melt and pour Archives - Page 5 of 9

Pumpkin Pie Melt and Pour Soap

September 8, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

While the day after Labor Day is not the official first day of fall, here in the PNW, it certainly feels like summer is over. Seasonal items are hitting the shelves, including the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (happy #PSL day!), and everything pumpkin flavored. I love the warm and comforting taste (and smell!) of pumpkin treats. These Pumpkin Pie Melt and Pour bars celebrate the arrival of the #PSL and pumpkin-spice-everything. Scented with Pumpkin Pie Candle and Soap Fragrance Oil, these bars look and smell like your favorite autumn dessert.

These bars are made with the creamy and hydrating Goat Milk Melt and Pour Soap Base. This base is great for dry skin, and has a neutral custard color. Ground pumpkin seeds give the bars a very mild amount of exfoliation. To learn more about various exfoliant options, click here. A small amount of ground cinnamon is used for a realistic pumpkin pie appearance. Some people have a sensitivity to using cinnamon (particularly cinnamon essential oil). If your skin is sensitive to cinnamon, feel free to leave it out.

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Creepy Crawly Spider Soap Jellies

September 3, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

It’s a little crazy that Halloween is only two months away. I can’t wait to start decorating my house with spider webs, ghosts and witches. Halloween is a sweet holiday (haha, punny!), and now that the kiddos are old enough to love trick-or-treating (hellllllo candy), it’s only getting better! Last year I dressed up a witch, while Jamisen dressed up as Clifford and Lily was a pink poodle.

This year, I used the Stephenson Jelly Soap Base to create these Spooky Spider Soap Jellies. LabColors give the soap bright, translucent shades of green and purple. The soap is scented with Spellbound Woods and Applejack Peel Fragrance Oils. The little spiders are actually small plastic toys that are available for a limited time. They are great for many projects, including solid melt and pour and liquid soap. The legs on the spiders are a little poky, so wash with care. To use jelly soap, tear off a very small amount of the jelly and create a lather using a loofah or washcloth.

UPDATE: The spider toys have been discontinued. You can usually find spider toys at your local craft store during Halloween! They are also available on Amazon.

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Lavender Goat Milk Melt and Pour Bars

August 18, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

The Swiss Alps are bustling with wildlife, including marmots, red deer and foxes. Another familiar sight is goats grazing on the hills. Not only are goats adorable, but their milk can be for a variety of projects, including soap. It gives the soap a creamy, silky feeling. The Goat Milk Melt and Pour Base from Bramble Berry is made with 10% goat milk and feels amazing on the skin.

The goat milk base used in this Lavender Goat Milk Melt and Pour Soap adds luxury and a touch of shimmer. The goat milk lettering is a beautiful contrast to the base, which is colored with the Ultramarine Violet Color Block. To go along with the shimmery purple, an earthy blend of Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil and Spring Meadow Fragrance Oil are used. You’ll have a blast making this easy and beautiful soap!
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Tips for Swirling Melt & Pour Soap

August 5, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Melt and pour soap and cold process soap are both made by emulsifying sodium hydroxide lye and a variety of oils. Both are skin loving and far more gentle than store bought, detergent based soap. Despite these similarities, melt and pour soap have very different textures. These textures lend themselves better to different soaping techniques. For example, it’s easier to achieve straight layers with melt and pour soap, while the fluid texture of cold process soap allows for easy swirling.

Melt and pour soapers often ask if swirled cold process soap recipes can be recreated with melt and pour soap. Unfortunately, the answer is usually no. Cold process soap batter has the ability to stay fluid for a long time. This fluid texture is crucial for dragging the soap with a chopstick, dowel, hanger swirl tool or comb swirl tools. Melt and pour on the other hand, begins to harden once it cools to about 125 ° F, which only takes a few minutes. For example, as shown in the how to do the Peacock Swirl in Cold Process Soap video on Soap Queen Tv, the soap must be fluid and workable during the mixing, pouring the swirling process which can take 10-20 minutes!

While it’s not possible to recreate complex cold process swirls with melt and pour, swirls are still achievable…they will just look a little different =). Check out the Soap Queen TV Episode 3: Swirling M&P above to see an example of the beautiful swirls you can create in melt and pour. The key to creating swirls with melt and pour soap is temperature. When liquid, melt and pour soap is much thinner than cold process soap. The causes the colors of melt and pour soap to easily blend together. When attempting to swirl melt and pour soap, this can cause a muddled look rather than defined swirls. As melt and pour soap cools, it also becomes thicker. The cooled, slightly thicker texture helps avoid the colors from swirling together too much.

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Shimmery Summer Soap Jellies Tutorial

August 4, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Have you used jelly soap before? It cleanses just like regular soap, except it’s wiggly, jiggly and guaranteed to entertain. The fun texture is perfect for kids. They’ll love the way it bounces all over the table. Although I have to admit, all the adults in our office had a lot of fun with it too. =)

These Shimmery Summer Soap Jellies use water soluble LabColors to create warm yellow, orange and red colors. They have a bit of sparkle from Fine Iridescent Glitter, and Summer Fling Fragrance Oil is added to complete the summery theme.

Once melted, the texture of the Stephenson Jelly Melt and Pour Base is much thicker than regular melt and pour soap. The texture is rather gloppy, and bubbles do not rise to the surface. To help avoid excess bubbles, stir the base as little as possible. The base also requires a little bit more time to melt. To use the soap, break off a small piece and lather it on a washcloth or loofah. We have heard of some soapers freezing the soap to make it harder and easier to handle. In our tests, the soap stayed soft and jiggly even after being frozen.

See the jellies in action in the video below!

Jelly soap! This was made with the Stephenson Jelly Soap Base, which will be available on Bramble Berry soon =) It's so fun!

A post shared by Bramble Berry (@brambleberry) on Jul 20, 2015 at 4:03pm PDT

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Groovy Peace Sign Melt & Pour Tutorial

July 14, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

The peace sign is an iconic symbol from the 1960’s. It symbolizes peace, love and joy. The sign was used to decorate jewelry, cars, signs and clothing. In this case, the symbol is used to decorate melt and pour!

This fun and easy project is made using the Peace Mold. To create the tie-dye effect, drops of LabColors are added to the mold. As the soap fills the mold cavity, the colors swirl in a random pattern, making each bar slightly different. To complete the 1960’s vibe, the soap is scented with Flower Child Fragrance Oil.

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Thai Tea Melt and Pour Bars Tutorial

July 7, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

For those who don’t already know, I love tea. I always have my mug with me wherever I go. And while I try to stay away from sugar as much as possible, there’s one drink I have a hard time resisting anytime I’m out for Thai food – Thai tea! It is made from black tea and often flavored with spices like star anise and tamarind. It is then topped with a creamy element, like coconut milk, half and half or sweetened condensed milk. Learn how to make it in this Thai Tea Recipe by the White On Rice Couple.

Thai tea looks as great as it tastes. The cream served over the tea creates a gorgeous layered look. That was the inspiration for the Thai Tea Melt and Pour Bars Tutorial. A melt and pour swirl technique is used to mimic the cream poured into the tea, which gets its signature bronzey-orange color from the Shimmer Copper Sparkle Color Block, the Tangerine Wow! Color Block and the Perfect Red Color Block. For a realistic Thai tea smell, Black Tea Fragrance Oil, Burnt Sugar Fragrance Oil and Coconut Cream Fragrance Oil are added. It’s a perfect way to enjoy Thai tea guilt free.

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Animal Print Melt and Pour Bars Tutorial

June 23, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Zebras, alligators and leopards…oh my! This melt and pour project is straight from an African safari. Made with the Animal Print Tray Mold, this project creates nine bars of soap with three different animal prints. Each print is filled in with various colors using a dropper for precise color placement. Scented with Sandalwood Vanilla Fragrance Oil, these bars smell warm, creamy and woodsy.

For this project, having a spray bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol is a must. Rubbing alcohol helps layers of melt and pour stick together. The alcohol also helps disperse any bubbles that can occur after pouring. I recommend putting it into a spray bottle to make spraying easy.

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How to Prevent Scent Fading in Soap

June 17, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

The first time you smell a fragrance or essential oil out of the bottle is definitely memorable. A fragrance can immediately inspire designs, colors and additives for your next soap recipe. But, sometimes the fragrance and essential oils can fade or change in cold process soap. The pH level of cold process soap can attack components of the oil, causing them to smell differently. It can be very disheartening! All Bramble Berry fragrance and essential oils are tested to ensure the scent sticks to cold process soap for months after making the soap. That being said, there are tips and tricks to make scents last even longer.

How much fragrance or essential oil used in the recipe plays a big role in scent retention. For a strong scent, with regulations taken into account, you can add .8 ounces of fragrance or essential oil per pound of cold process soap. For melt and pour, you can add .25 ounces of essential oil per pound, or .5 ounces of fragrance oil. This number will vary based on the scent selection. For instance, Almond Fragrance Oil is on the stronger side. Just .16 ounces per pound of cold process soap will provide a hefty scent. To find out exactly how much to add to the recipe, check out Bramble Berry’s Fragrance Calculator. Find out how to use the calculator here.

The Bramble Berry Fragrance Calculator amounts are based on safety guidelines created by IFRA (International Fragrance Association) and RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials). Each fragrance and essential oil have a maximum usage rate that is deemed safe for bath and beauty products. The “strong,” amount of fragrance recommended by the calculator is based on this maximum usage rate recommended by IFRA and RIFM. Using more than this amount can cause skin irritation.

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Ginger Patchouli Melt & Pour Bars

June 11, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Patchouli is one of my all-time favorite scents. I love the rich earthy notes, and I use it in my soap frequently. I know not everybody feels this way about patchouli…some even hate it. If you’re not typically a fan of the scent, the new Ginger Patchouli Fragrance Oil might sway you. It features notes of fresh satsuma, sweet herbs and bright ginger. These notes help soften some of the deeper earthy notes, resulting in a balanced fragrance. It’s also the sample of the month! Click here to get some Ginger Patchouli blending ideas.

These Ginger Patchouli Melt & Pour Bars were inspired by the bright notes in the new fragrance. With layers of shimmery gold and yellow, these bars look bright and cheery. I used a crinkle cutter to give a rustic look. The inside layer features a swirl of yellow and white; click here to learn how to swirl melt and pour.

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Monarch Butterfly Melt & Pour Tutorial

May 19, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

With spring comes warmer temperatures, blooming flowers and ripe produce. The influx of flowers brings forth honeybees and butterflies. These Monarch Butterfly Melt and Pour soaps were inspired by the classic monarch butterfly colors, orange and black. These guest-sized soap are great for visitors or traveling. The scent of Pure Honey Fragrance Oil is luxuriously warm and sweet.

Due to the small details in this soap, this project is for advanced melt and pour soap makers. The injector tool works great for filling in the small details, but be sure to have a cup of extra hot water nearby to unclog the tool after each color. Temperature is also important in this project. Because the details are so small, they can melt easily if layers on top are poured hotter than 125 °F. Patience is key!

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Kid-Friendly Project Roundup

May 18, 2015 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials

I am an over-the-top ridiculous, messy crafter. If you left me in a Michaels craft store for a month with enough microwaveable meals and water, I could happily live there, exploring all the different arts, crafts and crazy skills they have to offer (seriously though, I’ve always wanted to learn how to solder; doesn’t that seem fun yet also, useful?!) Arts and crafts promote creativity and problem solving skills in every age – but, especially in our kiddos. Creating art projects with your kids is also a great bonding activity. There are so many fun projects that you and your little can create together, including melt and pour, bath fizzies and nail polish. The project you choose will depend on your child’s age and skill level. In general, I recommend keeping the projects simple. That way the activity stays fun, easy and stress-free. My favorite activity craft subscription boxes are Kiwi Crate, Koala Crate, Messy Play Kit (pictured below, top two photos) and Handmade Beauty Box (of course!).

Jamisen and Lily love to create!

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How to Avoid Burnt Melt & Pour

May 13, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Melt and pour soap making is great for beginners. It does not require working with lye, and is easy to customize with color, fragrances and molds. While usually considered an “easy” project, melt and pour can be a little finicky when it comes to temperature. If melt and pour gets too hot, the base will burn and becomes difficult to work with. The key to avoiding burnt melt and pour? Patience!

Bramble Berry melt and pour bases begin to melt at around 120 ° F. The bases begin to burn when they become hotter than about 140-150 ° F. Melt and pour soap should never boil. If it begins to boil, you know it has been burned. When working with melt and pour I recommend always having a temperature gun nearby!

Melt and pour soap can be melted in the microwave or in a double boiler. If using the microwave, be sure to use short bursts of heat. Remember, you can also microwave the soap for longer…but once the soap is burned, there is no going back! Melting melt and pour soap in a Crock Pot or saucepan is not recommended, as the direct heat can easily burn the base. If you get a Crock Pot or turkey roaster that has multiple heat settings (low, medium, high) and melt the soap slowly and carefully, that can work. The multiple heat settings are key!

If your melt and pour begins to boil…you know it’s burned!

Burned melt and pour may smell unpleasant, and may become cloudy. In extreme burn cases, the soap can become yellow or brown-ish in color. Burned soap often develops a thick, gloppy texture once cooled slightly. This thick texture makes pouring smooth layers difficult, and creating small details becomes next to impossible. Unfortunately, once your soap has been burned and has turned into a gloppy texture, there is no way to achieve the fluid texture of not-burned soap. Burned soap is still safe to use…it just does not smell or look very pleasant. The best thing to do with gloppy, burned soap is heat it to a liquid texture, and pour into a heat safe container or mold.

In the photos below, the soap reached temperatures of over 200 ° F. You may notice the color has a slight yellow tint in the photo on the left. It did not smell very good, and there was a lot of steam coming off the soap. While unpleasant to smell, the soap was still liquid and workable. On the right, the soap has cooled to about 150 ° F. At this temperature, unburned melt and pour would be fluid. But, because this soap was burned so badly, the soap has become a thick, jello-like consistency even at 140 ° F.

On the left, the burned soap has taken on a slightly yellow color. On the right, the burned soap has cooled slightly but has taken on a gloppy, unworkable texture.

The first step to avoid burning your melt and pour is to cut the bases into small uniform pieces. When the pieces are different sizes, they melt at different rates. This can lead to a bowl of hot and liquid melt and pour with large un-melted chunks.

Cutting the melt and pour into small, uniform pieces helps the soap melt quickly and evenly.

If your container of liquid melt and pour contains chunks, be careful not to over-microwave and burn the melted soap. Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir for 30-60 seconds to allow the hot liquid soap to melt the chunks. Place the container back into the microwave and use small bursts of heat. Continue to stir between each burst until all the chunks are melted. Below, you can see a bowl of melted soap that still has large chunks. But, it is already at 132.2 ° F…more microwaving could cause the soap to burn. Time to stir, stir, stir and melt in 10 second bursts between each stir. If the chunks of melt and pour are really large, remove them from the mixture and melt separately.

If melting large amounts of melt and pour (multiple pounds), a double boiler may be your best option. In the Soap Lab, we use industrial size warmers for melting large amounts of soap. When melting smaller amounts of soap, be extremely careful. Melting less than 5 ounces of soap is tricky; it’s very easy to burn small amounts of melt and pour soap. If you are melting less than 5 ounces in the microwave, use 5-7 second bursts and stir in between each burst. Melting closer to 1-2 ounces? Use 3-5 second bursts. Remember, it’s always easier to microwave the soap for longer!

It’s so easy to burn small amounts of melt and pour. Be sure to use extremely short bursts, and stir in between each burst.

The key to melt and pour that’s fluid but not burned is patience. It’s so tempting to stick a container of melt and pour in the microwave for a minute or two and walk away…but don’t do it! Melt and pour requires short bursts in the microwave with stirring in between. Your patience will be rewarded with melt and pour that is thoroughly melted, and easy to work with.

How do you melt your melt and pour pieces? If you have any tips, I’m all ears! Do you prefer the microwave, or a double boiler?

Mermaid Shell Melt & Pour Soap Tutorial

March 10, 2015 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

When you think about mermaids, what comes to mind? I think of the ocean, sea shells and a shimmery color palette of aqua, purple, gold and green. This Mermaid Shell Soap features plenty of shimmer in an adorable clam shell mold. Scented with the new Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil, this soap smells of sea berry, rosewater and starfruit.

This project is a spin on the Clam Shell Soap Queen TV video (shout out to Paula from PJ’s Soaps for her amazing creativity!). First, thin layers of color are poured into the mold. A fork is used to create lines within the soap, giving a realistic clam shell look.

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