Search Results for: rebatch

Red, White and Soap at Otion

June 26, 2010 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Last week, I was supremely lucky to spend almost two full days at Otion with a private soapmaking student. Diane visted us from Watsonville, California to learn more about soapmaking and how we run Otion. She and I spent one full day exploring Cold Process soap. First we designed three key recipes for her based on her personal preferences around what a ‘good’ soap makes. Then, it was time for a serious soaptopia at Otion.

We played with pigments and explored swirling in the Birch wood Molds.

We enjoyed working with honey and focusing on temperatures to inhibit superheating (caused by the honey). Soap on right? Never got above 97 degrees. Soap on left? 145 for over 20 minutes. Same recipe. Same additives. Temperature was the only variant.

Then we made a basic layer soap. That’s Ultramarine Violet on the top and Super Pearly White Mica on the bottom layer.

Can you believe this is Goatsmilk soap? No tan color and no ammonia smell. It’s a technique I’ve been exploring for a new e-book on goatsmilk soapmaking. Colors are Black Oxide and Yellow Oxide.

We also made custom essential oil blends for all of Diane’s soaps, played with bath fizzies and did a great batch of layered rebatch. Diane also spent time with Erik, the Otion store manager, learning about the ins and outs of running a small shop (something she aspires too do)

Thank you Diane! We loved spending time with you. It was an honor.

Inventory & SoapQueen TV

December 29, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Soap from our Cold Process Line

My apologies for the short blog post today. It’s been a fabulous day with lots of progress made on inventory (almost done with the counting! yay!) and we are loving the fun questions about projects you’re making over your winter breaks. Judging from the phone calls today, a lot of you are making Cupcake Bath Fizzies.

Over our inventory break, we’ve continued working on the new season of SoapQueen TV in earnest and have the scripts done up for an episodes on Rebatch soap, Massage Candles and more. You will be able to watch those shows in early February (if not sooner!). If you’re a fan of SQTV and like the projects, you might want to check out these extra long SQTV tutorials over at Bramble Berry. Two of them feature SoapyLove‘s exclusive projects that turn out great every single time.

I’m also planning a trip to Saudi Arabia with the Entrepreneur’s Organization for business classes. I’m excited about the opportunity to learn from some of the top business minds in the world on subjects like Cross-Cultural Entrepreneurship and Women Entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. I’ll be out of the country the 15th through the 25th of January, leaving the blog in Amber’s capable hands on the days I am not able to post.

Again, apologies for the short post today; look for a blog post tomorrow on Copper Penny & Emerald Mica tests in CP soap. Until then, happy soaping!

Wooden Molds and Cutters

August 24, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Above, I used our 2 pound log mold with wingnuts and lined it with butcher paper (which is a must). Here are the instructionsfor lining your mold.These molds are locally made (in Bellingham, WA) from Baltic Birch plywood. The sides and base have a shallow groove notched out for a perfect tight fit. The entire mold is held together with easy to use carriage bolts and wingnuts. When using you don’t need to take the mold apart – just loosen the wing nuts and slide your soap out! The inner mold dimensions are 7″ x 2.25″ x 3.25″ and holds about 2 pounds of soap.

To cut my colorful rebatch soap, I used our Wooden Cutter for the 2 and 4 pound molds. This mold comes with the scraper/cutter below and a wooden removable spacer that allows you to cut 4 ounce bars instead of 5 ounce bars. In the picture above, I chose to cut my soap with my kitchen knife (Shhh. Don’t tell my husband).

Other cutting options: The scraper/cutter or the (oh so popular) crinkle cutter.

My goal was to create a tutorial strictly on molds and cutting but my soap turned out super cool (if I do say so myself). I used our basic rebatch base with our Purple, Blue and Canary labcolors. Here’s a tutorial on basic rebatch if this soap has inspired you. PS: If you want to try rebatch, now is a perfect time since it’s on sale for a limited time.

We Love Our Commenters!

May 3, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Thank you for all of your kind and supportive comments about SoapQueenTV this week – and in general, for sharing a bit of yourselves through your participation in this blog through your comments.

I have a goody pack to a randomly chosen commenter from the last week. And drumroll … that lucky winner is commenter:

aandmcreations

Send me an email with your address and I’ll send you some fun fragrance blends, a candle mold, 1 pound of rebatch soap and a colorant or three.

Fun with Vocation Vacationer

January 12, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

What a fun day Linda and I had at Otion. We started the day by having breakfast and reviewing Linda’s reactions about her first day (conclusion: overwhelming but exciting) and made an action plan for the day. Since Linda has plenty of business experience, we chose to focus on making product and trying to narrow down Linda’s desire for a retail store versus a large scale wholesale operation.

After opening the store, we headed to the soap lab to check out Linda’s first batch of soap. I’d say that this turned out pretty good, wouldn’t you? I was thrilled that her first batch looked so smooth and colorful. Given that we did a full 8% beeswax, this should be a long lasting bar in the shower. The batch used green iron oxide, yellow clay and merlot mica.

While I ran out to a meeting, Erik and Linda made 15 pounds of rebatching soap and another loaf to go over swirling techniques. Linda was especially excited to see how to do larger scale production with a drill and 5 gallon bucket.
When I got back, Linda and I made bath fizzies galore. She was amazed at how easy and cost effective bath fizzies are. If you’ve never made bath fizzies, TeachSoap.com has instructions and of course, Bramble Berry has the supplies (including an all-inclusive kit for $21.50).
Linda did a great job with her bath fizzies, learning how to press the materials deeply into the mold to ensure a dense, long lasting tub experience.

Linda’s final bath fizzies turned out great. We went over using extra oils in the bombs, humidity’s role in rock hard fizzies and the use of extra herbs and color in bath fizzies. She has enough take-home goodies to test that she’ll be bathing for a while!

Our next experiment didn’t do so well. We made lip balms and while the lip balms were fabulous, our microwave didn’t live through the afternoon. Check back later this weekend for photos and a description of the debacle (hint: it involves exploding hot glass and oil).

After a wonderful dinner, we sent Linda on her way back home to Michigan. I’m very excited to keep in touch with her to see if she does a retail shop or decides to go the wholesale route. Whatever she does, I know she will be successful.