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Citrusy Checkerboard Soap

September 6, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thank you Gale, from Pregailia’s Lathers in Alabama, for this adorable Checkerboard Soap. It smells bright and citrusy! I can’t get enough of it. It’s in my shower right now, honest to blog!

Gail was my gracious chauffeur from the airport to the Alabama Soaper’s Gathering. She was a delight to hang out with and had a sparky sense of humor to boot.Thanks for the gift, Gail. I love how it’s soaping up in the shower.

Realistic Clamshells – Final Reveal

September 5, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Day One
Click here for Day Two
Click here for Day Three

Check out the creative results from the class! Most of the students at the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive had never made soap of any type. The bumps and irregularities add to the natural look of the soap.

If you want to make your own Realistic Clamshell Soap, you can buy all of the supplies in one handy-dandy kit here.

Realistic Clamshell Soaps – Day Three

September 4, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Day One
Click here for Day Two

When the first two thin layers are set and the striping is to your satisfaction, cover and zap the small container of white soap for 30 seconds or so. When heated add one dropper of Gardenia Fragrance and blend well.

Cover and set nearby.

Before pouring your white layer into your mold lavishly spray one cavity 5-6 times with rubbing alcohol covering all exposed surfaces in the mold and immediately pour in about 2 tablespoons of white soap and roll the mold around until ALL the white soap seeps into the crevices (i.e., the stripes you created with the fork and cleaning tool). It doesn’t matter at this point how ugly a mess you think you’ve created or how thick and blobbed your white soap is – it will just add character to the bar as it is used. Use the scraper tool to replace any spilled soap into the container it originated from.

Let the white layer set for at least 15 minutes, then reheat your large container of black sea moss soap if needed (not too hot), spray one cavity at a time and fill quickly with black until all cavities are filled. Click here if you missed how to make the black color on Day Two. It’s the first paragraph. Pour the black soap now. It should be cool enough to not melt the first few layers after cooling for 15 minutes.

Notice the poised Rubbing Alcohol Spritzer. This ensures that layers will stick together and that there will not be unsightly bubbles on your finished soap.

After the soaps have cooled (for at least 4 hours), you can cover the cooled soaps still in the mold with plastic wrap and turn detail side up in your freezer under the blower for 3 minutes then pull out and give one quick firm push to each cavity. Check back tomorrow for the final reveal photos.

Realistic Clamshell Soaps – Day Two

September 3, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Click here for Day One

While waiting for the second layer to harden, use the large container and melt 16-20 oz of clear shaving soap for 55 seconds, checking, stirring and heating an additional 30 seconds until melted. Add black oxide (click here to see how to use oxides in Melt and Pour) and color soap dark enough to hide your white scraping tool up to the point where the handle starts – if you can see to the far end of the tool you need to add a little more black. You could just dump a bunch of black oxide in but this way (“the sort of opaque yet also still translucent” way) you get just enough to create a black bar while not also ending up with black suds. When you are happy with the color, add 5 or so full droppers of Sea Moss Fragrance Oil. Cover and set aside.

Check your layers and carve extra gloppy soap away – but don’t try to make it perfect. You just need to get an even look so that the tines of the fork go through and into all parts of the soap easily.

Using your fork, push the tines in at the narrow end of the mold through the first two thin layers until you are touching the bottom of the mold, slowly pulling the fork across the bottom of the shell mold (in an arching pattern across the ridges of the shell) while applying pressure.

The idea here is to create stripes/striations without pulling the actual layers up from the bottom of the mold – you just want to pull up the thin lines/stripes. Most forks will allow for two arching passes along the bottom of the mold (one smaller arch at the bottom of the shell and another above that). This is a slow process. Don’t rush it, lest you make holes in your layers.

Apply this process to each cavity then when you are done with the fork, get your double sided cleanup tool and using the pointy/curved end, make sure each of the stripes go all the way to the bottom. I also usually like to widen 3 random stripes to give a more natural look to the finished soap.

Hold up to the light to check your work. Note the variety of line widths. This helps to add to the natural final effect of the soap. Also, in the photo below, notice the large chunks of brown soap missing. This hole effect happens if you rush a bit during the forking tine process.

Tomorrow, we’ll cover striping and the black layer.

Realistic Clamshell Soaps – Day One

September 2, 2008 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

What You’ll Need (4 Bars of Soap):

Pre-heat 4 quart pan of water on simmer (for rinsing your tools)

1 dropperful of Gardenia Fragrance Oil

1 dropperful of Sensuous Sandalwood

6 dropperful of Sea Moss Fragrance Oil

6 oz Shea Butter Melt and Pour Base

32 oz Shaving Melt and Pour Base

Brown Oxide

Green Oxide

Black Oxide

4 microwavable containers one large 20 oz and three smaller 8 oz

Clam Shell Mold

Clean Up Tool

Injector Soap Tool

Straight Metal Fork with Tines

Rubbing Alcohol

Plastic wrap

Heat your water to a low simmer. Cut your 6 oz of Shea Butter Melt and Pour Base Base into ice cube size pieces, place in one of the small containers, cover with plastic wrap and set aside. Cut 6 oz of Shaving Melt and Pour Base, place in small container, cover with plastic wrap and set aside. Cut another 6 oz of Shaving Melt and Pour Base place in small container, cover with plastic wrap and set aside. Cut about 16—20 oz of Shaving Melt and Pour Base into small pieces, place into the large container and cover with plastic wrap.

At this point you have:
1 small container of Shea Butter Melt and Pour Base Base
2 small containers of Shaving Melt and Pour Base
1 large container of Shaving Melt and Pour Base

For 30 seconds microwave one of the small containers of Shaving Melt and Pour Base (heat 10 additional seconds at a time if needed) and add a little of brown oxide (not sure how to use oxides in Melt and Pour Soap? Click here to be taken to a tutorial on using Oxides in MP soap) and one dropper of Sea Moss fragrance. The result should be a translucent amber liquid soap that does not burn your pinkie finger. In the photo above, we’re using pre-mixed brown oxide in liquid glycerin. You can make up your own color blend using the instructions referenced above (here).

Pour about a Tablespoon and a half of the light translucent soap into one of the cavities and turn the entire mold until you’ve covered the sides and bottom of the mold. The layer doesn’t need to be even or even look like anything special and don’t worry about spilling soap over the sides as you can always wait a minute or two and use the scraper tool to replace any spilled soap into the container it originated from. Do the same for each of the cavities. We call this the “Swirl ‘n’ Twirl” method. Keep rotating the mold around in a circular fashion until the bulk of the soap has hardened up fully on all sides. It’s okay if it’s a little thicker in places.

Now, for 30 seconds take the 2nd small container of clear soap cover it and melt in the microwave for 30 seconds or so and add 5 parts of brown oxide, one part black oxide and one part of green oxide (heat 10 additional seconds at a time if needed, stirring each time); when melted add one dropper of Sandalwood fragrance. The teacher for this method, PJ, likes to scent each layer separately. This is an optional thing. If you’d like one fragrance for all the layers, it won’t affect the integrity of the soap at all.

One at a time, spray with rubbing alcohol the first translucent layer in one of your shell molds and immediately add about a tablespoon and a half of the dark brown soap into the mold on top of the translucent soap, turning the mold until the sides and bottom are mostly covered (imperfections at this layer add to the look of the soap). Keep rotating the mold around in a circular fashion until the bulk of the soap has hardened up fully on all sides. It’s okay if it’s a little thicker in places. Use the scraper tool to replace any spilled soap into the container it originated from.

Check back for the rest of this week as we finish the Clam Shell Project, creating realistic shells out of just soap and a little skill.

On Golden Frond

September 1, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I’m lucky to work with a talented crew who like to make soap and are creative in many areas of their lives. In addition to be a talented gardener, Kelly runs the warehouse at Bramble Berry. To make these soaps, she used our White Soap Base and Hemp Soap Base. For coloring these little beauties, Kelly used Coral Mica, Heavy Metal Gold Mica, and a mix of the Liquid Yellow Oxide and Liquid Blue Oxide as well as the natural colors of the soap bases. For example, the third soap in with the slightly tan background? That’s the color the actual Hemp soap base is. The mold is the Milky Way Frond design.

Kelly is a mix master supreme when it comes to fragrancing. She blended together Passionfruit Papaya, Champagne, and a mystery bottle from the pouring mistake shelf that most likely contained Kumquat and Creamsicle. The resulting soaps are fruity fun with just a twist of effervescence.

Summer Delight

August 30, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

It’s one of the last weekends of summer – well, summer as only Washington can do. The actual temperature high today is a grand total of 59 but without any rain, it’s a close facsimile of an actual summer.

My brother is getting married in a few weeks and we’re doing family pre-wedding fun, with some of the family at a local lake. We’re playing frisbee, having a BBQ and getting ready to head out for some inner-tubing fun on the lake.

Before starting the family merriment, Erik did work a partial day at Otion. Check out the new display the talented Ashley at Otion made up, in celebration of new fragrance “Blueberry Delight.” She used the embeddable ice cube star tray mold, cupcake mold and guest swirls mold. Ashley also did the Peppermint Swirl technique in the Milky Way Oval mold.

I hope you and your loved ones are having a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend.

Summer Flip Flop Soaps

August 29, 2008 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

These flip flop soaps for summer are simple to make and look impressive when finished.

Here’s what you will need to make these simple yet fabulous soaps

.5 lb of Shea Melt and Pour

Blue Mix LabColor

Lavender Fragrance Oil

Aloha Flip Flop Mold

Rubbing Alcohol Spritzer

1 Dropper

Step One: Melt a small amount of your Shea Melt and Pour in a microwave safe dish (Pyrex or a coffee mug will work). Stir in a couple drops of your fragrance oil (usage rate is .25-.5 ounces per pound of soap). Fill your dropper with the white soap base and pour it into the flower/thong part of the flip flop soap mold. Give this a spritz with alcohol to get rid of those bubbles.

Step Two: After the first layer has had a chance to solidify, melt the rest of your soap in the microwave. Add your Lavender Fragrance Oil and 1 drop of your Blue Mix LabColor. Add more color if you want a darker blue. I loved the pastel color that I got with just 1 drop. If you want a bright blue, just remember that you’ll want to use clear soap because white + blue = light baby pastel blue. Before you add your blue layer, give your first layer another spritz with alcohol to ensure that your layers will stick together. Fill the mold to the top with your beautiful blue soap and spritz once again for a smooth finish.

Step Three: Let the soaps cool for about 5-6 hours before popping them out of their molds.

I’m Writing as Fast as I Can, Really!

August 29, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

The Brambleberrians have decreed that I can’t buy any more cards until there is room in my overflowing card drawer. I have sent out 10 plus cards this week to customers, vendors and random strangers in the hopes of emptying the magic card drawer. It’s close, very close. And when there is space, these letterpressed cards will be at the top of the list to splurge on.

$18 for a set of 8 at Smock in NYC. Buy your set (and others) here.

Labcolors and You: A Little Chat

August 28, 2008 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

For many glycerin soap crafters, what really seduces us are those clear, gorgeous colors you can only get with melt & pour soap. Alas, it’s a troubled love affair since these colors seem to only be happy when they’re used alone. When different clear colors are combined into one soap bar, they just don’t get along and bleed together into an ugly blur (like what eventually happened to my soapsicle, above). But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Understanding what they do is the key to showing off of their beauty.

The reason that clear soap colorants bleed is explained very well by Anne-Marie in her post here. They are made of water based dyes that seek out and color anything containing water that they touch – namely your soap base. But here are two ways to deal with this:

1) Let it bleed. If you submerge soap embeds that are made with non-bleeding colorants, you will not be able to see any change in the embed color. Monday’s tutorial of Vivid Soap Blocks shows this approach. These Lime Soap Bars also show how I used white and lime green together. The white will absorb the green, but it’s submerged so the bleeding won’t be noticeable.

2) Used very lightly, the bleeding will be virtually unnoticeable. Add a drop of color to create just a tint, and use non-bleeding colors for the rest of your soap. In the cloud soapsicles I used just a tiny amount of Brilliant Blue Labcolors, but the bleeding is so faint it won’t effect my other embeds.

One great asset of Labcolors is how economical they are. Just one drop colors a pound of clear soap very vibrantly. So be careful when you’re adding soap or you can quickly overdo it.

You can also blend these colors to create any shade of the rainbow! It’s so fun to add a drop of this, a touch of that, and create something completely unique. You can even get Blending Charts to show you lots of options.

So even though there are a couple of tricks to making multi-colored soaps using clear colorants like Labcolors, they’re a must. I strongly suggest adding the 12 color basic set to your toolbox and see how many new looks you can create!

Grow a Borax Snowflake

August 27, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We just got Borax in at Bramble Berry for a soap and toiletry ingredient. It is most commonly used as part of an emulsification system in Lotions in conjunction with Beeswax. However, Borax has all kinds of fun science-fair type applications too!

You can make a Borax Snowflake using instructions from About.com here. You can even use a little Labcoloring to make your Borax Snowflake colored.

About.com also has a very helpful hint page about common household tasks you can do with Borax (Urine Neutralizer? Who knew?!)

Or, you could just use the Borax for your lotions and call it a day…

Hello Sweet Thang! Blending Heaven

August 27, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

It’s true love; Hello Sweet Thang typifies summer sweet sixteen love, with icy cool lemon notes mixing with sweet notes of meringue and whipped cream. It’s popular, it’s fleeting and it’s sugary sweet without much hope for redemption. That is, until you blend it … This juvenile crowd-pleasing fragrance is the ultimate chameleon, blending exceedingly well with many scents. Here are just a few of my suggestions to bring this fragrance into a more sophisticated realm. By the way, I love it straight out of the bottle and there’s nothing wrong with that. =)

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Spearmint Essential Oil

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Tangerine Essential Oil

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Musk Cybilla
1 part Nag Champa

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Green Tea

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Frankincense & Myrrh

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Amber

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Beach Breezes
1 part Sun-Ripened Raspberry

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Lettuce

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Dark Rich Chocolate

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Champagne

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Black Amber & Lavender

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Warm Vanilla Sugar (tooth-achingly good)

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Mayan Gold

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Cold Waters
1 part Herbal Essence

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Lemon Essential Oil

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Kentish Rain
1 part Fresh Mango

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Lavender Fragrance Oil

1 part Hello Sweet Thang!
1 part Arabian Spice
1 part Oatmeal, Milk & Honey

PS – Did I mention this fragrance does well in Cold Process soap, despite its initial sugary hit of fleeting love?

Ice Cube Letter Trays

August 26, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

If you loved SoapyLove’s tutorial on making vibrant, back-to-school Letter soaps but don’t love the Exacto Knife portion of the tutorial, check out Spoon Sister’s Letters Tray. It’s $19.95 for the whole alphabet. And, if you wanted to use the tray for actual ice and not soap … well, that would probably be okay as well.

Delegation is Good (but hard to do right)

August 26, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Bramble Berry’s COO was on vacation last week (that’s us, pretending to fly a plane – notice who is actually steering?). Besides making me desperately appreciate him even more, I took away a renewed appreciation in the fine art and skill of delegation. It turns out, when you over-delegate and under-instruct, nothing much happens. Or rather, much happens, none of it right.

My tips for delegating, after a week of doing a super sub par job of it:

1. Clearly outline the desired outcome – You’d be surprised at how hard this is. I’ve been failing at it for ten years now and still find it a struggle. If you want Mary Jo’s package to make it to her in British Columbia, with correct custom forms, for less than $35, by next Friday, you HAVE to spell all of that out…

2. In writng – If you want to delegate effectively, write out your desired outcome (and steps for success). My staff are often shocked to get an email from me when I could easily just turn around and tell them my wish. Just by writing it, you will gain clarity and focus as you try to make sense of your mind spaghetti on paper. In addition, giving a valued staff member your expectations in writing helps to ensure that they are exceedingly (and painfully) clear on your expectations.

3. With follow-up – Would you give a child in middle school an assignment worthy of a high schooler and not help, follow up, coach and mentor? Just like you wouldn’t tell your 15-year-old to go drive your stick shift BMW on the first try, it’s poor planning to delegate without mentorship. As Norman demonstrates with his son on the Bramble Berry forklift, hands on help and support are important. As a leader, your job is to instruct, mentor and coach your team to the next level of greatness – the depth of skill reservoir they didn’t even know they possessed! You do this through…

4. Scheduled Communication – Every day at Bramble Berry, we have team meetings. The warehouse meets, the key Management meet and the Customer Service Department meets. We cover the same things: (a) What did you do today? (b) Are you stuck? (c) What went well? How can we do more of that? Daily communication is a key to complete organizational alignment. It’s also a good check in for the projects you’ve delegated. “So, Apryl, how is that newsletter design I asked you to do?” (Hint for Soap Queen readers: the newsletter is coming out this week. If you want to shop two sales at once, go sign up for it here)

5. Praise for Things Done Right – No one runs your business as well as you do. No one can make your soap, pull your orders, invoice and talk to the customers the way you do. I get that. But if your helpers even do an 80% job, they deserve praise. They deserve recognition for a job done well. And they deserve your confidence that maybe, sometimes, they do run certain aspects of your business even better than you can do. Your way isn’t always the best way to do something. Let them tweak the process along the way and give them kudos when the end result is successful.

And, if they didn’t do an 80% job, head back to Step 3 and start the entire process again.

Resources to help you on the path to Delegation Success:

Jack Canfield Delegation Worksheet

Listen to Jack talk about delegating and the finances behind delegation