I am still so in love with our new cube mold! For this project, I wanted to create a seasonal feel using non-traditional colors and an unexpected yet comforting scent blend. What a great way to welcome the colder months.
Search Results for: gel phase
LabColor Usage Rates
We had a blast playing with pinks, purples, greens, blues and oranges in the LabColor range and thought you might want to see what we came up with (since colorant usage rate is a common question in customer service). We used the Bramble Berry LabColors in 4 ounces of unscented cold process soap using the 12 bar square silicone mold. Check out the usage rates below to get these exact same colors. For dilution rate, we did large size of Labcolor in 8 ounces of *distilled* water. Can you tell where the gel phase is in the soaps below? I sure can! It’s the brighter middle parts of the soaps.
CP + MP = Magma Soap
This free flowing, lava like design inspired the name for this project. Magma Soap is an intricate project with so many possibilities. I’ve combined melt and pour soap with cold process soap to create a uniquely fascinating bar.
Gardening Cold Process Soap
If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest getting a couple of basic recipes under your belt before diving in. Check out Soap Queen TV on Cold Process if you want to get started with cold process. It’s a 4 part series that will take you through the basics (and be sure to watch the episode on Lye Safety). If you’re a book worm, Bramble Berry also has some helpful reading on the cold process technique.
Spread the S.O.A.P. Love
Today is the day we find out the NEW floral fragrances for Spring 2011. Me and my fabulous team get to read the surveys filled out by our hard working/testing S.O.A.P. team. Thank you for all of your hard work ladies! Click on the links below to check out all of their fabulous blogs. I love my job!
Let it Bleed: Cold Process Soap Color Gradation Tutorial
I’ve long been fascinated with how to make Labcolor’s inherent bleeding qualities work in a bar of soap. It does a great tie-dye look and the swirls are romantic and ephemeral. But, the idea of a sunset or a rainbow really drew me in. I started with a simple but sophisticated color graduation. It’s a very easy concept in theory but in practice, takes precision and weighing … and patience.
My husband and I are using this bar in our shower at home right now at home and it has fantastic lather and a great balance of bubbles with moisture and creaminess. Coupled with the absolutely exquisite scent and sophisticated color, it’s one of my favorite recipes I’ve made in a while. Read through all the instructions; it requires prep and precision.
Ingredients
29.6 oz Olive Oil
14.8 oz. Coconut Oil
8.89 oz. Palm Oil
5.92 oz Palm Kernel Oil
2.96 oz Sweet Almond Oil
2.96 oz Mango Butter
9.34 oz Lye
21.5 oz DistilledWater
4 oz Fresh Snow (the star of the show!)
Magenta Labcolor (20 ml diluted in 8 oz. of distilled hot water, Germaben II preservative added at 1%)
5 containers that will hold 18 ounces each
5 lb Mold With Sliding Bottom
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(Note: If you’re looking at this recipe and thinking “Why, oh why, are you weighing to .96 on any of these? Anne-Marie, you are on crack!” It’s okay to round up to whole numbers on the Palm Oil, Sweet Almond Oil and Mango Butter and not change the lye. You’ll end up with slightly more superfat but not enough to change your recipe. So not to worry you don’t need to buy a brand new scale!)
Step One: Stop. Check. Do you have all of your safety gear on hand? Are kids out of the house? Animals locked outside? Do you have an hour to focus? Do you need to review the Lye Safety Video? How about scaring yourself half to death with this scary blog post I did on lye? Done? Check? Great. Eye protection ON!
Step Two: Weigh out all of your oils. Melt the Palm, Coconut and Palm Kernel Oil. Add the Mango Butter to the warm oils and stick blend the Mango Butter in. Add the Sweet Almond Oil and Olive Oil to this mixture. Set this aside.
Step Three: Weigh out your water (I don’t do volume because I like the precision factor of weighing it). Weigh out your lye in a separate container. Add the lye slowly, slowly, slowly to the water, stirring the entire time, taking pains NOT to breathe in the fumes. Work only in a well-ventilated area. If you are ultra sensitive, wear a mask.
Step Four: We’re working with a hotter mixture this time so check the temps of your oils. If they’re not up to 140, heat them up until they are. Check the temp of your lye; has it dropped to 140-150? Is it clear? If so, it’s ready to add into the oils, slowly. Careful! No splashes.
Step Five: Use your stick blender to achieve light trace.
Step Six: Separate out the soap into 5 containers. WEIGH the soap out into containers. Weigh out 18 ounces of soap per container. There is no fragrance added yet.
Step Seven: We are working from lightest to darkest. For each layer, you will add fragrance and color and *then* stick blend to a very thick trace.
Layer 1: No color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.
Layer 2: 7 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.
Layer 3: 14 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.
Layer 4: 28 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.
Layer 5: 43 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.
For each layer, you’ll strive to achieve a THICK trace. Then, pour carefully over a low-placed spatula. This helps the soap not break through to the next layer. You’re looking for very straight lines. Do not hurry the pour. You have time.
I did a light dusting of fine glitter over the top just for a little Fairy Queen look.
This soap does best with a warm gel phase; the colors pop! more with a strong gel phase.
Cheery Holiday Cold Process Soap Tutorial
Wouldn’t these be an extra special Christmas gift? If you start your recipe this week it will be cutting it close with the cure time, so make sure to add a “ready to use date” on the packaging. Enjoy!
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Cranberry Embed Directions
Two days ahead of time, make your cranberry embeds This is an unscented batch of soft soap that is almost play dough like in its consistency. The batch is a small 45 oz. size and is meant to fit into our Silicone Pans.
Recipe
16 oz. Olive Oil
7.9 oz. Macadamia Nut Oil
6.1 oz. Coconut Oil
.8 oz. Jojoba Oil
4.2 oz. Lye
10 oz. Water
Wearing full safety gear and following basic CP principles (unsure about CP soap? Watch the FREE SoapQueen.TV tutorials on CP soap here), make your soap.
Add Burgundy Oxide and Merlot mica at thin trace and stick blend in. If you want to ensure no clumps at all, pre-mix color with 2 tsp of oil. Pour your soap and do not insulate. To keep the soap softer and more pliable, not going through gel phase is essential.
After the soap has set-up for just one day, use a melon baller, a cookie dough batter tool or just cut into squares and round off the corners and form with your hands. If the soap is too sticky, mix a little flour with Merlot Mica and apply to your hands to keep your hands from getting sticking to the soap.
Next make layers 1, 2 and 3: Get your soap to thin trace then, separate it into three batches. This recipe is designed to give a good amount of working time for multiple swirls and layers.
White with Green and Black Swirl Directions
14 oz. Olive Oil
8 oz. Coconut Oil
6 oz. Canola Oil
5 oz. Palm Oil
2 oz. Palm Kernel
5.0 oz. Lye
11.6 oz. water
2.6 oz. Cranberry Fig Fragrance
Colorants
Green Soap: 20 oz soap batter with Emerald Labcolor and Green Chrome Oxide. Add approximately 1 oz fragrance.
White Soap Mix: 20 oz soap batter with Super Pearly White. Add approximately 1 oz fragrance.
Black Soap Mix: 12 oz soap batter with Black Iron Oxide and Vintage Gray Mica. Add approximately 3/4 oz fragrance.
Add the fragrance right before you pour so that if your fragrance accelerates trace you will still have time to embed your cranberry inclusions.
Fragrance the white layer of soap. Pour a thin layer of white soap over the black/green mixture. Add the Cranberry Inclusions, two by two, spacing evenly along projected bar cut lines. Pour the rest of the white soap.
Spoon or pour the remainder of the black and green swirl over the Cranberry Inclusions/White layer.
For the last layer: Split the batch into two containers.
Red and White Swirls
Recipe
4.88 oz. Olive Oil
2.79 oz. Coconut Oil
2.09 oz. Canola Oil
1.74 oz. Palm Oil
.7 oz. Palm Kernel
1.76 oz. Lye
4.03 oz. Water
.9 oz. Cranberry Fig
Red Soap: 7 oz soap batter blended with Burgundy Oxide and Merlot Mica. Approximately 1/2 oz fragrance blend.
Uncolored Soap: 11 oz soap batter with approximately 3/4 oz fragrance oil.
Swirl the colored soap and white soap together. Pour over the Green/Black layer.
Insulate well and allow to harden for a minimum of 2 days before cutting. To ensure your soap is mild and hard, be sure to make your soap by November 15th so it can dry for a full 4-6 weeks before the big day!
Advanced Oatmeal Stout Cold Process Soap
The tutorial and recipe you’ve all been waiting for…Oatmeal Stout scented cold process made with real Oatmeal Stout Beer. Can it be? It’s true and it’s made with real oatmeal too!
If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest getting a couple of basic recipes under your belt before diving in…working with beer is definitely an advanced technique. Click here to read more about how to use alcoholic beverages such as beer in your soap. Check out Soap Queen TV on Cold Process if you want to get started with cold process. It’s a 4 part series that will take you through the basics (and be sure to watch the episode on Lye Safety). If you’re a book worm, Bramble Berry also has some helpful reading on the cold process.
technique.
Ingredients
Oatmeal Stout Beer
Super Pearly White (optional)
Long-Cook Ground Oatmeal
Tools
2 large glass mixing bowls
Stick Blender
Spatulas and spoons
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(olive oil, beer and oatmeal not included)
PREP: The first step to a successful beer batch (in my opinion) is boiling flat beer. Let your beer sit open for 24 hours to get rid of the fizz then boil it for about 5 minutes to cook out all of the alcohol. The beer really ‘poofs’ up during this boiling phase so don’t leave it unattended. Also, be sure to line your wooden mold with freezer paper, shiny side up.
ONE: Measure out your lye (by weight) and beer (by volume) and slowly add the lye to the beer in 3 batches (pour a little lye and stir- repeat 2 more times). Repeat until the lye is completely added and stir until the lye is dissolved. Let the lye mixture cool to about 130 degrees.
TWO: Melt and measure the Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Kernel Flakes and Palm Oil. Then stir in the Shea Butter (until liquid). Let the oils cool to 130 degrees.
THREE: Slowly pour the lye mixture into the melted oils and mix with your stick blender for about 30 seconds.
FOUR: Separate your soap batter in half. It does not have to be exact but try to eyeball it so it’s equally separated.
FIVE: Add a heaping table spoon of Titanium Dioxide to the one half of the batch to lighten it up and mix with the stick blender. Then add 1.5 tablespoons of long-cook ground oatmeal to the mixture and stick blend.
SIX: Hand stir in 2 ounces of Oatmeal Stout Fragrance Oil and pour the soap into the mold.
OPTIONAL: I dusted a vein of Super Pearly White Mica. This is an optional step. I couldn’t see it as much as I wanted in the final, cut soap.
SEVEN: To your other half of soap batter, add the rest of your Oatmeal Stout Fragrance Oil (2.1 ounces). Hand mix the fragrance in and pour the second layer.
TIP: To make sure the top layer of soap doesn’t penetrate the bottom layer of soap, pour the soap onto a spatula so it drips slowly into the mold.
EIGHT: Press your dividers down into the mold and sprinkle on some whole oats on the top for decoration. Pop the lid on and insulate with a towel to keep the temperature up. It will help with a lovely gel phase and also prevent soda ash. Once the soap hardens up, carefully unmold the soap and let it cure for 4-6 weeks.
The Highs and Lows of Mint Chocolate Chip
Here’s a peek of my Mint Chocolate Chip swirls from yesterday. See the blog post HERE if you missed it. The soap is pretty soft at this point (Olive Oil, 5% superfat, no gel phase) but they were still easy to unmold from the ‘World’s Best’ Baltic Birchwood Mold. These “sweet” soaps will be ready to use in 4-6 weeks!
On a painfully sad note, there was a casualty during the unmolding process. I was so giddy and excited about my swirls that the soap just bobbled out of my hand. I guess this will be the “tester” soap. Sigh…poor little guy. He didn’t deserve this!
We’re having the Bramble Berry Bridge Building Contest today + BBQ Fundsday! I can’t wait to have a rematch and hopefully redeem myself (and my popsicle stick bridge building abilities).
Behind the Scenes at SQTV
I hope your Memorial Day was fantastic – and that sometime today, you found a moment in silence to reflect on why Memorial Day matters to you or better yet, thanked a service person for their sacrifice on behalf of our Country.
The SoapQueen.TV crew and I took advantage of the week day off to shoot two new episodes of SoapQueen.TV. It was a luxury because normally we shoot on the weekend.
This is our Director Ron. He looks happy with me at this moment (phew!). We’re in dress rehearsal (thus no apron and the messy table). Besides our script writing sessions and script read through, we also go through all the steps before shooting the ‘aloud voice’ part of filming. It helps us find the best shots for the final cut.
We shot two episodes today: Tattoo Melt and Pour Soap Project and a Premium Episode – Liquid Soap from Scratch (can’t wait? We have a downloadable E-Book that will give you the basics). The Tattoo Melt and Pour Soap project is super duper cute and ultra teen-friendly.
Even though I’m the only one on camera, SoapQueen.TV has an incredible crew making sure everything goes smoothly. Notice my ‘stunt double’ in the back of the set, babying the liquid soap through gel phase? If I didn’t have the incredible support of a competent team, the shoots wouldn’t be nearly as much fun AND they would go three times as long.
Thank you SoapQueen.TV crew. You guys rock!
Swirling Update + Sneak Peak
I was so excited to get to work today to see the swirls I made up last night. The batch did not go through gel phase (my soap studio was kind of cool last night) so you can see that the colors have diminished in intensity and hue. But, I still am excited about them and love the look. I am a bit impatient so I think I’ll freeze the batch solid to see if I can get the soap out a day or two earlier than if I let it air dry naturally.
This is the recipe I used (screenshot from the iPhone Soapmaking App):
PS: See the little soaps off to the right hand side of the big loaf? That’s the project I’m working on for tomorrow’s blog post. It’s down to the wire to create the cutest soap project I can for your Easter soaps! =)
Grey to Green to Purple: LabColor Tips
On the Teach Soap Forum recently, we had a big discussion on how to work with Royal Blue LabColor in Cold Process Soap. In general, LabColors turn brighter in cold process soap as the soap sets up and cures, especially if your soap gels. For example, the Royal Blue LabColor is a disappointing grayish color when it is first mixed into the soap, even at a high percentage. After 24 hours, it slowly turns a bright vibrant blueish purple. Because of this, many people have a tendency to over color their soap and end up with colors that are more vivid than they originally intended.
If you have added the proper percentage of LabColors (and maybe even a little more!) and the color is still not popping, STOP while you are ahead. Insulate your soap to ensure a nice, cozy gel phase and note the color after 24 hours.
Just after pouring Royal Blue LabColor colored soap. Check out that grey green gross color.
After 24 hours in the mold. See the brighter areas where the soap went through gel phase in the middle? The ‘white’ on top is glitter that I sprinkled liberally on the soap for an extra magical look. Sadly, the glitter doesn’t photograph great.
To see if small batches that never went through gel phase would also turn, I did a couple teensy 1 ounce test pucks. Notice how the soap on the tippy top of the soap never went a blue color? It’s either the soda ash affecting the final color or the lack of heat that retarded the final color turn. To get the bright blue color (top layer below – and in the soap above), I used 2 tablespoon diluted Royal Blue Labcolor (Small bottle [10 ml] of LabColor diluted in 4-8 ounces of water) per 16 ounces of soap soap (oil/water/lye total). This makes such a bright blue color that I recommend using close to 1 tablespoon diluted Royal Blue Labcolor per pound of soap to ensure no soapy blue bubbles.
This one is really interesting to me. It is the Pool Blue LabColor (middle layer on the left, bottom layer on the right). Look at what happens when you change the addition rate just slightly. The shade of blue is the same but the hue is much darker, deeper and brighter just by upping the usage rates. Curious about LabColors? Here is more information on how to dilute the concentrated colors and use them to get every color imaginable.
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Successful? Coconut Milk Batch
From this: 
to this:
to this:
I made a new Coconut Milk Batch today and switched out two variables:
1. Temperature
2. Fragrance
As cold process soapers know, fragrance makes a huge difference in how your soap performs. At Bramble Berry, we test each and every fragrance three times before adding it to our line. At least one of these tests is a larger batch. Sometimes, what happens in a small batch isn’t how a fragrance reacts in a large batch. The Orange Blossom I tested in the Coconut Milk Soap Volcano had performed admirably in one large batch already and done well in a small batch as well. But, when I tossed in the added stressors of a hot milk batch, well … that was enough to throw the Coconut Milk Soap over the edge.
This batch, I paid attention to the temperatures. When I mixed, my soap was a warm 137 degrees which was still too hot for my liking. The big change was the fragrance switch. I made this soap with Buttercream & Snickerdoodle (2 parts) mixed with Relaxing (1 part). I did 100% Coconut Milk in place of the water and reacted the lye with the Coconut Milk.
The soap did great. It traced quickly and had a wonderful texture once the stick blender had worked its magic. I fragranced the majority of the soap, leaving a bit out for a white swirl to provide texture and contrast to the soon-to-be-brown soap (thanks to the Vanilla in the two fragrances I chose).
I split the batch three ways: 1 log mold, 1 Pumpkin Mold (to test release with this hard CP soap) and 1 Flexy Fast mold.
The non-fragranced soap stayed a cool 103 degrees in the mold.
The fragranced pumpkin soap got nice and warm, up to 159 degrees while starting gel phase.
The loaf mold stayed a similar temperature at 153 degrees. It did start to expand with all of the heat produced during gel phase and cracked the top of the soap.
The soap in the loaf did not get as warm as the 100% fragranced individual soap because the loaf soap had swirls of cooler, non-fragranced soap running throughout. The crack started small, when the soap was around 140.
After the soap hit over 150 degrees, the crack started widening and pushing outwards and up. It never got taller or wider than this. Heated soap expands. Since the top layer of soap was cool and more hard than the gelling middle, it gave way to the expanding soap by cracking.
I’ll take photos of the final soap in the next week to share with you. I feel confident that if I lowered my temperatures to 120 and used frozen coconut milk that the soap wouldn’t have cracked. Cracked or not, the soap is one luxurious bar with 75% Coconut, 25% Cocoa Butter and Coconut Milk in place of water. I can hardly wait for the 6 week cure time to use it!
Coconut Milk Soap Volcano
In my 16 years of cold process soapmaking, I have heard of of soap volcanoes in various soap forums, books and soap gatherings over the years. But until today, I had not experienced one for myself. The ensuing happenstance was so exciting that I started exclaiming ‘Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh‘ with such glee that Erik (manager of Otion) thought I was thrilled about what he was talking about. When I finally got him turned around to see the soap, his jaw dropped. Erik has been making cold process soap for only 2 years but has made 300+ batches of cold process soap in those two years. He’s never seen the volcano happen either. I shouted at the top of my lungs for the customer service team from Bramble Berry to come watch. They arrived just in time to catch the last of the show.
The soap literally bubbled out of the mold like a fizzy soda fountain, with mounds of frothy, bubbling caustic soap. The entire thing was funny because I was wearing my gloves and goggles but had I not been working on a protected surface with my hands and eyes covered, it could have been a disaster. The bubbling took about 90 seconds to finish. After it was done erupting, about half the soap was out of the mold and on the table.
Notice how much the soap deflated as it cooled down? It lost almost half of its volume!
The soap was super hot (over 200 degrees) as though it was going through a full hot process (or in-the-oven-hot process) gel phase. Since the soap hadn’t separated much, I just plopped all the soap that had overflowed back into the mold, patted it down (with gloves on – the soap is still caustic) and smoothed it out. The soap isn’t the most pretty soap I’ve ever seen but hopefully it will be usable.
I’ll cut the soap tomorrow to see how it looks and am hopeful I saved the batch. The experience reminded me of the valuable lesson about making soap with too many unknown variables. Coconut Milk + Cocoa Butter + Coconut Oil + Untested Fragrance = Super Pow Volcano Soap. This is why buying fragrance oils from a proven, tested vendor is so important for you too. If someone else has done all the testing for you, there is one less variable for you to worry about when you’re soaping at home or in your soap studio.