Bringing Soap Ropes back in a big way! |
Loofah Fun! |
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Bringing Soap Ropes back in a big way! |
Loofah Fun! |
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
Rainbows and hearts… I can’t seem to get enough! One of my favorite looks lately is graduated color. Several years ago I taught at Otion’s Soap Weekend Intensive and was thrilled to attend a class by Paula of PJ Soaps (she’ll be teaching again this summer!). She showed how to make her beautiful moon soap (click here for tutorial), where she tilts the mold to get a lovely fade between the moon and midnight sky.
I have used this several times with a single tilted color, but realized if you use one on each side and then fill the center, that you can get a 3 color fade!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Coral Mica
Yellow Mica
Liquid Blue
Striped Heart Mold
NOTE: The mold in this tutorial has been discontinued. The kit now contains the Swirled Heart Mold.
Clear M&P soap base
White M&P soap base
Or click here and get everything you need all at once.
Here’s how to do it:
Prop your mold up on one side or corner. I used the Soapylove Striped Heart Mold. Next, melt and color a small amount of clear soap using non-bleeding red or coral mica. Spray your mold with alcohol, then pour a small amount of soap into one side, allowing it to only cover 1/3 of your mold surface.
It’s okay if your color doesn’t line up perfectly with the stripes. Allow to harden. Now turn around your mold so the opposite side is propped up. Melt and pour some blue soap into the opposite side, again only covering 1/3 of the mold face. Allow to harden.
Move your mold to be flat on the table. Color your third batch of soap yellow, spray mold with alcohol, and pour in soap so it fills the center area and covers a bit of each side color. Allow to harden. Spray with alcohol and top off with fragranced white soap. Voila!
Here’s a tip: color your soap with a light hand – if your colors are too dark then the background color won’t show through. When I do this project again, I’ll use a little less blue so the green tone will be more noticeable.
Enjoy!
-Debbie
Soapylove
Filed Under: Cold Process Soap
I’ve long been fascinated with how to make Labcolor’s inherent bleeding qualities work in a bar of soap. It does a great tie-dye look and the swirls are romantic and ephemeral. But, the idea of a sunset or a rainbow really drew me in. I started with a simple but sophisticated color graduation. It’s a very easy concept in theory but in practice, takes precision and weighing … and patience.
My husband and I are using this bar in our shower at home right now at home and it has fantastic lather and a great balance of bubbles with moisture and creaminess. Coupled with the absolutely exquisite scent and sophisticated color, it’s one of my favorite recipes I’ve made in a while. Read through all the instructions; it requires prep and precision.
Get everything you need with the click of a button.
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
Blue Man is Bramble Berry’s strongly inspired version of of the popular men’s cologne, Aquolina Blue Sugar. The base note of Black Patchouli blends perfectly with Orange Peel, Sparkling Mandarin, Coriander Leaves, Star Anise and Venezuela Tonka. It’s surprisingly sweet and majorly masculine. Discolors to a light brown and does great in cold process.
Filed Under: Business Musings
photo by Michael Lorenzo
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Bramble Berry is growing (rapidly!). We’ve hired six people in the last two weeks. One of those people was an assistant to our Chief Marketing Officer (though for a small business, having the title ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ might be reaching but hey, aspirational titles are good too, right?). We put the ad out on Craigslist for $9.75/hour. Since the job was for an assistant who would help with graphic design, we proudly gave the URL of our website so applicants could see the quality of work we currently put out and would expect of them. Within 4 hours, the first tweet came: “$9.75/hour? Doesn’t that seem low to you?”
Minimum wage in Washington state is $8.57/hour. Federally, it’s $7.25/hour. Paying $2.50 over federal minimum wage for an entry level, part-time position doesn’t seem low to me. That’s the going rate for an assistant. So, I tweeted back and said something to the effect of “No, it doesn’t seem low. And everyone at BB, even our COO starts low.” That’s true. We don’t hire people who have money as their number one motivation. For one thing, we’ll never be able to keep them. Our company, though profitable and growing, does put the “Small” in “Small Business.” Unless you advance in the company with responsibilities and job title, your position pays the going market rate. And advancement does happen – our Chief Operating Officer started at $7/hour pulling orders and our Chief Marketing Officer started as my part-time assistant and took a $5/hour pay cut to come work for us.
The Tweets got progressively meaner:
And, as local Tweeple started RT’ing (re-tweeting) our job (because yes, yes we are a rockin’ place to work with very low turnover for our core team), one person on Twitter started harrassing the people who RT’ed the job:
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Filed Under: Cold Process Soap
Recently my friend Debbie wrote me on Twitter and told me she loved the handmade (cold process) soap I had given her for Christmas and wanted to learn how to make her own. She asked, “How do I start?” Since that’s probably a longer answer than 140 characters on Twitter will give me, Debbie, this blog post is for you!
1. Read this article on the types of soapmaking. The type of soap you want to make is ‘Cold Process Soapmaking.
Rebatch Soap Cold Process Soap Melt and Pour Soap |
2. Watch the 4 *free* videos at SoapQueen.TV on Cold Process Soapmaking.
Lye Safety
Basic Terms
Using Fragrances & Essential Oils
Using Colorants
After learning more about the process, are you still interested in moving ahead?
If yes, keep going.
If not, soapmaking is super fun! Consider a slightly less labor intense method of soapmaking – Melt and Pour soap or Rebatching soap. Kits for Melt and Pour and Rebatching are here.
3. Keep educating yourself. TeachSoap.com is a great resource. The TeachSoap forum is helpful. All of the posts here tagged with “Cold Process” add to your knowledge base and the SoapDishForum is a fantastic learning opprtounity.
4. Order a beginner kit. It has everything you need to make your first batch of soap except the Lye. Order the lye along with the beginner kit. Beginner kit A is here. Beginner Kit B is here; Lye is here.
5. Make sure you have all your safety equipment – gloves, goggles, apron etc…
6. Get yourself to Goodwill to get a stainless steel bowl or glass bowl, a couple spatulas, spoons and invest $20 in a good Stick Blender.
7. Wait for your kit. Keep reading. Let your excitement build.
8. When the kit arrives, safety up! Goggles on! Gloves on! Cover those counters with newspaper. Lock pets outside. Children under 14 should be away from your soaping area. Find one hour of uninterupted time.
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
photo by Michael Lorenzo |
Energy is a fabulous fragrance that we designed ten years ago because we were inspired by an energetic scent we smelled in a well-known bath and body line. It’s comprised heavily of citrus notes with some fun notes like Blackberry, Pineapple and Champagne thrown in to sweeten it up. Energy provides a great blending palette as well. I hope you like the blends we came up with below. If you like the fragrance as-is, you’re in good company. I just ran the fragrance numbers for last year and Energy was our #2 best seller.
Click here to buy all the fragrances in one easy swoop for the blends (remember, you can delete any individual items from your cart even when using this handy “Buy It Now” button). It’s enough to make full blends of everything so long as your “part” is 1/2 ounce. Not sure what a part is? Jump to the bottom of the post & I’ll explain.
Sweet ‘n’ Citrus
2 parts Energy
2 parts Hello Sweet Thang
1 part Vanilla Select
Tart Fruity Delight
2 parts Energy
2 parts Moonlight Pomegrante
1 part Cream Cheese Frosting
Blended Big Red
2 parts Energy
2 parts Red Apple
1 part Cranberry Sweet
Tropical Beach Party
2.5 parts Energy
2.5 parts Coconut Cybilla
The Big Purple
2 parts Energy
2 parts Blackberry Cybilla
1 part Sugar Plum Fairy
Green Mean Machine
3 parts Energy
1 part Lettuce
1 part Cucumber Melon Cybilla
PS – We also sell straight Energy as a pre-made CP loaf or individual bar. Click here to check them out.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
That photo was taken in the morning. It’s subtle, but I do grow a little bit during the day, every day (water retention, food etc…). I tried to do a photo that showed the growth but it’s not as impressive to look at as it feels.
According to my multiple baby sites, apps and books – the baby is anywhere between 13 1/2 ounces to 1.7 pounds and is either the size of a 12″ ear of corn to a 15″ giant squash.
My stomach, at its widest widest point is 35 1/2″ wide. I’m too scared to measure my rear or hips. I’m in a good mood and don’t feel like taking the time for the crying jag that would ensue after that little experiment.
Overall, pregnancy has been good. But, I’m pregnant. So I don’t feel all “top of the morning to ya‘!” every morning. I feel more like 1/2 of my normal self with energy level and mood. That probably has a lot to do with the pregnancy insomnia that seems to have moved into our home. I still work out 5-6 times per week but have changed my work out substantially. I’ve added Prenatal Pilates, Prenatal Yoga, walking, elliptical trainer, and light weights. This week, I might make it to water aerobics since jogging and jazzercise bit the dust around month 5. My feet hurt too much with both of those. Probably the extra weight? Or maybe my spreading feet size?
This week, I’m going to be focusing on moving my office into the new baby-centric office, complete with a rocking chair, a new desk and Moses basket (or pack’n’play – I’m not sure yet). We can’t wait to meet this little one.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
We’re absolutely a’twitter with our hearts a’flutter over these super cute soaps made by Amanda from Lovin’ Soap. What’s even cooler about these soaps is that she shares her technique to make them (and more!) in her brand new E-Zine, Lovin’ Soap.
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
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.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Finally, in industry related news, About.com Skincare is doing their Reader’s Choice Awards. Some of the categories include ‘Best Budget Lotion’ and ‘Best Indie Line’. I’m pretty sure I know a lot of indie beauty lines that would be great for this award. So go, speak up for your favorite brand (even if it is your own brand)! Click here to be taken to the About.com site and official ballot.