is a special little package headed your way.
The Enchanted Bath’s Facebook Page: The Enchanted Bath
Would you like your photo or project to be featured in a blog post? Come join us for soap talk, contests and lots of crafting inspiration at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and share a photo with us of your latest project and your handmade soap might be next weeks feature!
You still have a chance for your soapy recipe to get featured on the Teach Soap website (and a chance to get a $10 Bramble Berry Gift Certificate)! Send us an e-mail with a full tutorial, including pictures at [email protected]. For more details, check out this blog post and some of our featured recipes: Soothing Avocado Foot Balm, Peach Pie Soap, Rose Garden Bath Tea, Café Latte Soap and Refreshing Tangerine Melt and Pour Soap.
Hi A-M! Happy New Year!
I have a question for you. I’ve been using your extra clear melt and pour and made some of the cute little bags of fish soap for my niece for the holidays.
They looked absolutely adorable the first day that I made them but the second day the soap in the bag became cloudy so you couldn’t hardly see the fish at all.
I melted it on half power so that it didn’t get too hot and I didn’t have any bubbles in it at all. Can you please tell me what may have happened and what I can do in the future to prevent this. I purchased about 36 pounds of the surplus that you had back a few months ago and really would like to use it but I don’t want to do anything until I can figure out how to keep it crystal clear.
Thanks so much! Cass
Good morning, Cassie!
Sometimes when you use certain fragrances in your clear melt and pour soaps, they can cloud it up a bit. What fragrances did you use? Do you recall what the name of the surplus you purchased was as well?
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi Becky! Happy New Year!
Yes, it was the — 1 of: Surplus Crystal Clear Melt and Pour (36 lbs (18 tubs))–
I didn’t use any fragrance or color in it because it was for my niece who is very sensitive to any scent so that is what is really boggling to me.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Good afternoon Cassie!
I am more than happy to help you troubleshoot this issue, and I have a couple of questions for you. How are you melting your soap? Typically if you go above 160F your soap can begin to boil. Do you remember what temps you soaped at? Did you add anything extra (like oils or extracts) to the base? It is brain-scratcher for sure, and I’d love to figure out what happened to yours. Anything else you did during the process of making it would be great too!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi Becky!
Sorry that it’s taken me so long to get back to you. The flu has went through our home starting with my daughter, hitting my son and then myself.
Yes, I keep very good records on everything I make. I melted the soap in the microwave at 50% heat for blasts of about 15-20 each to keep it from getting too hot. I have a digital thermometer from BB and my melted soap never got above 130-135 degrees and then I poured at apx. 125 degrees since it was going into the bags for the fish. I was so careful with melting and pouring it, that there wasn’t even a single bubble in the bag either.
I didn’t add anything at all to the base. No botanicals or oils, color or fragrance at all.
I haven’t been able to make anything with being sick. But in the morning I will open up a different tub and try it again. I’ll take pictures of it once it’s poured and then again after it sets up and send them to you if that would help you to help me troubleshoot.
I have a few projects that I really want to make up for V-day using this base but I’ll need it to set up clear for them. My projects won’t work if I get the same cloudy results.
I’ve been soaping for over 6 years but this is the first time that I’ve used this base. I purchased it because I read that it was the same base that Debbie at Soapy Love uses and her projects always come out very clear. I’m a single mom and unemployed so I’m unable to purchase a different clear base after already spending so much on the 36 lbs I already purchased so if we can figure out what’s going on, I would really be appreciative.
Since the base was surplus, could that have made a difference? Is it possible that the base was old and that I’m just going to have this problem with the entire amount I purchased?
Thanks again Becky and I’ll try it again in the morning. Let me know if you would like pictures. Cass
Good morning, Cassie! That is a real head stumper! We’d love for you to try again and let us see some pictures of what happened to your soap. You can either submit them to [email protected] (ATTN: Becky) or you can post them on Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can take a look. Keep us updated on your progress and I hope everyone in your household is feeling better! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
CONGRATS LINDA! Beautiful soap.
Congratulations, Linda! What beautiful soaps! I love how the Turkish Mocha turned out, and the other soaps are gorgeous, too. I especially like the blue and pink soap, and the baby soap giraffe stamp is so cute!
Weren’t her other soaps just adorable? We had so much seeing all of Linda’s soaps and thought the baby soap giraffe soaps were especially cute! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Oh my gosh! What a surprise!
My friend, Suzanne,just texted me to tell me I was the photo of the week. I got on your site and, sure enough, there was my photo. Yay!
The funny thing is, I had just told some of my soaping friends that I was going to start trying to take better photos of my soap because I see all the beautiful pictures everyone else takes. So this was my first photo since then, and I took extra care with it. Looks like I’m headed in the right direction 🙂
Thank you so much for choosing my photo. I really am honored.
Linda
The Enchanted Bath
We just loved it, Linda! It reminded us of a treat you could get at a coffee shop. Thanks so much for being part of our soaping community of on Facebook. We look forward to see more gorgeous photos from you, as well as fun and creative soaps. =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry