Search Results for: trace

The Balanced Wheel of Life

December 29, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

My good friend and fellow Mastermind Business Group member, Lynn Giuliani, introduced our Mastermind Group to this concept two years ago. It has been a huge help for me in setting goals. I shared it at the Alabama Soapmakers Convention this year and based on the comments in my post yesterday, attendees liked it. I hope you will find it useful and take the time to fill out your balance wheel to help you set your goals and priorities for 2009.

The excercise is simple.

1. Draw a circle (or if you’re artistically challenged like me, trace a circle)

2. Divide your circle into 6 parts. Try to make them equal.

3. Label them: Financial, Physical, Social, Family, Mental and Spiritual

4. Take a few minutes to decide how you feel about each of these categories in your life. What is your level of satisfaction in each of these areas? Only you can determine what your level of satisfaction is. Your idea of how successful or happy you are will not be the same as your sister’s, neighbor’s or brother’s. That’s okay. This is an exercise just for you and you don’t need to share it with anyone. Shade in your piece of the pie to your level of satisfaction.

5. Cut out your wheel. Does it roll? If it doesn’t roll, think of the area that your wheel is flat in. Is this an area you’d like to see improvement in? Make some goals around it.

Finding the balance in life is a constant negotiation with all six of these areas. Doing this quick and easy exercise will help you determine where to put your energies and focus towards in 2009.

Tomorrow, I’ll write about goal setting and putting your goals into action by creating a vision board.

Grumpy Girl Candle & Bath Company

November 25, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Seems like everyone is singing the praises of Grumpy Girl these days. And after I received my purchase from their shop, I can see why! In addition to the gorgeously packaged products, they sent free samples and a really sweet thank-you card. They have an online shop (free shipping this Friday!) and a very popular shop on Etsy.

Their Cuppy Cake Bath Bombs are packaged so well that they really do look like the picture on their website when you get them! Ours was scented with their Booty Call blend – an intoxicating blend of almond, honey & brown sugar. Her frosting skills are definitely better than mine.

These totally fascinating soap slices are part of their Cranky Kid line. Everyone I showed this bar to was totally entranced. You can help but to look at it from every angle trying to figure out how it’s done. I like the creativity; it’s a nice take on the “fish in a bag” approach that has been popular for a few years.

This bar was scented with their appropriately named Acid Trip fragrance blend – a mix of Patchouli, Orange and Lemongrass. The talent to do a swirl like this takes my breath away. Working with so many colors, and such a thin trace … wow. The soap is a true work of art.

If you’re looking for a gift that won’t disappoint this Christmas, you can’t go wrong with Grumpy Girl Candle and Bath Company.

Fizzies, Lip Balms, Seizing Soap – Oh My!

November 23, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

1. 4 test candles with different waxes, 2. Testing new lip flavor, 3. Bath Fizzies, 4. Seizing Soap! Oh no!

Today was a busy day. I spent this afternoon with our newest Customer Service team members at Otion. We did a basic overview of the main things that Bramble Berry and Otion customers make. First, we did a batch of Cold Process soap. That pinkish purple in the photo above was acheived with a heavy dose of Ultramarine Pink Oxide. Unfortunately, the test fragrance accelerated trace a bit too quickly to get a triple-color swirl done and we ended up glopping the entire thing into the mold. The soap will probably not be taking any “Best Of” prizes anytime soon. On the plus side, the test fragrance (a Banana Leaf floral mix) smelled delicious, even while wrecking havoc on our batch. I’ll work on reformulating it and hopefully bring it in for Spring 2009.

To show the difference between Cold Process and Melt and Pour, we did a quick and easy Citrus Melt and Pour loaf. Holly in Customer Service was delighted at the instant gratification of melt and pour.

Then, we made two different lip balm recipes – one with deoderized cocoa butter and one with regular cocoa butter to compare the smell in the final product. We used this opportunity to try out some of our edible essential oils. We even tried including the lip tingling Clove essential oil in a few of the tubes, in the hopes of creating the next lip plumper. Our lips tingled but they didn’t look a whole lot more plump after application.

We also made two batches of bath fizzies. One using micas (Violacious Violet with Lychee Red Tea fragrance) and one using La Bomb (Lilac La Bomb with Cybilla Yuzu fragrance). Holly in Customer Service was particularly surprised to see the color changes with the La Bomb batch once the color was fully dispersed in the batch.

Finally, we finished with four test candles. The purpose of making four was to educate and show the Customer Service team at Bramble Berry the various burn rates of the different waxes we carry. On Monday, we’ll have a “Burn Off” and see which wax burns the longest, the fastest, the hardest and gives the best throw. Our offices will be smelling especially good tomorrow. I predict the 100% beeswax candle will be the last one standing.

Once I got home, I made a batch of delicious (well, I think it’s delicious) Carmel Fudge to bring to work. High doses of sugar are a great way to start out any slow Monday.

Just a reminder: Bramble Berry is closed Thursday and Friday this week for Thanksgiving.

Cold Process Christmas Soap – Part One

November 11, 2008 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

I’m getting back to my roots with this project, an unofficial “Gift Series” addition. My first true love will always be Cold Process Soapmaking despite my propensity to do melt and pour and all manner of other fun toiletries. For this unofficial Gift Series project, I created a soap recipe that will fit in our 5 pound wooden mold.

Please be sure to follow all safety guidelines when handling Lye. If you haven’t studied a comprehensive guide on Cold Process soap making I highly recommend the Everything Soap Book.If you are new to cold process soapmaking, please purchase a book and read about the serious safety issues associated with lye. Another good book to start with is Susan Miller Cavitch’s “The SoapMakers Companion.”When working with lye, please always use gloves and goggles and do not breathe in the fumes. I also wear long sleeves during my soapmaking process and keep my goggles on the entire (entire, entire, entire!) time. Even I burn myself; if you missed the post last year where I dumped fresh soap on an open cut, click here to learn from my (idiotic) mistake.

Recipe:
22 ounces Coconut Oil
11 ounces Olive Oil
11 ounces Palm Oil
5.5 ounces Hemp Oil
5.5 ounces Shea Butter21 oz. water
8.13 oz. Lye Burgundy Oxide
Chrome Green Oxide
Christmas Forest Fragrance

Pyrex for lye water (32 ounce size at minimum)

Bowl or stainless steel mixing pot to hold 7 pounds

2 smaller glass, stainless steel or plastic containers for swirling colors (ideally, 16 to 32 ounceseach in size)

Mold (you can use a trash-bag lined shoe box or a nice log mold or anything else you find that has give, won’t corrode with the fresh soap and isn’t aluminum)

Stainless Steel Spoons (3)

Spatula

Scale (it doesn’t have to be digital but you do need to weigh all of your ingredients. I startedmaking soap with my Mom’s 1970’s Weight Watcher’s scale).

Step 1 Weigh out all of your oils and make your lye solution (remember, always add the lye to the water). Stir the lye into the water taking precautions to not breathe in the fumes. Always use stainless steel or high temperature plastic for your stirring implement. Set the mixture to the side. You can put the lye water mixture outside if you are not in a well ventilated area. Make sure that small children and pets are not underfoot during this process. If you missed Konnor’s story about lye burns, click here to read it. Lye solution is caustic and can easily burn skin and damage eyes (you are wearing your eye proection, right?). Prepare your mold (this is a good time to line it if it requires lining). You want to have all of your tools ready and everything within reach.

$\" width=$ Step 2 Melt your oils and mix them all together. Add your lye solution and blend. Many soapmakers like to have their temperatures within 15 degrees of eachother for the lye water and the oil. If you’re a newbie, stick with a 105 to 115 range for your lye water and oils. I strongly recommend using a stick blender to help speed up the process. You’ll be blending for between two and five minutes before the next step. It will vary a bit based on your temperatures, blender and size of bowl.

Step 3Once your mixture has reached a light trace (what’s trace? Trace looks like thin pudding where faint trailings of soap stay on the surface of your soap mixture when lightly drizzled from a few inches overhead. You can barely see trace trailings on the soap in the bowl on the left in the photo below), pour some of the soap mix into two other containers so you have 3 separate portions of soap. Add a teaspoon of green chrome to one and a teaspoon of the burgundy to another – you can add more if you want a darker color.

Step 4 Mix in the color with your stick blender until all the clumps are gone and you’ve achieved the color you want. Next, quickly hand stir in your fragrance to each container. Mix again and get ready to pour!

Tomorrow, I’ll cover swirling, the labels and cure time guidelines.

Silhouette Soap – Day Two – The Exacto

September 30, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Part One Instructions
Click here for Part Three Instructions

Step Three: Pop your Black Soap Out

Invert your mold and gently pry your flat soap out. Face it so that the underside of the soap is facing you (this is the more dull side).

Step Four: Prepare your Cameo Design

Using the size of your soap mold as a guide, draw your design or find a great silhouette on the internet and shrink it down. Print it on normal paper on your inkjet or laser printer.

Step Five: Cutting

Place your design on top of the soap. Use a small exacto knife to trace around the design, through the soap. Make sure your soap is on a cutting board or thick piece of cardboard. You don’t want to accidentally cut your counter.

If you’re not so good with the knife, you can also use a small cookie cutter to shorten this step up.

Part of the fun of this technique is the ability to customize logos, your name, your special symbol or even your own silhouette.

Use your fingers to smooth out any rough edges. My silhouettes were cut in such a herky-jerky, caffeine-fueled fashion that I had a lot of smoothing to do!

You can do some very intricate designs with enough patience and no caffeine. A steady hand is essential for this project.

Now that your silhouette is prepared, join me tomorrow as we work our way through placing this customized soap into your mold for maximum dramatic effect.

Test Tube Samples

August 15, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Have you heard about TestTube? It’s a sampling program for all the latest, greatest (?) nutraceuticals. If you’re anything like me, you’re tempted by the glossy ads, the promising superlatives and the embryonic-looking models. But, perhaps like me, you’re a frugal person who believes in a little bit of prudence in a big way when it comes to splurging on things you can (a) probably make yourself and (b) you knowuse less than 1% of the active ingredients they so proudly tout on the label.

I’ve been satisfying my curiosity for $29 per quarter for the last year and am lovin’ it. So far, every single line I’ve gotten (save one – I’ll admit it – $150 Prevage pretty much rocked my skeptical, penny pinching world) has not lived up to the overhpyed claims. And, rather than spending $hundreds$, I’ve spent $120 for the entire years’ worth of samples and generous testers.

If you see the glossy ads and think, “Hm, maybe I should spend that $300 on GDSB (Glossy Department Store Brand),” then the NewBeauty TestTube Sampling program might quell that urge. And, at the very least, it’ll give you a healthy boost of self esteem as you realize that despite the lack of fancy-schmancy packaging, your homemade soap, lotion or cleanser is just as awesome and effective as the GDSB one.

Beauty TestTube, $29 every 3 months, here.

It’s Honey Season! Time for Honey Soap!

May 19, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

We have a local honey producer that we trade old barrels for honey with. Wendel, from Fourth Corner Farm in Ferndale makes the best honey and for an affordable price! We trade so much with him though that we’re just a bit overwhelmed with honey and I think that all the staff have 3 or 4 bottles already.So, I’ve started researching different ideas for how to use our excess honey!

Relaxing Honey Bath- Put 2 oz. of honey in a glass with 5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil. Add 1 or 2 Tbs. of the honey lavender to your bathwater to help you relax and to combat insomnia.

Honey can also be used as a dressing for wounds. Applied externally, honey is useful for healing minor cuts and abrasions by drawing excess water from tissues and reducing swelling. In addition, honey contains a germ-killing substances call inhibin which helps prevent infections.

Allergy help! Supposedly, if you eat local honey that has been harvested locally for 5 days, this will help you with your hay fever because of the grains of pollen in the honey. Remember, no unpasturized honey to infantsbecause of botulism risks.

Honey can be used as a healthy snack after working out. The glucose and fructose in honey have been predigested by the bees that produced it and are easily absorbed by our digestive tracts.

Finally, honey in Cold Process soap helps to produce a moisturizing bar. Hint: If the soap gets too hot, the honey will scorch and turn brown so try to keep your temperatures below 120. Also, if you use the honey at more than 10% of your recipe, you will be more prone to heat tunnelling.

I use honey at a 3% usage rate and add it at thin trace, to a low temperature (100 degrees) soap and use less insulation than normal to help prevent the heat tunneling.

If you like to use honey in your soaps, be sure to plant many bee-friendly plants in your yard to do your part to support our flying friends. Bees are mysteriously dying in large numbers right now (the phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder) which not only affects honey for soapmaking but food for humans to eat. Over 1/3 of the crop species in the US use bees to pollinate. Without the bee colony’s health, we may soon find ourselves paying more for honey, fruit and almonds. So, when beautifying your yard, think of our flying friends too.

European Honey Bee Touching Down
Originally uploaded by autan

Interview with Alex from Soapalaya

March 9, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Soapalya has some unique soap designs and indie style. After discovering her on Etsy a few months ago, I bought some goodies and liked her formulas as well as the look of her soap. We’re lucky that Alex has agreed to do an interview with us! We’re celebrating my husband’s birthday this weekend so expect some fun photos of the party and his gift later tonight.

Tell us how you got into soapmaking as a hobby?

I’m a life-long *maker* of things. Curiosity about how something is made runs neck and neck with the need to meet the challenge of actually learning how to do it. I have a love for color, pattern and design that finds expression through sewing, painting, stained glass, weaving, handmade paper, and, now, soap!

Finding my way into making soap really began out of an urgent necessity mixed with genuine curiosity. The necessity was a sensitivity to commercial detergents, soaps, and shampoos. I spent too many years and way too much money trying product after product with no relief. I bought my first bar of handmade soap while on vacation one summer. That was the beginning of the end of my using commercial products. Once I found relief in the form of a handmade cold-processed olive oil soap the intense curiosity began. I wanted to know *how*!

I began with research and read everything I could find on the subject. I spent the better part of a year just reading about how to make cold process soaps. I bought books, took notes, searched the Internet, scoured the libraries. I’ll admit I was intimidated at the thought of tackling something that seemed so far beyond my abilities. The terminology was intimidating. How can you really understand “trace” if you’ve never seen it? Then there’s “saponification!” There’s a word to intimidate! I would have loved to have had an experienced teacher to walk me through the things I didn’t understand, but, I didn’t find one. So, I broke it down into little bites of information that I could process.

The biggest thing that bugged me was the multitude of essential oils available to me….way too many choices! I wanted to try them all! I decided to keep it simple by starting with fragrance favorites. As my skills have developed I’ve ventured into using essential oils based on their specific therapeutic benefits. Making soap was never really a hobby. I’ve had fun, for sure, but I always knew that once I began it was going to become a major part of my life. I need what handmade soap has to offer and I want it to be customized to my specific needs.

At what point did you decide to make it into a business? Was there a trigger point?

For the longest time I was just having fun with the idea that I could actually make soap for myself. It still pleases me very much when I realize I’m actually capable of doing this! I found myself to be quite content just finally having something to use on my face, hair and body that didn’t make me itch! I wasn’t asking for more that that. I enjoy giving my handmade soap as gifts and I still do give away a lot of soap! It never occurred to me that I could sell it! As friends and family used the soap I started getting some feedback – very positive feedback! And so it began. A little here, a little there. On a very small scale I had found myself a market, and, to my surprise, I was the supplier!

What other methods do you use to sell besides Etsy? I initially opened an Etsy shop, Necessities, for my artwork and hand sewn items. It took a while before I entertained the thought of even trying to sell my soap online. I’m still learning the business end of this and too much too fast is not something I want. For now, I’m good at the pace I have going! I’ve started the groundwork for a website and have made that one of my goals for the new year.

I see you sell a Hemp Soap Saver; do you crochet the saver yourself?

With all of the weaving I’ve done on my loom I’ve collected a massive variety of threads and yarns. I recently came across a spool of 100% hemp twine I had used on a woven project. Hemp is a fabulous natural fiber with some really wonderful qualities. One of the best is its natural resistance to mold. I had wanted a unique soap saver for myself and for my shop, so, I grabbed my crochet hook and eventually came up with a design I really like. I used the first one myself to work the *bugs* out of it. The final design is now for sale in my shop! Unlike cotton, it dries out quickly and is both durable and soft.

Your Blowing in the Breeze soap looks complex! Tell us more about it.

One of the newest soap creations in my shop is called “blowing in the breeze”. Before I make a new soap I need to have some idea of what it is going to look like. I tend to have difficulty just making a plain bar of soap! I will start out with intentions to just keep it simple, but, I never keep to the plan. All of those years of stained glass, weaving and art seem to show up in the bars of soap! My husband just laughs at me. He says that I really just can’t help it! Soap is another art form, isn’t it? “Blowing in the Breeze” is just the weaver and stained glass artist peeping out!

My favorite bar of soap, at the moment, is one made with rose clay and scented with Somali Rose (goes by that name). I love anything with rose clay in it…creamy, creamy! Somali Rose, the fragrance, is just wonderful!

The Twilight soap is what attracted me to your store; tell us a bit about the look and feel – how you came up with the color and design.

“Twilight” is a boar of soap that was fun to make. I like to paint and trying to blend all of the colors was a lot like painting (but it kills me to have to wait until the next day to see the finished product!). Mixing the colors is crazy fun….working fast before the soap gets too thick. It was a challenge with a very pretty result! I have a friend that wanted a more *manly* fragrance. The sandalwood and patchouli blend gives it the fragrance and the blending of those colors, especially the black, makes it look less girly than a lot of the soaps I have!

Any plans for 2008 that you want to share? Line expansions, new methods of selling, all of that fun stuff!

Like all of us trying to build a small business, I have some long term goals that I’ll keep under my hat for now! Short term goals include building up my product line and website. I have a good friend that is a handmade soap convert. I’m hoping that she might become my business partner in the future. She and I both tend to be drawn to the more therapeutic advantages of handmade products. It takes an enormous amount of time to develop not only the product line but also the appropriate labeling and packaging for the products. At the moment, it’s just me running the show! I have found a chemist whose brain I can pick when I get to a point where I need to know more. I try very hard to be informed as much as I can about everything in the products I make. I learn something new everyday, but, sometimes I still feel it is all just a little overwhelming! After all of this time I still see myself as a *student* ! I don’t think I’ll ever learn it all, and, truthfully, that’s what makes all of this soap making so much fun!

Red Velvet Test Batch

February 8, 2008 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

We recently had a Bramble Berry customer that had a bit of trouble with the Red Velvet LabColor not turning out to be the color she wanted. We made her proprietary recipe and came out with a really bright, snappy color. I’m wondering if it’s a usage rate issue? There’s always a possibility of operator error on our part with a mislabeled bottle too.

The soap on the right used 6 drops of undiluted Red Velvet LabColor in 2 pounds of soap. It also went through a full gel phase which helps the brightness of the color really stick out.

Here’s an example of the Wineberry Mist LabColor with a high and a low usage rate. Notice the difference in shade and hue just by varying the usage rate a bit. The fragrance that we used accelerated trace a lot so it was tricky to smoosh this one fully down in the mold. The darker color used 276 grams of diluted Wineberry Mist in 6.5 lbs of soap.

Our own Vocation Vacationer!

January 10, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I spent the day at Otion yesterday, mentoring my very own Vocation Vacationer! Linda flew in from Michigan. She’s interested in learning about running a small shop, and wants to sell handmade soaps and toiletries.

We put her through a “normal” retail day. She opened the store and learned how to count a till, helped out customers and designed retail displays. In addition to normal busy work, she made 10 pounds of soap (her first soap ever!) and the 15 baby test batches pictured above. Here she is, peeking on a five pound batch we made earlier during the day.

The soap is in its final phases of gel phase. The (test) fragrance accelerated trace. That is why the texture of the soap is uneven with crevices and bumps. With the right packaging, that texture can easily be turned into a unique focal point.

In addition to the soapmaking, Erik taught Linda the art of melt and pour. Finally, we finished off the day with two batches of lotions and a great dinner.

Linda was a quick study. She has a background in business and is only lacking soapmaking knowledge. We’re going to spend today making lip balms, bath fizzies, salt scrubs and lotion bars. I’m excited to have her spending another day at Otion. I know we’ll get a lot done so that when she goes back to Michigan, the main thing to do is find a great retail location.

Testing New Trends

December 8, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Trend Testing for 2008

I had a fun afternoon today, testing new trends forecasted for 2008. These are the same exact recipes but look at how different the soaps look. The color, the texture and the trace thickness are all vastly different.

This small test batch shows the importance of using fully tested fragrance oils for cold process soap. After all, when you are making a 5 pound soap batch, it’s always nice to know if a fragrance will accelerate trace or turn a nice shade of brown (ruining the perfect swirl or geometrically balanced layers).

In the photo above, the soap on the right top looks lumpy. It is in fact, very lumpy. The fragrance made the soap get all clumpy with the appearance of cottage cheese. Whoops. That is one fragrance that Bramble Berry will not be bringing in.

In the photo above, the soap on the left is starting to rapidly heat up. It also showed an alarming propensity to accelerate trace (as evidenced by the nicely formed peaks on the soap).

For every fragrance that Bramble Berrycarries, we’ve tested at least 100 more to find that one fragrance. The two problem soaps above are not the end of the testing. Each of the bars in the batch will be sniff tested at the 6 week mark and, if they happen to make it through that (they normally won’t), we’ll retest the same fragrance in a 5 pound batch and a 8 pound batch to ensure that they will hold up to the rigors of real life soaping.

8% Beeswax Soap

December 6, 2007 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Recently, one of our Bramble Berry customers wrote with some problems he was having unmolding his 8% beeswax soap. It was sticking in his lovely Milky Way Tray mold and causing him no end of consternation.

We made his recipe for him to test it and see if it was technique or the mold. It was exciting to see that a thicker trace was all that was necessary to make a great batch of soap that released easily from the mold.

Isn’t that batch of soap nicely colored? It’s all natural coloring from the yellow beeswax. We scented ours with a little Lemongrass. The undernote of Beeswax and the Lemongrass make for a match made in heaven!

Thanksgiving Place Settings

November 21, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thanksgiving Place Settings, also known as “The Place Setting Project That Would Not End.”

This project started out looking easy and simple. Two hours later, I am the proud owner of 10 handmade gourd place settings for Thanksgiving. I suspect that my family will not appreciate the work these gourds took.

Making paper strips out of three fun Thanksgiving colors.

Three piles of soon-to-be baby gourds, just waiting to be formed.

I skipped documenting a step or two here involving stringing the strips of paper on a green wrapped cloth wire. It was hard to hold the camera and string paper on flimsy wire at the same time. My limited crafting skills only go so far.

Hand traced and cut leaves provide an ample space for names on place settings.

The final gourd pile, just waiting to direct happy eaters to their 5,000 calorie meal.

Clear Instructions for Layering CP Soap

October 31, 2007 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Playing With Soap has a helpful post, complete with photos, on layering Cold Process Soap. Click here to see it.

I do layers the same way: pour at a very pudding thick trace and try to work quickly.

I’ve heard other soapmakers actually make three batches (rather than separating one big batch into three parts), one right after another. The time in between batches allows the layers to harden enough to support the next layer.