Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
During the winter, handmade beauty products are especially helpful. This week featured several recipes that moisturize dry skin. The Easy Creamy Cucumber Lotion is made with Basic Lotion Base, which has skin-loving avocado and coconut oil. Cucumber extract is added for its soothing properties, and the lotion is scented with Cucumber Oak Fragrance Oil and colored with Emerald LabColor and Kermit Green Mica to complement the extract.
This week was all about seasonal scents that can carry into the new year. The Cleansing Orange Spice Salt Scrub is scented with 10X Orange Essential Oil and Cinnamon Sticks Fragrance Oil. The traditional holiday spice notes pair well with the fresh citrus notes. To match the orange scent, the scrub has orange peel and Racing Stripe Orange Mica. It will leave your skin feeling fresh and clean.
We got so many amazing entries for the contest to win sixteen new micas and pigments; over 800 entries on the blog and 500 on Facebook…WOW! For both the blog and Facebook, we used a random number generator and chose the comments that corresponded with those numbers. Our Facebook winner is Evelyn Rose Soaps with this gorgeous Tea Tree & Activated Charcoal bar. Our blog winner is Victoria. Her favorite color is Coral Mica. We can’t wait for you to give the sixteen new micas and pigments a try. Thanks so much to everyone who entered! You can see their entries in this post.
This week was all about enjoying time with family and friends, being thankful and of course, cheese! The Cranberry and Pecan Cheese Ball is perfect for your next holiday get together. It has a blend of cream cheese, goat cheese and sharp white cheddar. Dried cranberries are mixed in to add a bit of sweetness, and the ball is coated with toasted pecans for some crunch. It is delicious and easy to make.
This week in Soap Queen Land (Soapqueenlandia?) was full of easy DIY holiday gift inspiration, like the Potpourri Gift Tag Tutorial. The gift tags add a special touch to any present. They are easy to make and scented with a warm blend of Cinnamon Sticks and Warm Flannel Fragrance Oil. You can also customize the bags with a stamp or marker. The best part is after the gift is opened, the tags can be put in a drawer or other space for a comforting holiday scent.
The week ended in such sadness with the Paris terrorist attacks. Our thoughts remain with everyone there.
Earlier in the week, this blog was all about color, whether the palette is rustic and natural or bright and vibrant. There are several tricks to make sure your soap has vibrant color. For instance, some micas can fade in cold process soap. Make sure to check the descriptions on Bramble Berry before choosing a color to make sure it stays well in cold process soap. Gel phase – when the soap gets really hot and gelatinous – helps colors pop as well. Get more tips in the How to Get Vibrant Colors in Soap post.
This week was all about trying new things, like a soapy technique or a daring hair color. If you’re looking for a cost effective DIY way to try a new color, you can use LabColors. LabColors are concentrated liquid dyes that add a pop of color to blonde hair. To add moisture to your hair, Stephenson Organic Hair Conditioner is used to dilute the base. Click through the How to Dye Hair with LabColors post to learn more, and to see how our hair experiments turned out!
As a bonus, receive $10 off any $20 purchase or more of Stephenson products with the coupon code: SAVETEN. But but don’t wait too long! Only the first 600 customers will get this deal. Click here to see all Stephenson products, including soap bases, conditioner, shampoo and more!
Even though Halloween is only a day away, we already have Christmas on the mind! This week featured several holiday-inspired tutorials, including the Gingerbread Man Lotion Bars. They are ideal for dry winter skin. The recipe includes moisturizing oils like cocoa butter and coffee butter. The bars are then painted with Copper Sparkle Mica to make the gingerbread details pop.
This week was full of tips, tricks and new soapy techniques. One thing we get asked about a lot is making bath fizzies and bombs. It’s so fun to make them, but it does take a bit of practice. The bath bomb mixture needs to be wet enough to stay together, but not so wet that it starts to fizz early. Click through the Bath Bomb Questions & Answers post to learn how the get the right texture, what colorants to use, how to package the fizzies and more.
The mica tutorial series ended with a golden hue. Midas Touch Bath Bombs covered with King’s Gold Mica leave a subtle shimmer on the skin. In addition to fizzing in the tub, the bath bombs have cocoa butter and meadowfoam oil to moisturize your skin. They will make your tub smell like a mimosa from a combination of Champagne Fragrance Oil and Orange Grove Fragrance Oil.
Adding a touch of silver to your handmade products can make them look elegant and unique. This week featured several silver projects, including the Silver Glitter Candle DIY. The candles are easy to make. All you do is apply glue on the candle jar and sprinkle on plenty of Silver Nail Polish Glitter. The candle inside is scented with woodsy Christmas Tree Cybilla Fragrance Oil. It’s a great holiday gift.
As a bonus, a collection of micas and glitter are 20% off with the code: MAGIC20. Click here to see all the sale micas and glitter.
This week was all about warm fall colors, and featured projects made with Copper Sparkle Mica. The Caramelized Copper Brown Sugar Scrub has Copper Sparkle and King’s Gold Mica to leave a light shimmer on the skin. To exfoliate the skin, it has brown and white sugar. The scrub contains avocado butter to help moisturize skin, and Burnt Sugar Fragrance Oil for a sweet and smoky scent.
Mica colorants can be used in everything from scrubs to soap. This week through Oct. 16th, the blog will have tutorials made with plenty of shimmery micas, like the Sparkly Garnet Soap Gems. The soap, inspired by the January birthstone, gets its sparkly red color from Merlot Sparkle Mica and Fine Iridescent Glitter. Once the soap is scented with Pomegranate and Black Currant Fragrance Oil and cooled, it is cut into fun gem shapes.
Before we get into the recap of the week, I wanted to take a moment to remember all those who were affected by the tragic events that took place on September 11th, 2001. I’d also like to thank all the heroes who helped rebuild New York City afterward, and the heroes that continue to keep us safe. I think Rudy Giuliani put it best when he said, “The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified.”
This week continued the “all things fall” theme with the Pumpkin Pie Melt and Pour Soap. Inspired by the release of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte, the bars are scented with spicy and sweet Pumpkin Pie Candle & Soap Fragrance Oil. To match the smell, the Perfect Orange Color Block is used to give the Goat Milk Melt and Pour Soap Base a creamy orange hue. It even has a bit of cinnamon added for a realistic look.
