Bath Truffles??? Hmmmm....

I have to admit, I am not a real big fan of chemical type stuff.  Yes, I know lye is a chemical and a chemical reaction creates soap and things like the preservative in my lotion = chemical too! I know....BUT....if I can avoid ingredients like SLS or even SLSA  then I will.  That being said:

I WANT TO MAKE FIZZY THINGS!!!!

Actually...I want to add something simple like bath truffles to the line up.  I considered bath melts, but this is Texas. It gets HOT in the summer and yes folks, summer has basically arrived.  Since I live so far out, and since I ship things as far as California (where the fam is you know), things that melt are no bueno...it's too hot between here and there to trust it would arrive without ice packs and that doesn't go over well with things that dissolve in water either!

Then I thought "Hmmm...perhaps truffles?"  I actually saw this video by the Soap Queen about how to make bath truffles   and the second half of it has a recipe without SLS in it...

I'm torn...I dunno....the OTHER major issue we face here in the "armpit of Texas" is the humidity!  Oh yes, we call it the armpit of Texas because just like an armpit it is sweaty, sticky, and wet here like 75% of the year! Yuck right?  You adjust...sort of...actually not really.  But you get over it at least :)

The final issue: I DO NOT HAVE A TUB!  That's right, remember we are a "shower only" household....I'm gonna have to get a baby pool to test these in LOL or find some nice kind guinea pigs (which I can always find) to do my testing for me....

So I guess I am still in the "I dunno" stage - I really want to add a little something else to the line up, but I dunno if it will survive the climate and such...we shall see.....we shall see....

Moving on, the Elemental Swirl: Third try = the charm?

OR...is it just that the FIRST try of each technique is the charm???  Who knows right?  All I know is now I can't wait until the weekend comes to share this one - heck, if you are reading this it might already BE the weekend :) It seems for me, with the challenge, I should leave "well enough alone" and stick to one attempt on things...ok universe, I get it, can do!

So...I went on into the soap room bout, eh, 6ish this evening (Actually yesterday evening now...Wednesday night that is).  I got EVERYTHING prepped to do my version of the "Elemental Swirl".  Then, I walked away.  Oh yes, it was time to milk, then dinner and so on...I figured there was no storm blowing through tonight and odds would be in my favor if I waited until after ALL the critters were fed! Plus, I really didn't know if I had it in me to get back in there...but then while I was waiting on the chicken to finish roasting for dinner, I came across a blog post by another soap challenge taker and I was really and truly inspired to stop pouting and get back in that soap room.  Sometimes, I must admit, the farming thing can kinda drive you nuts...this has been one of those weeks!  But I put on my big girl panties and in I went...

'Bout 10p.m. I headed in - ready to do battle!  Flashlight always handy, just in case, everyone on lock down, gloves and goggles on, here I come to tackle a batch of soap with NO INTERRUPTIONS! See now, I was (and still am) VERY excited about this one!  I had some Cucumber Melon fragrance oil from Nature's Garden that I had been meaning to soap - and when I heard about the soap challenge BAM! It hit me!  THAT was the one for the elemental swirl!!!

Milk and lye, all mixed up and ready (oils not pictured ready too :) )

A hot mess of colors and cups, ready to mix away - see my oils off to the left there? Also - please note the splash of purple on the wall above the single red cup...see it?  Oh yes, that would be a splash from the spill in my great Leopard attack the night before!  I still don't know how I came away from that one unscathed....no back to the soap at hand...

The greens and the yellows needed no stick blending - I choose those three on a plain soap base because they reminded me of how both cucumbers and watermelons often have a bit of yellow in the rind portion...The black hadn't been blended yet when I paused to snap this, but I was going for watermelon-y reds/pinks with a bit of black like the seeds ya know?

I didn't get any pics of me mixing it all in the pots...i was way too excited to slow down for the camera!  First...in goes the red bit....I kinda over did it with the swirling thing, it's a little curfuddled and more muddy than I was going for, but hey...I'll take it!  At least a tree limb hadn't come through the roof yet and no goats had strolled through the kitchen either!  Gotta take what you can get in terms of perfection LOL :)

It's more red/pink than white closer to the bottom - funny how you can over stir part of it and not the rest right?  Okay...so then I choose the pearly white mica for my pencil line.  Sticking with the whole "melon slice" theme I was going for, I wanted the white line to be there like that ucky white part only chickens and pigs eat on a melon...

I'm just ITCHING to see how that white line comes out...a little scared it WON'T come out!  Looks silvery a bit in this lighting doesn't it?  Oh well...I must admit here - when I have done "pencil lines" until now I have used a strainer thing-a-ma-jig that I have.  But this time I tried Madame GreatCakes herselfs hint and used an old pair of panty hose over a little jar and YES!  Hausfrau farm wife me did have a pair in the closet still (of course I have never worn them LOL, pulled 'em fresh outta the package! Thank goodness I'm not froo froo anymore!) LOVED that little trick!

Then, ever so gently, on with the green layer....

I ended up with the coolest ever ribbons of green down the middle! I ALMOST left it like that too!  But, alas, I had pink/red bits left and couldn't resist swirling the top a bit....

On with the melon colored madness...annnnnnddd....then we swirls it all :)

Now, here's where I had a VERY tough moment - to glitter or not to glitter - that is the question????  After staring at it VERY hard for a moment, I went with "or not".  A little tidly wee bit of shine from the mica is coming through in that darker red and I decided I liked that.  No, not a ton like melt and pour soap would give it...but enough...A nice little pop of "look real close to see how special this soap is" if you will.

The best part?  The VERY best part?  I only had enough fragrance to do this one ONCE right now at least LOL....I won't be going back for a round 2 on this soap for a while!  So...knock on wood...long as the rest of that oak tree stays put and doesn't fall into my soap room we are safe for a while!  

****************************************************************

And....drum roll ya'll............

 

Sorry, it's a tid bit out of focus - my shaky hands would not cooperate tonight.  But...Me likey :) :) :)

The pencil line in white = bad idea - you can BARELY see it there (of course maybe if I went with darker colors it would be better...but I like the lighter pastely look for this scent).  IF you look reeaaallllly close, it looks more like tiger stripes than swirls LOL!!!  I suppose that is a big "cosmic laugh at me" kinda thing though - I asked for tiger stripes last week danggit and NOW I get them!  Oh my...I'm still laughing at my reaction when I cut it!  "WHAT?  Stripes now??" It took my 2 slices in to catch on too - at first I was all "ooh, ahh" and THEN a very loud WHAT was heard all across the county - sorry ya'll, it was me (my husband seriously came in to check on me as I was talking very loudly to myself as I cut this one haha!) I still love it though!  

Note to self for next time:  more red, no white, in the bottom part...maybe a thin white SOAP middle layer...and no pink stuff on top, perhaps a mica swirl on top and insulate and gel it - usually my soaps do well on their own once I put the lid on them, but it got colder in here last night than I thought! I shoulda wrapped it in a towel or 2, eh, next time I will watch the temp in the house better (I don't recall inviting winter to return either - it's been crazy cold for APRIL the last few days!) Oh well, no big deal right? Ya know, for a cucumber melon scent, I really like the way it came out! It has melon colors, it has cucumber colors, and a little bit of sparkly from the micas I used.  Tres nice :)

Now I need to make a decision for the next challenge - mica swirl tops and such....hmmm...I made a really neat one last month and I know it will go fast among the friends and family.  DO I TAKE A CHANCE ON ROUND 2???  Or do I do something totally different????  We shall see.....

 

Spots Round 2, not that great, but not that bad....

Ok, so FIRST of all...the destruction from Tiger Stripes Day:

Do you see where they knocked down not one but TWO of the boards that form a "fence"...yup...I know, I SUCK at construction work!  But still - this little lean too I built was BUCK proof! See the guilty party looking at me like I was hampering HER fun? MMMmhhhhmmm...names Pomegranate but it SHOULD be trouble!

So...anyways...I went out this morning to take a look at the reason for my heart attack last night in the dark.  First off, you GOTTA see this tree:

This is the tree that gives me my "theme" for what I call "Rustic" (a vanilla oak scent by Brambleberry) - since it is one BIG, GIANT, OLD oak tree I figure it is perfect.  BUT, it does hand over the house, and when there is the combo of a major storm rolling through, a giant crashy noise AND the lights blink out you can see why I jumped and spilled my soap right?  First thought, much like that old t.v. show Sanford & Son was "Lord, Here I come!"  But then I was still alive a few moments later right?  So, okay, here's what I found this morning:

A nice, large, HUGE actually, dent in the roofing over the back porch...caused by:

A limb the size of a young tree!!!!  Yup, I was trying to soap and mother nature was throwing curve balls at me - literally!

So...I did all my hausfrau farmer stuff for the day and lastly I headed in to clean up the mess from the prior evening.  I scraped my now saponified soapy mess off of the floor and weighed it - almost 9ounces of wasted soap, nearly 2 bars worth if you will.  Alright, I guess it's not as bad as I thought. I initially was guessing I had about a pound of Love Spell scented floor cleaner down there - because once it hits the floor that's what it becomes right?

Then...to make myself feel better...I re-batched some scraps and such I had kicking around.  Scented it with rosemary mint and went for the "marbeled natural herbal look" with it.  While I was cooking that down, I did the dishes from the prior evening and started dinner and fiddle with the laundry...we shall see how it came out, but I feel pretty good about it.  Just waiting for it to cool now....anyways..so I held my breath and I cut into "Leopard Spots Round 2"...ok...remember how Round 1 came out???

Not too bad right?  I was kinda dreading round 2 because I had given up after the spill....but....

It's not too bad :)  Still has a bit of the "leopard look" to it...really pretty swirl that's for sure...I guess I am on the same crappy fence I built with this one eh?  Hmmmm....haven't finished cutting it yet - it's still kinda soft and not even 24 hours old yet!  We'll see...still smells good, as far as the 'soap' part it's still soap...just not exactly what I was going for, but kinda nifty in it's own right ain't it?

I suppose the moral here is this:  Even when you nearly wet your pants in fear and make a royal mess of things, it can still turn out sudsy :)

Hands as Steady as a Parkinson's Patient....

No really - I say that in all honesty.  Some days I wonder about myself, but I am not that fond of doctors and in no mood for a diagnoses...but let's just say I seriously have the least steady hands of anyone I know.  I use the phrase Parkinson's Patient in the title here because it's true...my grandmother AND her sisters ALL had Parkinson's - it's something else to live with that's for sure.  So I know my slight tremor in my hands and inability to sit still without random twitches is probably a sign I am headed that way myself...

Now, what does that have to do with soap?  This:

That would be my cherry almond scented soap - yes, goat milk soap like always - look closely, closer...

You can tell the hands that piped those cherries and stems are NOT steady hands - so I added glitter :P  Sparklies cover up my shaky hands.  Well, not really, but they add a little distraction that's for sure!

It still looks pretty good, and since I am never going to have steady hands and one day it MAY get worse I'm over it.  For now, for me, it's freakin' awesome! This is also why you won't be seeing cupcake soaps here anytime soon.  I can do some piping and frosting type designs - but limited easy stuff.  If it gets too complicated my hands get all shaky, and the design turns into a blob - no bueno I declare!  I am gonna have to stick primarily to swirls and drizzles and layers and such.  Things that don't need precision are more what my hands can handle.

I got the idea from a Soap Queen blog - she did apples - but I don't really like apple scents.  I did have cherry though...totally perfect for the design with a few tweaks!

Also...I forgot to post pics of the sleepy time soap after I cut it!

I think the colors are perfectly divine versions of purples! And it came out just how I had pictured it...this how my mind is when I go to sleep with lavender in the room.  All floaty foggy purple happiness with a little fluffy cloudy dream topping!  I know - I'm so one of those crazy impressionist artists aren't I?  But, me likey :)

I'm thinking maybe this evening I want to do a fresh batch of oats, milk, and honey OR maybe black raspberry vanilla with a peacock swirly top....I dunno just yet.  Today is actually a "work outside all day" kind of day.  So tonight I may just go right to bed lol :)  We shall see....guess I better head back out tho....

Drawing Inspiration from others...

I often draw inspiration and ideas from other soapers and their blogs and websites.  Let's be honest here:  I am crafty but not creative.  Yes, there is a difference between the 2! 

Crafty people are very good at copying patterns and recipes - they may have a bit of creativity as I feel I do and they may be able to change things up just so as to make it look a tidly bit different.  But ultimately, they draw inspiration from others and not from within.

Now, creative people are also crafty, but they have the added touch of being able to pull random, clever and original ideas out of their own minds.  I do NOT have that ability!  I do, like I said, draw my inspiration from them...take for example this one:

Oil and Butter is one of my faves to see what is going on!  I LOVE the leopard spots and want to try it in the next batch of soap...or maybe the one after it...with Love Spell as the scent.  I do want to change up the color scheme some though...just haven't decided on one yet.  But the whole blog is just so well done, with gorgeous soaps and photos!  It gives me something to try out, new and different stuff, I LOVE it!

Then there is Soaping 101 on youtube - another one I love to watch over and over lol....for someone who doesn't watch much t.v. I sure do like to watch a lot of soap making on youtube!  I saw her video on altered mica lines, happened to have a bunch of shimmery micas given to me by another soaper that weren't great IN cold process soaps, but work PERFECTLY for this technique (I discovered now that I have played with them) and I never would have thought of it if I hadn't seen her do it first!

The Soap Queen  herself is another one who pops up with great ideas that I often find myself needing to try out at least once - one of her latest is a soap with little "apples" on top...I want to do the same thing, but change it to cherries for my cherry almond soap I intend to make...and I never in a million years would have thought of that on my own...I'm just not creative, but I am crafty enough to follow directions :P

Please remember, like "Teach" says in her mica line video - give credit where credit is due!  That kinda hit me last night - I like to post pics of clever things I make, but I had been forgetting to let ya'll know where my bright ideas come from!  So...if you ever get an idea from another soaper, share the source of that idea with others. And...there's been rumors of all sorts of crazy thievery going around the internet lately.  From fodder to soap to lotions...people will stop at nothing to make a buck I tell ya!  Just keep in mind, to be blunt, karma is a BITCH!  Don't steal - it will come back to bite you in the ass when you least expect it! Trust me...I've seen it happen to dishonest people time and again...honesty is ALWAYS the best policy ya'll!

Now, go check out those links and tell me you don't get like a million zillion ideas for things you want to try yourself!  It's so hard to resist experimenting with designs after you see those lovely pictures!

Presenting "Rustic" and "Country Skies"...

I promised photos and photos we have!

Nothing overly special or new for me here...just a fresh batch of each to replenish my stock.  First we have "Rustic".  Right now it is creamy...but it will go as dark brown as the bar on the far left corner of the picture on the edge there...see it...barely?  Yup, it's a delightful 'vanilla oak' scent with hints of patchouli that make it smokey but sweet.  Very popular and I always sell out!  This time I added some sparkly green mica to the top and a pencil line or two really, as well.  Can't wait until it's ready to use!

Then we have what I call "Country Skies".  Its a fresh out doorsy manly type scent - very green but ozoney all in one - hard to describe but yummy to smell.  Perfect for the country boy in your life!  This bar will stay a lovely bright white with pale blue wisps through it, just like big fluffy white clouds in the sky!

Each bar weighs in between 5 and 6 ounces...most are closer to 6.  Since I am making bigger bars now prices may inch up a tad, but it's totally worth it to have more of your favorite soaps!  They both are made of olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, castor oil, safflower oil, goat milk of course, sodium hydroxide, a touch of sodium lactate and fragrance oils and colors too...It's all really good stuff when you combine it into a bar of soap!






Until next time, stay dirty ya'll!

Why weight holds weight with me....

No, not my own weight lol...long as I don't need to buy bigger pants I don't care what I weigh :)  I mean weight in regards to soap making (and lotions and such too).  It's so important to weigh your ingredients out as you soap instead of guessing or going by volume.  A comment made the other night put this thought into my head to share...follow along if you will....

These 2 bottles pictured above are a perfect example of a few things in soap making. Weight and volume are not the same and scales are important to have!  My husband actually pointed it out which got me thinking - he does not make soap (thank goodness) - when he said "Why'd they send you half empty bottles?" as I unpacked my supply haul.  He's a "glass half empty" kinda person, can you tell? Well, I had news for him.  This is a case of the glass being half full not empty!

One bottle is glycerin (for mixing colorants) and the other is sodium lactate (for my soaps).  They each weighed over 16 ounces, which is good because that's what I paid for :P! To compare, below is a picture of the exact same packaging, but different product:

On the left is the sodium lactate (weighing in at 17.8 ounces) and on the right is a brand new bottle of avocado oil (weighing in at 18 ounces even).  Crazy, but it goes to show that weight is critical when soaping! Two different ingredients, which take up different amounts of space (or have different volumes) but weigh the same.  Kind of the difference between a ton of feathers and a ton of sand. This is why working by weight in soap making is crucial.

You need to have a fairly accurate scale and a digital one at that, one that weighs in grams and/or tenths of ounces at least to soap properly.  Especially when making smaller batches of stuff!  Being off by just a tad in a small batch can be a BIG disaster!  To me, it's like grains of rice....another dorky analogy...

If you need 4 grains of rice, but you have 5, it's a noticeable difference.  Not only can you see it, but the percentage of extra rice is 25% of what you should have.  Now, on the other hand, if you need 50 grains of rice and you have 55 you are less likely to notice the 5 extra grains aren't you? Then, when you do the math that's only 10% more than you should have - a smaller difference.  Soaping is much like that when you look at the grand scheme of things.

I have found that the bigger a batch is of something the more forgiving it is to an extra tenth of an ounce of something, but the smaller a batch is the more accurate I need to be...in comes the part about a good scale!  If your scale only measures in crude ounces or doesn't have grams as an option it becomes far harder to end up with accurate amounts of oils and such...which leads us to the next issue.  Weigh everything every time!!! Don't get all cocky and start using your measuring cups or guessing and eyeballing stuff - eventually this will blow up on you.

That's right, you heard me...WEIGH IT OUT WITH A SCALE!  Sure, there are some soapers out there who use recipes that have measurements in cups and teaspoons.  Maybe it works for them, kudos to them, and good luck.  I've even seen videos on youtube where people are making soap using what I call "kitchen measurements" - those cups and teaspoons I mentioned instead of a scale.  In my opinion they are purely lucky!  Clearly, as demonstrated by the two different products being two different VOLUMES in the same exact bottle and pictured above, one cup of sodium lactate is going to weigh more than one cup of avocado oil.  Weight and volume are not the same thing and are not interchangeable when it comes to soaping!  Take the chance when you bake a cake...not when you are making a loaf of soap....there's no caustic lye in cake batter but there is in soap batter.  See where I'm going with this?

Be patient, be accurate, and invest in a decent quality digital scale and 99% of the time your soap will turn out perfectly (there's always that oddball batch...it happens...soap gone wild and such).  But if you gamble with your weights and measurements be prepared for more failure than those of us that don't.  Accuracy and attention to detail are what make a really good soaper. We all have a bad night or a bad batch, but your odds are so much better when you are accurate!

Anyways...off my little soap box now and back to my soap room.  I shall have pictures in the next day or two of the 2 loaves of soap I cooked up this evening :) Until then my friends, stay dirty!

Spring Supply Haul :) (one of many to come)

So, soap room complete (let's not mention the kitchen though...) I headed into town today to pick up my boxes.  They were waiting for me at my little post office store...not the boxes as much as the guy that runs the place lol.  He was outside when I walked up and said "You have a STACK of stuff!"  I knew it, I just wanted to wait until the last box had arrived before I drove 50+ miles round trip to get it all! Graciously they helped me cart it out - it took 2 of us :P I was so so excited until I got home...then I was frazzled a bit upon closer inspection...I know it wasn't my po box people because they always put my boxes up special since they are usually labeled FRAGILE...no really.  They have a few shelves and my stuff is ALWAYS up high and safe.  They know I soap, they know some of this stuff can be overwhelming to smell all day if a bottle busts, and they take care of me.  The delivery companies however CLEARLY could care less....

Now...let me just start off with this...I don't know what I ever on earth did to UPS and FedEx, but they HATE me!  Seriously, twice at least now they have flat out lied about leaving a box on my porch (once it was in a strangers mail box and the other time down at an abandoned house), and MANY times I have gotten packages in questionable shape. Today was no exception, what was I expecting right? I really think they see my name on something and it's red flagged to try to trash it....

Exhibit A:  This poor little box looked like it was part of the UPS weekend company football game - AS THE BALL!  All beat up :( Not one corner was a corner, they were all dinged in and it had what would be described on a human as multiple contusions (or if you want to say bruises of the cardboard kind you can).

Then there's Exhibit B and C:  SERIOUSLY! How many times do you need to put a sticker that says "FRAGILE" in BRIGHT RED on something before they believe it????  Apparently the answer is "7" because this box had SIX of those stickers and STILL it had HOLES in it!!!  I was seeing red and it was NOT the stickers before my eyes, it was anger I believe...Below is a picture of just one of the holes, but this poor victim had at least 2!

Do you also see the second smaller box underneath (Don't worry, I wasn't squashing it, that big box is ULTRA light and the littler one is actually twice as heavy)...anyways, do you SEE the corner on that little one? Somehow, some way, the phrase "FRAGILE Handle with CARE" in plain English and also in red translates into "delivery driver speak" for "kick this box, dent it, and pray no one catches you on camera like that dude with the TV who made the news".  Why oh why do they treat my packages like this?  I just don't get it...someone tell me I am not the only one...

Needless to say I was a tad bit concerned for the health and well being of the contents...but...drum roll ya'll.........EVERYTHING ARRIVED IN ONE PIECE!!!!! Yup, miracles DO happen other times of the year besides Christmas folks!  There were no leaks, no spills, no broken bits and each and every package was entirely there!  I sat down and emailed every supplier a thank you note too.  It takes people who are conscientious and caring in how they do their job to pack something so well that even FedEx and UPS can't destroy it!

So...I bet you wanta see what I got huh? Well...all unpacked it looks like this:

There's bottles, lids, oils, butters, fragrances, new molds, new equipment, colors...oh it's a soaping wonderland I declare! Crazy right?  You should see the price tag on that table top lol...this stuff ain't cheap! But, it is all GREAT quality and from wonderful suppliers!

Here's my quasi-replenished oil stash:

In the WAY back is my lye order that came the other day...I already put it up safe and sound last week since it was the first box to arrive :) There's still not that much there, I have a few more orders to place actually, but this is what I could get from Kroger today while I was out - they ran outta oil before I ran outta money haha!  I wanted at least one more olive oil and all they had was 2! Oh well...it'll keep me busy for a few days :P Plus I brought home some more paper towels and such I would be needing, so the trip to Kroger wasn't a total loss, even if they were running low on ginormous olive oil jugs...

There's a few scents that aren't really my favorite that I bought as samples and in smaller sizes, though they may soap better you never know, a few I just love and keep going in to smell, and some really neat samples and little bonuses :)  All in all it turned out to be a happy occasion, though to judge by the boxes they were a tad bit sad upon arrival.

So, I dare say It Begins!  Now if only I can find a minute to get creative with this stuff :P