Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Alkanet is one of my favorite natural colorants to use. You end up with a wide variety of shades ranging from smoky purple to maroon depending on your soap’s PH, base oils and whether your soap gels or not. The most effective way to use it as a natural colorant is to infuse your liquid oil; I infuse my olive oil. I add 1 tablespoon of powdered alkanet and 5 ounces of olive oil into a jar and let it infuse for a week or two shaking it once a day.
ELF Wooden Soap Mold – Made by our brother company company, ELF Industrial (www.soapmolds.com), this log mold is made out of ¾” Unfinished Birch Wood and features a hook and eye latching system for years of use. As with all wood molds, you should always line the mold with plastic or butcher paper for each use. Final Soap Log Dimensions: 2 3/4″ x 3 1/2″ x 17 1/2″.
Enthusiastic feedback flew in after posting this tutorial in the Bramble Berry Newsletter we just knew we had to share it with the Soap Queen Readers too! We are loving the possibilities with this new vertical mold! PS – Do you get our newsletter? It comes out monthly and has specials for newsletter subscribers only along with a recipe or technique that newsletter readers see before anyone else! Sign up on the Bramble Berry Home page.
In this episode, I show how to make all natural, earth-friendly, eco-chic soap. Using an organic melt & pour base, natural colors and essential oils, this soap project is made even more eco-friendly by using recycled containers as soap molds. I love how stylish and understated the soap turned out in the video and I hope you will, too! PS – I know I sound like an over-caffeinated parrot in the video (sorry). I have no idea why I was so hyper. I shot the video at 3 1/2 months pregnant on no caffeine, so I think I was overcompensating for my tiredness.
Make Natural, Earth Friendly, Eco-Chic Soap from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
Ingredients – Green Bar:
Organic Melt & Pour Soap Base
Spirulina Powder
Lavender Essential Oil
Various cleaned and recycled plastic containers
Get what you need to make this soap and more by clicking here
Ingredients – Layered Loaf:
Organic Melt & Pour Base
Kaolin Clay
Orange Valencia Essential Oil
Activated Charcoal
Coffee Grounds
Cleaned Box Milk or Soup container
The best soap supplies on the internet are found at Bramble Berry. Click here to browse Bramble Berry.
Get back to the basics by using natural products like Bramble Berry’s new Naturewax. It is skin safe, 100% vegetable based and made from soy which is an environmentally friendly renewable resource. Reuse your old canning jars, mason jars or baby food containers for a variety of eco-friendly container candles.
ONE: Melt the Naturewax wax in the microwave in a heat safe container. Make sure to melt it in 1 minute bursts, stirring in between with a spoon. Normally we recommend a double boiler for wax melting but his particular wax has a melt point of 125°F so it melts nicely in the microwave. Also, for paraffin based waxes, I always recommend specialty candle containers. Again, because of the super low melt point, they are not needed for this Naturewax based project. For more tips on candle making, check out the Soap Queen TV Episode on Travel Candles.
TWO: Fill one jar with melted wax, leaving at least 1/2″ from the top of the jar. Mix in your essential oil blend (we used 5 ml Orange EO, 4 ml Grapefruit EO, 3 ml Lime EO). Blend well. Note: we used a 4 oz. baby food jar and found it held 3.2 oz. (by weight) of Soy Wax.
THREE: Dip the base of the wick into the melted wax and center on the bottom of the container.
TIP: If you’re having problems with leaning wicks, make sure that your wick can stand on “dry land” before putting it in your wax, bending the wick if necessary. Once the wick is centered in the candle, place 2 pencils horizontally on the jar on each side of the wick. This will give the wick a little support as you pour the wax and the candle cools.
Celebrate this Earth Day with Eco-Chic Soap (with one easy kit)! This kit is designed to be as eco friendly as possible. Reuse your own yogurt, tofu or cleaned out food containers to make an earth friendly soap that is made with 100% organic vegetable oils and essential oils. In keeping with the eco friendliness, no paper instructions will be included with this kit so grab your step by step paper-free instructions HERE.
You can provide additives like coffee grounds, oatmeal, clays or food-grade charcoal (just make sure that it’s skin safe). You’ll also provide a recycled “soap mold” like a yogurt container, tofu container, soy milk container, coffee cup, etc. You’re not limited to anything here (well, except glass containers which don’t release soap very easily) so feel free to get creative!
ONE: In your small mixing bowl, combine the Chamomile, Calendula, Orange Peel Powder, Vitamin E Oil and Orange Valencia Essential Oil.
TWO: Mix ingredients together so the oil is evenly distributed. Use your fingers to fill the tea bag with the herbs.
THREE: Seal the open ends of the tea bag with a hot iron.
ONE: In your small mixing bowl, combine the Lavender, Rose Petals, Vitamin E Oil and Hungarian Lavender Essential oil.
TWO: Mix ingredients together and fill the tea bag with the herbs.
THREE: Seal the open ends of the tea bag with a hot iron.
Ever wonder what Rebatch soap (or Triple Milled soap or French Milled soap) is? In this episode of Soap Queen TV, I show you how to make Rebatch soap. Rebatch is great if you want a soap that’s a little more natural and rustic looking soap but don’t want the hassle of dealing with Lye when making Cold Process from scratch.
Soap Queen TV: How to Make Rebatch Soap from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
Ingredients:
1 oz. Pink Grapefruit Essential Oil
1 oz. Lemon Essential Oil
2 oz. Dried Calendula (Marigold) Petals
1/2 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1/2 oz. Annatto Seeds
4 pounds Basic Rebatch
3 Tbsp. Distilled Water
Molds used:
ELF Slim Rectangle mold
Bramble Berry’s 2 pound loaf mold
Plastic food container
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Early this morning I was on the Martha Stewart Sirius Radio Show discussing all natural hand sanitizers. Since it’s officially cold and flu season, we’ve been busy testing all natural “germ busting” recipes that you can take on the go! Our goal is to share natural recipes that you can make in your own home without most of the chemicals that are in most sanitizers on the market. Here’s what we’ve been working on. Enjoy!
*Directions: Mix all of the ingredients together. Shake and use.
This type of recipe is dated back to the 15th century. Thieves covered themselves in something similar to this oil so they could steal from plague victims and dead bodies without catching the disease. Studies about ‘Thieves Oil’ have also tested essential oils like Oregano & Thyme and shown they are effective against a host of bacteria (Journal of Essential Oil Research [J. Essent. Oil Res.]. Vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 517-523. Sept-Oct 1998.). With this recipe, you’ll need to shake the bottle each and every time you use it because essential oils and water don’t naturally mix. Cinnamon Bark and Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil can be irritating to skin. If any irritation occurs, double the water (use 6 Tablespoons) to decrease irritation. If irritation continues, switch out the Cinnamon Leaf EO with Tea Tree Essential Oil.
*Directions: Mix all of the ingredients together. Shake and use. Since Alcohol is a natural emulsifier, this recipe will turn white and not require shaking each and every time before use. Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil can be irritating to skin. If any irritation occurs, double the liquid (use 6 Tablespoons) to decrease irritation. If irritation continues, switch out the Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil with Tea Tree Essential Oil. This blend is based on the research in the Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery (2009) available online at www.sciencedirect.com
*Directions: Mix all of the ingredients together. Shake and use. Can also be used on furniture (but do a small test patch before you spray it all over your grandma’s heirloom antique chest of drawers).
*Directions: Combine the lecithin and the essential oils together in a small container. Slowly pour the essential oil mixture into the aloe vera while stick blending the mixture. This will naturally help emulsify the mixture (think salad dressing). Lecithin is typically found in health food stores and is a natural emulsifier. It has a shocking yellow color. This blend will go salad dressing thick and will not easily spray unless the spritzer is very hearty. Because of its lotion like texture, this recipe is best used on hands and body rather than furniture.
If you have favorite recipes to share, let me know. This is an area we could all use helpful tips and tricks in to keep us as healthy as possible this holiday season.
Here are some great links that really helped me with my research: Thieves Blend, Fungus Killed by Essential Oils, Antimicrobial Essential Oils, Antibacterial Soaps, Tea Tree oil antimicrobial, Tea Tree Oil & Fungus, Tea Tree Oil.
I thought I had found the holy grail of reds – an all natural colorant that would stay gloriously magenta in cold process soap.
Alas, my hopes were dashed within 45 minutes as the entire color morphed into a lovely color of decaying potatoes.
Back to the drawing board …
In my sugar induced high, I got sloppy. I picked up the boiling hot molten chocolate directly from the microwave. Ouch! It burned. I flung the scorching bowl. The aftermath was not pretty.
Shocked silence filled the kitchen. I turned, wide eyed, to my patient, loving husband.
When this photo was taken, he was muttering, “How did you get chocolate all up in the microwave door latch? That’s never going to come out. And, how am I going to clean all of the underside of the microwave? Hey! The chocolate is seeping into the grout!”I thought quickly. I’ve been cleaning the white grout in the bathroom for months with my nail polish remover. It has done an effective job. Our bathroom tile grout is sparkling and white. Nail polish remover would make this entire situation all better!
I sprang into action. I ran to the bathroom and fervently rooted through the cabinet, coming back to the kitchen in triumph. I silently got to work, scrubbing the chocolate grout. I felt elated! Finally, here was a way to redeem myself. If Chris saw how clean the grout was, perhaps he might even talk to me within the hour!
Within a minute, the grout was looking whiter. I set to work on the next patch. Chris sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose, “Do I smell chemicals?” He was genuinely puzzled. I tripped over my words as I explained that Acetone really seemed to do the grout cleaning trick.Silence. A puzzled expression crept over Chris’s face. Slowly, as though talking to a small child, he explained, “Honey, grout is fragile. It needs special cleaners.” With that, he dumped a bowl of soapy water over the entire mess, handed me a toothbrush and commanded, “Scrub.”Ohhhhhhhh… It didn’t seem the appropriate time to mention the bathroom grout and my pride in the Acetone-cleaned bathroom floor. So um, honey, if you’re reading this now? You might want to go check the grout in the bathroom.
Making these soaps was a fun experiment in color and scent. I used clear melt and pour soap base, and our new Wasabi Fragrance Oil (light, airy, green, fresh with a hint of spice), and Sage Mist and Countryside Moss (discontinued) and a touch of either Kelp Powder or Apricot Seed Powder (discontinued).
