Smooches and Pink Posy

I have always wanted to make some pink soaps like both of these but just haven't done it until now.

This first one is called Smooches and it is scented in a blend of passion fruit, Tuscan grapes, sun-kissed peonies, fragrant vanilla orchids, and just a hint of fresh greenery. This scent is comparable to Victoria Secret's Bombshell. It's lovely and soft. I seem to have hit the jackpot with the florals recently. I'm finding many that I love and are easy to work with.

This second soap is a remake of Pink Posy. The scent is the same but I decided to switch up the design a bit. The scent is another delicate floral; a blend of violet, gardenia, jasmine, fresh grapefruit, vanilla, and white woods.

White I was at it, I also made a new batch of Crema y Cacao Soap. It's a super gentle soap and especially formulated for use during the dry winter air season. I have been using an extra bar I found from the last batch and this soap has been moved to the top of my Winter Must Haves list. Of course, that list is only in my mind, but this soap is on it and right at the top too. :-) The soap has a double dose of cream and cocoa butter and I also embedded a small chunk of natural cocoa butter in the top of each bar as well. The soap is still in the mold as it wasn't quite ready to give up the dividers quite yet. It's not soft at all so I fear I may have a battle on my hands.

That is all for now!

Catching Up Again!

Cherished - scented in a dupe of the ever popular Love Spell fragrance - the yellow originally morphed flame orange but it has calmed back to the yellow I wanted originally -

Rainbow Soap - this is such a popular and fun soap - scented in a blend of juicy, ripe pears, and sweet, pear candies -

I did not do a making video on this one because 1)I've done it on YT many times now and 2)this batch was big and labor intensive and took quite a while to make.




Berried Treasure - I used some soap chunks from the Rainbow soap to create 'treasures' and embedded them in gold soap topped with a gold mica line. I then poured a raspberry layer and topped it with a bright blue mica line. The top layer is a fun, bright blue and topped with glitter of course! This soap is scented in a tart blend of goji berries, loganberries, and gooseberries. I've never used a berry scent like this and I love it so much -

Dashing Soap - scented in a masculine cologne scent similar to Bleu de Chanel. This scent knocked my socks off! It is my most favorite masculine scent so far. The scent is so complex that it would take a mind-numbing paragraph to list all the notes. :-) -

And finally, a soap shelf update for you!




This post has me wanting to get into the soap kitchen today and get back to work, but alas, there are cornflake wreaths and sugar cookies to make!

Happy Holidays!

Green Clover & Aloe and Iced Tea Twist

Here are another two soaps from last week. I didn't video the making of these as I was jamming out to holiday music and just having some 'me' time. :-D

The first soap I made was Green Clover & Aloe. The scent is described as a cool, fresh, green scent, and very spa-like. I really like it. At first the green was very mossy but it has lightened up to a really lovely mint color.

This soap is called Iced Tea Twist. The scent it very lemony and fresh. It is described as bright orange and lemon, intertwined with fresh tea leaves, and sugar. I am really loving this one. I did a solid blue layer and then a double pour with a little mantra swirl action going on at the top.

As much as I love using a white background, it's getting harder and harder to get a decent picture of the lighter soaps. For now, this wood background works nicely. I find it is always harder to get good light this time of year. I think the wood background is a soothing color and easy on the eyes.


The cutting video...



What to make next...hmmmm.... :-)

Crushed and CinnaBeary Soaps

These two soaps were extraordinarily fun to make. I had the idea for the Crushed soap for quite some time but the CinnaBeary design was a spontaneous design. I'm thankful these things pop into my head every now and again. ;-)

Crushed Soap - I figure Valentines isn't love and bubbles for everyone so this soap is sporting a broken heart - scented with a blend of sparkling orange and lemon, linen, violet, jasmine, and mimosa -

CinnaBeary - a layered soap scented in cinnamon, mulberry, sparkling Asian yuzu, juicy cranberries, and black raspberries -

Thank you for another super successful sale on Cyber Monday. I'm left with four little soaps on the shelf. :-)

Cyber Monday Special!

Hi all!

I have decided to open the store today!

Thank you in advance for stopping by!

Lilacs In Bloom Soap

Hi all! I hope my US friends and followers have had a great Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving has been wonderful. My mom and I spent all of Wednesday making pies and cinnamon rolls and all sorts of goodies for Thanksgiving Day. My mom makes a superb Thanksgiving meal. We munch on Chex mix and sip cranberry tea and just have a lovely time. So fun!

Anyhoo....all that to say that I was so wrapped up in festivies and being entertained by cute kids, that I forgot I had made this Lilacs in Bloom soap last weekend. I thought I'd have the video for you on Wednesday but Saturday works too right?

I love a good lilac soap, especially when the weather turns cooler. It reminds me of the Spring to come. This soap has a purple and pink swirl with little piped drop flowers on the top. I really had fun making this one and I may do some more piping in the future.

This picture isn't showing the colors like it should. It's a really lovely purple and pink.

This week I'm going to spend jazzing (cleaning up with the planer, beveling, etc.) up the 8 batches of soap that I have sitting around that is needing to get on the curing shelf, all lined up nice and pretty. I might be able to fit in some soap making...we'll see!

Princess Kisses Soap

Too long has passed since I have had some Princess Kisses soap around! Sometimes I use soap chunks from previous bars and sometimes I make the colors I want just for this soap. This time I made the colored soap bars for this batch in particular. I love how strong the colors are against the white soap! This scent is tart and fruity...this is the description: Fresh dew, alive with hints of flower gardens, exotic herbs, green grass, rain drops and light earthy tones, reminiscent of Herbal Essences. I love it!

True Love Soap

This really did turn out how I imagined it. It happens every now and again. I just took some simple pictures because I don't know how the base is going to turn.

I had a suggestion to make an oriental version of this, with red and gold. I think that is a great idea and I'm going to go on the search for a fragrance that would work good for that.

This weekend I'm working on making up a couple of soap batches and will up load those videos this week.

In The Mold Tonight - True Love Soap

Hi all!

I have to give you all big thanks for the many orders you have placed since I opened yesterday morning. It's been a hoot! I have sold out of Snow Soap, Autumn Berry Soap, Apple Crumble Soap, and just a bit ago the Rainbow soap. I knew that one would be popular so I have ordered in more fragrance to make another and most likely bigger batch. Again, THANK YOU! You all are the best!

I've been working so hard at getting everything ready to go, stressing here and there, that today I was finally able to chill a bit and make soap! I enjoyed it so very much. Can I even tell you how much I love making soap? Probably not enough time tonight. :-) I'm sure the hubs is just happy that there has been a lull in the money being sucked out of the bank account. Hee!

Anyway, back to today's soap. I made a batch that I'm calling True Love. It seems fitting for the upcoming Valentines Day. Don't hate me, I must always stay a holiday ahead! I blended some fragrances together for this as I'm so apt to do. The lead on this fragrance is an Amber Romance dupe. The base is scented in this dupe. I knew it was going to darken on me but I still wanted to jazz this batch up with rich gold, pink, and purple. So what I did was make two batches. The bottom is the Amber Romance with no color added but I did top it with a gold mica line. From there I mixed up the top with a berry scent. Oh my goodness...what a blend! I did an ITP (In The Pot) swirl with the gold, pink, and purple. I dusted the top with gold mica and just a bit of gold glitter. I'm so excited about this batch. It couldn't have come together any better I don't think.

I'm going to work on editing the video this evening and hopefully it will upload overnight. In the meantime, don't forget that my store is open until Friday, November 16th, at midnight CST, and you can use the code BLOGNOV12 to get 10% off your order! YAY! You can find the link at the top right corner of the blog page.

The Store Is Now Open!

I'm so pleased to announce our store is now officially open! The store will remain open until Friday, November 16th, at midnight CST.

A note about shipping: I am only offering flat rate shipping at this time. I was able to fit about six to eight soaps into a padded priority mailing envelope. If some of the bigger soaps are included, I may only be able to fit six of them in there.

If you happen to make a larger order than six to eight soaps, I will try to ship at the most reasonable price possible and invoice you for the added cost.

I want to be as reasonable as possible on the shipping and do not want to charge any more than necessary.

As I have no idea how this is going to go, please be patient with me and I will ship just as soon as I can get it out the door to you.

Thank you again for all your encouragement and support!

And The Winners Are...

Congratulations to the winners!

Winners: Please email me at contact@missouririversoap.com to claim your prize! Please be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Thanks!

Note: I used an electronic random generator to select the winners.

IT'S A GIVEAWAY!!! - CLOSED

The giveaway is now closed.

Today we are announcing the dates of our First Ever Limited Grand Opening! Our Online Store will open Tuesday morning, November 13th, at 10am CST. The event will close Friday night, November 16th, at midnight, CST. Thank you so much and I do hope you'll stop by.

The giveaway rules are simple. Simply comment on this blog post saying how you first heard about my soaps. That's it! So easy!

We will be giving away THREE holiday soap gift baskets. Included in the basket will be a bar of each: Sprinkles & Twinkles Soap -Holiday Edition(unfragranced), Snow Essential Oil Soap, Montana Memories Soap, Holly Jolly Soap, and Merry & Bright Soap. The contest is open from today, Friday, November 9th through Monday, November 12th, at midnight CST. The winners will be announced Tuesday morning, November 13th shortly before the online store opens.

Here are the gift baskets and the soap set out so you can see what is inside!

Thank you again for all your support!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm sorry that I didn't clarify this before but this contest is open internationally! YAY!

Exciting News!

I'm opening an online store!

For several months now, I've been working on getting everything together to start my business and the time to open the store is nearly here! It's been a long road for me, as I've been planning to sell my soaps for about 18 months. Deadlines came and went and I only can say was that I just wasn't ready yet. It's taken me a long time to get into the right mindset, to get paperwork in order, and to get to the point it was truly happening.

November would seem a silly time to start since November is the busiest month of the whole year for my family. We have 3 birthdays and a big family gathering during Thanksgiving week. What am I thinking? Well, not only because my task list getting checked off has come to this time but also because I'm in the right mindset and Go Big or Go Home right? :-) Oh, I have a lot of Seasonal/Holiday soaps on the shelf ready to go too. ;-)

All that 'Go Big or Go Home' talk aside...I've decided to finish off the year by opening my store for Special Events. I will open my store for a limited time and then close it again so that I can pack the orders and get them out in a reasonable amount of time. I am a newbie after all! I will try for a more regular schedule in 2013.

First and foremost, my priority is my family. I am a stay-at-home mom with three young children...and a very generous and supportive husband too I might add! I want this business to always come after them. That is not to say I won't give it my all and won't be working late into the night to get the work done. I will be and already have been doing so in preparation. I am really excited to sell my soaps and so happy so many of you have been waiting for me to do this. But I don't know how it's going to go yet and think the 'events' might be just the ticket. We'll see, I can always change my plan and move on to Plan L if need be.

Thank you all for the love and support and encouragement over the last couple of years! It's time!

Wild Island Breeze Soap

Thank you to all my followers from here at my blog, my You Tube channel and my Facebook page for offering such awesome name suggestions for this soap. I chose to go with a blend of name suggestions just as the fragrance was quite the mish mosh of fragrances.

Though I loved the way the swirl in the Wild Mountain Honey soap turned out, I am even happier with this one. I think I can rest easy with my swirl capabilities and take a break from the slab mold. It is a real pain to cut and clean the bars!

Just a one bar picture again as I am waiting for the new planer to clean up the remaining bars.

I have placed my orders for supplies so I'll be taking a little break while I wait for supplies to come in. One day, I'll order supplies before I run out.

In the mean time, I'll be working on my packaging. Hint hint. Whatever could that mean? :-)

Wild Mountain Honey Soap

I must say I'm quite happy with the swirlage on this soap! I thought that it was going to be very muddy but it isn't! Yay! I had to take the thick layer of ash off the top of the soap to reveal the fun colors underneath. I'm waiting for a new planer and then I'll finish cleaning up the rest of the soaps.

Time To Catch Up Again! (It's a long one!)

I've been on another soaping spree. Well, several soaps in a row is always a spree for me. :-)

Last week I made a batch of Rosemary Mint Essential Oil Soap with fresh avocado and cream. Many people know that rosemary and mint is a wonderful blend. It smells like mint chocolates to me. Love it! I was hoping to get a bit of green from the avocado but it virtually disappeared. I should have known that.

From there I soaped a vanilla chai fragrance. It is to be more of a cozy, spicy, sweet scent than a straight up chai tea. It has notes of golden butter, shaved coconut, sticky maple syrup, white chocolate tea, vanilla rum, and warm holiday spices. I used a fragrance and also added some cinnamon and nutmeg. Not much, just a tad will do ya! This soap is called Creamy Vanilla Chai and has quickly become one of my favorites visually as I haven't given it a test run quite yet.

I did not upload a making video of the Creamy Vanilla Chai because it didn't come out right. So here is the unmolding of Rosemary Mint and the cutting of Creamy Vanilla Chai:




From there I made a slab soap to try swirling (I've only done a thin slab swirl once before) with this Wild Mountain Honey Soap. It is a honey and wildflowers scent though to me it is heavier on the perfume side. I love it, it's familiar to me. However, it seems to be one of those fragrances that you either love it or hate it. It was so hard to get a decent picture of the swirls. They were a bit mottled but I know now how I could have prevented it.

When I don't achieve the desired affect in my soap that I want, I must try, try again. So yesterday back into the soap kitchen I went. I made a yet unnamed batch of soap to test my swirling techniques and I am very happy with the results! The scent blend is one of lavender flowers, lilacs, and juniper breeze (a BBW dupe) and it's just downright wonderful.

There will be a making video, I just haven't edited it yet. Today I will cut it and the Wild Mountain Honey Soaps. Stay tuned!

Pink Berry Mimosa

I made this soap last week. The scent is described as 'sweet strawberries, pink raspberries, pomegranate, sparkling cider, citrus fizz, and effervescent mimosa.' It turned out a light peachy pink color and it is topped with pink, yellow, and orange glitter and sprinkles.

Calendula Buttermilk Soap

I thought I would get a chance to take better pictures but since I haven't, I'm going to go ahead and post this one. When I took these pictures last week, it was infinitely cloudy and this was the best I could get. You get the idea. :-)

The scent on this one is so earthy and comforting...and I love my new mold!

Trying Out A New Mold!

I have been so very excited to give this new mold a test run! I have had the dividers for a while but I was waiting for the hubs to build a mold to go around them. I wanted this new bar size for my natural/essential oil soaps. I also have always loved that pillow-y look that the dividers give the tops of the bars.

I had calendula infusing in olive oil so I chose to do Calendula Buttermilk soap first. It is made using 100% buttermilk and an essential oil blend of rosemary, litsea cubeba (may chang), cedarwood, ho wood, fir needle, and anise. The scent is very complex and all the different scents mingle together to make an earthy and comforting blend.

I cannot wait to unmold these soaps!

Love & Bubbles - Cut

So fun!

Love & Bubbles - In The Mold

This soap was so fun to make and the kind that I get so excited about. I love color and I tend to soap with multiple colors in each soap. I'm experimenting with some new colors that are replacing my POP colors and I'm so happy with them.

I'm calling this soap Love & Bubbles which is probably a totally tacky name but I like it so whatevs. ;-) It is scented in a bubbly, effervescent, ginger ale, champagne type scent. It is very nice and my kids thought it smelled like 7-UP. It was definitely a favorite for them!

Holly Jolly 2012

Now curing!

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Sprinkles & Twinkles Holiday Edition

Now curing!

Fun & Festive!

Yesterday I whipped up the last two holiday soaps. I made Sprinkles & Twinkles - Holiday Edition and a remake of Holly Jolly. I had great fun and it's nice to know that they will soon all be sitting pretty on the shelf getting all lovely and luxurious for the holiday season. I do love my soaps to have a nice long cure.

Sprinkles & Twinkles - Holiday Edition - unscented as always but jazzed up with more festive holiday sprinkles -

Holly Jolly 2012 - a remake from last year - this scent is like walking into the floral shop during the holidays - the scent is described as 'notes of clean, fresh winter air, earthy, leafy greens, ylang, and black tea with a solid base of musk, sandalwood and fir.' This scent is a fave!

I did video the making of both of these soaps. I'll include the Holly Jolly video here once it is uploaded.