Color inspiration + Swirly Swirls

Color inspiration comes in many forms. I see soap colors in the foods that I eat, the sky and ocean, plants and flowers, photographs, even fabrics. Sometimes the fragrance itself determines the colors I use. This time, my inspiration came from this colorful envelope:

My daughter received a birthday invitation in this bright and colourful envelope, and I knew I wanted to try making a soap that incorporated all of these cheery colors. Plus, I had a couple of micas that I hadn’t tested in CP yet, so I thought that now was as good a time as any…if the new colors went awry, they would probably blend in pretty well with the other colors. These are the colorants I used:

Here is the finished swirled soap in the mold:

I was surprised at how true the colors stayed, they actually ended up matching the colors on the envelope pretty closely, which rarely happens with my unpredictable CP soap colors!   

And now, for a lesson in completely awesome swirling…check out this youtube video from the talented Lori from A Life Deliberate Soap Co., her swirls are absolutely stunning! You can fast forward to about the 10:00 minute mark to see her technique:  

I adore her soaps, they are always so cheery and fun. And, seeing as how it’s my birthday tomorrow, I splurged and treated myself to these soaps from her shop =)

Aren't they so cute?! I have to say, her service was excellent; quick and with personal touches. She even included a couple of sample pieces, yay! I can’t wait to try her soaps! She has lots of fabulous soaps in her shop, which you can check out in her soap shop here: http://alifedeliberatesoapco.bigcartel.com/

 

Saippuaa Suomesta!

I'm practicing my Finnish! =)

This week went by too fast :(  Too much work and not enough time to do much else. However, I received these two lovely packages in the mail from Finland a couple of days ago, and it suddenly made my week so much better :D

The first package contained these 2 gorgeous soaps from Marika at www.kotikemistinpienipaja.blogspot.com

They smell divine and the colors are gorgeous! I love the droplet effect swirl in the mango butter soap, and the hanger swirl technique she used in the pomegranate vanilla soap is amazing…I love it! I am a sucker for milks and butters in soap, and both of these soaps contain milk and butter….I can’t wait to try these out! :D

These next 2 soaps were from Eija at www.eijankudonta.blogspot.com. I absolutely adored her packaging! Each soap was wrapped in tissue with a torn page from a book wrapped around it and tied with twine…so charming!

  

 

 Unwrapped:

The soap on the left is a soap made with lavender water…what a nice idea! I was able to translate the ingredients as olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter, almond oil and  lavender water. The soap on the right is made with olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter, castor oil, kultapiisku (flower) water and is fragranced with an apple scent…it smells so good, like a giant apple cookie! I am so in love with them both!

Thank you both for these lovely soaps, I have enjoyed this swap so much. Thank you Marika for organizing it! I had a rough week, so these were definitely a highlight for me :)

By the way, this was my first chance to play with the photo editing program PicMonkey, which Amy & Amy recommended in my earlier photo tutorial blog post. I really like this program and will definitely keep playing around with it….it’s super user friendly and has all the features I need without being overwhelming, so thanks for the great recommendation =)
 

Banana Milk, Oatmeal & Honey Soap

I think I've mentioned before that oatmeal, milk and honey is one of my favorite soaps to make. I decided to change it up this time (I can never seem to make the same soap twice!), and try a banana milk version this time with banana milk, oatmeal and honey:

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will remember this hot processed version I made with banana milk a few months ago:

It smelled so good coming out of the oven, like banana bread!

And here is the super easy recipe for banana milk:

 

MP + CP Soap Challenge

I finally got around to making these soaps that I wanted to try for Amy's (Great Cakes Soapworks) Soap Challenge. You can see her challenge post here: Combining melt and pour and cold process soaps. I’ve been wanting to try a couple of new techniques for a while now, so this challenge gave me the opportunity to try both! 

These were my results:

First I made the mini cupcakes, which stand only about 1.5 inches tall. The mold that I used was actually a candy cup mold (for making peanut butter cups). I melted and poured some green soap that was fragranced with Pear into the candy mold until it was half full, and then let that set up. Then I poured melted honey soap that was fragranced with Clementine Cupcake over the green layer, filling the candy cups to the top.

While those were setting up, I made a small batch of cold process soap and colored a portion of it with yellow oxide and gold mica. I had never piped soap before, but I’ve been wanting to try it for a while. I used a large Ziploc bag as an icing bag; I cut the tip off one bottom corner of the bag, just big enough to insert the icing tip through. Then I tied off the bag with a twist tie, just above the tip, so that when I put the soap into the bag it wouldn’t spill out of the tip until I was ready to take the twist tie off to pipe. I put the tip side of the Ziploc bag down into a large cup and folded the extra bag over the top of the large cup, this helped hold the bag open to make it easier for me to fill.

I experimented with 2 different tips and played around with different designs. While the soap was still wet, I inserted a small piece of green ribbon.

With the remainder of the soap, I had some fun and did some soap sculpting, which is also something I’ve been meaning to try for a while. This little snowman and his scarf are formed out of cold process soap, and the nose and arms are MP soap. And yes, you should probably remove his pointy little arms before the first use ;)

Thank you Amy for the fun challenge, it was the motivation I needed to give these new things a try! 

 

Sharing a Photo Tutorial

 

I wanted to share this helpful photo tutorial that I came across. Ashley from Little Miss Momma does an excellent job explaining how she takes photos for her blog. I actually use the exact same set-up, just a white poster board, natural light and a point-and-shoot camera. I use Photobucket to edit my pictures, but I’ll have to check out Picasa…I definitely need something super user-friendly! She has lots of great tricks and tips...you can check out her tutorial here: Little Miss Momma PhotoTutorial

 

Glacial Marine Clay Soap

I have had glacial clay in my stash for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to using it lately. I should be using it more, I wish I had thought to use it in some of the swaps I have done lately. Glacial Marine Clay (INCI: Canadian Colloidal Clay) is an extremely mineral-rich clay that is harvested from the pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada. 

It comes as a greenish-grey powder and belongs to the green family of clays. Glacial marine clay can be used in a variety of products including facial masks, mud baths, body wraps, and of course soap. It is gently exfoliating and has a pH factor of 6.5-7.3, very close to neutral. 

To use it in soap, I hydrated it in a bit of distilled water first. I used just a little bit of glacial clay in one layer of my soap log, as I couldn't recall how much to use for a gentle exfoliation. This picture of the side of the soap log shows the layer of glacial clay better:

And cut:

I used black oxide for a darker grey contrast but next time I will use more clay, as the piece I lathered up today wasn't too scratchy at all.

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to mention that this soap log started to crack in a couple of places on the top after I had poured it, so I used the trick of spritzing the top liberally with rubbing alcohol and then smoothing the cracks with my gloved hands, it worked great!

 

Mango Butter Soap

I had a new mango fragrance oil that I wanted to try, and I thought hmmm...what better to pair with mango fragrance oil than mango butter?!

Mango Butter Soap:
(48 ounces / 3 lb oils)

16 oz olive oil (34%)
15 oz palm oil (31%)
14 oz coconut oil (29%)
3 oz mango butter (6%)

15 oz distilled water

6.76 oz lye

Sodium lactate (optional) 0.67 ounces added to lye water

Mango fragrance oil (I used Mango Sorbet from Nature’s Garden)

Notes:

I stickblended titanium dioxide into my base oils, because I wanted a creamy-white color to the soap.

To color the mango portion: I dissolved yellow oxide in distilled water and added some non-bleeding liquid red color.

 

I didn’t gel this soap, because I wanted the soap to stay creamy looking. I put the soap in the freezer overnight to prevent gel. 

The lather is very creamy; I will probably add a bit of castor oil next time to see if it boosts the bubbles.