Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Learn the magical funnel pour process in this episode of Soap Queen TV. I think you’ll be amazed at how easy it is and the results you will get. I try to break down the steps and show some of the tricks I have figured out that make this process really easy.
Get everything you need to make this project (except the mold) with the click of a button!
Have you seen these Santa soaps strategically placed around the Bramble Berry website? I hope you remember where they are because they could help you with a prize from Bramble Berry! Check out the contest details HERE and find out how to WIN! Then come back to the tutorial and make your own Gnomey Claus Soaps. Can you guess which soap mold we used?
The Clean Up Tool and Injector will be your best friends for this project. Of course, nothing is impossible but without these tools, this project would be close to it. [Read more…]
Advanced Swirling Part 4: In The Pot Swirling
Guest post by Kat from Otion (Bramble Berry’s retail store)
Welcome back! This is part four of Kat’s advanced swirling tutorials. Please make sure to check out parts 1 (Understanding Color Theory Terminology) , 2 (Getting Brave with Color) and 3 (Soap Design and Color Matching) if you haven’t already. In this section, the secrets to successful swirling are revealed!
Must have materials:
Before beginning, make sure to have all safety equipment and supplies at hand. Have your colors picked and prepared and your fragrance oil weighed, line your wooden mold and have divider inserts set up on the side. Snug fitting rubber gloves are ideal for maximum dexterity (Tip! Pick up some hair-dying gloves from the local beauty supply store). A rubber spatula is your best friend for swirling! This tool manipulates the swirl pattern and pulls it through the entire bar. Use a bamboo skewer for creating finer details and surface swirls. You will also need extra smaller heat resistant pitchers for dividing the soap into sections to color.
Team Bramble Berry and I were brainstorming Halloween soap ideas and this was the project that we got most excited about. It’s a very simple technique that adds that extra special (spooky) touch for Halloween. Give these away as a hostess gift or put them in your guest bathroom to impress your friends.
Oktoberfest is an annual beer festival that originated in Germany. They celebrate with beer, food, music and other festivities. The only thing missing from Oktoberfest is soap! That’s how we’re celebrating Oktoberfest this year. Enjoy our variation of the black and tan drink (traditionally, it’s Guinness and a Pale Ale beer layered in the glass) soap made with real beer, scented with the delicious Oatmeal Stout fragrance oil blended with a little Almond Biscotti. You’re going to love this Fall blend.
Our new acrylic soap stamps are amazing in cold process soap. Because of the acute details they require some special attention. In our testing, we found that they worked best on one of our basic cold process recipes after 4-5 days of curing time. The soap can’t be too soft or too hard so you’ll have to experiment with your recipe to find the perfect consistency. Once you find a happy medium, the extra work will be totally worth it and “Life is Good”!
Do you like our colorful soap? Kristy from Kristy’s Lovely Lathers made it on Soap Queen TV (see the blog post here). Video coming soon!
Recently I received a wonderful surprise in the mail – the new neon colorant sample pack from Bramble Berry! I guess Anne-Marie really knows me since neons are my favorite colors! So yesterday while my kids were happily at Grandma’s house, I hit the kitchen with my Soapylove molds to take the neons for a spin. Here are my projects and some tips to get super bright, clean details in your next project!
Supplies needed for all projects:
Once I saw the Gnome Mold at Bramble Berry I knew I had to have it. Gnomes are in right now. You see them popping up on Etsy and if you have kids you might have seen the movie Gnomeo and Juliet. I wanted to give the gnomes detail and color so I thought Water Soluble Paper would be the perfect way to do that.
Rainbows and hearts… I can’t seem to get enough! One of my favorite looks lately is graduated color. Several years ago I taught at Otion’s Soap Weekend Intensive and was thrilled to attend a class by Paula of PJ Soaps (she’ll be teaching again this summer!). She showed how to make her beautiful moon soap (click here for tutorial), where she tilts the mold to get a lovely fade between the moon and midnight sky.
I have used this several times with a single tilted color, but realized if you use one on each side and then fill the center, that you can get a 3 color fade!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Coral Mica
Yellow Mica
Liquid Blue
Striped Heart Mold
NOTE: The mold in this tutorial has been discontinued. The kit now contains the Swirled Heart Mold.
Clear M&P soap base
White M&P soap base
Or click here and get everything you need all at once.
Here’s how to do it:
Prop your mold up on one side or corner. I used the Soapylove Striped Heart Mold. Next, melt and color a small amount of clear soap using non-bleeding red or coral mica. Spray your mold with alcohol, then pour a small amount of soap into one side, allowing it to only cover 1/3 of your mold surface.
It’s okay if your color doesn’t line up perfectly with the stripes. Allow to harden. Now turn around your mold so the opposite side is propped up. Melt and pour some blue soap into the opposite side, again only covering 1/3 of the mold face. Allow to harden.
Move your mold to be flat on the table. Color your third batch of soap yellow, spray mold with alcohol, and pour in soap so it fills the center area and covers a bit of each side color. Allow to harden. Spray with alcohol and top off with fragranced white soap. Voila!
Here’s a tip: color your soap with a light hand – if your colors are too dark then the background color won’t show through. When I do this project again, I’ll use a little less blue so the green tone will be more noticeable.
Enjoy!
-Debbie
Soapylove
