I haven't soaped for quite some time.  I have been so busy at work.  I wanted to post a pic of my peony soap bar.  This was a 3 day process.  First I piped the flowers and leaves, then I made the bar soap.  Then I frosted, piped, and assembled the bars.  My wrists were sore by the time I got to my 20th bar and it showed on my base piping.  I was a bit overzealous with this project.  I think I made 32 peony soap bars.  If I ever try something like this again.  I will keep it down to 12 bars. 

 

 

This is my Pink Berry Mimosa Cupcake Soaps.  They smell wonderful.  I made them for a baby shower for a lady at work.  They were supposed to be party favors.  The baby shower never happened so I now have plenty of these cupcakes just sitting on my curing shelf.  I gave some out to friends as gifts.  Not sure what I will do with the rest of them.

 

 

I had to take a lot of my soaps off the curing racks and put them away in boxes.  I think that is why I stopped soaping for a while.  I just have so much and don't have anywhere to store all of them.  I sell a few now and then.  I wish I had weekends off.  I would set up a booth at the flea market down the street and sell the soap there.  So not only do I have a lot of supplies for making soaps, I have too much soap already made. 

My Mother's Rose Garden Soap and Hyper Nanny Goat Soap

 

I haven't had the chance to make soap for a couple weeks.  Thank goodness my coconut oil arrived and I am back in the game.  I decided to use up my piped roses and leaves that I had made for soap cupcakes.  I received a really nice fragrance oil called Rose Garden.  I used that in a shea butter soap and then embedded my roses and leaves on top the soap.  I named this soap My Mother's Rose Garden.  My mother always had roses growing in her flowerbeds.  She always took such great care of them.  So this soap is for you mom! 

 

I didn't have a slab mold for this soap.  I just lined a cardboard box with freezer paper.  I realize if I want to make more soaps in this manner I will need to invest in a good slab mold.  It is difficult to cut the bars even using a ruler because my knife isn't the length of the slab.  At least with the slab mold I am looking at it has dividers that once the soap is poured you can put them in place.  That would make it easier for centering embeds and decorating.  Not to mention the cutting part is already taken care of.   

 

 

 

I also made a soap I call Hyper Nanny Goat.  I used brewed coffee, goats milk, ground coffee beans, and cocoa powder.  I used cocoa butter which is a new butter I am trying out in my soaps.  I used chocolate and vanilla fragrance oil to give this soap a wondrous coffee house scent.  I made a coffee soap several months ago using ground coffee beans and it is such a nice exfoliant. 

 

During my weeks of not making soap I have been working on my website.  I hope to have it up and running very soon. 

 

As for today......I plan on making a Coconut, Pineapple, and Mango scented soap.  I plan on infusing my Annatto seeds in my lye/water solution.  I am hoping for a nice bright yellow colorant for this one.  I am also using Mango Butter in my basic soap recipe.  And as always I will use Cruelty Free Tussah Silk in the soap. 

 

I tried to make a soaping video using my computer camera a couple weeks back.  I thought it was going great, but the computer keeps going to sleep and that stops the camera.  So I am not sure how I will be able to solve that problem. I would like to be able to film my soaping adventures so that others can see what I do.  I learned a lot by watching other soapers videos. 

 

Happy Soaping Everyone and look forward to posting again really soon!

Shades of Blue and Natural

I was able to get this affect by putting a cardboard divider in the middle of my soap mold and then layering the different colors on either side.  There are little white speckles throughout the soap.  I am not sure if this is because of the sugar, salt, or shea butter.  I tried a little piece of this soap and it is smooth, creamy, and lathers with lots of bubbles.  This soap bar has shea butter in it and I scented it with Raspberry and Lavender Fragrance Oils.  I added Kosher Salt and sugar to my lye/water solution.  The salt is supposed to help make a harder bar of soap.  The sugar is supposed to make more bubbles.  I also used coconut milk in this soap to make a creamier bar. 

I like being able to experiment with different additives, oils, colorants, and designs. 

This was my first attempt with lard and goats milk in a cold processed soap. 

I really like the look of this soap.  It went thru a partial gel.  I was not expecting that.  I tried to cool it down surrounding it with ice.  I used Fruitasia Fragrance oil and they smell pretty good.  I don't know if it is in my head, but I swear I can smell the lard.  My fellow soapers tell me that I shouldn't be able to smell anything except my fragrance.  I made beer soap with the same container of lard and don't notice the "lard" smell in them.  I am going to give it a couple days and then take another whiff to see if what I smell.  I have so many different fragranced soaps curing on my shelves, perhaps I just smell something else mixed in with this soap.