Lining a Pringles can for soaping!

I know soapmakers can be pretty creative and thrifty with items to use as soap molds. One that my honey had been wanting to try for a while was a Pringles can. I guess he just liked the idea of it. I had a small long piece of loofah that I wanted to use in a round soap, but thought it would look funny in my larger heavy duty round column mold, so I agreed to try it out in the chip can. We gave his teenage brother some cash to go pick up a tube of Pringles from the store for us, and he got to eat the chips, so it was a win-win for everyone. 

We racked our brains trying to figure out how to line this can. It seemed that most soapers online suggested not lining at all, but there was a very high possibility the soap wouldn't come out cleanly. Some suggested lining with freezer paper, but we are bad at measurements..... So my honey came up with the brilliant idea to use a flexible plastic cutting board sheet. The idea is the same as the liner that comes with Bramble Berry's column mold. We didn't trim it to size, just let it overlap itself. A little soap seeped between in places, but not bad at all, even with a fairly thin trace. It actually worked really great! 

Can you tell a teenage boy picked this flavor of chips?

We cut off the metal bottom, secured the top with plastic wrap and the lid, and wrapped it well for a really good gel. We waited two days to unmold, just in case, and it slid right out without a hitch. These plastic sheets are really cheap too, less than three dollars each, and easy to find at kitchen stores, dollar stores, etc. (Here's an example of what we used, in case you've never seen one or know them by a different name.)

The soap was a little difficult to cut, of course, with all that loofah in it. It was actually more like sawing a log. I left that job to my honey, and he did as good or better than I probably would have. He even beveled the edges with a veggie peeler. Definitely not the prettiest soap I've ever seen, but I think it will be really nice. The loofah was very soft, and we also used a new recipe with palm kernel oil and lots of cocoa butter, plus essential oils of lavender and tea tree. It was hard for me, but I left it uncolored.....

I know it would have been easier to slice the loofah up and use individual cavity molds instead, but I wanted to try this out. Not sure if maybe there is an easier way to slice through the soap and loofah without making such a mess, but I will definitely take any advice on the subject!

More of what I've been making

Just a peek at some of the soaps I've made over the last week or two. We've (yes, we!) been trying our hand at piping, which was a little nerve-wracking for me since I've never so much as even piped icing before! I piped the tops of two batches of soap that turned out pretty nice I think, but our attempts at cupcakes.....not so much. We'll just have to work on it some more, right??

Here is Carrot Cupcake, a long-time favorite fragrance of mine, definitely more spicey than cakey. I used cranberry and apricot seeds in the bottom to give it a bit of a spice cake look, as well as a very small amount of the top orange color ITP. In hindsight, I wish I'd had some orange colored soap on hand to shred up for the bottom to look like carrots, but I am still tickled pink with this soap--my very first piped soap! 

Washcloth made by my mommy :)

I felt insecure about my piping at the time.....solution was to add glitter!

The slight orange swirl

My next piped soap was more of an actual design, or at least an attempt at one. I finally used some of my Cherry Blossom fragrance in CP, and I was really really happy with it! The kitchen smelled so divinely light and sweet, mmmm. I did a height-pour and spoon swirl, then a messy swirl on top before piping on sort of a lattice greenery and some little plops of flowers. The top did get a little ashy, and the loaf was extremely soft still after three days in the mold. I always seem to jinx myself when I talk about things on the blog: "Guys, check it out, my plastic storage boxes always gel my soaps!!" Next batch, no gel. Hmph!

The natural lighting wasn't working in my favor today,
I swear it's not really THAT bright....

I really love this photo, the colors ready to go!

Sorry, no cupcake photos..... 

I also am really excited about the batch of Eggnog scented soap we made with goat's milk and real egg yolks. It had such a decadent and creamy texture when I poured it into the mold, and it smells absolutely wonderful! I can't wait to try this soap to see what kind of properties the egg actually added. As you can see, the fragrance oil has turned this soap very dark, but I did add some TD to the top portion. 

Here it was in the mold. I think this is one my favorite
"wet soap" photos of mine. Mmm!

Last but not least, I have started working on some fabric flower pins for Christmas gifts. I found some really pretty fabrics at Wal-Mart for fairly cheap and thought the colors worked really well together. I also added some of the glitter tulle I already had, some fuzzy yarn and a few beads. I know it's not soap, but I was super happy with how my first one turned out and wanted to share. 

Thanks for having a look, hope everyone has a great and productive weekend! (So I can have a look at all your soaps, tehe!)

Are you gellin'?

I am always seeing soapers online sharing the creative ways they insulate their soaps. I have definitely tried a lot of different ways to ensure a gel phase for my own soaps, because I just love the look and feel of gelled soaps, and it makes working with silicone molds and avoiding ash a lot easier in my opinion. 

When I first started soaping, I insulated with just plain ol' plastic wrap and a towel. After I started playing around with different heights and decorations for the tops of my soaps, I started putting my molds into cardboard boxes and then covering with plastic wrap and a towel, but I found this didn't hold heat well. So then I flipped the box over the soap mold sitting on a towel and covered with another. Then I bought a heating pad, and I've definitely had the best results using that. The pad is small though, and only two of my silicone loafs will fit on top of it at a time. I tend to go all out on soaping days with at least two loaves, sometimes three, or extra soap poured off into smaller multi-cavities I want to use for embeds, so the heating pad didn't always cover everything.

Now that I am living in a house with other people, I am trying to be a bit more courteous and tidy on my soaping days, and started looking for a way to keep my soaps warm, out of the way, and safe from dust, dog hair and nosy passersby. 

Lucky for me, I have a pretty impressive collection of plastic storage boxes now from my recent move. Some of those were just the perfect size for my silicone loaf molds to fit inside and still have plenty of room to cover with the plastic lid. So far I've gotten a quick and full gel every time I've used these boxes, and.....they are stackable! That is, if you trust your tower of "sleeping" soaps not to be bumped into wherever you're storing them at the time!

I have gotten a little bit of condensation on the inside walls of the boxes, but so far nothing on the lid or the soap. I keep a folded washcloth under the mold, to help with insulation and the slightly uneven box bottom.

I used the heating pad on a low setting for this batch because it was quite
cool in the house that day. As it turned out though, I don't think I really needed
it all, as my other batches gelled just fine in their boxes stacked on top of this one,
long after the heating pad had automatically shut itself off.

I got these boxes as a four-pack at Wal-Mart for only five bucks, so definitely not a budget-breaker. I am putting my soaps to bed on a side table in the almost completely unused den right off the kitchen. I get some really good natural lighting in there for taking photos, and an old folding table for crafting. No one even notices the space my hobby is taking up! The tv is broken in that room, so apparently that has rendered it unfunctional. Fine by me! 

I've heard of netted food covers, pizza warming bags, ovens and even sunshiney drive-ways being used to ensure gel phases in soaps. How do you guys do it? I'd love to hear about all of your clever insulating innovations!

Holiday soaps so far

I know from my blog list that I'm not the only soaper excited about the holidays. I've sort of skipped right over fall scents and dove head first into Christmas inspired fragrances and designs. It seems like I am constantly thinking about all the holiday fragrances I have left to soap (trust me, there are quite a few in my closet!!) and the color schemes I want to use. I think about it while I am laying in bed, while I am at work, while I am driving....so I better come up with something good for all that time spent thinking, right? I can hardly wait to start putting together some gift baskets for friends and family. I might even make some sugar scrubs and body butters too, as some of the scents I've bought just seem like they would fit those mediums really well.

Here is what I have made so far.

Fresh Snow, from Bramble Berry.
This really is a beautiful fragrance, so clean and delicate. I love it!

Sleigh Ride, also from Bramble Berry.
This is an amazing holiday scent, sweet and spicy and just smells like
Christmas. But without that fake potpourri smell that a lot of straight
holiday scents seem to have. I also used my new heavy duty column
mold from BB for this soap, and I am totally loving it! (more on that later!)
--This fragrance was a real mover in CP, but totally worth it!--
--A lot of people asked me about this red colorant, it is Tomato Red
liquid colorant from Nature's Garden!--

Gingersnap, from--you guessed it--Bramble Berry.
I can't say enough about how awesome and true this scent is. I bought
it on high recommendation from "Jenny from the blog," and I am super
pleased with it. All the fellas in the house are in love with it too, and that
can be hard to accomplish with scents sometimes! The discoloring you see
here is at 2 weeks into cure, with TD added to the top "scooped" portion.
--This fragrance was a mover for me also.--

Believe it or not, I do also have some really great non-BB fragrances to soap too. I am off work tomorrow, so hopefully I can just vedge out on soaping with my honey all day and will have more to show you soon!

Thanks for taking the time to look, hope I didn't give you the holiday soaping bug too!

A weekend of markets

My honey and I spent this weekend browsing (and, yes, buying!) at a few local markets, and we had a really great time (or at least I did, and he says him too but you never know about those fellas!) It feels so good to be located in a region that is supportive of crafters and independent growers, and I am really excited about all the upcoming festivals and markets in our area this fall! I get so excited when I meet other soapers that I just ramble on and on about silk and molds and suppliers. I really was in heaven meeting other soap makers and chatting them up, so much so that most of them probably wished I would just shut up and go look at those jellies over there.  

To give them credit, most of them were at least polite in return, and in some cases actually seemed just as excited to soap-talk too. Even if they thought I was a total bumbling weirdo, they were still friendly. I happily bought soaps from those people. But I also found that there were cases too where I totally didn't agree with some of the claims being made by a soap vendor about the abilities or ingredients of their products (don't worry, I would never say so!), or I got the feeling that person saw me as an inferior soap maker not worth their time or conversation. Hmph! I did not buy soap from these people. 

Maybe in the relative newness of my soaping career I am misguided in my belief that all soapers are overcome with giddiness to meet me and hear all about how sodium lactate changed my life. Surely not though.....

I did make some purchases I am pretty excited about from some very talented Tennessee soapers, so let me share those with you! 

Our first stop early Saturday morning was Brainerd Farmer's Market in Chattanooga, which seemed a little sparsely stocked and populated. I guess that could be attributed to the season. It was also a pretty cloudy,  windy and chilly day, our first of this fall I think. Despite all of that, we were able to meet Cecilia from 423 Soaps, whose blog and Etsy store I'd stumbled across a few months back, so it was exciting to put a face to the company and my hands on her soaps. :) I bought one of her beautiful hand-sculpted soap dishes after much debate. It was so hard to pick the one I liked the most, all the details and colors were so gorgeous, I wanted to buy them all! I also snagged a bar each of her orange ginger, Indian spice and charcoal sage soaps and a super luscious sage mint cocoa butter lip balm that we are really diggin'! I love that Cecilia named her soaps for the Chattanooga phone area code, and her custom logo is really unique. I promised to bring her a sampling of silk fibers to try out in her soaps on my next visit to the market, as I have vowed to convert all soapers to "the silk side." (We also bought some yummy jelly from another vendor, squee!)

I love the little birdies!

From the farmer's market, we went up into the mountains (that is still so much fun for me to say, being from Louisiana!) to a fall-themed craft fair called Hodge-Podge. It was even colder up on the mountain (fun!), and we were really feeling it, since we'd both stupidly left home in khaki shorts and hoodies. That market was a lot of fun though, so it was worth it! We met so many friendly and knowledgeable vendors and shared a killer cup of coffee. I snagged some tea towels and an ID badge holder embroidered by a sweet little old lady, and some felting wool (for soap of course!) and hand-spun yarns that I am hoping to hang on to for Christmas gifts. We also ran into The Sugar Shop owner operating a cake stand and told him all about how we made the cereal and chocolate concoction that he was kind enough to give us the "recipe" for (see it in my previous post). 

And then we met the lovely Ms. Lolly, who grows and sells gourds, including loofah. I was so excited because the very first soaps I ever made were melt and pour loofah bars (like those Anne-Marie makes in this Soap Queen video), so that made me feel all sentimental-like. I told her about how much I'd loved those first soaps, but unfortunately Bramble Berry sold out of loofah sponges for quite a long while after that, and I was never happy with any loofah I bought from any other supplier. I always found it much too hard and abrasive compared to the first I used from BB. Ms. Lolly told me that the feel of loofah has a lot to do with the climate in which it is grown (a hotter, sunnier region might sometimes produce rougher loofah), and that the Appalachian region is almost the ideal location for growing it. Her loofah sponges were definitely the softest I have ever felt, so I am inclined to believe her, and bought a smallish long piece from her because of that, even though I knew it was priced a bit high. She was so sweet, she even took down my name and address and promised to send me some loofah seeds after she finished harvesting this fall and gave me some tips for growing my own. I'll admit this got me excited enough to come home and do some pretty extensive internet research. :) 

Ms. Lolly's super soft lofah sponges, one still in the husk!

Ms. Lolly's beeswax, calendula, herb and loofah glycerin soaps.
They look so effortlessly rustic and seriously scrubby!

Then today we made a trip back into town to visit the weekly Chattanooga Market. There were a ton of vendors, but the crowd was almost too heavy to enjoy them all. Every time I stopped to look at something I felt like I was in someone's way, and each time I turned to walk from one vendor to another I ran into someone or something because I am just that graceful. We're lucky we made it out of there without incurring you-break-it you-buy-it penalties. I did buy some more jellies and a jar of fruity salsa, which made me quite happy, and some fresh and fragrant herbs from a very nice lady selling for only fifty cents per bundle, and that made my honey the cook quite happy. (We choose dill, thyme, and yummy lemon basil.) We also met a super friendly goat's milk soaper named Jody (from Farmony Ridge) who told us about his family's farm and their almost exclusive use of Bramble Berry fragrances. You can imagine the high-pitched squee-ful reaction I had to that little tidbit of information! They actually had quite a few soaps made with BB fragrances I've not bought or smelled before, so I took the opportunity to introduce myself. (Hello, Love Spell, nice to meet you!) During our drive to a restaurant for lunch after the market, I was holding the bar of soap I bought from Jody in my lap while I fished out the business card and snuck a peek at their website on my phone. When we walked into the restaurant, a waiter  said to me "ooh, I love your perfume!" as he walked past us at the entrance. I didn't put any perfume on this morning, so that's a mighty fine compliment for that bar of soap I would say!

Love Spell soap from Farmony Ridge.
I love their little hand-stamped baggies!

I am just a hobby soap maker for the most part, but I do sometimes think that maybe one day I would like to sell at smaller markets and craft fairs. It's a scary concept to me, all the preparation and financial aspects of selling, and I don't know if I will ever be willing or able to take that step. If I do though, visiting these markets has been and will probably continue to be great opportunities to pick up advice and ideas from some experienced soapers. One funny thing that my honey pointed out, is that it looks like I would definitely have the local market cornered on glitter, colors and swirls and just overall girliness, as every soaper we met this weekend makes naturally colored soaps haha. 

Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope your weekend was as great as mine!