Pink Sugar

It's an addiction. It all started when my friend Kyme from Alamo Candelaria sent me a handmade candle in the pink sugar scent. That is all it took. Since then, I've gotten in my own fragrance oil (a big bottle and I never buy big bottles!) and have made three smaller candles myself.

Today I made soap. :-) I know that pink sugar goes super duper dark so I only fragranced about 1/3 of the batter and reduced the amount of fragrance I would have used for the entire batch. It won't be as strong, but I think pink sugar can easily be subtle and still enjoyable. The making did not go as I had planned. I haven't made soap in a few weeks and whenever I go long stretches, I tend to lose my groove and over blend and make small mistakes. In the end, it should still be lovely. The yellow you see will turn dark brown and I've also mixed in white and pink colored soap. The top is sprinkled with diamond dust glitter, pink glitter, pink sugar crystals, pink sprinkles, and topped with a bit more diamond dust glitter for good measure. ;-)

The reason why I've taken such a long break with making soap is 1) I have way too much soap on my shelf and 2) I've been learning to make candles! It's been so much fun and frustrating too but I absolutely love it. I may love it more than making soap! I will have to take some pictures of some of the candles I've made. Mainly, it's just testing, testing, testing right now. Oh, and more testing!

Fall Fragrance Soaps - CUT

Here are the cuts of the fall fragrance test soaps. I cut these on Thursday and they cut so nicely. It just worked out that I didn't cut these for a few days and they were perfectly ready. They hadn't changed a whole lot in that time but I do expect these to change further. I will update with better pics once I feel like they are done discoloring. It is kind of fun to watch them change, especially since I expected them to do so and didn't do any additional coloring.

Testing Fall Fragrances

It's that time already! I'm testing fall fragrances so I can determine if I want to make a full batch of any of them. Since I don't gel my soaps (typically) and thus don't oven process, etc., I do like my soaps to have a good long cure. So ideally, I will need to make my fall soaps within the next month to six weeks. I need to be able to see how the soaps change in scent and color and then use them to see if I like them. I will be testing holiday scents soon as well! Can you even process that? LOL!

I used the new delightful mold that my hubby built for me. I wanted to be able to test 1 pound batches and 1 oz of fragrance and still have the same size soaps as my regular batches. Since this mold has adjustable slats, I can also make soap in 2, 3, and 4 pound batches as well.





Coconut Pear - now I do realize this isn't a fall fragrance, in fact it is very tropical and possibly a new favorite - but I had to try it so fit it in!




Southern Pecan Pie - sorta speaks for itself!



Caramel Apple - this is my own blend of duh, apple and caramel, and it's uber yummy!



Butternut Pumpkin - this is a typical fall scent, pumpkin and spices.




Since I made these on Tuesday, I'll be cutting them this afternoon!

His and Hers Beer Cream Soaps

I made these soaps a couple of weeks ago before the fish batch. I needed to clean them up and was just in general uninspired. But I am very happy with how they both turned out. I added some fancy raspberry beer from St.Louis, heavy cream, and some ground oatmeal.

His Soap - River Runner - a blend of patchouli, fir needle, and blood orange - it's so good and quite natural as well!




Her soap - Happy Hollow - a blend of acai berries, peach, patchouli, and blood orange - this is a scent that needs to cure out as it smells awesome going in but comes out smelling a little off - but give it time and it'll knock my socks off!




Here are the making and cutting videos if you are interested -

Fish and More

These really turned out great! I'm super pleased! The boys love them too! WIN!

I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of the poor little elephant.

I cut the little blue loaf into four squares. They'll be perfect for little hands.

Fun and Easy Soap

Yesterday I had the chance to make some fun and easy soap. I made two loaves of unscented soap for cutter testing and I made some fish and animal soaps which were requested by my boys. I used my melt and pour plastic molds and with the fish, I added some blue, green, gold, and holographic glitter to the mold before pouring in the soap. The glitter was acceptable because fish need scales. :-) I did a blue and natural swirl in the fish and animals soaps. The blue was setting up quicker so I mixed what was left for the remainder of the soap. I won't be doing any cutting with any of these soaps but I'll definitely show you the fish and animals once unmolded.

A Note About The Soap Cutter

Thank you all for your interest in the soap cutter! At this stage, the cutter is only a prototype (and now accepted as a member of my family, lol) and we're still testing it. Unfortunately, I don't make soap as fast as it should be tested. I managed to tighten the wire too much one day and managed to break it. Hubby will attest to the fact that I was over-doing it. Woopsie! But my super awesome neighbor has since replaced the wire and I believe it has a heavier gauge wire now to try. I did gel my Summer Song soap and it cut it perfectly so I feel confident that the wire will be a-ok for gelled and ungelled soap. Most soap cutters are not recommended for melt and pour however. We've mentioned the tweaks you all would like to see and I'm sure he's taking them into consideration. Now that we have done a few tests on it and have gathered some feedback from fellow soapers, I feel like we're in a good position to move forward. Now that's just me and I have no idea what he's thinking as hubby tends to do the relay of information as he chats with him quite often. So let us wrap some more things up and I'll keep you updated! Thank you!