More Curing Homemade Soap

 The other day I showed you some soaps that are curing.

Today I'll show you some more.

The first soap is made with Almond Milk in place of the water.

It's my first try at this,

so I can't say yet how well I like it.

I did love the way the almond milk performed in the making of the soap.

The Honey Beeswax soap was also made with Almond Milk.

I made both batches mainly for friends and myself.

I'm a little nervous about someone with nut allergies

having a reaction to the Almond Milk.

So I probably won't sell these locally.

I may put a bar or two up on Etsy, though.

Or I may put them in boxes and offer them in local retail shops.

Almond Milk with Dragon’s Blood Fragrance

Think Middle Eastern Spicy

Honey Fig

This one contains locally produced honey

It also has a Fig fragrance.

I am trying to come close to a Honey Black Fig fragrance

that was part of the Bramble Berry S.O.A.P. Panel Testing,

but alas was not chosen to be carried by Bramble Berry.

Unfortunately, I fell in love with that fragrance.

Is it possible to miss a fragrance? 

Coastal Rain In Mold

Coastal Rain is a fresh, clean

water-type fragrance.

Coastal Rain Cut

Black Soap Cubes

Thanks for reading!

Honey Beeswax Homemade Soap

This soap is scented with one of Bramble Berry’s Summer S.O.A.P. Panel winners.

I adore the fragrance.

I'm intrigued by the way it changes the color of the soap.

Right after it was poured.

After the Cut

See the darkish outsides?

Almost a Month Later

There is no color added.

The fragrance oil turns it this lovely brown.

In the Bramble Berry testing,

this fragrance gave the soap a green metalic sheen.

The fragrance doesn’t let me do anything fancy,

like swirling or layering colors, but it smells sweet and rich.

And I rather like the dark color that the soap naturally turns.

I made this batch with Almond milk in place of the water,

so a bit of an almond scent is slightly detectable.

Thanks for reading!

Curing Homemade Soap

Soap from scratch needs to cure for about a month. 

The curing process lets excess water evaporate out,

making the bar harder and longer lasting.

Here’s some of what’s sitting around curing right now.

Pig Farmer’s Soap

 

Clean Cotton

Lime Mint

Oatmeal

Black Soap Stone

Fried Eggs Soap

Lemon Cubes

These will be up for sale soon in local shops,

on Etsy

and on the SoapArt Website.

Thanks for reading!

Soapy Fun

Things are hopping around here.  I’m staying busy with lots of different soap projects.

Remember my kitchen counter from some time ago?  Well, I’ve been doing a so-so job of keeping it clear, but the last couple of weeks it’s been regularly covered with soap.  It looks pretty much like the second and third pictures you'll see if you click on the kitchen counter link.

It’s a beautiful sight to me, but it makes it kind of hard to get any other kind of work done in the kitchen.

Here’s a peek at some of what I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks, aka my excuse for having super-messy counters.

Donut Soaps with Pink Frosting

Piggy Soaps

Flip Flops in Coral and Blue

Bacon Lip Balm

Butterfly Soaps

Chocolate Fudge Donuts

What’s your favorite?

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday!

The other day was my Mom’s birthday.

I blogged about cake.

You can revisit that post here.

Today is my Mother-in-Law’s birthday.

Mother-in-Law is not an appropriate title for her.

I heard someone use the term Mother-in-Love.

That’s so much more more fitting.

I hope you have a good birthday, Mom!

Soap Cupcakes

All the cupcakes pictured are soap cupcakes.

They look and smell great.

Just don't take a bite.

You might be disappointed.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Instead of soap, today I’m going to show you

an easy and fun cake that is great for

summer (or anytime for that matter).

It's especially good in the summer

because it's a cool, light dessert.

I made something similar years ago.

Years before blogs and Facebook and Pinterest.

When we traded recipes on hand written cards.

Ahem.  I digress. 

I saw this recipe on Pinterest. 

The source was this blog 

Want to follow my Pinterest posts? 

You can find me here.

Unfamiliar with Pinterest?

It's a website where you can organize your stuff.

It can be pretty addictive, but it's worth checking out.

If you want complete directions,

follow the ones on the blog post above.

I adapted the recipe a bit.

Here’s what I did. 

I used these ingredients: 

1 Angel Food Cake Mix

1 Package (3 oz. size) Lime Jello

1 Carton (8 oz) of Cool Whip

Steps I followed:

Prepare cake according to the package directions.

Bake in a 9x13” pan.

Mix the Jello with ¾ cup boiling water.

Stir well.

Add ½ cup cold water.

Stir some more.

Poke holes in the cake.

I used the handle of a wooden spoon.

Next time I would take the blogger’s suggestion.

Make smaller holes with a skewer or fork.

Slowly pour the Jello over the cake.

It needs a little time to soak in.

Poke more holes as needed.

Refrigerate for about 3 hours.

Frost with Cool Whip.

AKA Cool Whhhhhip.

Eat from the pan or cut and serve.

If you have leftovers,

Be sure to refrigerate them.

That's it!

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Here's a virtual cake for you.

Thank you all for reading!

Flying Frog Soaps

Making fun soaps with kids has inspired me to make some more kid friendly soaps.

Here's the latest.

The base is clear so the frog is easier to see.

The glitter adds sparkly fun.

The frog is a stretchy toy that will fly through the air.

Sort of like a rubber band.

How fun to have an acceptable way to

shoot a rubberband at your sibling.

Mom, "Go to your room.  You know better than to

shoot a rubberband at your brother/sister."

Child, "But Mom, it's not a rubberband.

It's a flying frog."

Mom, "You just doubled your time out."

Meanwhile, Dad is stifling his laughter and

amusement lest he end up in trouble as well. 

As Mom makes sure child is headed for said room,

Dad might even shoot the frog.

Just to see if he can get it to fly as far as his child did.

And because it looked like so much fun.

If he's really daring,

he might even shoot the frog at Mom.

Maybe by the time the child's time out is over,

Mom will shoot the frog at Dad.

I'm a Mom.

I know about these things.

Do I need to put a warning on the label like this:

SHOOTING THE RUBBER BAND FROG

TOWARD A PERSON (SUCH AS YOUR SIBLING)

MIGHT PUT SOMEBODY'S EYE OUT

Or it might land you in time out.

So shoot it when Mom's not looking.

And don't shoot it at Mom's backside.

You know she has eyes in the back of her head.

You don't want to go putting those out.

Then you'll really be in trouble.

For a while, anyway.

After that, maybe you can get away with lots of things

since she can't see behind her back anymore.

Maybe I'll include a warning about running with scissors too.

Just in case.

Do you have any fun stories about shooting rubberbands (or frogs)?

Come on.  I'll bet you've shot one - at least once.

If not, it's high time you gave it a try.

Just don't put any eyes out.

Thanks for reading!

Soap Demonstration

This past weekend I got to do a

cold process soap making demonstration at the

Plaid Peacock

located in a beautifully restored building

in downtown Waterloo, Iowa.

It's located just across from the Riverloop Public Market Co-op

and the Downtown Waterloo Farmers' Market

Plaid Peacock

See the window to the left with the shades pulled?

That's where the demo was held.

The Plaid Peacock has a nice setup for classes and demonstrations.

It's a beautiful setting, and they are always helpful and quick to

supply me with whatever I need.

Like power, a microwave, tablecloth and protective cover, etc.

Even when I forget to ask for it ahead of time :-)

Isn't the woodwork beautiful?

For the soap demonstration,

I made a batch of oatmeal, milk honey soap,

then poured it into the molds. 

There were about a dozen people there.

They asked lots of good questions. 

Some of the materials that went into the soap

The oatmeal, milk and honey soap is my best seller. 

People love the fragrance.

They also love the mild exfoliation quality of the oatmeal. 

Our skin loves oatmeal. 

Oatmeal has properties that soothe and soften our skin.

Freshly made soap

The soap needs to cure for about a month.

Curing lets extra water can evaporate.

This makes for a longer lasting bar.

It's so hard to wait for the soap to cure, but it's well worth it. 

Cold Process soap just gets better with age.

Bars of this soap will be for sale at Plaid Peacock in mid August.

The fragrance oil has vanilla in it.

Vanilla makes the soap darken a bit.

Just poured and still ivory

By the time these are ready to go, they'll be a lovely light tan color.

Crosscutting the bars lets the texture of the oatmeal show through.

Two days after pouring

These soaps smell wonderful!

Oh, and this soap is great at doing what soap is supposed to do -

gently cleaning and nourishing your skin.

How the bars will look after they are

cut and stamped

Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap can also be purchased

at SoapArtOnline or

in SoapArt's Etsy shop

Thanks for reading!

Mustache Soap

A friend brought her niece and nephew over for some soapy fun. 

We had a great time!

They made several fun soaps, including robots and legos.

They also made soaps with bugs, butterflies and ninjas inside them.

And they used glitter.  You gotta love glitter.

Well, I guess YOU don't gotta.  But I do.

My favorite of the day was the mustache soap. 

Aren't they a couple of cute kids?

Maybe they'll come back the next time they're in town!

Thanks for reading!