Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
It’s hard to believe October is here already. This week the blog featured fall-friendly tutorials like the Crescent Moon Cold Process Soap. The bars are all about contrast. They have a dark gray base and a bright yellow embed made with the Mini Moon Silicone Column Mold. They also have a touch of Gold Sparkle Mica sprinkled on top. For a smoky and complex scent, the soap has Tobacco & Bay Leaf Fragrance Oil.
Orange is one of my go-to fragrances. It’s so bright, fresh and universally loved. For this simple salt scrub, I drew inspiration from my favorite citrus. The base is fine grained Dead Sea salt with poppy seeds for extra scrub, and orange peel powder for color. The orange peel powder does add a bit of scent, but this scrub really gets a strong citrus smell from 10X Orange Essential Oil. The term “10X” means it has been folded (or concentrated) ten times to create an intense, pure essential oil. It also adds a bit of natural color to the scrub as well.
Learn how to create this easy scrub in the video tutorial below! My friend Courtney joined me for this project, because crafts are just better with friends. =)
I love how a block of melt and pour soap base can be transformed into so many things. If you take a peek at the melt and pour section of this blog, you can see just how many possibilities there are. From color and fragrance to exfoliants and embeds, there are so many design options. It’s easy to understand why crafters of all skill levels enjoy it!
Despite the vast possibilities for melt and pour, there are a few additives that don’t work well. Fresh ingredients like purees and milk are at the top of the list. To understand why these ingredients don’t work, it’s important to understand what melt and pour soap is. Melt and pour soap is ready-made soap that has gone through the saponification process. That means sodium hydroxide lye, oils, glycerin (and sometimes other ingredients) were combined together to make the base – just like making cold process soap! If you’re unfamiliar with saponification, this video explains the process further.
The fact that saponification has already occurred in melt and pour soap is what makes melt and pour soap “easy.” You don’t have to worry about working with lye. Melt and pour soap is ready to use once fully cooled and hardened, so it’s fast too. No cure time is needed for melt and pour. But, because saponification has already occurred, it means that you don’t have as much control over the ingredients in the soap. Ingredients that require saponification to become part of the soap (lye, oils, butters, purees, milk, eggs, etc) don’t work well when added to melt and pour.
Fall officially started last week, which means it’s time for Halloween projects! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s an excuse to embrace dark colors, moody fragrances and spooky themes. For this Crescent Moon Cold Process Soap, I wanted to create a bar of soap that would be appropriate for Halloween and beyond.
These bars are a sophisticated take on Halloween with a striking yet simple design. Black Oxide gives the bars a dark gray hue. If you want a darker color, feel free to add more colorant. Just keep in mind the more you add, the darker the lather will be. The crescent moon shape is created with melt and pour soap and the Mini Moon Silicone Column Mold. Gold Sparkle Mica on top really pops against the dark gray. The bars are scented with Tobacco & Bay Leaf Fragrance Oil, which is a wonderfully smoky and complex fragrance. It’s great for both men and women.
This project is appropriate for both beginning and intermediate soapers. It requires a medium to thick trace, so you don’t need to worry about over blending with the stick blender. But, keep temperatures in mind. Melt and pour soap begins to melt around 120-130 ° F. If this soap gets too hot, the moon embed could melt. I recommend soaping around 100-110 ° F and not insulating the soap to keep temperatures cool.
Last week, the team worked overtime to swap and send over 100 boxes of cold process soap. If you participated in the swap, be on the lookout for your box of goodies soon. If you’d like to learn more about the swap, click here. If you missed out on this swap, be sure to sign up for the Bramble Berry newsletter. That’s where we will announce when the next swap will take place!
Boxes of soap waiting to be shipped to their new homes.
In the last swap, I was a participant and sent in 10 bars of soap. Opening that box was the highlight of my month for sure so I’m a participant in this swap as well. I swapped soap that will be featured on Soap Queen TV soon. In fact, the batch I sent is the batch I made on camera during the actual filming! =) The soap is made in the 18 Bar Birchwood Mold with the Butterflies and Feathers Silicone Impression Mat to give the bars a design on top. The blue color is created with Mermaid Mica and the soap is scented with White Magnolia Fragrance Oil. Be on the lookout for that tutorial soon on Soap Queen TV. =) If you want to see the soap I received in my box, tune into the Bramble Berry Facebook page this Friday, September 30th at 2 p.m. PST.
My contribution to the soap swap, made with White Magnolia Fragrance Oil.
More projects made with the Autumn Frost Fragrance Collection were shared on the blog this week, including the Vermont Maple Melt and Pour Soaps. They have a classic orange and yellow color scheme, as well as plenty of shimmer dusted on top. The Vermont Maple Fragrance Oil gives them a complex and comforting scent.
The Vermont Maple Fragrance Oil is part of the limited edition Autumn Frost Fragrance Collection. It features four new fall and winter fragrance oils, and is only available until September 30th. Don’t wait – you save $10 when buying the kit rather than buying the fragrance oils separately. See the kit here.
Remember when the movie Frozen was everywhere? If you have young children, it still may be a huge part of your life! =) These Sparkling Snowdrop Soaps remind me of an ice princess, à la Elsa from Frozen. They are made in the Tall Narrow Wood Loaf Mold to create the skinny shape. The design is created with a mixture of the drop swirl technique and the butterfly swirl made popular by Zahida from Handmade in Florida and Soaps From Home. The top is sprinkled with Snowflake Sparkle Mica and melt and pour embeds for an icy look.
This project does involve advanced techniques and a keen understanding of trace. If the trace is too thin, the colors will muddle together. If the trace is too thick, the white and blue will not swirl properly. The new Sparkling Snowdrop Fragrance Oil does accelerate soap slightly. Add it to the batter at the very last second to avoid a trace that’s too thick. If you’d like to learn more about trace and how to manipulate it, click here.
When I started making soap at 16 years old, I rendered my own fat and started my foray into all-things-soap with cold process soap. That was messy. Ingredients were hard to come by. And there was zero instruction out there. My first five batches failed. Then, I made melt and pour. It wasn’t the popular craft it is today. It was hard to find the bases, and handmade soap wasn’t the rage at craft fairs. But after just one melt and pour project, I became totally obsessed with the process. So much so that two years later, I started selling melt and pour at local markets part time.
Around that time, I started re-engaging with cold process soap. If you’re a soaper who transitioned from melt and pour to cold process, you know how intimidating it can be. Melt and pour is rather predicable, and you know within a few hours if it turned out or not. The main source of anxiety when leaping into cold process soap is the introduction of lye, aka: sodium hydroxide. It even has a bit of a scary name, doesn’t it?
I made melt and pour for several years before trying cold process soap.
If the fear of lye is holding you back from transitioning to cold process soap…I completely understand. Lye is a caustic chemical that can cause bodily harm and it should be handled with utmost care. But, lye is perfectly safe when handled correctly. This is true for most things in life, from driving a car to mundane tasks like turning on a gas stove. With proper safety precautions, working with lye is safe and easy. For full details on lye safety, check out the Lye Safety Guide.
In fact, you’ve probably handled lye before. Have you used Drano or other drain cleaner? Check out the ingredients. Sodium hydroxide will be there, front and center. Drain cleaners usually contain other chemicals that make them unsuitable to use in cold process soap. But, they use the same active ingredient: sodium hydroxide lye. Kinda neat, huh? =)
Vibrantly-colored leaves are one of my favorite aspects of autumn. These Vermont Maple Melt & Pour Soaps celebrate the changing foliage with plenty of color. Yellow, orange and red soap is layered into each cavity. Then, the soaps are dusted with mica to really help them pop. The mica will wash off after the first use, but as you continue to wash the layers of colors are revealed.
They are scented with Vermont Maple Fragrance Oil. It features notes of maple, wood, vanilla and coffee for a complex and comforting scent. It does discolor slightly, so don’t forget the Vanilla Color Stabilizer! The Vermont Maple Fragrance Oil is part of the limited edition Autumn Frost Fragrance Collection. It features four new fall and winter fragrance oils, and is only available until September 30th. Don’t wait – you save $10 when buying the kit rather than buying the fragrance oils separately. See the kit here.
Bee of Sorcery Soap (also known as “The Soap Witch”) creates amazing products with hand molded details and shapes. She uses her own soap dough recipe to create horses, flowers, birds, books and gnomes (and so much more). Bee shares the techniques on her YouTube channel as well as her soap blog. I’m in awe of each of her projects; they are extremely innovative and push the boundaries of what can be created with cold process soap! Learn more about Bee’s journey with soap dough, including her tips on getting started in the interview below. -A.M.
How long have you been soaping for and how did you get started?
The first time I made soap was with Bramble Berry’s cold process soap kit on August 24, 2014, to be exact. Anne-Marie’s Soap Queen TV fascinated me and I trusted her information. I studied soap for almost a year before I began, and watched every video Anne-Marie offered. The clear instructions in the kit helped to calm any slight apprehensions I had about using lye for the first time. I was so excited and thrilled my hands were shaking.
What sort of advice would you give to those soapers just starting their businesses?
Do not quit. Observe the resistances that arise, observe your thoughts and emotions and move forward. Each step there is something to learn, possibly something so new you are the only one to see it. Stay observant and you won’t miss these subtle and important experiences.
One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. ~ Henry Miller
Left to right, clockwise: Bee’s Mouse and Cheese Soap, Paint Palette Soap Cookies, Novel Soap
What is your favorite type of product to make?
Cold process soap dough. This is a specific soap recipe that is not allowed to cure until embeds, soap cookies or embellishments are molded and then exposed to the air. If created correctly its the perfect balance of hard and soft butters and oils. Soap dough is smooth and moldable and the consistency is a cross between clay and fondant, and a unique substance that is truly interesting to me. I love the colors, the feeling of it and the endless creative possibilities.
Happy Sunday! For the past week, the family and I have been soaking up the last bits of summer. It has been a perfect 70 ° F, although this weekend the weather is taking a turn. Looks like we might be going into the rainy season. One of the best investments this summer has been a huge plastic tarp that the kiddos have been using as a slip ‘n slide. Below, Lily is clearly enjoying the tarp, err…I mean super fancy slip ‘n slide! =) We will all be sad to see it get put away soon.
Earlier this week, I took a short trip to Washington D.C. to stay updated on some major events in the cosmetic regulatory reform discussion. Read more here. If you’d like to stay up to date on what’s happening, join the Coalition of Handmade Entrepreneurs. To help protect small businesses from harmful policy changes, I started the Coalition of Handcrafted Entrepreneurs. By joining the COHE, you will receive updates on legislative proposals to stay informed and empowered.
Left to right, clockwise:
Instagram:
I’m always so impressed with the soap my team creates. I love walking into the Soap Lab and looking at all their creations. Nicole in production created this gorgeous swirled soap for a fragrance test. It obviously performed really well if it allowed her to create this stunning swirl. =)
This week was all about the new Autumn Frost Fragrance Collection, which is available until September 30th. It includes four new fragrances, including Cedar and Amber Fragrance Oil. I used the Cedar and Amber Fragrance Oil to create this rustic spoon plop soap; find the full tutorial here.
To keep up with soapy social media throughout the week, you can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, YouTube and Snapchat. I’m Bramble-Berry on Snapchat. Don’t forget to tag your soapy projects on Instagram with the hashtag #SoapShare so I can see what you’re making!
This week we introduced the new Autumn Frost Fragrance Collection. It includes four non-traditional fragrances: Cocoa Butter Cashmere Fragrance Oil, Vermont Maple Fragrance Oil, Sparkling Snowdrop Fragrance Oil and Cedar and Amber Fragrance Oil. We tested hundreds of fragrances and found the best for your fall and winter projects. Learn more about the collection in this post. Until September 30th, try the collection and save $10.
Washington state is known as “The Evergreen State” for the abundance of trees in the area. They have a fresh scent and vivid green color throughout the year. These Cedar & Amber Cold Process Soaps were inspired by the evergreen scenery of the Pacific Northwest. Classic fall colors are layered upon each other using the “spoon-plop” technique. The spoon plop technique is perfect for beginners. All you have to do is spoon in random colors of soap. It creates a unique look in every bar.
The new Cedar and Amber Fragrance Oil gives these bars an earthy, rustic scent. It’s a great unisex fragrance oil with notes of pine, cedar, clove and amber. It’s the perfect complement to the earthy colors in this bar. The soap feels great as well, thanks to moisturizing oils like meadowfoam, olive and sweet almond.
Cocoa butter is a vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It naturally has a warm, chocolatey aroma and a firm, brittle texture. Learn more about cocoa butter here. I was inspired by the decadent properties of cocoa butter to create this body mousse. Melted cocoa butter chunks and jojoba oil are whipped together with avocado butter to create a smooth and fluffy consistency. The mousse melts on contact with the skin, making it easy to spread over dry areas like elbows or hands. It’s an extremely unique and decadent texture!
The new Cocoa Butter Cashmere Fragrance Oil gives the body mousse a sophisticated and cozy scent. I specifically chose the cocoa butter chunks because they have a rich chocolate aroma. They smell amazing with the Cocoa Butter Cashmere Fragrance Oil. If you don’t have this particular type of cocoa butter on hand, any kind will work. If it’s deodorized cocoa butter, the final product will not smell quite as strong.
