Are you ready to get creative with a new cold process technique? Then this is the project for you. I got a little crazy and experimented with a third divider in the vertical mold. And to get even more creative I added powdered goat milk to the recipe. Powdered Goat milk is easier to use and store than fresh goat milk and is very quick to mix-up when using our little mini-mixer tool. You’ll also notice in the instructions that I added the goat milk at trace, which is an easy way to add the goat milk without turning the soap brown. Oh…and if you’ve never used Apple Jack Peel, you’re in for a real treat! Enjoy!
Archives for October 2011
Be Cool, Cold Call
The last couple of months we’ve had a lot of questions on the Soap Queen Blog, Facebook Fan Page and in customer service requesting wholesale advice. It’s been so long (over a decade now!) since I’ve sold my soaps wholesale, I thought I would reach out to some of my successful soaping friends to share some current best practices and advice with the Soap Queen readers. I’ve already posted advice from Soapylove and KBShimmer so be sure see those blog posts too.
Today’s guest bloggers are Jeanee Duvall of Dirty Laundry, and Oddette Handley of Riverlea Soap! Enjoy!
-Anne-Marie
Odette from Riverlea Soaps also has some great tips:
Look But Do Not Eat!
Have you ever been to the Bramble Berry Facebook fan page? If not, head over there right now and join the helpful, inspirational and soap enthused community. It’s a really fun place to share projects, troubleshoot recipes and get feedback on your soap related projects (from soaping fanatics). I’m on Facebook every single day as part of my job. How lucky am I? I get to connect with Bramble Berry’s customers and drool over beautiful soap projects every day. Life is good!
Hello to Health Day 5: Community
Importance of Community
Back in the 1950s—the “Happy Days” of American society—people didn’t talk about the value of community much. They didn’t need to, because they lived it. Most people lived in tight nuclear families, they knew their neighbors, they belonged to neighborhood churches, they participated in local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, they were members of school clubs (yes, including glee club!) and local service organizations like the Rotary Club, and people chose a career and stuck with it, often staying at the same job for all their adult life. These were all communities within communities connected to other communities.
Fabulous community of friends
Fruity Fun Soap and Stamps
Jamisen’s First Food
My parents fed me ice cream at 3 weeks old for my first food so in keeping with the inappropriate dairy choices for children, we are keeping that magic alive with Jamisen’s first food taste.
Behold … whipped cream!
Linear Swirling (Cold Process)
Advanced Swirling Part 5: Linear Swirling
Guest post by Kat from Otion (Bramble Berry’s retail store)
This is the grand finale of my advanced swirling tutorials. Today is linear swirling! Make sure that you check out parts 1 (Understanding Color Theory Terminology) , 2 (Getting Brave with Color), 3 (Soap Design and Color Matching) and part 4(In-the-Pot swirling) if you haven’t already. Learn the secret to a fabulous linear swirl!
Before you get started, check out my must have materials for swirling!
Step 1: At a light trace, separate half of the batch into two smaller containers; one for each color, add scent by hand before pouring.
Step 2: Linear swirling is about building layers. Create a pattern using the two colors first so there is something on the bottom of the bars.
Step 3: Pour about ½ to ¾ of the white on top for the mid section which your lines will form into.
In-the-Pot Swirling (Cold Process)
Advanced Swirling Part 4: In The Pot Swirling
Guest post by Kat from Otion (Bramble Berry’s retail store)
Welcome back! This is part four of Kat’s advanced swirling tutorials. Please make sure to check out parts 1 (Understanding Color Theory Terminology) , 2 (Getting Brave with Color) and 3 (Soap Design and Color Matching) if you haven’t already. In this section, the secrets to successful swirling are revealed!
Must have materials:
Before beginning, make sure to have all safety equipment and supplies at hand. Have your colors picked and prepared and your fragrance oil weighed, line your wooden mold and have divider inserts set up on the side. Snug fitting rubber gloves are ideal for maximum dexterity (Tip! Pick up some hair-dying gloves from the local beauty supply store). A rubber spatula is your best friend for swirling! This tool manipulates the swirl pattern and pulls it through the entire bar. Use a bamboo skewer for creating finer details and surface swirls. You will also need extra smaller heat resistant pitchers for dividing the soap into sections to color.
Lather Unusual: Soapy Shout Out
I recently purchased some calorie free pastries from Lather Unusual– soapy pastries that is. Lather Unusual is a soap company located near my beautiful home town in Seattle, Washington. Logan Niles, a former New York chef with a pastry background, makes each soap with natural and paraben free ingredients and decorates each soap by hand creating an “unusual lather” (sorry, couldn’t hold back the pun). Her soaps look and smell absolutely edible! Check out the quick fire Soap Queen interview with Logan below.
Website: Lather Unusual Website
Blog: Blather Blog
Facebook: Lather Unusual
Soap Queen: How did you get started?
Logan: I started making soap as a hobby after trying my hand at cheese making, which I really enjoyed but found to be very cost prohibitive to do as a weekly hobby, not to mention fattening! I could literally have cheese at every meal it tastes so good. Plus the yield of finished cheese is much, much lower than soap. There’s only but so much whey a family can drink…LOL…even the cats were getting tired of it!
Hello to Health Day 4: Eat More Fiber
Eat More Fiber
Catch up on Catch up on Hello to Health Day 1 (Drink More Water), Hello to Health Day 2 (Don’t Drink Your Calories) and Hello to Health Day 3 (Walk More).
My Aunt Sharon tells the story of a college classmate in the 1970s who went on an All-Bran cereal diet and lost 50 pounds in a couple of months. No one had heard of losing weight by eating bran, so, of course, the joke around school was that the weight loss was only proof that he was full of (hmmm, how to say this politely?) manure to begin with!
Back then, the power of fiber (which bran is very high in) for anything beyond its ability to help folks “stay regular” was unknown to the general public. But today we know that fiber is not only good for intestinal health and weight loss, but it deserves our praise for its many nutritional and health-building benefits as well.
Babies on Set
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?
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 =)