Today we’re launching our latest mold (drum roll), the Heavy Duty Column mold! To celebrate it’s debut, I’ve got a fun and fabulous tutorial that is a twist on the Faux Funnel Pour technique. This is a great recipe for an alternative to Olive Oil, for those late night soaping adventures where you realize you’re just short of an ingredient and it’s too late to hit up the store (anyone else been there? anyone?). Using contrasting colors in unexpected hues and a bright and fresh fragrance oil blend, I’m hoping you like this recipe as much as I do.
Search Results for: blend essential oils
Crisp Anjou Pear Embed Tutorial
Summer is in full swing, and I’m loving anything bright and refreshing right now! Bramble Berry’s brand spankin’ new Crisp Anjou Pear Fragrance Oil really awakens the senses and the colors of this soap are perfect for that summery vibe. Done in two parts, I’m hopeful this project brings a smile to your face! PSST: I know something that will bring a smile to your face – our NEW silicone 5 pound log liner specially designed for the 5 pound Soap Queen log mold. It has saved us hours of lining molds in just the last month.
Buy everything you need for both parts of this project at the click of a button!
Part One/Day One: [Read more…]
Invigorating Shampoo Bars
Bite Me Not Lotion Bar
Summer is the season of days by the pool, nights by the barbecue, and (queue scary music) mosquitoes! Keep the bugs away without synthetic chemicals this summer by making your own all natural “bug off” lotion bar. We’ve custom blended some essential oils to keep bugs away and keep you smelling great all summer long. Apply the lotion bar to your legs and arms and let the bugs beware!
Buy everything you need in the click of a button!
(remember you can always add or delete items from your shopping cart if needed) [Read more…]
Avoid Pesky Air Bubbles in CP
Have you ever heard the term “burping your blender?” and then wondered what that means and how it applies to soapmaking? It’s a super easy trick that I do every time I make cold process soap that helps prevent air bubbles in your CP soap. Try it on your next batch. You won’t regret “burping”. I promise!
The cold process soap pictured above is a gorgeous combination of Brown Oxide, Yellow Oxide, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrate Chrome Green and Black Oxide. It’s scented with an earthy combination of Patchouli and Spearmint. There is just one problem…those darn air bubbles! Either the trace was too thick when it was poured or (cough cough) ‘someone‘ didn’t burp their stick blender. Here’s how you burp your stick blender to avoid those pesky bubbles in your soap.
Burping: Before you turn the stick blender on to mix the oils and lye together, gently tap the stick blender on the bottom of the of your container until you see all of the air bubbles come out. Do you see that big air bubble below? You’ll be glad you didn’t whip that air into your soap when you cut the final bars.
Check out that monster air bubble surfacing!
Other Tricks: When combining my oils and lye I also like to pour the lye down the side of my stick blender. By letting the lye run down the side of the blender, you eliminate any splashes that could cause air bubbles. Kat from Otion also suggest keeping your temperatures on the lower side. She finds that super hot soap can cause the soap to bubble a little bit. Check out the lye and burping tricks in this episode of Soap Queen TV (you can fast forward to minute 3:50 to see the action). And if you have never made cold process soap, check out the series for beginners here!
How do you avoid air bubbles? Do you have any other ideas?
Oodles of New Products!
It has been a little while since we’ve done a “What’s New” post and there are many new products to report on, including a new book on making milk soap from scratch. It has been months in the making so we’re super excited to share it with you. It covers making all types of milk soap – from cow milk to hemp milk to goat milk – the book has techniques you can use with a wide variety of milks.
MP Loves CP
I’m still in love with our new silicone cube mold (I’m sure you can tell from the recent cube mold tutorials: Holiday Cubes and Crazy for Cubes). I even designed a brand new mini heart mold specifically for embedding in the cube mold (now that‘s love). The technique of combining melt and pour with cold process soap is super simple with lovable results. It’s even easy enough for CP beginners!
Winter Salt Soak
To finish off our winter relief series, treat your little tootsies to a warm, fizzy, epsom salt soak. Epsom Salt has been long known for it’s abilities as a natural remedy for so many ailments. Plus I’ve designed a special “sore muscle” essential oil blend that will diminish your foot cramps, aches and pains from a long day on the mountain. After the salt soak you can lather your feet in our winter body balm recipe and be sure to check out the winter lip balm recipe to complete the winter series!
Ingredients
2.5 cups Epsom Salt (super fine)
1 cup Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate)
1/2 cup Citric Acid
12 ml Meadowfoam Oil
Buy everything you need in the click of a button!
PREP: Blend your essential oils together to make the “sore muscle blend”: 4 ml Eucalyptus, 1 ml Black Pepper, 2 ml Litsea.
ONE: Combine the Epsom Salt, Baking Soda and Citric Acid in a mixing bowl. Mix with a spatula (or your hands) until all of the clumps are gone and the dry ingredients are mixed together. If you mix with your hands you may want to wear gloves to save your nail polish from the citric acid.
TIP: Sift the baking soda to easily get rid of large clumps.
TWO: Mix in 12 ml of Meadowfoam Oil and 7 ml of your essential oil blend. Mix well with a spatula or hands and use a spoon to divide the salt soak between 6 large bail bars.
Packaging Tip: Make sure that you package the soak in plastic bail jars or plastic bags. This combination of citric acid, baking soda and moisture causes a release of carbon dioxide which can build up pressure in a container so we don’t recommend glass.
Salt Soak Usage: 4 tablespoons of salt soak per 2 quarts of water. Feel free to add more if you want the scent stronger. This ratio is what we liked the best.
Almonds, Chocolate and Lavender (CP Soap Tutorial)
Remember when Amber did a guest post on the homemade Almond Milk (which also inspired a Blueberry Almond Smoothie and Strawberry Almond Thumprint Cookies)? She inspired us to make Almond Meal Soap with the leftover almond meal from her almond milk making. The almond milk byproduct of almond meal is a gentle exfoliant and a lovely way to get a little more cleaning power from your bar. The fragrance oil blend of chocolate and lavender is a gourmet candy like combination (think sophisticated foodie chocolate). Enjoy this luxurious recipe!
Baby Soap: Buttermilk Bastille Baby Bar
What is bastille? Bastille is a term affectionately coined by soapers for soap that is made with a high percentage of olive oil. Castille is 100% olive oil soap and bastille is soap made with 70% (or more) olive oil but contains other oils or butters.
Castille on its own is not very bubbly but if you add a bit of coconut oil and buttermilk you can boost the bubbles a bit but keep the mildness of the high olive oil content. Buttermilk contains sugar which helps boost the bubbles as well.
I love this recipe. Its simple with just two oil ingredients (olive and coconut), is colored naturally by using carrot baby food (pureed carrots) and makes a great soap for baby or for those with sensitive skin. This recipe creates a super mild soap that still has a good lather.
Green Tea Rebatch (Teabatch?)
I was in a Green Tea frame of mood after getting an awesome tea from Adagio Teas called “Hojicha“. It’s a toasty warm green tea flavor and it inspired me to make some Green Tea rebatch soap. I wanted that instant gratification of rebatch! Green Tea has natural antioxidants (called catechins) that help fight damage caused by free radicals. Very preliminary studies show that Green Tea topically may inhibit enzymes whose excessive activity contributes to age-related degradation of the skin matrix – sign me up for that!
Pretty in Pink: Salty Cold Process
Why put Pink Himalayan Salt in your CP? The obvious answer is that it looks totally unique. What you may not know is that Pink Himalayan Salt is known for its nourishing and soothing properties. I love it inside cold process for its exfoliating and moisturizing abilities. Plus salt bars have a very creamy lather. For this project, we just added a little of the coarse sized salt on top for the WOW factor!
CP + MP = Magma Soap
This free flowing, lava like design inspired the name for this project. Magma Soap is an intricate project with so many possibilities. I’ve combined melt and pour soap with cold process soap to create a uniquely fascinating bar.
Dressed Up Bath Bombs!
Guest Post by Kim of Pepo Park
Using water soluble paper and melt and pour soap, you can dress up plain bath bombs to indicate scent or to personalize them for the recipient. These bath bombs have been personalized with robots for some young boys. Check out a basic bath bomb recipe from the Teach Soap Web site. There are several others on the site that will also work for this project.