The Basic 12 LabColors used in the tutorial are 25% off until midnight tonight! Just use the code: BASICLAB at checkout.

The Psychedelic Spin Swirl Cold Process Tutorial also features a swirl design. The spin swirl is created by pouring soap at thin trace into a horizontal mold, and spinning and stopping the on the counter or a Lazy Susan. The swirl and stop motion creates unique bars of soap. Kumquat and Patchouli Fragrance Oils add an earthy scent.

The 1960’s-inspired colors look great in bath bombs as well, as seen in the Tie-Dye Bath Bombs Tutorial. In addition to layers of color, the bath bombs have hemp seed oil, which help moisturize the skin. Drop a fizzy in the tub to relax and enjoy the smell of the new Flower Child Fragrance Oil.

Pure Honey Fragrance Oil is another new fragrance, and is one of the office favorites. It smells warm and delicious, and works in a wide variety of projects. If you’ve created something with the fragrance, we would love to see it! You can post your image in the Pure Honey Show and Share post. The three photos with the most votes will receive one 4 oz. bottle of Pure Honey Fragrance Oil and a 4 oz. fragrance oil of your choice.

Stef with Rainbowerks used honey and beeswax in her Bee’s Knees soap. Her gorgeous honeycomb soap is this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week winner.

Bubble wrap creates an interesting honeycomb pattern in Stef’s soap. It goes perfectly with the warm brown color and shine from the beeswax. To learn how to use beeswax in soap, click through the Busy Beeswax Soap Tutorial. Can’t get enough honey? Check out this Honey Beeswax Cold Process Tutorial.

Above (clockwise, top) are Stef’s collection of soaps, Honey Oat Soap, Vanilla Sky Soap and LoveSpell Soap. If you’re a fan of Stef’s oat soap, you’ll love the Goat Milk and Oatmeal Cold Process Tutorial. Oats are used in this Soothing Baking Soda Oatmeal Bar Tutorial as well.

Find Rainbowerks
On Facebook
On Etsy

This week’s Instagram Photo of the Week is gorgeous as well. Lisa with Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio used a modified Taiwan Swirl technique to create the stunning design in her bars. The pink, green and black color palette add plenty of contrast. Read more about Lisa in this interview, and check out more of her work on her Instagram page.

Post pictures of your crafty creations on the Facebook page each week for a chance to be featured on the Soap Queen blog and receive a sweet soapy package from Bramble Berry. Photos are chosen based on consensus from the Bramble Berry staff, so the best way to increase your chances of winning is to show us lots of photos!

To participate in the Instagram contest, hashtag your pictures with #soapshare. Each Friday, I will pick a photo on Instagram to be featured on the Bramble Berry Instagram account. 

For those of you who have been featured on the blog, we now have an official “Featured on the Soap Queen” badge! You can include that badge on your website, blog, pictures, etc. To save the badge, click here. =)

The post Facebook and Instagram Photo of the Week (July 11th ~ 17th) appeared first on Soap Queen.

For bold color you can wear, check out the Nourishing Nail Polish Formula Tutorial. The nail polish is colored with Radiant Plum Colorant, which gives your nails a pinkish purple tint. Because nail polish can be harsh on your nails, this recipe contains argan oil to help nourish them. As a bonus, the argan oil also helps the color mix in easily.

Lisa with Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio makes a variety of brightly-colored soaps. One of her favorite color palettes to work with is rainbow. She said she loves to pair the bright colors with fresh fragrances, like Energy Fragrance Oil and Pink Grapefruit Fragrance Oil. Read more in the Interview with Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio.

A blog is a great way to show off your colorful soaps. There are several things to consider before creating a blog, however. For instance, it helps to narrow down the topics you want to cover. That way you can work on three topics and expand over time. Read more tips in the 5 Things to Know Before Starting a Blog post.

Facebook is another great place to show off your work. Juliann, this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week winner, shared her delicious soap on the Bramble Berry Facebook page. It looks so realistic! Growing up, my Grandma Leah made the *best* Lemon Meringue pie so this photo tugs at my memory strings.

Juliann’s Lemon Meringue Pie soap uses rebatch for the crust to get that homemade buttery look. It’s topped with yellow and white cold process soap. For more citrusy goodness, watch the Lemon Poppy Seed Cold Process video on Soap Queen TV. If you’re craving something a little more fruity, click through the Wash Your Mouth Out With Strawberry Pie Melt and Pour Tutorial.

Above (clockwise, top) are Juliann’s yellow soap, Eucalyptus Spearmint Shea Soap, White Tea and Ginger Soap and Sweet Orange Bundt Cake Soap. If you love the mica line in the Eucalyptus Spearmint Shea Soap, check out the Striped Berry Champagne Cold Process Soap. To get gorgeous layers in melt and pour soap, click through the Minty Clay Melt and Pour Soap Tutorial.

Find Spruce Mountain Soap Company
On Facebook
On Etsy

The Instagram Photo of the Week features a beautiful yellow color palette as well. Jessica with Clean Line Soap Company created an ombre effect in her soap. Poppy seeds add color and an interesting accent on top of the soap. Check out more of her beautiful work on her Instagram page.

Post pictures of your crafty creations on the Facebook page each week for a chance to be featured on the Soap Queen blog and receive a sweet soapy package from Bramble Berry. Photos are chosen based on consensus from the Bramble Berry staff, so the best way to increase your chances of winning is to show us lots of photos!

To participate in the Instagram contest, hashtag your pictures with #soapshare. Each Friday, I will pick a photo on Instagram to win a copy of the Soap Crafting book, and share on the Bramble Berry Instagram account. 

The post Facebook and Instagram Photo of the Week (March 28th ~ April 3rd) appeared first on Soap Queen.

Lisa’s Misty Rainbow Soap created for the in-the-pot swirl Great Cakes Soap Challenge. 

How long have you been soaping for and how did you get started?
I have been making soap for about 4 years. I have always had an artistic streak but few opportunities to put it into practice, and I was feeling a bit rebellious one year about the Christmas retail ‘machine,’ so I decided to do my own thing. As I was browsing online bookstores for candle-making guides, there was a suggestion that I may also like ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Natural Soaps’ by Sally Trew and Zonella Gould. Well, I bought the book, and I was promptly so enamoured with making soap that the candle idea went on the back-burner for quite a while (no pun intended).

Lisa’s skill shines with her wide variety of soapy techniques.

What sort of advice would you give to those soapers just starting their businesses?
I would advise 2 things, in essence: be passionate, and be patient. I see so many people asking other soapmakers what sells for them, and it strikes me every time how much the answer varies from artist to artist, and market to market. I even find that I sell different types of soap online to what sells at my market stall. Don’t try and copy someone else’s passion. If you’re passionate about your own soap, it will shine through on every level and your enthusiasm will draw people in. As for being patient – experiment, see what recipes and techniques work for you, test, research, learn, network and share ideas. As they say, more haste, less speed.

What is your favorite type of product to make?
Cold process soap is my absolute favourite.

Fig Jam cold process soap, scented with Autumn Fig Harvest Fragrance Oil.

What inspires you to create?
Anyone who has made cold process soap will relate to the ‘Christmas Day’ feeling you get when you cut a soap open and you have just nailed that swirl. Or even if you haven’t, or even if there’s no swirl, or you’ve used a single cavity mould, there’s still that sense of achievement in seeing the process through, seeing something that a day or so ago was just regular olive oil is now a gorgeous creamy solid something else entirely! And you made that!

Your soaps are so vibrant and colorful. Where do you find inspiration for your color palettes?
One of the themes I keep returning to when I make soap is the rainbow. It has become my go-to palette for almost every technique I have learned, and I never tire of it. Who could ever get tired of a rainbow? I really like to push the limits of that as a concept, and I love what I have learned along the way. But sometimes just a fragrance, a landscape, a flower or even the shape of a mould inspires a colour selection.

A collection of Lisa’s extremely colorful and vibrant soaps. 

How did you come up with the name for your business?
Kangaroo Apple or Devil’s Apple (Solanum) is a native Australian plant with medicinal uses, and is also used to denote seasonal change by Aboriginal Australians. Just like the lye used in making soap, it is dangerous until ripe, and should be treated with respect. The solanum flower has five petals, which to me represent earth, water, air, fire and spirit, all of which are crucial elements of the soap making process.

‘Kangaroo’ is of course quintessentially Australian. ‘Apple’ is an important aspect of the mythology of the British Isles, my ancestral lands. It is also synonymous with independent women who challenged authority and were depicted as ‘bad’ for it: Lilith, Eve, and countless ‘wicked’ fairy tale characters. These women, their independence and freedom of thought, inspire me. And my spiritual home is Tasmania, the ‘Apple Isle,’ itself blessed with an abundant kangaroo population.

‘Kangaroo Apple’ succinctly encapsulates the journey I am on, and so many of my influences and inspirations.

What is your favorite Bramble Berry product and why?
Hands down, the fragrance oils. It is hard for me to narrow it down because I have so many Bramble Berry citrus fragrances, but right now, I am a bit obsessed with Energy Fragrance Oil and Pink Grapefruit Fragrance Oil. And I also recently discovered the delectable Coconut Cream Fragrance Oil and sublime Wildflower Honey Fragrance Oil. (I feel so disloyal to my other favourites to leave them out!)

Tell us something unusual or unique about yourself!
That is funny, because usually when I am asked that question, the answer I give is that I make handmade soap! I also love foraging for wild medicinal plants, and I tend to remember the Latin names for many things – animal, vegetable and mineral.

Lisa’s beautiful rainbow soap. Each layer looks fantastic!

What are some of your other hobbies and interests?
I really enjoy photography, to the extent that good photography can be done with an iPhone. I love to visit beautiful wild places, swim in the ocean, and spend as much time as I can in the country as a silent refuge from my city lifestyle.

What is your number one soaping tip?
Above all else, keep notes!

Have you ever experienced a horrible soapy fail? How did you work through it, and what did you learn?
Oh, the honey soap separation craters I have seen! I learned to rebatch using my microwave, to not let the soap get quite so hot, and go a bit lighter on the amount of honey I add to the soap.

Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio’s gorgeous Rosehip & Jasmine Coconut Oil Soap. 

What do you love most about creating bath and body products?
I love the alchemical nature of making soap. It is art, chemistry, magic and therapy all rolled into one. Nobody that has ever had a visit from the soap gremlins can argue there is no magic involved! I also love how handmade soap is such a beautiful luxury product, can be so environmentally sound, and can actually be made from stuff in my kitchen.

Find Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio
On Facebook 

The post Interview with Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio appeared first on Soap Queen.

It is important to use fresh oils in your soap, otherwise you may get dreaded orange spots (DOS). This Dealing With Dreaded Orange Spots blog post talks about what causes the spots, such as rancid oils or humidity, and what you can do to prevent them.

Along with soaping tips and tricks, there was a blog post about how to throw a fun and unique party for you and your crafty friends. This How to Throw a DIY Sugar Scrub Party + Recipe blog post has tips, a great recipe for a pretty purple Winter Gardenia Sugar Scrub and free downloadable templates that include instructions and adorable labels.

While it’s always fun to share information, it’s also great to learn from others! This week the eight finalists for the Winter 2014 S.O.A.P. Panel were announced. We will send eight mystery fragrances to our panelists to test and give feedback on. Read more about the new panel, as well as the results from the previous panel, in this Winter 2014 S.O.A.P. Panelists + Fall S.O.A.P. Panel Outcome post.

Previous S.O.A.P. Panels have helped us add some great fragrances to our line, including Shave and a Haircut Fragrance Oil. This masculine fragrance add a fresh and clean scent to these Movember Mustache Melt and Pour Soaps. Made in honor of No-Shave November, which raises awareness about prostate cancer, this tutorial shows you how to create adorable red and blue soaps.

Using black in your soaps creates a rich and eye-catching color palette. Lisa with Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio, this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week Winner, used black with pink and a pop of contrasting white to create this stunning soap. It’s scented with Black Raspberry Vanilla Fragrance Oil, which adds some fruity, musky and sweet notes to the soap.

Several different designs of pink, black and white swirls top off this great cold process soap. If you’d like to add some swirls using the Swirl Tool Kit, check out this Soap Queen TV Episode on How to Make a Perfect Peacock Swirl in Cold Process Soap. For a fun twist on the classic peacock swirl, click through this Frog Foot Swirl Tutorial.

Above (clockwise, top left) are Lisa’s Rainbow Soap, secret feather swirl soap, Rainbow Petal Soap and rose soap. The in-the-pot swirl in Lisa’s Misty Rainbow soap is so incredible! To create your own swirly soap, check out this Palm Free In-The-Pot Swirl Tutorial. Can’t get enough? Watch this Goat Milk In-The-Pot Swirl Tutorial on Soap Queen TV.

Find Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio
On Facebook

Post pictures of your crafty creations on the Facebook page each week for a chance to be featured on the Soap Queen blog and receive a sweet soapy package from Bramble Berry. Photos are chosen based on consensus from the Bramble Berry staff, so the best way to increase your chances of winning is to show us lots of photos!

The post Facebook Photo of the Week (Nov. 1st ~ Nov. 7th) appeared first on Soap Queen.