Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Just another reason to think that Bellingham, Washington is one of the most skookum cities in the nation – S’Mores Donuts courtesy of Rocket Donuts. Rocket Donuts is conveniently located across the street from Otion and makes our soaping adventures much more hyper and sugar-laden.
Hm, I wonder if we could do soap and donut parties with them? That would definitely be the best of both worlds.
Do you want to learn how to make these sa-weet Cameo Soaps from one of the best soap artists of this decade? Debbie Chialtis, aka “SoapyLove” designs amazing soap creations and is best known for her soapsickles. See previous blogs about Debbie here, here, here and here. If so, consider a trip to Bellingham in July for the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive.
There are only 4 spots left! For just $275, you’ll get multiple lessons in in Melt & Pour, LotionMaking and Cold Process Soapmaking.
For more information and to register, click here.
Taking the Geometry Lesson one step further, the soapinators at Otion created another soap creation utilizing the tutorial here.
On a very positive note, I am in final testing stages for an flexible plastic loaf mold suitable for both CP and MP. I am doing to more tests today (springtime flowers MP loaf and a Peachy Keen CP loaf) much to the worry of my husband who still remembers the ruined wood incident (here and here).
Leave it to Erik at Otion to immediately take a liking to one of our latest molds and design an entire retail display for the store around it. When I arrived today, Erik and his talented crew had already made one adorable batch of soap and started on their second.
Thanks to the well-thought out design skills of mold designer Catherine Failor, the crevices and design details are deep enough for even a beginning soap artist to add accent colors.
You can find the mold here, the clear Melt and Pour base here and mica colorants here.
From the talented Otionites – they did an amazing job using Clear Melt & Pour, Aqua Pearl Mica (for the base of the soap), Mauvey Gem Mica, Stormy Blue Mica, Cappuccino Mica (with white melt and pour base, for the pot) and Lilac fragrance for the scent. The mold is the Milky Way Flowerpot (which has been discontinued).
Happy Saturday!
Soap Queen reader and commenter, Goat Lady Soap, asked about our Otion Store II location.
I am disappointed to report that our lease negotiations broke down. Or rather, the property management company decided that Otion couldn’t afford the space. We disagreed based on our 4 years of financial history in Bellingham and our conservative budget for the Seattle II store. But still, they cut the space in half to lower our rent, thus making it too small for Otion’s needs. I understand. The property management company doesn’t want stores that they don’t feel can adequately make a go of it. Doing leases and due dilligence is labor intensive and they only want to do it once in five years.
It’s okay. I still love the location and the neighborhood. When we have a 2nd store in Seattle that’s doing well, we can always go back to them with our hard numbers to show them that we really can afford 1200 square feet plus common area rent at the boutique prices this spot commands.
So, we’re back to the drawing board. If we don’t find a space by July, we’ll be looking at a 2009 opening rather than a 2008.
I’m a little disillusioned but trust that a new space will be easy to find and even better than the one we were looking at.
This was basic test loaf (we’re planning Christmas fragrances already) that Otion made last week. I really like how Erik and his team worked in just a hint of gray for interest and to tone down the brighter oxide used in this soap.
Colors used are Ultramarine Blue Oxide and Vintage Gray Mica.
The Beginner Cold Process class today at Otion was a huge success. We had eight students. For our little store, that’s a full house! Three of the students drove all the way from Portland, Oregon (a 5 hour drive). Erik and I co-taught the class and had a blast.
Erik did a great job during his hands-on segment. I am so proud of his progress as a soapmaker. He’s been at Otion only 9 months but has already logged over 550 pounds of soap in his short time as the lead soapmaker.
Like all of the Otion’s Beginner Cold Process classes, students were able to fully customize two seperate batches of soap. Check out the differences in these two take-home soapy creations. Each student used their personal preference to pick fragrances and color. The colorful artistic soaps were beautiful. They would be considered a success at any level of soapmaking.
While Manager Erik was teaching his segment, I used the time to test an exotic fragrance for Bramble Berry (tamarind). The fragrance performed well enough for a swirl using Red Labcolor. Fingers crossed that the fragrance holds up in the larger, five pound batch. It did well in the first 4 ounce mini test batch.
If you’re thinking about taking a class at Otion, consider the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive. It’s two days of intensive, full days, of Cold Process, Melt and Pour Advanced Techniques and Lotionmaking. You can go here for more information on this 2 day Intensive Class.
I could barely make it through my 3 mile run on Thursday so no cupcakes for me. Another quick trip to New York this week to demonstrate our eye shadow making kit for beauty editors did me in. It’s been a long week with the usual flight delays so the latter half of the week hasn’t been my finest.
But I awoke this morning awake and back a state of equilibrium (which is good given that I’m teaching at Otion in less than an hour). Imagine my delight when I saw this photo on the Oh Joy! blog. What a fine way to start a Saturday morning. Whiskie Bits in Oakland, California makes these delectable little morsels. They look like they’re worth running three miles for! Oh (deep sigh), what I wouldn’t give for a cupcake store in Bellingham right now.
New York was an amazing adventure. I’ve only been there a few times and have never stayed more than a few hours. My hotel was in Times Square and the energy of the city was exhilarating. The meetings went well but it’s too soon to tell what, if any, positive press the eye shadow kits will get. Here is a photo of Suzanne (in Marketing) and I putting together press kits and samples before our meetings. Unfortunately, we were walking, running and cabbing it so much that there was no time to find a cupcake store in New York so I’m headed into serious cake withdrawals.
I’m happy to be back in town, even if it’s only for a week. I leave next Saturday for the Soap Guild show in Vermont. And as for right now, I better sign off and get moving if I expect to show up to the Otion soapmaking class on time.
I love this suggestion from Soapmaking Weekend Intensive teacher, PJ, on the TeachSoap Forum.
To make a yellow soap base appear more blue-based sky clear, “add just a tiny bit of ultramarine blue to the base which makes you think you’re looking though the sky.”
Thanks for that great tip. If you’d like to learn more, in person from Paula, click here to learn about the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive at Otion in July.
Here is Otion‘s latest Springtime Inspiration display.
The theme is Jojoba Beads and spring. Jess, the director for the project, said this about her vision: “Since we’re a small store, we’re limited in floor space and therefore display space. I used the small mini molds so they wouldn’t crowd with the full bottles of jojoba beads. I especially liked suspending the jojoba beads in the suspending liquid soap base. It’s like a magic that they stay up there!”
One of the things that Jess was most surprised about was how cool in temperature the melt and pour soap needed to be. Since the jojoba beads are a wax, the hot melt and pour soap can easily turn them into liquid. Jess waited until the soap was getting ready to set up before she added the jojoba beads. In the top photo, the green leaf soap on the right, shows what happens when the jojoba beads melt. The soap turned a luscious green but has no in-tact jojoba beads for scrubbing. While it’s a nice color, you could achieve the same color with our Shamrock Green mica for less money.
After four years of doing print and radio advertising, Otion is moving to the next advertising medium. We’re going solely with television ads for 2008.
We are lucky to have an award winning film production company in Bellingham. Handcrank Films shot the Otion commercial in four hours on location Tuesday night. Four hours to get just 1 minute of footage may sound like a lot. It’s not. With all the shots necessary to properly showcase Otion’s unique concept, time and many actors were necessary. The above photo shows the tight face shot actually occurring during this take (bottom right tv screen).
Handcrank Films worked with us to do the shoot after hours at Otion. The amount of camera equipment, actors and crew would have made it difficult to have customer soap bars going on during the filming.
Here’s Erik, showing actress Audra, Otion‘s wide choice of books.
Yesterday, I went to Handcrank Film’s production studios to do voice overs. It was very challenging trying to match up previously filmed footage with my voice. I never did get it quite perfect but Max, the producer, says that it’s good enough.
The commercials will start to air in the second week of March. I’ll keep you posted on their impact.
