Soap Queen

Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more

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Making Sunshine Cold Process Soap

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Today’s episode is a 4 pound cold process recipe scented with 10X Orange Essential Oil and Yuzu Fragrance Oil. It’s a bright, effervescent and citrusy combination. I’m also going to show you how to use the Vertical Soap Mold, which is a great way to add variety to your cold process recipes. I split the batch and added Calendula petals to one half and Fizzy Lemonade Colorant to the other half, giving it a natural and bright look.

If you have never made cold process soap, stop right now and watch the first four videos on cold process soapmaking. It’s important to learn how to safely use lye safely and get a couple of basic recipes under your belt before you dive into the vertical mold soap, which is an advanced technique.

Learn to Make Sunshine Soap with Orange and Calendula from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Soap Recipe:
1.3 oz Castor Oil
17.6 oz Coconut Oil
4.4 oz Palm Oil
17.6 oz Rice Bran Oil
3 oz Shea Butter
6.2 oz Lye
14.5 oz Distilled Water

Colors, Additives and Scents:
1/4 oz Calendula Petals
2 oz Yuzu Fragrance Oil
1 teaspoon Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
9 ml oil from the batch
2 oz Orange 10X Essential Oil

Vertical Wood Mold

  Get everything you need to make this soap here.

How to Make Whipped Body Butter on Soap Queen TV

Filed Under: Lotion

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:

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!

 

Peacock Swirl in Cold Process Soap (Video)

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

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…]

Cherry Blossom Cold Process Soap

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is taking place this month in Washington DC! I love the Cherry Blossom fragrance oil that the S.O.A.P. Floral Edition approved, so I thought it perfect to make a great project with for March. Plus, it made for a great opportunity to soap with one of our newest silicone molds!

Ingredients

1.0 oz Castor Oil

6.6 oz Coconut Oil

22.1 oz Olive Oil

3.3 oz Palm Oil

4.4 oz Sodium Hydroxide Lye

10.1 oz Distilled Water

3.3 oz Cherry Blossom Fragrance Oil

½ teaspoon Merlot mica

½ teaspoon Electric Bubble Gum colorant

½ teaspoon Fizzy Lemonade colorant

2 ¼ teaspoons Super Pearly White

0.9 oz Avocado Oil

12 Bar Round Silicone Mold

Soap Making Buddy (optional)

Get everything you need for this project with the click of a button! [Read more…]

Soap Queen TV Round Up

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Happy Presidents’ Day! The Soap Queen TV crew and I just finished up a whirlwind weekend of filming. We whipped up a body butter, a colorful melt and pour project and a fresh, citrusy, and herby cold process project using the vertical mold. The day was fast paced and filled with soapy fun, healthy snacks and good company.

[Read more…]

Cleansing Clay Masks on Soap Queen TV

Filed Under: Soaks & Scrubs

Learn to make your own Clay Masks using a variety of dry clay powders, moisturizing oils and even ingredients you can find in your kitchen! Clay (or mud) is great for soaking up excess oil and removing impurities from your skin. In this episode, Anne-Marie shares 3 unique recipes which you can make for a fraction of the cost of store bought masks.

Ingredients used in this video:

Recipe 1)  Just Add Water Mask

  Get everything you need to make the ‘Just Add Water Mask’

 

Recipe 2)  Rich Mud Mask

  Get everything you need to make the ‘Rich Mud Mask’

 

Recipe #3 Fresh Clay Mask

  • 1 Small Avocado
  • 1 Egg White
  • 1/2 tsp Olive Oil
  • 1/2 Tbl Honey
  • 4 tsp Sea Clay

 

Neapolitan CP for Valentine’s Day

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

We know it’s winter but we’re screaming, we’re screaming for ice cream – Neapolitan ice cream that is! Remember the yummy taste of vanilla, berry and chocolate melting together in your mouth? Yeah, we can too so we decided to get our icy on by designing a special Valentine’s Day Soap to whet your appetite for summer days gone by. For the top of our bars, we were inspired by Kristy Rose from Kristy’s Lovely Lathers. Check out Kristy’s guest appearance on Soap Queen TV to see her demonstrate the swirly heart technique live.

[Read more…]

Soap Queen TV: Making Vintage Inspired Soap

Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Inspired by some cool antique keys and escutcheons (key hole covers) I found, I made soap molds so I could have vintage themed soap. Learn how easy it is in this episode of Soap Queen TV!

Get everything you need to make this project with the click of a button!

What You’ll Need:

Flexy Fast Molding Putty (available in single or multiple serving sizes)

8 oz Clear Melt & Pour

8 oz White Melt & Pour

Liquid Black Colorant

Liquid Brown Colorant

Vanilla Bean Fragrance

Heavy Metal Gold Mica

Cappuccino Mica

 Want to see this soap in real life? Well you can! Get your very own bar in our Etsy shop, includes full-color printed instructions.

How to Stamp Soap on Soap Queen TV

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Stamping soap is a simple and easy way to bring a that special detail to your cold process or melt and pour soap. At Bramble Berry we sell two different kinds of stamps, acrylic and resin, and they each have their own tips and tricks to make the stamps really pop. Enjoy the video!

These products were used in the video:

Swirled Heart Cold Process Soap on Soap Queen TV

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

In this episode of Soap Queen TV, I am joined by Kristy Schemrich of Kristy’s Lovely Lathers. She shows how to make the cutest little heart design in the top of your Cold Process soap, so fast and easy you’ll love the results!

 

 

You can use your favorite soap recipe for this technique – the one we used is below.

Kristy loves adding Goat Milk to her soap. So one variation is to use half of the water to mix your lye with and with the other half add about 1 oz Goat Milk powder. Stir this in at light trace before you add your fragrance.

While we used our beloved Birchwood Mold, you could also use a basic log mold and get a lovely result. [Read more…]

Soap Queen Short: How to Use Neon Pigments

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Here is the first in our new video series! These videos will supplement our Soap Queen.TV videos, so that we can share more techniques and ideas. In Soap Queen Shorts, I am demonstrating how to use a particular product or do a specific technique. We are keeping the videos short and sweet (hence the name) and saving the more complex projects for Soap Queen.TV.

Is there a product or technique you would like to see? Tell me in the comments below!

Products used in this video:

Babies on Set

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Camera

We just got done filming Soap Queen TV and the shoot went smoothly (mostly because of the awesome Soap Queen TV team). The crew and I had fun as usual (laughed more than should be allowed at work) and we busted out 2 really creative projects in record time. I can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for you (no timeline for release yet; we still need to release the Kristy episodes!). We also redesigned the set with fresh new colors, new shelving and even a new Soap Queen Sign. It’s the happiest set on earth. Really people, I’m pretty sure I smiled all day today! What do you think of the new color scheme?

SQTVsign

The crew and I shot 3 face mask recipes and a new technique with Flexy Fast and mica brushing. I wish I could tell you more details but I don’t want to spoil the episode. You’ll just have to wait =)

[Read more…]