Soap Challenge - Week 2 - In The Mold

Ok, so another challenge soap has been made! Our challenge this week was to make a milk soap. I have made a full goat milk soap by very slowly sprinkling the lye into the refrigerated goat milk. That took me about 30 minutes but it sure didn't burn! The second full milk soap I made was for my Calendula Carrot Buttermilk soap. The buttermilk curdled on me terribly but my buttermilk was slushy and not frozen solid. Of course, I often add smaller amounts of goat milk or coconut milk or cream, etc.. I'm quite used to making soap that way. So today's soap was a new challenge for me. My goal was to use solid frozen milk and sprinkle the lye over it and blend it without burning. I succeeded!

I used four different kinds of milk in the one batch. I used goat milk, buttermilk, coconut milk, and cream. Talk about creamy! Nice! I kept it simple and added no coloring. The scent blend is an EO blend of grapefruit, litsea, and lime with a tad bit of white vanilla fragrance oil. I have used it before in a tangerine soap and it did not discolor. We shall see how it works this time! The soap smells SO GOOD! I poured it in a slab mold because I wasn't sure how hot everything was going to get but I do believe that it would have been fine in a loaf.



I managed to lose my voice this morning but I found it by this afternoon so I was able to make a video. It was all good timing as my voice is going away again. I hope I don't sound too gnarly in the video!




I'll see you Saturday for the big reveal!

Soap Challenge - Week 1

Here we go! This week's challenge was an ITP (In The Pot) swirl. We were to challenge ourselves and swirl more colors so I chose to swirl 8 colors. Now, I thought I'd swirled 6 or 7 colors before so that is why I went with 8 colors. I remembered however, that I've done a 6 or 7 color swirl ITM (In The Mold) and not ITP. :-) The most I've swirled ITP is 3 if I'm remembering right.

So here are the results!



Now go to Amy's soap blog if you haven't already and check out all the others!

This next week's challenge is a milk soap. I've soaped buttermilk, cream, goat milk, and coconut milk. To challenge myself, I've come up with an idea and we'll see if it pans out.

Of course, I can't just make one soap at a time so while I was at it the other day, I made a spring floral soap that I'm calling Blossom soap. It is a scent blend of tulips, hyacinth, green grass, and spring rains. It was perfect for this week as we had rain all week long and today my lilacs are in almost full bloom and my tulips are blooming! It's a beautiful day and the sun is shining. Coming out of that rain to such a beautiful day full of color, gives a person a skip in their step and cheer in their heart. :-)

The pics aren't great but I've got better things to do today than to go retake the pictures. ;-)




Here are the videos for those that are interested!









The view from my living room window this morning!



Kat is enjoying the nice weather and doing some bird watching!



The kids and I are all sick with colds but it's such a beautiful day that we're going to get out and soak up some sunshine. Hubby is out cleaning out the garage and firing up the Evinrude on this beautiful day. The day the boat gets fired up and the engine checked is the day that Spring is officially here for us! Later I do believe we'll load up in the truck, get an iced coffee from Starbucks, and go for a drive. I bet the golf courses are packed today!

However

Just as I began my soaping break, Amy with Great Cakes Soapworks went and started a challenge. I'm really excited to participate! I've done all of the challenges aside from working with alcohol which is one thing I've been contemplating recently anyway.

This week's challenge is to do an in-the-pot swirl and add at least one more color than you've ever swirled before. Well, I've swirled 6 colors already so it'll be interesting to do 7 for sure! Yikes! I have some prep work to do to even get the chance to soap this week so my goal will be to get that all done and hopefully I'll be able to do my challenge soap on Wednesday!

I have taken photos and have done a video of the Twilight soaps so look for that wrap-up soon!

Taking A Break

Spring has pretty much arrived in Missouri! The temperature is in the 70's, my lilac is leafing out, the tulips are popping up, and it's time to get parts of my little gardens planted!

Soon I will be showcasing the Twilight soaps as a set. I have been waiting for some nice sunny days and it seems like this week will be it for that! But I may not do much soap wise after that.

As the blog and youtube has already been quiet, I just wanted to let you know that the blog posts will still be few and far between and I have no plans for any YouTube videos aside from the Twilight wrap-up. This is often what I do in the Spring/Summer months. We all know I have plenty of soap sitting around to use up!

I will also admit that I am very discouraged. I have had the unfortunate experience of discovering just HOW mean other soapers are. I mean really, I've been AROUND, I KNOW what it's like out there but this crossed the line.

I chose to leave a comment on a certain blog this weekend and I've now been blocked. I left a comment that voiced my opinion but was respectful and not harsh. Much ensued after that and I no longer commented. Now this blog writer has changed titles, re-worded their posts, deleted comments, and has not allowed any further commenting. The most important part of this situation is that the content was re-worded and then the majority of the comments left to be viewed. Interesting how it will be perceived now. It's one thing to have a blog to voice a personal opinion and it's another to slander a person and or business. There in the lies the main problem.

So it's time for a break. Every now and again we all need a break. This is not my business and I do have the ability to just walk away for a while and rediscover what it is about soap that I truly love.

The Videos

Cutting Day!

Sprinkles & Twinkles 2012 Edition






Plain & Simple




The Meadow - a floral/grassy scent - I'm not super impressed with this but it smells good and it doesn't look so bad...so I will allow it to be a success - I'm quite sure I'd make it again but with a simpler design so I can get it in the mold faster .




Volturi - this scent makes me think 'old world' whenever I sniff it. It's cedar, patchouli, lime, lavender, and amber - since this one was so shallow in the mold, I cut it into three large bars and then trimmed the top off - I must say, I especially love the air pockets!



I have plans this week to retake pics of all the Twilight series soaps to pair them up and also for you to see how they have changed.

Get Back On That Horse!

So yesterday, instead of cutting my seized soaps The Meadow and Volturi, I decided to get back on that horse and make some new and pretty soap. Almost every time things go awry with my soapmaking, I do try to soap right away and make something fun and easy and really nice looking. It always helps my mood towards soap. :-)

I decided to make two unscented soaps. One is Plain & Simple and it's exactly that. It's completely plain and was totally simple to make. It is uncolored and has no titanium dioxide or anything. It doesn't even have a textured top. I did add cream because it does make such a luscious bar of soap.

The other was yet another remake of Sprinkles & Twinkles. Oh how I love to make that soap! I've made it several times at this point. I always use different sprinkles but it always has a ton of glitter! Side note: Remember to buy more glitter! I'm out! Can you imagine?!?!

So it did a body good and on top of it all, it was 70 degrees out and all the windows were open. It was a delightful day.

The Meadow and Volturi - In The Mold

I soaped these on Wednesday and they both seized on me. They were the most unworkable of the entire series. I didn't even take pictures on that day because I was so disgusted with them. :-)

I think I was able to work The Meadow enough and hopefully there aren't too many air pockets. The Meadow does smell wonderful and has three greens, two purples, and white.

Volturi seized so bad that the color I was going to put on the top part became completely unworkable and I had to just forget it. It was a situation very much like the Tart Apple batch.



I do hope I'll be able to salvage them!