It's September now and all the kids are back in school. Now it is time to start making all the soap I have been thinking of for the Fall and Winter Holiday Season!
Here is the first of my Holiday Season Soaps. I think I will call it Black Magic. This soap was made with fresh goat milk from my little girls and the embeds were made with Goat milk MP Soap. I used cookie cutters to make the moon and cat shapes. The soap technique used was an ITP swirl. I was really surprised at how wicked it turned out!
I love soap stamps because it just seems to add a bit of interest in plain soap.
Now I have never been too successful with the mica and rubber stamping but I do stamp some of my soap with regular soap stamps you can find at Brambleberry. Brambleberry has quite a selection too! Now that you know about my small obsession with stamping soap,I can now get to the main reason for this short post. I can toss all the cute stamps out because this girl took the plunge and had a stamp made with my logo. Now all my soaps will have my brand stamped in. I have read many articles on the importance of branding your products and I always seem to fall a little short because I love creating new labels and packaging. Well now I can say at least my soap will have my brand. Here is a picture of my pine tar soap that I have never found the right stamp for and now it has my brand. How exciting is that??
Surprise is somewhat of an understatement. I have something to confess that concerns the two blog entries before this one....The Mantra Swirl is not an easy task for me and my soap recipes. Here's the thing, I love my soap recipes so much I am determined to make them work with any soap technique. This is not always possible as I have learned.
The Peppermint Ice Soap two entries below is the best Mantra I have made. My second attempt, although came out so much better than I had hoped is still not a true Mantra Swirl. So this weekend I decided I will give it one more shot. Why you may ask? Well, for Amy's Greatcake Soapworks Challenge! After my latest soap session I have decided my first soap will be the entry. In the video below I decided to do a simple 2 color mantra swirl with 1 accent color. Looking at the soap now you may say to yourself... Mantra Swirl? I see no Mantra Swirl. This is the reason for my latest entry ..lol. That soap was a very big surprise to me..The way it turned out was totally unexpected and I really like it. If you watch the video you will see exactly where I lost my temper with the soap...all seemed hopeless at that point so what did I do? I took a hanger to it like mad. You can now call me The Soaping Mommy Dearest.
After watching that video...Can you believe this is the same soap?
I do want to add I love doing challenges. The challenges have really helped me learn so many new techniques and really pushes me to give it my all. I would like to thank Amy and everyone else that puts together challenges. If not from learning so much I would still be making just plain old soap ;-)
If only I could soap all day and everyday I would be one happy person. I don't know about you but I tend to daydream about making soap while working my day job. I thought about this soap for days and finally made the time to make it yesterday.
I am always trying to push the boundaries of my soaping skills. This goat milk soap is a combination of several soaping techniques that I have learned. I used five colors and the techniques I used include the ITP swirl(in the pot), Mantra Swirl, Hanger Swirl and a technique called Synergy that I found on the Soaping 101 Channel on You Tube. I also used a picture for inspiration from the fragrance Oil I used...Eucalyptus Spearmint.
Today I attempted a Mantra Swirl for the first time. I made a modified Mantra using four colors instead of just three. I discounted the water and my soap ended up getting almost too thick. Note to self...Don't discount the water on a mantra swirl! I am pleased with the result overall and even made a video of my adventure!
This this technique was featured on the Soaping 101's Challenge. Here I was finally successful at this challenge. This soap was a result of my second attempt. In the video below I show you the results of the first attempt. My goat milk soap had over heated and separated in the mold. It was my fault because I was off doing other things. I tend to have to keep a close eye on my cold process goat milk soap. If the soap starts to overheating I send it to the freezer. I like to gel my goat milk soap so it gets a little tricky. I just like the texture much better than non gelled soap.
What is Sea Salt Soap? Well...sea salt soaps are very hard, hard as a rock actually. They look like they would be rough but once they get lathered up the soap takes on that smooth river rock appearance. Sea Salt soap produces a nice lotion like lather that gently exfoliates while drawing toxins out of your skin. Your skin is left feeling smooth, moisturized and refreshed. The majority of the oil used in sea salt soap is coconut oil. Some people including myself also include small amounts of other skin nourishing oils. Don't let the high coconut oil scare you. These soaps are very moisturizing. The combination of the salt and coconut oil is just magical. Sea Salt is full of great minerals such as magnesium, zinc, calcium, potassium and, among others. Sea salt offers many benefits to the body, such as reducing inflammation. The magnesium found in sea salt is useful for healing skin tissue and replenishing hydration, while bromide helps relax the muscles and calm the nerves. Sulfur and sodium work as natural disinfectants and detoxifying agents. Potassium helps in balancing moisture and releasing water retention. Calcium found in sea salt cleans the pores of the skin.
I have made sea salt soap for quite some time now but lately with the addition of goats to our family I have been incorporating more and more goat milk into my soap. Both videos below are my experiments with goat milk sea salt soap. One video is done cold process that requires a minimum of 4 weeks but with salt soap the longer you wait to use them the better they are.
The video after was a complete experiment for me I made the salt soap hot process. I wanted to see if the performance of the salt soap would be accelerated since hot process soap can be used immediately after it is cooked.
Here is the Cold Process video.
Here is the Hot Process video. I call it instant gratification!
