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Talk It Out Tuesday: All Things Lotion

Filed Under: Lotion

Woohoo! Here we are again with another installment of Talk It Out Tuesday (check out our previous TIOT’s on bath bombs, colorants, melt and pour and our latest on preservatives).  I am delighted about the topic this week because I know many of you have questions about  water-based lotions. I can’t wait to help you answer them. So read on and find out everything you wanted to know about lotions! And, if I didn’t answer it, feel free to ask me in the Comments section.

What is lotion?

Lotion is a basic skin-care product that is used to soothe dry skin and often has ingredients that are intended to give extra added benefits to your skin. Body butters, balms, salves, lotion bars, creams, and massage candles can all be considered a lotion. Generally, a traditional lotion will have water + oils + emulsifiers + preservative.

How do I make lotion?

While there are hundreds of recipes for lotions, body butters and salves out there, a basic lotion recipe would consist of your oils/butters, preservative, fragrance, an emulsifier and distilled water. To create your own lotion from scratch, you can go by the following guidelines: [Read more…]

#Layers Challenge Winners

Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Our first ever  Bramble Berry Soap Challenge (which we adoringly call Make It Monday) has been completed, and what a fabulous two weeks it has been! We loved seeing your unique, creative and inspirational soaps layered to perfection.  There were so many incredible soaps to pick from that we (Team Bramble Berry) decided on four winners. Check out the layered goodness below!

1) Traci from Savon Arts : “Sunset”, scented with China Rain FO.

2) Leanne :  “Licorice Allsorts”, scented with Aniseed, Orange, Lemon,  Sun-Ripened Raspberry FO, and Lime Essential Oil.

3) Ada from Soap Much Love : “Geometric Soap” scented with Dragon’s Blood FO.

4) Sísí from Heimatilbúnar Baðvörur : “Christmas Soap” colored with Antique Blue Mica and scented with Moroccan Mint and Vanilla Select.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge, we’re super excited to see what you come up with in the next challenge!

See the new #Embedding Challenge here!

Crisp Anjou Pear Embed Tutorial

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Summer is in full swing, and I’m loving anything bright and refreshing right now! Bramble Berry’s brand spankin’ new Crisp Anjou Pear Fragrance Oil really awakens the senses and the colors of this soap are perfect for that summery vibe. Done in two parts, I’m hopeful this project brings a smile to your face! PSST: I know something that will bring a smile to your face – our NEW silicone 5 pound log liner specially designed for the 5 pound Soap Queen log mold. It has saved us hours of lining molds in just the last month.

Buy everything you need for both parts of this project at the click of a button!

Part One/Day One:  [Read more…]

SWI Recap Day 2 – MP, Lotions, Scrubs and Cupcakes

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Day 2 of SWI brought all of our wonderful guest instructors together! We invited Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove to teach us some fun melt and pour projects, Erin Pikor of Naiad Soap Arts taught her awesome array of scrubs, and Jill Heuser gave us the low-down on lotions. Get ready for lots of photos! First, we started of with a little bit of this guy.

SO in love.

A perfect pick-me-up first thing in the morning, Debbie’s projects incorporated Bramble Berry’s neon pigments for a super cool, 1980’s vibe. She used the SoapyLove Checkered Heart Mold with two variations, a psychedelic splatter soap and a neon checkered soap! Then, the SoapyLove I Heart Soap Mold done in super bright neons put a fun twist on a classic sentiment.

Radical!

[Read more…]

#Layers Update

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Debbie from Soapylove created these Radiating Squares

We have been so over-the-top inspired by all of the great #Layers sharing happening on our Facebook page. The one above was created by Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove (pssst: want more Debbie designs and inspiration? She’s written a book and several e-zines on melt and pour design and technique. They all contain drool-worthy soap projects. You can’t miss!) If you want to enter the #Layers design challenge and contest, just post a photo of your melt and pour layers soap to our Facebook page and make sure to include #Layers in the subject line or title. The # hashtag make it easy for us to search for it when it’s time to choose which soaps to highlight on the blog as our (subjective) favorites. Read all the details about the challenge here. If you haven’t posted yet, you have another five days! Get layering. We can’t wait to see what you create.

SWI Recap: Day 1 CP-Stravaganza!

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Another year of Soap Weekend Intensive is in the books. The super fun, crazy, intense, and soapy extravaganza started off on Friday with Cold Process and Melt and Pour 101 at Otion, and the house was packed with eager students from all over the world ready to kick off the weekend!

Saturday started off with a visit from a very special guest – my little man, Jamisen!

After that ray of sunshine, we dove right into our first round of Cold Process demos: three different milk soaps! I taught two techniques with Goat Milk and one technique with Rice Milk, straight from my new book, Making Milk Soap from Scratch.

[Read more…]

Happy Father’s Day

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

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This Father’s Day started out with Chris giving me the best present of all – an hour of extra time to sleep in. Because we scheduled Soap Weekend Intensive over Father’s Day Weekend (whoops!), Chris has the joy of spending the entire weekend with perfect Mr Jamisen while I soap it up! Soaping has been exhilerating but exhausting so it was wonderful to get to sleep in an hour. Best. Father’s Day. EVER.

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White Ginger and Amber Spray Perfume

Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials

This month’s featured sample is White Ginger & Amber. Musky and deep with notes of spice and floral, this fragrance is great on its own and blends wonderfully with many fragrances! Nearly every order* shipped out in the month of June will have a little 1/2 sample bottle included. It’s the perfect size for making these sweet mini-perfumes!

Tools and Ingredients:
18 mL Distilled Water
4 mL Polysorbate 20
16 mL 91% Rubbing Alcohol
2 mL White Ginger & Amber Fragrance Oil
Optional: .5 mL Optiphen ND
4 mini spray bottles
Droppers
Funnel (optional)
Mixing Container

[Read more…]

We Have a Question For You

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News


What Classes Would Interest You?

As we are gearing up for our annual Soap Weekend Intensive (a weekend filled with soap and toiletry making classes in Bellingham, Washington – and we just had a cancellation so last I heard, we had one last opening), we are thinking about what we want to teach next year. This year, we are teaching CP soap with milk, emulsified scrubs, 80’s inspired melt & pour soap, swirling cold process soap, and lotionmaking. Above are some examples of the CP soap the soapy team will be teaching in classes.

We would love to hear from you about techniques and products you’ve always wanted to try or a technique that you know and love. We are looking for a brainstorm of ideas for SWI 2013 and would love to have you be a part of the conversation! Just leave us a comment below on what you’d like to see us teach and what you’re interested in. No idea is too zany or basic. We want to design the best SWI 2013 we can. Talk to us! We’re listening.

Talk It Out Tuesday: Preservatives

Filed Under: Lotion

Welcome to the latest installment of Talk It Out Tuesday! Check out previous TIOTs on melt and pour, bath bombs and colorants. So, you may be wondering, just what in the heck is a preservative? What am I supposed to use them for? Does my soap need a preservative? Preservatives can be a tricky if you haven’t used them before, but fear not, this post will explain the differences so that you can become the expert on preservatives.

What is a preservative?

A preservative is an anti-microbial solution that helps to prevent mold and other yucky things from growing in your products.

This lotion did not have a proper preservative. Yikes.

Why would you use a preservative?

Preservatives are needed in any product that has water in it to prevent bacteria and mold from growing in it.  If you don’t use a preservative something icky like this may happen to your product (bummer, right?). [Read more…]

SWI 2012 Prep Time

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Eeek! Soap Weekend Intensive is 2 weeks away (no, that is not the sound of my hyperventilating that you hear. Cool as a cucumber. Cool as a cucumber.) We’ve been running around like busy little bees pulling products and prepping for the jam packed weekend of soapmaking. It’s really hard to believe that after a year of planning (really, we signed these teachers up last June), it’s here. Breaking News! There was a cancellation this morning meaning we have one spot left! If you’re interested, hurry over to the Bramble Berry website to sign up. Do you need proof that it’s going to be the best weekend ever? See SWI blog posts from the past: SWI 2008, SWI 2009, SWI 2010 and SWI 2011.

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Soaping Notes

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

I’ve been making a lot of soap in the last few weeks – testing out new products, trying fun techniques, putting a different spin on color schemes and generally having a creative time in the Soap Lab. I made the soap below with Labcolors (Canary, Tangerine, Red and Berry Red) and the always delightful Pineapple Cilantro fragrance. You can tell that this was a batch that I was playing with some swirling and design techniques on. That’s the bonus of a wide, flat horizontal mold – lots of canvas to play on.

Untitled

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