Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
We’ve made sweet soapy cupcakes and piled-high macarons, and now these adorable doughnuts are joining the foodie soap family. Use the Doughnut Mold to make 6 doughnut halves, and then ‘glue’ the halves together with a little extra melt and pour. The tutorial below is for a Strawberry/Vanilla combo, but we also made mint chocolate ones too. There are lots of color and flavor combinations; be creative!
Celebrate the sunshine with these cute lemon cupcake soaps. These soaps feature Lemon Cake Fragrance Oil, on sale for the month of March. It smells wonderful in cold process and melt & pour soap. It will discolor to dark brown in cold process and tan in melt and pour. This recipe uses Vanilla Color Stabilizer in this recipe to keep the cakes yellow (as opposed to brown), but be aware that the stabilizer does not work as reliably in cold process soap.
This tutorial also features the Foaming Bath Whip, which stiffens to mimic sugary sweet frosting. These cupcakes are a real treat!
Holiday madness is officially upon us … well, it is if you’re a cold process soaper! I am always so inspired by all the wonderful treats and desserts that show up at yearly holiday parties, and we wanted to try and replicate a delectable holiday treat in soap form. This recipe was inspired by a lovely dessert I came across on Pinterest: soft, doughy cookies with ample fudge and swirled holiday frosting. Delish!
The goal with this soap is to get your layers as straight as possible by using a pour-over-the-spatula technique. We also incorporated the fragrance sample of the month, the delightfully warm Chai Tea Cybilla. It does discolor in cold process soap, which is something we kept in mind when formulating this recipe. In the end, we think the result is just as sweet as the original dessert inspiration!
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed the Bramble Berry office is full of French Macaron fans. We’ve had them as snacks during meetings, been treated to homemade ones by our fabulous Customer Care team member Tina, and served them as treats at the Soap Crafting release Party a few weeks ago. They are sweet little meringue morsels made from just a few simple ingredients, and we knew we had to try them in soap. Our bath treats are made from bath fizzies and foaming bath whip instead of eggs and sugar, but we hope you enjoy them all the same. PS – I know they look more like ice cream cookie sandwiches, but macarons were my inspiration; I promise!
What You’ll Need:
For the bath bombs:
1 cup Citric Acid
2 cups Baking Soda
2 tablespoons melted Shea Butter
4 tablespoons Kaolin Clay
6 mL Mango Mango Fragrance Oil
3 mL Cantaloupe La Bomb Colorant
Two 12-bar Round Silicone Molds
For the frosting:
20 oz. Foaming Bath Whip
5 oz. White Melt and Pour Base
2 mL Almond Cybilla Fragrance Oil
Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
ONE: Start by pouring the Baking Soda and Citric Acid through a strainer to work out clumps. This will ensure your mixture is nice and smooth and free of clumps. If chunks get left behind, use a spoon to break them up and sift them through the strainer.
TWO: After you’ve mixed the Citric Acid and Baking Soda, add the Kaolin Clay.
THREE: Mix the powders together and then add the Mango Mango Fragrance oil. To fully disperse the fragrance oil, put on some gloves and handmix the powders and oil together.
FOUR: Now add the Cantaloupe La Bomb colorant. We added 3 mL, but the colorant is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) so you can add a bit more if you’d like a more saturated color. Keep in mind — the more colorant you add, the higher the chance that it will color the bath water.
FIVE: At this point you’ll definitely want to put on some gloves to full incorporate the color into the powders. The colorant will tend to clump together so don’t be afraid to break up the chunks with your fingers. La Bomb colorants are specifically formulated to work in bath bombs, and if you’ve never used them before you should check out this blog post.
SIX: Melt down the Shea Butter in a heat safe container on 20 – 30 second bursts. When the butter is fully melted, add it to the powder mixture and stir.
SEVEN: At this point, the powder should start to clump together. You don’t want it so crumbly that it won’t hold a shape, but you also don’t want it to feel saturated. If you find the mixture is crumbly, spray 2 – 3 pumps of Witch Hazel into the mixture. The Witch Hazel will help the powders stick together without setting off a reaction and making the mixture fizz prematurely. Test the mixture by squeezing a handful — if it holds shape and doesn’t fall apart, it’s good to go!
EIGHT: Once the mixture holds shape, scoop about two tablespoons worth of powder into each cavity of the mold. Press the mixture into the mold firmly, making sure to keep the surface as level as possible. Some of the mixture may creep up the sides of the mold as you press — that’s okay, just try pushing it back down. You can clean up the circles in the next step. Once you’ve filled 20 cavities, let the molds sit in a cool, dry place overnight to allow the bath fizzies to harden up.
NINE: After you’ve left the bath fizzies sit, unmold them very carefully. Because they are relatively thin, they can crack and break easily. The best way to get them out unharmed is to gently fold one row of the mold over on itself so the openings of the cavities meet. Then, gently press the bottom of the three cavities facing you, nudging the bath fizzies out of the mold.
If you find that the bath fizzy edges are rough and jagged from finger prints, use a clean up tool to carve and smooth the edges down.
TEN: Set the fizzies aside. For the frosting, use a heat safe container to melt the White Melt & Pour Base in the microwave on 30 second increments. Once it’s fully melted, combine it in a large bowl with the Foaming Bath Whip.
ELEVEN: Add in the Almond Cybilla Fragrance Oil. Because this fragrance oil can cause discoloration and we want the frosting to stay white, add in an equal amount of Vanilla Color Stabilizer.
TWELVE: Using a hand mixer on a low speed, whip the melted soap base, bath whip and fragrance oil together. After about a minute, turn the speed up to high and whip for another 3 – 5 minutes. Keep a spatula on hand in case the mixture creeps up the side of the bowl. After about 5 – 7 minutes of mixing, the mixture should be able to form stiff peaks. Once it has reached that consistency, it’s ready to use.
THIRTEEN: Cut the triangle tip off a frosting bag and insert a 4B frosting tip. Then, spoon in about a cup of the frosting mixture (Tip: We like using our brand new Square Silicone Spoons!).
FOURTEEN: Frost the bath fizzy by starting in the center and making a circular pattern toward the edge. We piled our frosting fairly high (1.5 – 2 inches) because although the frosting should be stiff, it will fall slightly when you stack another fizzy on top. Here you can get creative! Try stacking another layer of frosting and another fizzy on top for a triple Macaron, or try squeezing the fizzies together so the frosting peeks over the edges. It’s totally up to you!
Your fizzies are ready to use right away. Enjoy!
In celebration of the release of Soap Crafting, we’re continuing our special series of cold process tutorials inspired by the book. If you missed it, check out yesterday’s awesome beer soap (yes, we said beer) and then get ready for today’s recipe filled with another fun additive.
Sweet, juicy and perfect for a picnic, strawberries are one fantastic fruit to eat. They also happen to be wonderful in soap as well. This recipe includes fresh strawberry puree, real cream and strawberry seeds. If you haven’t experimented with additives in cold process soap yet, this is an excellent place to start. One thing to keep in mind: because this soap has so many natural additives, it has a shelf life of about 6 months.
What You’ll Need:
1. 05 oz. Cocoa Butter
8.75 oz. Coconut Oil
17.5 oz. Olive Oil
3.5 oz. Palm Oil
1.75 oz. Palm Kernel Flakes
2.45 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
4.9 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
10.4 oz. distilled water
1 tablespoon Strawberry Seeds
1.2 oz. cream
3 oz. strawberry puree
Fragrance blend of:
.8 oz. Strawberry Fragrance Oil
.8 oz. Sun Ripened Raspberry Fragrance Oil
.5 oz. Summer Fling Fragrance Oil
Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
If you have never made cold process soap before, I highly recommend you get a couple of basic recipes under your belt. This is not a recipe to make on your first try at soapmaking. Check out this (free!) 4-part series on cold process soap making, especially the episode on lye safety. Bramble Berry carries quite a few books on the topic as well, including this downloadable book on making cold process soap.
COLOR PREP: Disperse 1 teaspoon of the Fired Up Fuchsia into 1 tablespoon of Sunflower or Sweet Almond Oil (or any other liquid oil) and 2 teaspoons Titanium Dioxide into 2 tablespoon of liquid oil. Use a mini mixer to get clumps worked out smoothly.
ADDITIVE PREP: Using a food processor, grind up about a dozen fresh strawberries to yield 3 oz of puree. Then, portion out 1.2 oz. cream into a second container. Set both containers aside.
FRAGRANCE PREP: Create the fragrance blend by combining the Strawberry, Sun Ripened Raspberry and Summer Fling Fragrance Oils in a glass bowl. Mix well and then set aside.
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.
ONE: Once the oils and lye water mixture are under 120 degrees F (and ideally within 10 degrees of each other), slowly and carefully add the lye water mixture to the oils and stick blend to light trace. Set aside to cool. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that lasts longer in the shower and releases faster from the mold, you can add Sodium Lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of Sodium Lactate per pound of oils in the recipe.
TWO: After the lye and oils have been thoroughly stick blended together (think thin trace – not thick), split the batter into two cups: one with about 1.5 cups of batter and the second with about 2 cups of batter.
THREE: In the original container, add the strawberry puree and 1 tsp. of the dispersed Fired Up Fuchsia Colorant.
FOUR: In the second 2-cup container, add 2 teaspoons of dispersed Fired Up Fuchsia.
FIVE: In the remaining 1.5 cup container, add the Strawberry Seeds.
SIX: Add 1 tablespoon of Titanium Dioxide to the cup with the Strawberry Seed batter. Add another tablespoon of Titanium Dioxide to the cup with the strawberry puree to lighten this color up. It’s quite a dark, almost brown color, without it. Using a wire whisk, thoroughly mix the colorants and additives into each cup of soap batter.
SEVEN: When the batter has reached a thin trace, pour about half the container of cream (.6 oz.) in the container with the Strawberry Seeds. Pour the remaining half (.6 oz.) into the container with the strawberry puree. Using a wire whisk or a stick blender, mix the cream into the batters.
EIGHT: Split the fragrance blend in thirds, pouring approximately .7 oz. of the oil into each cup of batter.
NINE: Pour approximately one-third of the strawberry puree batter into the silicone mold.
TEN: Starting at one end of the mold, pour about half of the pink-colored batter in a wave pattern until you reach the other end of the mold. Do the same with half of the white-colored batter.
ELEVEN: Pour almost all of the remaining puree soap into the mold. Save about a half cup to complete the final top design.
TWELVE: While pouring over a spatula, pour two-thirds of the remaining pink soap over the top of puree soap. Tamp the mold on the table to release bubbles and smooth out the surface, and then use the same spatula technique to pour two-thirds of the remaining white soap. Tamp the mold again to release bubbles.
THIRTEEN: Pour the remaining puree soap on top of the mold in a loop-de-loop pattern, from one end of the mold to the other (far right). Then, pour the remaining white soap over it, making a stretched out, horizontal zig-zag from right to left (center). Finally, pour the pink soap in an opposite zig-zag to fill in the space left by the white soap (far right).
FOURTEEN: Insert a chopstick of dowel about 1/4 of an inch into the soap. Start in the bottom left-hand corner and drag the tool up and down through the soap, slowly making your way to the far end of the mold.
Spray the entire top with 91% – 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to reduce soda ash. Cover and insulate for 24 hours and unmold after 3-4 days. Allow to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy!
