I am still so in love with our new cube mold! For this project, I wanted to create a seasonal feel using non-traditional colors and an unexpected yet comforting scent blend. What a great way to welcome the colder months.
Curiously Gnome-like Santa Claus
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…]
Find Santa. Win a Prize. Merry Christmas.
Does anyone remember the famous Bramble Berry Easter Egg hunt of ’09? Well it’s back people! Join us on our Christmas themed hunt around the Bramble Berry website. All you have to do is find three Santas, send us the links, and WIN! The best part is that everyone has a chance to win a prize. Do you really think we would leave anyone out around Christmas?
What Can I Win?
You have a chance and choice to win either the Cold Process Trio online videos (three online videos worth $8.85) or all of the Soap Queen MP Projects in one e-book (three e-books worth $9.95). Squee!
Cold Process …. With a Twist!
Add elaborate details to your Cold Process soap easily with fun melt & pour soap pieces. In the bars above, I embedded a basic brown and black layered melt & pour loaf and some experimental marbliezed soap in green and white cold process soap.
Tip: To ensure your melt and pour does not ‘sweat’ in the CP soap, let it sit out for 24 hours under a running fan before embedding into your CP soap recipe.
What You’ll Need
32 oz. Apricot Kernel Oil
20 oz. Palm Oil
18 oz. Coconut Oil
4 oz. Castor Oil
1.90 oz. Jojoba Oil
10.7 oz. Lye
25 oz. Distilled Water
4 oz. Hungarian Lavender
Tools:
Stainless steel or glass mixing bowls
Scale
Heat safe mixing spoon
Electric Stick Blender
Vinegar (in case of splashes)
Gloves, goggles and long sleeve shirt
Cardboard box lined with freezer paper or Bramble Berry Wooden Loaf Mold
Important: If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, we highly recommend reading The Everything Soapmaking Book or watching our How to Make CP DVD, before you attempt the recipe below. Safety information about handling Lye is here. And, of course, SoapQueen.TVhas FOUR free videos on making CP soap that I can’t recommend enough.
Instructions:
Step 1: Gather all of your ingredients and tools. Weigh your oils and have all of your containers and molds ready before you even look at the lye. Also, plan out your embedds and make sure they fit in your mold the way you want.
Tip: You don’t need to invest in expensive molds to start making soap! We just used a sturdy cardboard box and lined it with freezer paper. To figure out how much soap your mold will hold, use this formula: Length x width x height x .55 = approximate soap in ounces. When calculating your height you don’t want to fill your box all the way to the top – so just put in the height you want your soap to be.
Step 2: SUIT UP! Put on your gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection.
Step 3: Wearing your full safety protection, mix your pre-measured lye into your water. Once it has cooled to between 120F to 130F, gently mix the lye water into your melted oils.
Step 4: Once your soap has reached light trace, add the Lavender essential oil and colorant(s) of your choice.
Step 5: Divide your soap into different bowls if you are making multiple colors.
Step 5: Pour about an inch of soap into your mold – if you are using multiple colors, pour both colors and give it a gentle swirl.
Step 7: Place your soap embeds in the CP soap. Wiggle them down a little (your gloves should still be on) to make sure no air bubbles are trapped.
Step 8: Pour more CP soap over the top to cover the embeds.
Step 9: Wait a minimum of 48 hours before attempting to cut. Remember, Cold Process Soap requires a full 4 to 6 weeks of cure and dry time before using.
Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!
Naiad Soap Arts Project: Snowflake Soap Tutorial
Buy everything you need in the click of a button!
Kit does not include the snowflake cutters or scale.
Materials:
• Snowflake 5 piece cookie cutter set
• 2-3 oz Bramble Berry white soap base
• 17 oz Bramble Berry clear soap base
• Super Pearly White Mica
• Iridescent Glitter
• Liquid Blue – non bleeding
• Fragrance of your choice – I used Bramble Berry’s Santa’s Spruce for this one.
• 2 cup capacity containers or glass microwave safe measuring cup
• 1 cup capacity pyrex containers or glass microwave safe measuring cup
(if you have two, 2 cup capacity pyrex containers that will work just fine!)
• 8 in. x 8 in. Glossy Silicone Square mold
• Scale that weighs to a tenth of an ounce
• Clean cutting surface
• 2 Plastic droppers – one for fragrance, one for soap
• 1/4 Teaspoon measuring spoon
• sprayer with rubbing alcohol
• food thermometer
• cup with just under boiling water
• plastic wrap
Directions:
1) Melt 5 oz of clear soap in 2 cup microwave safe measuring cup – about 1 minute. Add about ¼ teaspoon of glitter and set aside.
2) Melt 1.5 oz of clear soap in 1 cup microwave safe measuring cup – 20-30 seconds. TIP: add a little white soap or more mica to make it more opaque! Add ¼ teaspoon of Super Pearly white Mica.
3) Pour clear soap with glitter into the bottom of the silicone cake pan – spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles.
4) Pour pearly soap over the clear soap in a thin horizontal and vertical lines about 1 inch apart. TIP:– make sure soap is not too hot at this point or your lines will bleed into each other and you will get a solid sheet of pearly soap.
5) Using your wooden skewer or toothpick start slowly at one corner creating swirls in the soap using long motions in a diagonal to the cake pan. Time permitting do lengthwise lines perpendicular to the cake pan as well. The soap will form a skin quickly so work as fast as possible. No matter what happens the swirls will be perfect! If you have air bubbles spray with rubbing alcohol. Let soap set at room temp for about 20 minutes.
6) Now that the first layer is all set up, we are ready for the second layer! Melt the remaining 12 oz of clear soap in a clean pyrex about 2.5 – 3 minutes
7) Mix 10 drops of BB liquid non bleed blue plus ¼ teaspoon of super pearly mica – you can add more or less blue to your liking but we want it dark so that there is nice contrast with the pretty swirls you just made. I like the non bleed blue here. After time a bleeding color will muddy up the swirls. Add 6 -8 ml of your fragrance oil. Really scent it well since the first layer is not scented.
8) Spray the first layer of soap thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and pour your blue soap over it – make sure the blue soap is not too hot, you can use the food thermometer to make sure it is about 120 degrees. We don’t want to melt the first layer! Spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles if necessary. Let that set up for another 20 minutes or so, until it is completely set up.
9) Yay! Our soap is ready for cutting – remove the soap from the cake pan by gently peeling it up starting at one corner, and pulling it away from the cake pan. Lay it on your cutting surface with the swirl side up.
10) Using the 4 inch (the one in the middle) snowflake cutter from the set cut out 4 snowflakes from the sheet. Press on all edges until the cutter is completely through the soap – a small plate works well to press the cutter into the soap.
11) Using the small detail cutter in the set cut six times on each of the six sides. You want the two pointed side of the cutter to be on the same plane as the first indent, and the single pointed side to be facing the center of the snowflake as shown TIP: use the wooded skewer to pop the tiny piece of soap out of the cutter! Do this for all 4 snowflakes.
12) Next fill in the cut outs with white soap. First lay out a piece of plastic wrap on your table and gently press the soap onto it, swirl side up. We want a tight seal between the bottom of the soap and the plastic wrap so that we don’t get bleeding on the back of the snowflake.
13) Melt the remaining 1 oz of soap. Lightly spray cut outs with rubbing alcohol.
14) Get the cup of hot water ready. Using a plastic dropper fill the cut outs with white soap. It is ok if you don’t fill them all the way – it looks pretty like that! If you get a little white soap on the face of the snowflake just wipe it away with your finger tip while the soap is still liquid. Make sure to clean the plastic dropper in your cup of hot water!
15) Spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles. Let set up and let the rubbing alcohol completely evaporate from the surface of the soap.
16) You are finally done – a what a lovely reward! They are pretty from the front and the back!
Save all of the leftover soap – you can use it in another project or re-melt it with a little more blue to use as the second layer of another sheet of snowflake soap!
Shrink Wrap or package in a poly bag with ribbon!
You can even use your wooden skewer to make a hole in the tip of one of the snowflake sides and string a ribbon through it for a pretty “soap ornament”!
Merry Christmas!
I hope you had (are still having!) a fantastic holiday with your loved ones. My family is a bit spread out this holiday:
Hi Mom and Dad in New Zealand!
Hi Erik and Cherris in San Diego!
And, hi from me and Chris in Bellingham!
Whomever you celebrated with today, I hope you had a fantastic day filled with a lot of laughter and joy. We spent the day with my in-laws and were so excited to see that Santa had written little Annamarie (that’s my very young sister-in-law’s name) a note. I’ve copied her note as well as Santa’s response below:
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I would like a huge pack of gel pans and a CD player. Is it true that if people don’t believe in you that they will get reindeer poop? Please write me on the back. Please.
Thank you,
Annamarie
Dear Ana,
Thank you for the shortbread and candy cane. The reindeer also liked your treat – very thoughtful. I’m sorry you didn’t visit me this year, however, because your request is very late.
People who don’t believe get a life without mystery for Christmas. Reindeer poop is rare.
Merry Christmas,
Santa
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I would like a huge pack of gel pans and a CD player. Is it true that if people don’t believe in you that they will get reindeer poop? Please write me on the back. Please.
Thank you,
Annamarie
Dear Ana,
Thank you for the shortbread and candy cane. The reindeer also liked your treat – very thoughtful. I’m sorry you didn’t visit me this year, however, because your request is very late.
People who don’t believe get a life without mystery for Christmas. Reindeer poop is rare.
Merry Christmas,
Santa
Naiad Soap Arts Project: Bird on Branch Mini Cakes
Oh, I said I wasn’t going to bake this year but this project with the bird.on.branch mold has been waiting to be created for some time now and the holidays and a cold rainy day finally inspired me to get it done! (the rain does not make for great pics so please excuse that!) You can find my original bird.on.branch mold at Bramble Berry. Originally intended for soap making, the mold material is PERFECT for molding chocolate so I have two – one for making soap and one for making chocolate. I have provided a gluten free vegan recipe for the cake as well as links/resources for vegan chocolate and cream filling if you want to make this project all Vegan.
This is a lengthy post so read the whole thing before you begin. 🙂
Ingredients:
• 12 oz of white chocolate (I used Guittard melting chocolates)
or try the vegan white chocolate
• 1/4 oz food grade cocoa butter
• 1/4 oz food grade cocoa butter
• Oil based food colors in green, yellow and red
• bird on branch soap mold from Bramble Berry
• small paint brush, medium paint brush, clean and never used for paint
• small ceramic or glass microwaveable containers for melting chocolate in microwave or double boiler.
• shallow pan with water to keep chocolate melted (optional)
• protective gloves or hot pot holders for handling hot containers
• whipped cream, or chocolate mousse. (for Vegan frosting check out the book Babycakes)
• Chocolate (or vanilla depending on your preference) cake cooled and cut into pieces. You can use homemade, store bought or boxed cake, or try my gluten, dairy, egg free chocolate cake! (see recipe below)
• 8×8 inch cake pan
• cooling rack
Chocolate Cake Gluten Free
Modified from Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods to make the cake, soy, dairy and egg free as well!
• 1-1/2 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Xantham Gum
• 3/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 cup Almond Milk (use rice milk for nut allergies)
• 1 cup Virgin Coconut Oil melted plus more for pan
• 4 Tbs. Applesauce
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 3/4 cup warm strong brewed Coffee
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your 8” x 8” cake pan with coconut oil. In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients with a whisk until blended. In a separate bowl combine Almond Milk, Applesauce, Coffee and Vanilla and stir well. Add your wet ingredients including Coconut Oil into your dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. The mixture will be thick. Transfer to your greased pan. Spread out so the mixture is even. Bake for 30-35 minutes turning the pan 180 degrees halfway through baking. Cake is done when an inserted toothpick or knife comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
Cutting the cake for the mold:
• Using a serrated knife cut the edges and top off of the cake.
• Cut the cake in half
• Cut each half into three equal rectangles
• Cut the bottom off of each of the rectangles and then slice the rectangles in half. You should be left with pieces 2 inches wide, 3 inches tall and ½ inch thick. These will be the middles of our chocolate covered cakes. You should get 12 slices total.
Method:
1) Melt your chocolate per package instructions in the microwave or a double boiler. Melt two containers with 5.5 oz of white chocolate each, and one container with 1 oz + 1/4 oz cocoa butter.
2) Once chocolate is melted, color one of the 5.5 oz containers of chocolate with green and yellow oil based food colors until desired color is achieved. Add red color to your 1 oz of white chocolate and cocoa butter mix until you get a nice dark red.
I kept my chocolate melted in a pan of hot water but you can pop the chocolate back into the microwave at any time to re-melt it!
3) Using a small brush or popsicle stick carefully spread green chocolate into the recessed bird and branch part of two of the mold cavities. Do the same with the white chocolate in the other two cavities. You may get chocolate outside the edges and this is ok. Once the chocolate is set, about 5 minutes, using a small piece of paper towel rub off unwanted chocolate. You can use the tip of your finger to smooth out rough edges as well.
4) once the chocolate is set spoon white chocolate over the green bird designs and green chocolate over the white bird design until you get an even coat on the bottom of the mold. Let set about 10 minutes – you can pop it in the refrigerator to speed up the process.
5) Once the bottom chocolate is set using a popsicle stick or butter knife spread a coat of chocolate on the edges of the mold in the same color that you used to coat the bottom of the mold. The chocolate will be thick enough to stick to the sides. Set upside down to cool, another 10 minutes or so.
6) When the chocolate is set, spread a thin 1/4 inch layer of your whipped cream or chocolate mouse into the bottom of each of the mold cavities. Press one piece of your cut chocolate cake into each mold so that the cake sits below the edge of the mold cavity. This is so that we have space to top off with more melted chocolate.
7) Top off each with melted chocolate. Tap the mold on the counter to eliminate air bubbles around the edges and fill with more chocolate if necessary. Let set up on the counter for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
8) When the chocolate is set it should easily separate from the edge of the mold. Press down around the edges of each cavity to release the chocolate. Put a cooling rack on top the mold and flip the mold and rack over to invert the chocolates on to the rack. You may need to gently press on the molds to release the chocolates.
NOTE: The first time I unmolded these I made the mistake of trying to unmold them individually onto my hands. They all ended up falling out and the chocolate cracked so be sure to use a large plate, cookie sheet or baking rack to do this.
9) Use your small brush and your red chocolate to decorate the cakes!
BrambleBerrians Take Over Fred Meyers
It’s the holidays so it’s time for our Bramble Berry Holiday Tradition: Salvation Army Family Adoption. Bramble Berry Inc. adopted eight families this Christmas season. Eight years and counting, the Bramble Berry staff donates their time (and the CEO’s money!) to help less fortunate families during the holidays.
Kristin in Processing with a cart full of presents!
We’re extremely grateful that we’re able to share some holiday cheer with those in need. It’s a fun bonding experience for the entire team (whom we affectionately call ‘Brambleberrians’). You can’t help feeling warm and fuzzy inside. There’s generally tears shed by at least one or two people on staff every year.
Leah in Customer Service deciding on a perfect doll.
As the Bramble Berry holiday tradition continues, we shopped for 20 children and 17 adults on December 14th, buying warm clothes, food, toys and Christmas dinners, sure to bring smiles on Christmas day.
Baby Braiya (belongs to Katy in Pulling) helping pick out toys.
Last year Bramble Berry was able to buy presents for over 20 people. With the increased budget and more people to buy for, the staff split up the family members and disperses through out Fred Meyers. We end up with a receipt as tall as an adult and a check out line around the corner and then several people always blink back tears. Fred Meyers participates in the fun too by providing an expert checker, opening up a special lane. That helps a lot!
The receipt is as tall as me (in heels)!
See The Salvation Army Bellingham Corporation for donation information.
Martha Projects for Sirius Radio
We’re so honored that you’re visiting. If you’re new, welcome and if you’re a regular, thank you! If you just listened to me on Sirius Radio, “Living Today with Mario Bosquez”, you can find the projects that we discussed below. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments section. Thanks for listening and happy soaping!
Shimmer Stick -click HERE to see the recipe – the cure for your dry winter legs and a subtle, sophisticated faux tan. Ingredients cost just $65 if you get the Foundation Kit (make foundations and shimmer sticks? Get out!). Or make the bronzer (recipe HERE) and buy those ingredients plus the shimmer stick ingredients for around $47. If you do it that way, you’ll have lots of leftover bronzer.
Exfoliating Lip Scrub – click HERE to see the recipe – by far, my favorite recipe I’ve designed this year, this yummy edible lip scrub will keep your lips soft and supple all winter long. For just $2 per scrub, you can make 20 scrubs and have at least 20 scrubs worth of leftover materials to do it all again the next day!
Peppermint Bark – click HERE to see the recipe – ingredients (including the awesome silicone mold) for 4 pounds of soap are $36 and the recipe makes either two 2 pound batches or one big 3 pound batch with soap and ingredients left over for another small batch.
Candy Cane Soap – click HERE to see the recipe – This recipe is incredibly cost effective to make. It’s just $23 for all the ingredients and if you go with the glitter overlay option, it’s $29.
These are just a few fun stocking stuffer recipes you can make for the holidays.
HERE are some other holiday themed projects.
Natural Beeswax Christmas Ornaments
If you have a fake tree this holiday season, then you’re probably missing out on the fabulous Christmasy scent of pine tree; it just goes with Christmas. I’ve figured out a way to have your cake and eat it too. Or should I say have your fake tree and smell it too? However you want to phrase it, these wax ornaments are all natural, easy to make, and will definitely bring your some Christmas olfactory cheer. Check out this tutorial for another beeswax ornament idea!
Ingredients
8 oz Yellow Beeswax
1/2 oz Cedarwood Essential Oil
1/2 oz Fir Needle Essential Oil
Infused Annatto Seeds
Christmas Tree Flexible Mold
(NOTE: The Christmas Tree Flexible Mold and Flexible Bell Mold have been discontinued. They have been substituted with the 6 Cavity Christmas Assortment Silicone Mold.)
Twisty Ties (new or used)
Get everything you need in the click of a button!
Infused Annatto Seeds? Check out this episode of Soap Queen TV to learn how to infuse Annatto Seeds in oil for an all natural colorant.
NOTE: If you have a big tree you’re going to want to make a bigger batch. And if you dare, you can even add more essential oil so it’s extra piney! This recipe makes 8 ounces total (two bells and eight trees).
ONE: In the microwave (and in a microwave safe container) melt 8 ounces of Yellow Beeswax. Be very careful when melting beeswax in the microwave, it has a pretty high melting point. Just make sure that you melt the wax in short bursts stirring between sessions.
TWO: Once the wax is melted, add 1/2 ounce of Fir Needle Essential Oil and 1/2 ounce of Cedarwood Essential Oil. Mix well and pour into the mold. Then add the twisty ties making sure half of the tie is sticking out.
(NOTE: The Christmas Tree Flexible Mold and Flexible Bell Mold have been discontinued. They have been substituted with the 6 Cavity Christmas Assortment Silicone Mold.)
THREE: Once the wax has cooled, unmold the ornaments and use the twisty ties to attach to your Christmas Tree! Have fun and get creative. You can mix it up with different scents, molds and colors.
From Philly, with Love
While she didn’t come bearing a Philly Cheesesteak, Maureen did come to us all the way from Philadelphia and we were thrilled to have her join us. She came to Otion wanting to expand her melt and pour soapmaking skills. Though she has watched all of the SoapQueen.TV projects (I love a student who has done their homework!), her projects weren’t turning out quite the way she wanted. (She doesn’t know it, but she was my last full-day private class until the baby is born. My back isn’t loving the full standing days anymore.) And bonus, in addition to being insanely off the charts sweet, she is a dog lover! So, her and Toby (our resident mascot dog) got a long really well and Toby helped us make soap for part of the day.We had an extremely full day (in a good way!). We worked on the SoapyLove Signature Project, Plaid Soaps. And then we moved onto detail work to showcase the Melt and Pour Tool Kit. Maureen really got to learn how to use all of the tools. We made a LOT of soaps with those tools.
Pictured above are the yummy Gift Box molds and the Heart on Grid Mold; below are the Holly Leaf Molds. They all look so sweet with their perfect detailing. Maureen was a really quick study so it made it easy to get perfect soaps every time with her.
Then we moved onto Jelly Roll Soaps, Embeddable Paper (the onesies in the photo below), Peppermint Bark, Orange Slices, Candy Canes and a custom project just for Maureen (that will be just our secret).
Like many of our students, Maureen was shocked at how much soap the day produced so we ended up shipping her soaps to her since there was no room in her suitcase. It was so much fun to spend the day with Maureen. She had a great attitude, a sincere desire to learn and was a hard worker. I know however she chooses to use her newly acquired soap techniques that she will be successful. Check out her Etsy shop here.
Thanks Maureen!
‘Tis the Soapy (Etsy) Season
I love browsing Etsy for soapy inspiration and gift ideas when the seasons change. I hope these get you in the holiday spirit. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to turn on the Christmas music and plunk down with a cup of hot cocoa. Oh wait … the Christmas music is on and has been since the week before Thanksgiving =)
Snow Soap by Sunbasil Garden
Holiday Tree Soaps by Enchanting Soap Favors
Frolic In the Snow by Yodely Goat Soaps
Pepperberry Wreath by Swan Mountain Soaps
Gingerbread Man by Bunny Bubbles
Christmas Apple Soap by Intentions
Snowman with Candy Cane by Kntry5
Peppermint Swirl by Joans Garden
Let It Snow Soap by Pure Heart Soap
Cheery Holiday Cold Process Soap Tutorial
Wouldn’t these be an extra special Christmas gift? If you start your recipe this week it will be cutting it close with the cure time, so make sure to add a “ready to use date” on the packaging. Enjoy!
Buy everything you need for this three part recipe in the click of a button!
Cranberry Embed Directions
Two days ahead of time, make your cranberry embeds This is an unscented batch of soft soap that is almost play dough like in its consistency. The batch is a small 45 oz. size and is meant to fit into our Silicone Pans.
Recipe
16 oz. Olive Oil
7.9 oz. Macadamia Nut Oil
6.1 oz. Coconut Oil
.8 oz. Jojoba Oil
4.2 oz. Lye
10 oz. Water
Wearing full safety gear and following basic CP principles (unsure about CP soap? Watch the FREE SoapQueen.TV tutorials on CP soap here), make your soap.
Add Burgundy Oxide and Merlot mica at thin trace and stick blend in. If you want to ensure no clumps at all, pre-mix color with 2 tsp of oil. Pour your soap and do not insulate. To keep the soap softer and more pliable, not going through gel phase is essential.
After the soap has set-up for just one day, use a melon baller, a cookie dough batter tool or just cut into squares and round off the corners and form with your hands. If the soap is too sticky, mix a little flour with Merlot Mica and apply to your hands to keep your hands from getting sticking to the soap.
Next make layers 1, 2 and 3: Get your soap to thin trace then, separate it into three batches. This recipe is designed to give a good amount of working time for multiple swirls and layers.
White with Green and Black Swirl Directions
14 oz. Olive Oil
8 oz. Coconut Oil
6 oz. Canola Oil
5 oz. Palm Oil
2 oz. Palm Kernel
5.0 oz. Lye
11.6 oz. water
2.6 oz. Cranberry Fig Fragrance
Colorants
Green Soap: 20 oz soap batter with Emerald Labcolor and Green Chrome Oxide. Add approximately 1 oz fragrance.
White Soap Mix: 20 oz soap batter with Super Pearly White. Add approximately 1 oz fragrance.
Black Soap Mix: 12 oz soap batter with Black Iron Oxide and Vintage Gray Mica. Add approximately 3/4 oz fragrance.
Add the fragrance right before you pour so that if your fragrance accelerates trace you will still have time to embed your cranberry inclusions.
Fragrance the white layer of soap. Pour a thin layer of white soap over the black/green mixture. Add the Cranberry Inclusions, two by two, spacing evenly along projected bar cut lines. Pour the rest of the white soap.
Spoon or pour the remainder of the black and green swirl over the Cranberry Inclusions/White layer.
For the last layer: Split the batch into two containers.
Red and White Swirls
Recipe
4.88 oz. Olive Oil
2.79 oz. Coconut Oil
2.09 oz. Canola Oil
1.74 oz. Palm Oil
.7 oz. Palm Kernel
1.76 oz. Lye
4.03 oz. Water
.9 oz. Cranberry Fig
Red Soap: 7 oz soap batter blended with Burgundy Oxide and Merlot Mica. Approximately 1/2 oz fragrance blend.
Uncolored Soap: 11 oz soap batter with approximately 3/4 oz fragrance oil.
Swirl the colored soap and white soap together. Pour over the Green/Black layer.
Insulate well and allow to harden for a minimum of 2 days before cutting. To ensure your soap is mild and hard, be sure to make your soap by November 15th so it can dry for a full 4-6 weeks before the big day!
Soaps of Christmas Past
Christmas is four weeks away. EEEEK! It’s time to get started on your Christmas Projects!
Check out some of our holiday favorites!
Other Holiday Favorites
Snowflake Soap TutorialRemember, nothing says “I thought of you” like handmade. =)