magenta mica Archives

Moonstone Cold Process Soap Tutorial

August 25, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

It’s amazing what a little mica can do. It adds a beautiful iridescence to handmade bath and beauty products. This Moonstone Cold Process Soap has a layered design, but what makes it special is the glimmer on top.

The recipe is topped with Snowflake Sparkle, Aqua Pearl, Party Pink, and Lavender Micas. You can place the colors on top of the soap easily using the new Powder Sprayer, which is part of our gemstone collection. All you have to do is press the top of the sprayer and the mica is dusted onto your soap. It’s an easy way to work with powders, and also happens to be pretty fun to use.

This recipe is scented with new Moonstone Fragrance Oil, which is a combination of soft floral, light powder, and sweet fruit. It has notes of lavender, bergamot, jasmine, violet, sandalwood, and vanilla. You can sample Moonstone and three other new scents in the Gemstone Fragrance Oil Collection. It includes 2 ounces of each fragrance for just $16.95, and is available until Sept. 3rd.

The Moonstone Fragrance Oil discolors to a soft brown. To combat the discoloration, this recipe includes plenty of titanium dioxide. An abundance of titanium dioxide can lead to glycerin rivers – learn more about glycerin rivers here. To prevent glycerin rivers this recipe has a 15% water discount, so be ready to move quickly.

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Horse Sculpted Layers Soap Tutorial

November 3, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

I’m constantly blown away by the talent and innovation in the soapmaking community. There are so many amazing ways to manipulate soap to create various effects. One of the most impressive techniques that I’ve seen in the past few years is the Sculpted Layers technique made popular by Claudia Carpenter of Om Nom Soap. When I first stumbled on Claudia’s Winter Wonderland Soap made with this technique, my first reaction was “HOW!?” I had never seen any soap quite like it before.

Claudia graciously shared her technique, which involves creating sturdy shapes that slide across the length of the mold to “sculpt” firm soap, leaving behind various shapes. The next layer is then poured on top, allowed to harden, and sculpted with the accompanying piece. Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks hosted a Sculpted Layers challenge in June. The entries were amazing. It’s a bit of a tricky technique to describe, so I recommend watching this video by Love Is Sweet Shop, this video by Kapia Mera Soap Co, or this video by Earth’s Raw Beauty to see it in action.

If you watched the videos above, you already know this technique is quite advanced. Between making the sculpting pieces, prepping the ingredients, and waiting the correct amount of time to sculpt each layer, it’s a long process. My team and I (thanks Caitlin!) came up with a fairly simple horse design which only required two sculpting pieces and three layers. The horse head template is already sized to fit inside the Silicone Liner for 5 lb Wood Mold; just download and print! To help the horse silhouette really pop, I chose a deep black color against swirls of white, pink, blue and yellow soap. Apple Sage Fragrance Oil gives the bars a sweet scent, and works great for this project because it gives you plenty of time to swirl.

The only downside to this technique (in my opinion) is it does result in a lot of “extra” soap. The technique requires you to scrape away soap to leave behind a shape. This requires you to make a lot of soap that you ultimately remove from the mold. If you want to save the soap that is scraped away, I recommend having an extra mold nearby to plop the soap into. My bars made with the leftover soap weren’t the prettiest (rainbow swirls and black soap mushed together is an interesting look) but they were still wonderful bars of soap!

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Berry Rhubarb Crumble Soap Tutorial

August 23, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

It’s hard to believe that fall will be here in less than a month (September 22nd to be exact). If you’re still holding onto summer, now is the time to squeeze in last minute summer projects. This Berry & Rhubarb Crumble Soap was inspired by the delicious summer dessert. A mixture of Magenta Mica and Brick Red Oxide Pigment create a red berry base. The “crumble” is made by adding walnut shells and rolled oats to the soap batter and placing it on top. Dollops of white “whipped cream” soap give these bars the finishing touch.

These bars are scented with the new Red Berry Rhubarb Fragrance Oil. It’s a delicious blend of red currant, tart rhubarb and juicy berry notes. It will make your mouth water! If you’re looking for more dessert-inspired projects, check out the Lemon Cold Process Soap Cupcakes Tutorial or the Sparkling Champagne Soap Cupcakes on Soap Queen TV. Both of those projects involve making separate batches of cold process soap frosting. The “whipped cream” on this soap is made from the same batch. The soap is allowed to thicken in the container until it reaches a thick, spoonable consistency. If you’re a little nervous to make soap frosting, this technique is a great alternative!

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Beach Ball Bath Bomb DIY

June 2, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Bath Fizzies

With the summer heat on its way, I have beaches on the brain. If you don’t live close to a body of water, your bathtub is the next best thing. These Beach Ball Bath Bombs bring a little summer fun to the tub. They are created in the Bath Bomb Mold & Package. Once fully hardened, they are decorated to resemble beach balls with various shades of mica “paint.” The paint is created with mica and 99% isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol dries in about 15 minutes, leaving behind the cute beach ball stripes.

I scented these bath bombs with a combination of Flower Child Fragrance Oil and Grapefruit Bellini Fragrance Oil. Flower Child is a unique and sophisticated floral scent with notes of bergamot, amber and jasmine. To lighten it up a bit for summer, I paired it with the bubbly and citrusy Grapefruit Bellini Fragrance Oil. It smells amazing!

When you use micas to color your bath fizzies, they may leave some color on the tub. This will depend on how big your tub is, and can vary depending on the color. For example, if you use Luster Black Mica, you may notice more color on the tub than with a lighter color. I recommend giving your bath a light wipe down before taking a bath so the oil around the tub won’t attract color. This always helps avoid a ring around the tub later on. Also, I like to have a wet rag to wipe off any color right off the tub. It comes off easily that way but don’t use a white wash rag for this. =) You can see how these fizzies looked in a veryyyyyy teeeeeeeeennnnnsy bit water in the video below!

A video posted by Anne-Marie (@brambleberry) on Jun 2, 2016 at 10:57am PDT

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Watermelon Cold Process Soap Tutorial

May 19, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

Watermelon is one of my favorite summer fruits. It’s refreshing, light and delicious! With watermelon coming into season, I was inspired to create this fruity soap (of course!). The natural green, white and pink layers of watermelon are surprisingly simple to recreate with thick soap batter. This recipe is formulated with mango butter, coconut oil and olive oil pomace to help create a thick trace that’s easy to layer. The recipe also contains a 12% water discount to prevent glycerin rivers.

To create the perfect watermelon rind, I used a combination of Kermit Green Mica and Green Chrome Oxide Pigment. The two green shades are poured into the mold in strips, which create a realistic look once cut. The new Magenta Mica is the perfect pinkish-red watermelon color, and poppy seeds look like tiny watermelon seeds. They also add a nice amount of exfoliation to the bars.

For this project, I used both Summer Melon Spritzer Fragrance Oil and Watermelon Fragrance Oil. The Summer Melon Spritzer has notes of watermelon which really come through in the soap. The Watermelon Fragrance Oil tends to fade in cold process soap, but the Summer Melon Spritzer Fragrance Oil helps give it a boost. It smells so juicy and fruity; I have a bar on my desk and can’t stop smelling it!

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