Who’s ready for another challenge? This time it’s going to be all about cold process soaps and Team Bramble Berry is so excited to see what you will come up with! Just like our Make It Monday Melt and Pour Challenges (#Layers, #Embedding, #Swirling and #Sculpting), each week will have a different theme and you will have the chance to have your creation featured in a Soap Queen blog post!
Three DIY Laundry Soap Recipes
I’ve long wanted to venture into making my own laundry soap. But, I’ve been scared. A washing machine seems big and complicated and expensive to fix if I break it with my experiments. But, finally the requests for laundry soap on our Facebook page buoyed the team and I to action. Behold the project we’ve been busily testing for the last few months: laundry soap. Please note that I’d recommend a small test batch of any of our recipes with your clothing and your washing machine to ensure that the recipe works the way you expect it to. Washing preferences, like soap preferences, can vary from household to household.
Loving Lotion at Otion
Bramble Berry’s customer service team (what a great bunch of gals they are) had another fun team bonding experience at Otion last week! They made cold process as a team too so be sure to check out that post if you missed it (Cold Process and Customer Service). Team BB delved into the wonderful world of lotion making from scratch using Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter and luxurious fixed oils. The class was taught by Otion’s newest addition, Alycia! She’s already a pro at teaching classes so if you’re local and interested, check out Otion’s class schedule HERE!
Talk It Out Tuesday: Lip Balm
Guess what day it is? Yep! It’s Talk It Out Tuesday (you can check out previous TIOT’s on melt and pour, preservatives, colorants, bath bombs and our most recent one on lotions)! This is a fun topic because lip balm are a blast to make and use. Read on to find the answers to many of Bramble Berry’s frequently asked questions. If there is anything I didn’t cover, feel free to ask your questions in the comment section. Or if you want to get started right this very second, check out our Lip Balm Quick Start Guide on the Bramble Berry Website.
What is lip balm?
Lip gloss, lip shimmers, lip conditioners, lip sheers, lip balms and lip butters are all very easy and inexpensive to make. Generally, they are a mixture of oils and waxes combined to heal and soothe dry or chapped lips (and sometimes, they provide a bit of color as well). You can create an all-natural mixture using edible essential oils and nourishing vegetable butters or you can get wild and make them sparkly and decadent with micas and flavors. But a word of warning – once you start making your own beautifully hand crafted lip balms, you won’t be able to buy another mediocre, manufactured, tube of low quality oil and wax again. We’re all addicted to our homemade creations here and, it’s a good thing! [Read more…]
Natural Colorants for Melt and Pour Soap
For those of you who are going all-natural and are looking for some colorant options that aren’t dull gray, green or brown, try these! You’ll be surprised how vibrant some natural pigments can be!
Activated Charcoal: Creates a solid black without having to use much pigment. Mixes in easily like a mica. Works great in melt-and-pour and cold process.
Kaolin Clay: More typically used in mineral makeup than as a soap colorant, but I tried it anyway. Very clumpy unless you break it down in a liquid first. Notice it looks slightly pink in the image; that’s because I had a little rose clay left on my spoon! Oops. Titanium dioxide is another great whitening agent.
Rose Clay: Lovely pink in both cold process and melt-and-pour. Needs to be broken down in a liquid first or you will be fishing for clumps. Rose clay is a mild Kaolin Clay.
Safflower Powder: Makes a gorgeous yellow in cold process and melt-and-pour. Another pigment that should be broken down first in liquid because of its clumpy nature. I like the little flecks that are visible in this clear base!
Spirulina: Also known as Kelp and smells very fishy. I add a strong essential oil (like peppermint or lime) to this layer to mask the scent. Needs to be broken down in liquid and tends to leave flecks of pigment. Try pouring your colored melt-and-pour soap through a sifter or strainer to catch lumps of color.
For even more colorant options and infusing tips and tricks, make sure to read this book on infusing herbs. [Read more…]
How to Make Whipped Body Butter on Soap Queen TV
Today’s project is a variation on one of the most popular projects from the Soap Queen Blog, Whipped Shea Butter. As of this very moment, the blog post has 264 comments. That’s crazy! I had no idea that project would be so popular! So I’m bringing the recipe back, but with a twist. In the video I use Avocado Butter, Meadowfaom Oil and Green Tea Extract for a whipped and creamy body butter. I scented it with Lemongrass Essential Oil which has a fresh scent and makes my recipe totally natural.
It’s a great beginner’s recipe so if you want to get into lotion making, this is a great place to start. A stand mixer is really essential for this recipe. It breaks up and adds air to the butter leaving you with the perfect consistency. Mixing it by hand would be REALLY difficult.
This body butter has been such a hit in the office, we seriously can’t get enough of it.
How to Make Whipped Body Butter from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
To make the recipe in this video you will need:
- 14 oz Avocado Butter
- 5 oz Meadowfoam Oil
- 1 oz Green Tea Extract
- 6mL Lemongrass Essential Oil
- 5 teaspoons Tapioca Powder or Arrowroot Powder
We used our Bail Jars to package the body butter in, but you can use any wide mouth container.
Get all of the ingredients and the containers with the click of a button!
Rebatch Soap Kit
Rebatching is a technique perfect for the novice as well as the advanced soapmaker. If you use essential oils to scent your soap, you can make 100% natural soap without having to work with lye.
Beginning soapmakers can purchase ready made rebatch base and make handmade soap without touching lye. It’s an easy introduction to choosing fragrances and colors. Many advanced soapmakers like to rebatch because they can make one large plain batch of cold process soap and then rebatch it into a wide range of colors and scents. The rebatching technique is also called French milled, hand milled, double milled or triple milled. It’s all the same process of heating up grated cold process soap and customizing it with your favorite colorants and fragrances.
This tutorial uses the Bramble Berry rebatch kit to show how easy it is to make rustic, handmade bar of soap.
Peacock Swirl in Cold Process Soap (Video)
Presenting another Soap Queen Short video that we quickly put together to show how to do the Peacock Swirl technique. I’ll admit that my design was a little large and loose so the ‘peacock’ didn’t turn out perfectly but if you tighten up the design, it’ll be peacock-spot-on. The Peacock Swirl is a marbling style that has been around for centuries and the technique has become very popular in the soapmaking community. This is an advanced technique so be sure to brush up on the basics of cold process soapmaking on Soap Queen TV and pay extra attention to the lye safety video. I hope you enjoy my demonstration of the basics of this beautiful swirl variation.
For colorants I used natural infusions of Alkanet and Annatto as well as Seaclay and Titanium Dioxide. To learn more about how to make and use infusions, check out my book and video on infusing herbs and seeds. [Read more…]
Essential Oil Feature: Bergamot
Bergamot (Citrus bergamia): An orange-sized citrus naitive to Italy, most people are familiar with it’s scent from Earl Grey tea. The juice was onced used as an anti-malaria remedy in southern Italy. It takes about 100 bergamot oranges to get about 3oz of essential oil!
Healing Under Eye Serum
Nothing does more damage to your skin than being outside in the elements in the sun and wind. Treat your overly sunned face to some pampering oils to help nourish, replenish and reduce inflammation. We’ve had a string of nice weather here in Bellingham, WA so you better believe that I’ve been wearing SPF protection and treating my eyes at night with this serum. Stay away wrinkles! You are not welcome here!
What makes this recipe so healing and skin loving?
Essential Oil Feature: Star Anise
Star Anise is a sweet smelling essential oil that smells just like black licorice! Since I adore black licorice (I’m drooling right now thinking about salted licorice from Norway), of course I love this essential oil. It’s great for soaps, lotions, scrubs and soaps beautifully in cold process soap (who got one of our bars from the last soap swap?). Below is more information and reasons why you should try the fabulous essential oil.
Star Anise EO (Illicium verum) : Known as star anise, star aniseed, or Chinese star anise. Star anise is a naitive evergreen shub of China. Star Anise essential oil is steam distilled from the star-shaped seeds. The oil is very high in the chemical compound anethol, which is responsible for the distinctive aroma similar to liquorice. It is used to make many liquors, and (warning: random fact ahead!) is also the primary chemical source for the anit-influenza drug, Tamiflu. Some reports claim that over 90% of the annual harvest of Anise goes to the manufacture of Tamiflu.
Star anise can be used in chest rubs to help alleviate bronchitis, coughing, cold and other respiratory congestions as well as rheumatism. It can be used in massage oils to help relieve sore muscles, and works well in bug repellent sprays. It is also a relaxing oil, and helps relieve stress and insomnia. Star Anise blends well with rose, lavender and orange. Our Star Anise is lip safe at 1-3%, and makes a wonderful licorice lip balm!
Anise often arrives “frozen” in colder months. Not sure how to get a solid essential oil back to liquid? Read our handy tutorial here.
Night time blend: 4 parts Orange, 3 parts Anise, 3 parts Cedarwood, 3 parts Neroli, 2 parts Chamomile. Blend with a carrier oil for a massage, or drop into a hot bath.
Anise also blends awesome with Lavender (1:1), Spearmint (1:1), Orange (3:1), Chocolate Fragrance (1:1) and Patchouli (1:1).
Who is using Star Anise Essential Oil? What are your favorite blends?
How to Make Infused Lip Balm on Soap Queen TV
In this episode of Soap Queen TV, I’ll show how to quickly and easily infuse Sweet Almond oil with Calendula petals. Then use this nourishing oil in a simple, from-scratch lip balm recipe featuring Shea Butter and Natural Beeswax. You can also get creative and use the infused oil in homemade lotions, salves, and massage oils!
How to Make Infused Lip Balm from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
For more in-depth information on how to make infused oils check out my book Infusing: Herbs, Spices, Teas & Clays (there’s a print version and an e-book).
Ingredients you’ll need to make the project in this video:
For infused oil:
16 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1/2 oz Dried Calendula Petals
For Lip Balm:
2.5 oz Calendula Oil
1 oz Yellow Beeswax
1/2 oz Coconut Oil
1/2 oz Shea Butter
5 mini scoops Stevia
about 16 lip tins
Buy everything you need with the click of a button!
Gardening Cold Process Soap
If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest getting a couple of basic recipes under your belt before diving in. Check out Soap Queen TV on Cold Process if you want to get started with cold process. It’s a 4 part series that will take you through the basics (and be sure to watch the episode on Lye Safety). If you’re a book worm, Bramble Berry also has some helpful reading on the cold process technique.
New Online Video Alert!
I’m so excited to share a big project I’ve been working for the past year: How to naturally color your cold process soap. There has been lot of buzz lately about naturally coloring cold process soap but I couldn’t find very much information on the subject so I decided to do some experimenting myself
Now that I’ve figured out what works, I’m ready to share everything! Learn to make a truly all natural cold process soap for just $7.95. I’ll show how to infuse oils to make intense colors using only natural herbs. I’ll also show you how to use three of my favorite natural colorants and share my recipe for the beautifully layered soap you see below on camera. I’ll take you through every step of the process!
This video is nearly 15 minutes long and gives you all the basics of how to make your own natural color infusions for use in cold process soap. You can even use these infusions for lotion, lip balm, and so much more!
Find the video here at Bramble Berry!
Buy everything you need to make the soap featured above in the video Natural Colorants with the click of a button!