Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
If your projects need a little spring color, take a look at the new Spring Fever Colorant set from our friend Debbie Chialtas. It’s part of her Soapy Love line, which is known for its sugary sweet fragrances and eye-popping colorants. Read the rest of this guest post about the hot color of the moment (it may surprise you!), and then learn how to use a fun new colorant set in a cute bicycle melt and pour project — A.M.
We’ve made sweet soapy cupcakes and piled-high macarons, and now these adorable doughnuts are joining the foodie soap family. Use the Doughnut Mold to make 6 doughnut halves, and then ‘glue’ the halves together with a little extra melt and pour. The tutorial below is for a Strawberry/Vanilla combo, but we also made mint chocolate ones too. There are lots of color and flavor combinations; be creative!
It’s no secret that the Pacific Northwest is the coffee capital of the world. There’s a coffee shop on every corner (sometimes two!), and a never-ending thirst for the latest and greatest new drink. The passion for coffee spills over into passion for soapmaking, so when we brought in the brand new Espresso Fragrance Oil, we went to work designing the most coffee-tastic soap we could.
The Espresso Fragrance Oil is a true espresso scent. Whereas Turkish Mocha has hints of sweetness and cream and Chocolate Espresso Cybilla is brimming with chocolate-y goodness, Espresso is for the coffee purist. Along with a recipe that includes Coffee Butter, Cocoa Butter, Hazelnut Oil and real coffee grounds, this is the ultimate soap for coffee lovers everywhere.
One of the great things about melt and pour soap is its versatility. It allows you to create intricate details, complicated patterns and in this case, cute little bows! The key to this project is adding extra liquid glycerin to the melt & pour base to give the soap extra flexibility to manipulate into bows.
This project does take a little extra patience and a steady hand, but once you get the hang of making them they make for adorable embellishments on all kinds of soapy projects.
This project uses the Heavy Duty Victorian Heart Mold, and features nourishing Chamomile Extract and the aromatic Chamomile Bergamot Fragrance Oil. This project is great for beginners or anyone looking to practice their melt & pour skills.
We’re getting back to the basics today with this cute cube melt & pour. This project is great for beginners and it’s also an excellent way to build some basic melt and pour skills. It requires that you keep a close eye on your temperatures because you don’t want to melt the delicate jojoba beads or break the smooth layers. The project also uses the Carnation Fragrance Oil, which is our sample of the month for April.
Winter is on its way out, and spring cleaning is on its way in! Freshen up your home with this easy to make Springtime Room Spray. This spray takes less than 10 minutes to assemble. We experimented with all kinds of fragrance blends before arriving on the perfect combination of Spring Meadow and Crisp Apple Rose. It reminded us of freshly sprouted flowers on a warm sunny day.
The Easter Bunny visited the Soap Queen blog early this year, and he brought these adorable melt & pour massage eggs with him! This is beginner-level melt & pour project is great for kids, and it features two eggscellent springtime fragrances — Eden’s Garden and Sweet Pea.
We also added Oat Extract to this project. Oat Extract is soothing for all types of skin and it’s especially popular in baby products. As with most extracts, add it your melt & pour soap base at 1 teaspoon per pound of soap base.
The Havana Classic series wraps up this week with one final tutorial — the Neptune Column Pour. Typically this look is achieved by pouring the soap batter over a weighed column shape. Check out page 74 in the Soap Crafting book for an example of this technique. In this project, we put a little twist on the traditional column. Instead of a 4-point rectangle shown in the Soap Crafting book, we poured over a 5-point star, resulting a beautiful and unique pattern. The star template is included for free in this tutorial.
In this episode of Soap Queen TV, I show a fun melt and pour technique for creating soaps that look like over-sized dominoes. I used a luxurious blend of Honey and Goat Milk melt & pour soap to make the perfect ivory color.
To make this soap you will need:
Get everything you need to make this soap.
Note the video lists 16 oz of Honey M&P but we actually used 18 oz. using a little less in the final layer won’t ruin your soap, so if you only have 16 oz of honey soap – it will still work!
The Havana Classic series continues today with this super sensory melt and pour project. Loaded with natural additives such as Shredded Loofah, Poppy Seeds, Lemon Peel, White Pumice and Walnut Shells, this is a fun textured bar of soap that exfoliates as it cleans.
Now through March 26 we’re rolling out specials tutorials, coupons and discounts as part of Havana Classic. Subscribe to our newsletter, and keep an eye on our Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Homepage and the blog for the coupon codes so you don’t miss the savings!
The first day of spring is tomorrow, and that means sunnier days, sprouting flower and Soap Gatherings! The Central Soapers will host this year’s first Soap Gathering. If you aren’t familiar, soap gatherings are mini conferences held by soapers across the country. Many of the gatherings feature workshops and speakers. Best of all, they’re organized by members of our own soaping community.
The Central Soapers workshop is spearheaded (with lots of help from other soapers) by Kenna of Modern Soapmaking, and takes place March 22 – 23 in Overland Park, Kansas. Bramble Berry is a proud sponsor of many soap gatherings, and this year we’re sending the mold & ingredients to make this Honey Bee CP soap as a raffle prize. Scented with Wildflower Honey, it features four natural colorants including Yellow Silt Clay, Purple Brazilian Clay, Dark Red Brazilian Clay and Activated Charcoal. You can still make this lovely soap even if you can’t attend the gathering!
Celebrate the sunshine with these cute lemon cupcake soaps. These soaps feature Lemon Cake Fragrance Oil, on sale for the month of March. It smells wonderful in cold process and melt & pour soap. It will discolor to dark brown in cold process and tan in melt and pour. This recipe uses Vanilla Color Stabilizer in this recipe to keep the cakes yellow (as opposed to brown), but be aware that the stabilizer does not work as reliably in cold process soap.
This tutorial also features the Foaming Bath Whip, which stiffens to mimic sugary sweet frosting. These cupcakes are a real treat!
Don’t be caught without your green this St. Patty’s Day! This cold process soap recipe features clean green and yellow soap layers enhanced by a cute Four Leaf Clover Stamp. Embellish with a little gold sparkle mica and you’ve got a bar of soap fit for a leprechaun’s pot of gold.
