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Showing posts from August, 2015

Learning to Slide

I've been busy making some custom soap batches the last few weeks, so I used the opportunity to try out a swirling technique that's new for me.  If you haven't seen any videos by  Clyde at Vibrant Soap , you are missing out on something really special!  He has a superb eye for color, and gives lots of great advice about developing your own "vibrant" color choices for your soap.  Clearly I need a little schooling on obtaining truly vibrant colors, but it's his unique take on swirling that I'm infatuated with. And I'm not the only one -   Amy Warden's soap challenge  is featuring the "Clyde Slide"  for September.  I'm not a participant - not yet! - but  I took a stab at the technique and these are my results. On top we have a batch of lavender (all essential oil) soap using some new micas from Mad Oils.  Here I used Guava Lava and Tempest micas.  The pink is very soft and feminine, but wish I'd used more of this incredibl

Planning for Winter

In keeping my word about blending fragrance oils I already have on hand, here is a batch of soap I made last night.   It is a literal "mash up" of four scents:   A tiny smidge of Honey & Shea from WSP A bigger smidge of Tom Ford Black Orchid by Sweet Cakes Tahitian Vanilla by MMS   2 parts to Cashmere Woods by WSP 1 part I have had this bottle of Cashmere Woods for two years, and absolutely hated it from the first sniff.   But, with a more open mind, I felt a vanilla background might make it much more pleasant. So far so good!  I added quite a bit of titanium dioxide to the entire batter bowl, then mixed the green and midnight blue micas after. These fos all have a lot of vanilla, so I hope the td will keep it lighter as it cures.   As for the scent - it's very pretty!  The smokey wood component is definitively softened by the rich, fruity TVanilla, and the orchid adds an ever so slight floral note in the background.  Now we wait to see how it come
Hi everyone!  Yep, I haven't shared any photos for quite some time - but I'm getting back into the swing.  I've been spending alot of time latley restocking my basic bars - Miracle Mud, Natural Oatmeal, Shaving and Naked.  These are popular and wonderful, but soapers know that experimenting and playing with new ideas is always how we want to spend our time.  Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled that I'm developing a little customer base that I've got coming back for more - but you gotta let the creativity out sometimes, too. I'm really, really trying not to purchase more fragrance oils (no really - I swear!), so I'm attempting to salvage some of those bottles with just a smidge of oil left and blending them into something new.  I also ran out of coconut oil so I tried some babassau and decided attempt changing my water ratio " aka discounting the water".  I basically raided my soap pantry and jumped right in. So here are the results!