Cold Process and Hot Process Soap Photos

I've been busy making some soap - here are some photos!

Melt & Pour:

Melt & Pour:

Rebatched (granite rocks!):

Cold process, forced gel. I am finding that my forced gel soaps have tiny cracks in the color:

Rebatch:

Rebatch (sorry for the blurry pic!) scented with orange essential oil with a teaspoon of coffee grounds:

Poured at thick trace, cold process, partial gel (oops!):

Cold process slab swirl, ungelled:

Hot process:

Hot process:

Creamsicle Soapsicles - Soap on a Stick Melt & Pour Project

I've been dying to make these cute soapsicles for months now.  I found a smallish size popsicle mold at Target this morning for $1.00 - perfect!

Orange color. Check. Orange essential oil. Check. Clear soap. Goats milk melt & pour. Popsicle sticks. Check. Check. Check.

They are so cute, but how on earth do you get these sweet treats out of the mold? I tried freezing for 5 minutes, then immersed in warm water. Nope. They wouldn't budge. I was afraid to pull too hard because the stick might slip out! I'm thinking maybe I should have sprayed a little oil in the molds before filling them. But I wouldn't want an oily little soap.

I finally got them out. I placed them in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then dipped in very hot water for about 30 seconds. I tugged a little more aggressively than before, and voila! They slid right out. This is a simple, fun project. I'll be making more flavors of these for sure. And @ $1.00 per 8-cavity mold, I will go back and purchase a few more. Can't beat that price!

I made these for my son to give to his teachers on his last day of school Tuesday.

Embedding Water Soluble Paper in MP Soap - FAIL!

Just a few days ago I highlighted my beautiful melt and pour soaps made with water soluble paper. Here's what can happen in just a few short days. I believe I did everything right but look at this cloudy mess! And it appears the paper has started to bleed. It's blurry!

Why did my clear soap get so cloudy? Maybe I heated it too much? I don't know. It looked perfect just a couple days ago and now this! 

I think I will try one more time, but here's what I'm going to do:

• Wait one full week after printing my water soluble paper to use it.
• Mix a tad more blue color into the clear base.
• Use a much THINNER layer of clear. 

I embedded the paper in the center of the soap hoping the image would last longer, but now I see it just makes it more difficult to view the image.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Melt and Pour Soap Method Using Water Soluble Paper Images!

It was just too hot today to don my CP garb (goggles, mask, gloves, long sleeves) so I made some fun melt and pour soaps!

This is the first time I've used water soluble paper. I printed my images a few days ago and sprayed them very lightly with aerosol hairspray.  I added just a very small touch of blue to the clear base (this is called "bluing" so the clear layer doesn't look so yellow) and once a thin layer of skin formed, placed the picture face down.  Once that hardened, I spritzed ever-so-lightly- with alcohol so that my layers would bond but the soluble paper wouldn't dissolve. Goats milk white soap base over that layer and voila! 

(The ripples on the surface are caused by saran wrap so my soaps don't sweat in this humidity!)

  

How FUN are these soaps - and the sky is the limit as to what you can embed! I embedded a photo printed on water soluble paper of my brother and his wife and I am planning to sneak it onto their sink this week.

Wonderful Daisy Flexible Mold from Bramble Berry

Here is a photo of my sweet daisies made with Bramble Berry's Daisy Flexible Mold. You can purchase this mold here.

It doesn't get any cuter!

Soap Queen's Aloha Contest

I was a winner of Soap Queen's Aloha Contest!

I was so excited to have been chosen, as I don't seem to have much luck with contests.  I got to choose FOUR of Bramble Berry's hottest flexible summer soap molds as my prize!  Here's what I chose and a link to where you can purchase them.

 

Aren't they the coolest? I found they work easier with melt and pour base than CP soap, so I've ordered some melt and pour from Bramble Berry to make some more!  And as if winning the four molds wasn't enough, they even threw in some sample fragrances - Sea Shore Cybilla and Tropical Vacation! Mmmmmmm...

 

Thank you, Soap Queen. And thank you Bramble Berry for the excellent products and service you provide! I love reading Soap Queen's blog and Teach Soap!