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!

Soaps From Last Week

Last week my hubby and I had the rare opportunity of spending a few days together at home while the kids were at grandma and grandpa's house. We enjoyed it greatly and accomplished so much around the house. I still had to fit in some soap and did upload videos but I neglected my blog. The first I made is called Summer Song. It's a fresh grass scent and colored with french green clay and wheat grass. I topped it off with some sunflower petals, cornflower petals, and glitter. This is totally going to be a favorite, I can tell already!

I also asked my little gal if she wanted me to make a soap for her and she chose a rainbow soap. I wanted to soap this using only oxides and ultramarines but the colors turned a bit more earthy than I even wanted. I made a berry blend up of my own and I'm afraid the vanilla decided to show itself from one of the fragrances. She still loves it and tells me it's the prettiest soap in the whole wide world. Warms a momma's heart I tell you! I have been instructed that she prefers pink instead of red and the blue should be below the purple next time. ;-)

Here are the videos in case you aren't subscribed and want to catch up. I think I'll make more soap tomorrow! I still need to make some beer patchouli soap for my super awesome neighbor. Hmmm....I need to go boil some beer!

Pepperwood Soap

Here is the last one! I think I'm 'posted' out now. :-)

Pepperwood - a scent blend of cardamom, pepper, rosewood, sandalwood, vetiver, tonka bean, and amber. I've accented the soap with ground cardamom, cardamom pods, and gold glitter.

I really love how it turned out!

Talk to you all next week!

The Miracle Machine and a Kiss of Sun

I used my new snazzy wazzy cutter to cut this soap. O.M.Goodness. I AM IN LOVE. What a difference a wire cutter makes! My cuts were so nice and smooth and I didn't even have a lot of the air bubble marks that I was afraid of. So yay!!! I've said it about a million times...but this is the prototype and my super awesome neighbor is considering taking custom orders for them. We're just testing right now to see how it works, etc.. If it is something you'd be interested in, give me a shout so that we can gauge the interest.

The miracle machine in action... :-D

This Kiss of Sun soap smells amazing. I have had such good luck blending my own fragrances. I really haven't made one yet that I didn't like. The yellow turned out so pretty and the calendula and gold glitter on top is beautiful. Can you tell I'm happy with it?

I am definitely going to have to go into business because now that I can cut soap like a super star, it's going to be hard to reign me in! :-)

Pepperwood Soap - In The Mold

I made a second soap yesterday while I as in the soap kitchen. (It's not so much a kitchen...ah, you know what I mean.) This one is called Pepperwood and I have to thank Kyme with Alamo Candelaria for naming this soap. It is a great name as it's a blend of cardamom, pepper, rosewood, sandalwood, vetiver, tonka bean, and amber. It is definitely pepper-y and woody. I played on the cardamom part and sprinkled the top with ground cardamom and also added some cardamom pods. It compliments the scent perfectly. I also took the seeds from a vanilla pod and incorporated it into the middle layer.

The design of this soap is inspired by this beautiful soap by the user '71blissful' on Youtube. I have always wanted to make a light brown and tan soap like that one. I think I came close! :-)

The soap has a brown layer on the bottom colored with cocoa powder. The middle layer has the vanilla seeds and lighter bit of cocoa powder. The top is uncolored.

I have already cut this soap with my new snazzy wazzy single-wire cutter and I must say that I am such a happy camper right now! The soap turned out great and the cutter is beyond awesome!

This video is kinda sorta silent because the fan was on high to keep the Kiss of Sun soap cool. So I just cranked up my music and decided to not talk. However, the fan was SO LOUD on the video that I adjusted the sound before I uploaded it. I was going to add some music but I must say that YouTube has such a sad selection. I'd rather just have no music. :-)

Kiss of Sun Soap - In The Mold

This is the first soap I've actually made in two weeks. I promise not to be so slow in posting the cut this time. :-) I needed to soap something that looked bright and sunshine-y as well as smelled like sunshine. I made up my own blend of lemongrass & sage, fresh bamboo, peach, and mango. It is so tart, juicy, and fresh. I was originally going to add in some pink and orange with the yellow but the soap was getting thick and I decided not to bother. I've always wanted to make a plain yellow soap so it all worked out great! I am just beyond eager to take my new single wire cutter to this baby!

Raspberry Patchouli Soap

This is the sample batch of raspberry patchouli I made almost two weeks ago. I used that little bamboo drawer organizer. I was so excited about it and at 3x6 inches I thought it would be perfect for all the 1 oz fragrance oils I have. When I made the soap I had a lot of soap left over. I never thought to measure the inside of the box. DUH. :-D So the inside is only 2.5 inches and of course it wasn't as tall either. So the bars are 2.5 x 2.25. They are definitely cute though! I think I'm just going to have my husband build some test size molds for me instead. The scent did pop out a little more but it's not super distinct. I don't really smell raspberry and not a lot of patchouli. It actually reminds me of Hippy Christmas by NG. I think this scent is alright but I'm not wowed by it.

I did not video the cutting of this one because I wanted to test out my new wire cutter and didn't want to video that the first time. The cutter worked perfectly! I couldn't be happier with it! My awesome neighbor now has a multi-wire cutter in the works. Oh boy, I hit the jack pot! My super awesome neighbor might be selling these custom cutters in the very near future, if you are interested!

Guava Gradient Soap

I think I made this soap two weeks ago tomorrow for week 7 of the soap challenge. Woops! Of course, I was ahead of the challenge and now I'm a little bit behind. :-) The pink pearl morphed on me. So sad! The outside edge faded where it was originally exposed to the air. I was hoping it would come back but it didn't. When you watch the video you'll see that the pink was completely gone in a rectangular section inside when I cut it. It was so weird!

Make sure to go check out all the other participants here.

A New Look

Hi all! While I loved my purple polka dots, I felt it was time to move away from the super girly, super cute look and move on to something that is more unisex and more representative of the name 'Missouri River'. I'm very pleased with the results. I kept my owl because, well, how could I not?!?! It's an image I've had for a while and I am recognized by it. I love Missouri and I love soap and it isn't always frou-frou and frilly. I am loving this more universal look and I hope you do as well!

A few thoughts...

1. I am so behind on posting the cut of my gradient soap.

2. I am even more behind on posting the cut of my raspberry patchouli soap.

3. I am SO FAR behind on posting a Twilight soap recap.

4. I have a new single wire cutter!

5. I have a new multi-wire cutter in the works!

6. Watch this space for updates! I plan to show you 1-4 this week!

7. New soap coming soon!