What I've been up to

I have to be honest, not much soaping has been going on in my house as of late, and I find it pretty frustrating! The reason is that I am going to be moving in 2 months and 1) I can't afford things like yummy scents and pretty colors, so any soap I make is going to be pretty boring, especially since I'm running out of oils! 2) I don't want to have to move a bunch of soap!

But I haven't forgotten about soap complete, instead I've been doing things like research - lots and lots of research. Researching lotion making, shampoo making, shampoo vs. bar soap and their effect on hair, packaging, how to make the packaging I want to work, coming up with different packaging ideas, working of labels - so I have been pretty busy over here! It's just very frustrating because I haven't been able to put any of my ideas into action... But I thought I could at least do a little show and tell.

For those who don't know, I'd like my brand to be "modern day apothecary" - but first I had to figure out what that meant to me! Basically, I took old-school apothecary and tried to add a little sophistication to it. It means sticking to natural colors. It means simple. 

So here is the soap label I came up with!

I am still having a terrible time coming up with a font! I don't really like the first one, I decided to include it simply for comparison. I'd like the scent to look handwritten, and I've chosen an old fashioned typewrite font for the general information, which I love! I am going to assign each scent of each product a "number" which I think adds to the "apothecary" feel. I chose a kraft paper background because I plan to use kraft boxes and don't want too much going on - but once I am able to get custom boxes printed I think I am going to go with a light natural linen look, like this:

But for now I think it may clash with the kraft boxes.

So, what says "modern day apothecary" to you? Which font most accurately portrays that description? I'd love any opinions!



Until next time...
Peace · Love · Soap

Unveiled Soapy Experiments + Belated Mother's Day Wishes

I am excited to announce that I can finally unveil my secret soapy experiment, a.k.a. Soap #7&8

Introducing: Vino, my wine soap [yep, I made soap out of wine!]

Some wine was harmed in the making of this soap

If soap is my raison d'être, then wine soap would be my raison d'savonner [that's me, just makin' up French words, my mother will be so proud..] It is the reason I learned how to make soap, and what finally pushed me to get over my irrational fear of lye.

I'm just going to do a quick rundown of how I achieved this as it's getting late and I want to watch an episode of Charmed before bed. First: choose your wine! I chose Cabernet as I understand it is a drier wine - the less sugar the better in wine soapy experiments! Then, you've got to cook out the alcohol, soap and alcohol are not very friendly with each other, as discussed in the beer soap post. The main difference between wine and beer soap is that beer has a less alcohol by volume, so it doesn't take quite as long to cook it out, and the beer doesn't reduce quite the same way wine does. For this experiment I used almost an entire bottle of wine, poured in a large sauté pan (that's the kind with the straight sides - the more surface area, the faster it will reduce) and let it simmer down to about 1-2oz, BIG difference! I wanted to try two different experiments, using ingredients I didn't care about wasting if the whole thing decided to [literally] blow up(the first is CRISCO based, the second Palm - since I want to avoid palm in my soap recipes, I wanted to use it up).

The soap on the left is Coastal Cabernet - I added 1Tb wine concentrate directly to the lye water (watch out, this will turn baby poop green and smell foul). I scented it with an ocean-y fragrance.

The soap on the right is Vino - I added 1Tb wine concentrate to ~1/2 the soap mixture at trace, then did a whisk "swirl." This soap is unscented as I was curious if the wine would impart any scent on the soap at all - it did not.

Of the two I love the look of Vino the best, the whisk gave it some pretty neat swirls in places (like the one in the first pic, just plain awesome!)

Two of each of these bars made their way to California as a Mother's Day present to my wonderful mommy! She loved them, of course :]

And of course my mother wouldn't actually USE the soap, but instead use it as bathroom decor

Notice how nicely it matches the counter!

So Happy Belated Mother's Day, Mom, you are my rock - you support me and my dreams, you keep me level headed, and I miss you every day!  [71 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes till I get to see you again!]


Until next time,
Peace·Love·Soap

The Laundry Experiment - Episode 1

Hello everybody!  Since today is my Sunday I'm having a lazy day. I woke up around 9, made some coffee, caught up on some shows I've been neglecting, made a smoothie... made another smoothie, and here I am! Let me just put it out there very quickly that I LOVE homemade smoothies! I make mine with lots of fruit, always a banana, yogurt, soy milk, splash of OJ, and mostly always something green - today was spirulina! Okay, so I actually had some left over from a soap project, but that doesn't make it any less food! It's delicious, and no, it doesn't taste "green"!

Moving on to the topic at hand, this is going to be the first in at least a two part series on the wonders of laundry! I actually started this whole experiment a week or two ago, but I just finished the first part of it. Today, I made my own laundry soap! Didn't think it could be done - well then you should really think a little more outside the box, shame on you! Is this old news? Well, just sit quietly and enjoy the pretty pictures.

I can't actually call this laundry detergent as it has no actually detergents in it, but it is ridiculously simple to make and pretty fracking cheap, too! Perfect for frugal crafties like myself who want to save all of their money for their various crafty [i.e. soapy] endeavors! It only includes three whole ingredients, all of which can probably be found at your local Walmart - soap [imagine that], washing soda, and borax! That's it!

What, you need more information? Okay, well you may be wondering "what the frack is washing soda?" only probably not those exact words... Well, to put it simply it is a chemical salt of carbonic acid, or sodium carbonate. Sound a bit familiar? That's because baking soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate - did you know that the only difference between baking soda and washing soda is water and carbon dioxide? Did you know you can make your own washing soda out of baking soda? This is especially convenient if you live someplace where you don't have access to washing soda locally - just do a quick Google search - there are many recipes and tutorials of the process!

You may also be wondering "what kind of soap am I supposed to use for my laundry?" Why, handmade, of course! I made a soap of 50% coconut and 50% lard [the cheap-o stuff at Walmart] and did a 0% superfat. This made a very hard bar that I could cut AND grate within hours. Of course, you don't have to use handmade soap, just make sure it does not have any free oils [isn't superfatted, that is] and isn't a synthetic heavily perfumed detergent bar. Fels Naptha is a great soap to use in a laundry soap.

Ingredients

1. 2 parts ground soap
2. 1 part borax
3. 1 part washing soda

Directions

• 1. Grate your soap! You can use a homemade bar like me [if that's what you do] or a laundry bar soap like Fels Naptha [located in the detergent aisle, it was right next to the borax and washing soda at my local Walmart]. After your soap is grated you'll want to leave it out for a few days until it is nice and crispy dry. What do I mean by crispy dry? If you break apart a piece of grated soap it should snap - hard and dry! 

• 2. Grind your soap - I used my Magic Bullet - it's just soap, it'll wash right off :] [btw, I do NOT recommend using appliances used for food with ANYTHING that may have harsh chemicals or soap that has active lye, my soap had cured for a week and passed the "zap" test before I used my bullet to grind it up]   

The soap did not really grind up to a powder consistency, but more along the lines of soap "beads"

•  3. Mix! For the amount of soap I had grated and dried, I used 1 c. ground soap, 1/2 c. washing soda, and 1/2 c. borax.

Like the little scooper? I got it at Cost Plus, it's 1/4 c. and has marks every Tb.

 And you're done! Use 2Tb for a normal size load up to 1/4 cup for large or highly soiled loads. Don't be afraid to customize it! Use scented homemade soap, or add essential oils into the powdered mix, add some OxiClean or powdered color-safe bleach. That's what I love about crafting, you can change it up to suit your needs! It's just that simple to make your own all natural laundry soap for a fraction of what it would cost you to buy a detergent. My research tells me this is safe for all types of machines, but if you have a brand new expensive he washer, I would advise you at the very least check out this FAQ about homemade laundry soap, there's a lot of great information.

Now, you may be wondering "great, now that I have an all-natural laundry soap, what about fabric softeners?" Unfortunately, that's an entirely different blog post ;] so stay tuned!

Until next time...
Peace · Love · Soap

It smells like a brewery in here...

That's what I was thinking to myself when I was making one of my latest soaps - my entire apartment smelled like a brewery! Might I add, not the most pleasant of smells in the world.

I got three days off in a row from work, so I figured, what better to do than make it a three-day soap weekend? I've had so many ideas of things I want to make floating around in my head, why not just do them all? I haven't spent every waking hour making soap, I've been busy keeping it tidy for the potential roommates I have coming over [somebody really needs to move in like tomorrow!] but I've also been doing a lot of research on things like soap molds. I am just tired of my cheap-o dollar-store plastic drawer organizers, they are a big fat pain,  and the sides are not straight, and I've found that Pringles cans are a one-shot deal, and I just don't want to eat that many chips! So what am I doing about it? Why, asking for soap molds for my birthday, of course! Now I know my birthday is pretty far away [end of September] but I am going to be moving in a couple months and my soaping days from now until then are pretty numbered anyways. No use spending money on a soap mold just to have it get here when I can't soap anymore and then have to move it, when I can just ask for a right fancy one for my birthday!

Getting back to the topic at hand, I have made two batches of soap in the past two days - I know, it doesn't seem like a lot, but there's the whole keeping the apartment tidy thing to worry about. One of those soaps just happens to be made with none other than Guinness.

Simmering Guinness - look at that head! 

You all should know by now that I just love making soap out of unconventional things - bonus if it actually turns out! The first step to any soap with alcohol is to cook it all out! That's right, no alcohol left in the end soap - sorry guys! Alcohol + Soap = Seize!! They don't get along. I also had to make sure the beer was nice and flat so simmering the beer = two birds + one stone.

This is actually a shaving soap that I'm going to mail to my dad for Father's Day - it's got plenty of castor for the bubble, a nice heaping scoop of bentonite clay for slip, and good ol' fashioned lard to make it nice and hard. This was actually my first time soaping with lard, I don't really have any opinion on it right now - the soap is still too new to try out. The soap calc numbers looked great though. Hard, conditioning, with lots of bubbly and creamy lather. I'm interested to find out what the beer adds to that aspect.

Cut 2-3oz rounds

I allowed this soap to fully gel, I don't normally but I wanted it to get nice and dark like the beer itself, and I wasn't sure what kind of color would be produced since the bentonite clay is green, so the darker the better. Can I just say, even though it stunk my house up to cook down the beer, this soap smells AMAZING. It's got this nutty-ness about it, like an almond cake! I'm pretty sure this smell isn't going to last, but it's good enough to eat right now! I can't stop smelling it! It's crazy what ingredients give certain smells to soap. Guinness almond cake.. yum!

Since this was going to be a Father's Day gift [in addition to an fun experiment!] I thought I'd make one extra fancy. I got the bowl at Cost Plus for about $2 and just scooped the soap batter right into it. It's going to take forever to run out, too, because there's probably 6-8oz of soap in there. I didn't weight the bowl while it was empty so there's really no way to know - but that's my guess just comparing it to my little 2-3oz rounds. You may notice the top isn't really all that pretty. I should have just left it along, it looked fine just from scooping it in, but I tried to do something fancy, decided I hated it, then tried to smooth it out - but it was kind of too late and I just ended up smashing it down. When it was all set up I got it wet and smoothed it out some and it looks better. This will just have to be a lesson to just leave things alone.


Until next time!
Peace · Love · Soap

Cucumber Soap Fail - Batch #9.2

This is my cucumber soap. It gave me quite the headache there for a week or so. It was meant to be a lovely facial soap with avocado oil, kaolin clay, and cucumber. I thought the whole thing through [or so I thought] I juiced the cucumber, separated the juice from the pulp, added the juice as part of my lye water, reserving the pulp for trace. This fail was a two-part-er.

1. I didn't mix the oils and lye at the temperature I should have, I usually mix at around 100°, but I didn't read the directions part of the recipe, just the percentages, and missed the part where it said this particular oil combo should be mixed at around 140° because it had cocoa butter in the mix.
2. I did NOT account for all the water STILL IN THE PULP. I just figured, okay - I juiced it, I got the juice, I got the pulp, easy-peasy! WRONG!

The whole thing took FORever to trace, I had to give my hand mixer a break twice! I even ate dinner while I was waiting. It finally seemed to trace and I was just SO relieved that I  dumped it into the mold and have a thankful sigh of gratitude.

That sigh was so not well deserved. Just a few moments after I got it into the mold the whole thing started to separate! I had two very distinct layers of oil and water. Later I learned that, when soaping with hard butters, it is best to soap at higher temps as when the hard butters start to cool they solidify and cause a sort of false trace. Obviously this is what happened to me. I was literally standing over the mold with a whisk on and off for about two hours until I finally got the whole thing to stay together. Stuck it in the fridge hoping that would help it set up and got ready for bed.


Of course I just couldn't help peeking and the above photo is what I found. I resignedly covered it with some plastic wrap [to keep out stray cat hair] and set it over in my soaping corner and went to bed, crossing my fingers that when I woke up in the morning it would be soap.


Needless to say, it wasn't. It was moist and oily and I could probably scoop it out with a spoon. Not a quality one looks for in a bar of soap! I did some research and was told to wait, maybe the oils will reabsorb, maybe it will harden up IN A FEW MONTHS, and if all else fails you can always rebatch.


So I waited.. a few days... Okay, I waited until my next day off! It was still oily to the touch so.. a rebatchin' we will go!

Normally with a rebach you grate the soap up, add some water, and apply heat - I've read crock pot, double boiler,and even in the oven. This soap was still so soft and so moist that I had to figure something else out.

Soap guacamole?

First I diced the soap [hey, I got to use my learnin's from culinary school!] It was so soft it actually felt  [and looked] like I was cutting up an avocado! Then, pretty much just because it looked fun and I wanted to know how soft the soap actually was, I mooshed it all up in my hands - hence, soap guacamole!

No extra liquid was needed, it was already going to take FORever to cure as it was, so I just set up a double boiler and let it melt

It did not take long, it was completely melted in one episode of FRIENDS on DVD [no commercials], I figured this would be a great time to do a little experimentation, it couldn't get any worse, right?

So I decided to add poppy seeds for some gentle exfoliation, it is supposed to be facial soap. To make it a bit more manageable I wanted to make it round.

 So I cut off the bottom of a Pringles can, taped the lid on, lined with parchment paper and used a canning funnel to pour the soap in, set it outside [it was pretty cold out, thought it may help it set up].

It was still really soft, normally [from what I've read] rebatch soaps can be cut same-day as they set up in a few hours. Not my rebatch. Being the impatient personality I am [could I have picked a worse hobby?] the next morning I took it out of the mold - I mean, how could the water evaporate out if it's stuck in the Pringles can? The next morning I decided to cut it, how was it supposed to dry out when it's in one big log covered in parchment?


They are by no means perfect cuts, I didn't' want to use my mitre box as they were/are still very soft and the box has grooves in it, didn't want weird indentations in my soap. Some are thin, some are very thick but only on one end, but this was never going to be a soap I was going to sell anyways. Well, not after the separation issue, and I don't think any of the people who will be getting free soap from me will mind that they are a bit crooked, because let me tell you - these soaps smell AHmazing! Just like a fresh cucumber! I didn't know if the cucumber scent would survive, so I added a bit of jasmine - and man was that just the thing to add! It's got this incredible freshness about it that just makes me want to take a bite!

And I just love how the poppy seeds kind of make it look like kiwi! Yum!

Until next time!

Soap I Have Made;

Okay, so this post is going to be mostly pictures [but that's the best part of soap blogs, right?] but you are not allowed to judge too harshly as these are literally ALL the soaps I have made in my whole life.

Starting with my first soap EVER, which is okay as far as first soaps ever go.

My First Soap

TADA! It's super tiny because I had NO idea how much soap 1lb of oils would make [not much] and put it in the large mold I had bought [which I haven't used since by the  by]. Those lovely weird swirlies are, I am told, glycerin swirls and occur sometimes in soap - perfectly normal, perfectly safe. They've become far less noticeable as they've cured.  This soap is 30% good ol' fashioned CRISCO, a whopping 35% Coconut, and 35% rosemary infused olive oil. I also added a bit of tee tree oil.

That same night I made soap #2

Pumpkin Pie

I call this soap Pumpkin Pie because I'm so creative that way. It's [significantly less] coconut, Crisco, and grapeseed oil with pureed pumpkin [out of a can] added to a portion of the soap at trace, along with pumpkin pie spice - and topped with more pumpkin pie spice. It smelled deliciously pumpkin-y for a few days but has since 1 - lost it's pretty orange-ness and 2 - lost it's yummy smell

Soap #3 I started to get a bit more confident

Sea Breeze salt bars

Yep, my third soap ever was a salt bar - I just couldn't bare to keep making crisco soap when the world of soaping offered so many possibilities [I did mention I decided to make soap in the first place 'cause I learned it could be made out of wine]. This one is 100% coconut oil, supperfatted to 20%, about 14oz of salt [by weight] to a one pound of oils recipe. I think I added too much salt because, even though I cut an hour and a half after pour it still came out pretty crumbly [and is still crumbling apart at the bottom - rebatch? maybe!]

Soap #4

Cafe Mocha

I call this one Cafe Mocha, I loved it right away, but my love has faded - maybe once I start using it I will love it again, then again maybe I won't. This one smelled HEAVENLY upon cutting. Just like a delicious mocha. Coffee grounds color the lighter side, while cocoa powder was added to the darker half. I could not stop smelling it! Now it smells vaguely of coffee, but it could be the whole coffee beans on top that I'm smelling.

Soap #5 & #6

Lemon Meringue/Beach Daisies

That's lemon meringue on top, not exactly what I was going for [and actually was bright orange in the mold] I used lemon peel powder and was hoping it would impart some sort of smell into the soap - nope, just brown-y yellow. I colored too much of it yellow, too. It was supposed to look like lemon meringue pie.
Beach daisies [named for the fragrance oil used] was just annoying at first! The fragrance I used accelerated the hell out of the soap, had a little ricing happening. Attempted a swirl anyway, thought it had worked until I got to the bottom of the pot and a big gloppy mess of the uncolored soap just plopped out. The green was colored with kelp powder and boy did that soap STANK when I first  cut it. It has since calmed WAY down, though. I haven't made up my mind on the kelp powder, but I do know I will NOT be using beach daisies again any time soon.

Soap #7 & #8 were made the same day one right after the other and were fun experiments. As they are a surprise for somebody I will not be talking about them just yet.

And we finally roll around to Soap #9

Cucumber soap fail

FAIL!!!


Until next time...

Here Goes Nothin'!

I'm doing it, I'm closing my eyes and jumping in feet first - to the world of blogging! I can't help but feel like maybe my Facebook friends are starting to get a little tired of seeing pictures of soap, and read me talk about soap, and basically just obsess about soap 24/7, so I've decided to explore a more appropriate outlet.

Let's start out with a little about me:
My name is Robin, I'm 23 years old and totally addicted to soap (but you may have already guessed that last part). I came across the realm of soap making a few years ago when I was more interested in making candles. I guess I've just always been crafty! Anyways, I was living in California about to move to Oregon (just for the hell of it, really) and was thinking about selling my candles at the local farmer's market in the small town I was moving to, but they had some pretty strict guidelines as to the types of crafts allowed to sell. Something about how you had to use at least three different items and it had to end up completely different than when it started out. It also specifically forebode selling melt and pour soaps, and mentioned only soap from scratch. That was the first time I'd ever even heard of from scratch soap, so of course I have to do what I always do - research!

I have to admit, I was pretty intimidated about the whole process once I'd looked it up, and lye sounded downright scary! So I never pursued that outlet, I even stopped making candles or any craft, really, as I was living in the smallest studio EVER that didn't even have a stove, just a hot plate that couldn't even boil a pot of water (that's when I waved goodbye to my canning plans, but that's a completely different story).

Luna says "hey" from tiny studio!

Last summer I moved to Washington (I was tired of Oregon) and got a real apartment. I was pretty busy with school and a full time job working at a hotel, until I got fired and then I was busy with school and looking for a job. I didn't end up getting back into the crafting scene until this past February.

Financial aid decided to be really annoying and I haven't been able to get any money for school so I've been down right BORED! I wanted to make a Valentines day present and one thing led to another and I discovered BATH BOMBS! Researching bath bombs led me to a WONDERFUL forum (thanks, Debbie May) that talks about all kinds of homemade bath and body stuff (wow, this is a long story!) All of the crafty-ness got me thinking of making soap (melt and pour, of course, because lye is scary!) but found melt and pour soap wasn't what i was looking for - it just seemed too easy, it just didn't take up enough of my time and I wasn't happy with the look. I basically wanted the look of cold process without the lye.

I was pretty bored and I was just browsing the forums one day and I learned YOU CAN MAKE SOAP OUT OF WINE! This concept was so intriguing to me that I decided to learn more about from scratch soap. The more I read the more I loved, so I just took the plunge - I bought lye and some crisco, gloves, goggles, utensils, containers, and something to act as a mold; I already had coconut oil on hand and a couple essential oils, all I needed was a little courage!  After that first batch of soap, that moment when the whole concoction emulsified, reaching trace! I was hooked! I made a second batch that same day.

The rest is history. I've made a total of 9 batches of soap, some more successful than others, and I don't plan to stop any time soon!