Peacock Swirl Soap

How to Make a Peacock Swirl

In Cold Process Soap

 

I'm so excited!

At the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild conference,

AKA The Soap Conference,

I got to attend a session on a very cool kind of swirl.

 

It's called the peacock swirl.

 

Anne-Marie, the Soap Queen and the CEO of Bramble Berry,

 Invited me to be a guest blogger on the Soap Queen Blog.

She missed the soap conference this year.

She was awaiting the arrival of her sweet baby girl.

So I get to write about some of the sessions.

The Peacock Swirl is one of the sessions I wrote about.

I hope you'll stop by The Soap Queen blog and read about

The Peacock Swirl.

 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

 

Here's a soap I made last year in honor of Earth Day.

It smells like my garden in the Spring.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Beer Soap, Part 2

If you missed the first post about beer soap,

You can find it here.

 

Now, for the reveal of the unmolded soap!

 

In this photo, you can see the beer on the bottom

And the froth on top.

I wish you could smell it.

 

Here it is from a slightly different angle.

 

 

Here it is right after I cut it.

I love how the edges are darker.

The difference between the beer and froth

Is very vague, but it's there.

My eyes keep getting drawn

To the edges.

 

Here's how it looked a day or two later.

The darker edges are less noticeable.

The contrast between the beer and froth

Is more visible.

 

And here it is a month later.

I'm happy that it still has the

Beer and froth look going.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, James

Our son, James, is an Army Infantryman.

He is currently deployed to Afghanistan.

He turns 21 today.

Happy Birthday, James.

 

This post is in honor of his 21st birthday.

Certainly it's every son's dream

To have his mom blog in his honor on his birthday.

Especially on his 21st.

Ahem. But I digress.

 

I'm going to tell you about the beer soap I made recently.

Hey, a guy only turns 21 once.

Let's celebrate with beer soap.

 

I made some beer soap a few years ago.

At the time, I couldn’t find a beer fragrance to add.

So I didn’t add any fragrance to it.

It was great soap.

It was mild and bubbly.

 

Bramble Berry began offering beer fragrances a while back.

This time around, I got to add beer fragrance to the soap.

I decided to try one called Oatmeal Stout.

Thus the hunt began for Oatmeal Stout beer.

 

I found this.

I used this post on the Soap Queen blog as a guide.

I began by boiling the beer.

Yuck. It stunk.

Once the boiled beer was room temperature,

I added the lye to the beer.

Again, yuck.

It stunk even worse!

 

I added the beer/lye mixture to the oils.

 

 

It actually smelled okay.

In fact, it smelled good!

It became a gorgeous caramel color.

 

Here I'm adding the Oatmeal Stout Fragrance.

 

I divided the batch into two parts.

 

I added Pearly White Mica from Bramble Berry  to part of the batch.

 

The mica lightened the base a bit.

The lighter portion was designed to be

The foamy part on top.

The darker portion was to be

The beer itself.

 

Here is the beer portion in the molds.

 

And the frothy top.

 

I'll show you the cut bars in another post.

 

In the meantime,

Happy Birthday, James.

We miss you and love you.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Feel Good Spa Soap

Feel Good Spa Soap

 

This soap was inspired by my son's request.

He asked for a soap for a stressed out friend.

 

After doing some research,

I decided to add activated charcoal

And Mauve Clay

To a natural soap base from scratch.

 

 

The bottom layer is soap base with

An essential and fragrance oil blend.

The main components are ylang ylang and vanilla.

 

The next layer is a thin one with activated charcoal added.

Activated Charcoal provides mild exfoliation.

It also is known to have detoxification properties.

 

The top layer is colored with mauve clay.

Mauve clay is chock full of minerals.

 

I couldn't resist adding some texture to the tops.

 

Here's what the soap looked like right after it was cut.

See the faint lines around the edges on the bottom part?

 

Here's what it looked like a few days after it was cut.

The vanilla content caused significant darkening.

Here's how it looks after a few weeks.

 

You can get your very own bar here.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 



Lego Peeps

Today we went back to Daylight Savings Time.

Spring can't be far away now!

I love it when it stays light longer.

 

Here are some bright little soaps.

I call them Lego Peeps.

 

I make blocks to go with them.

 

 

They come packaged in sets of 3 blocks

and 3 peeps.

But I can put them together in any combination.

 

In this picture, you can see some robot soaps.

 

They come with little keys.

 

Glitter adds a fun sparkle.

 

I hope you enjoy the additional daylight

Tacked onto the end of the day.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 



French Green Clay Spa Soap

People love this French green clay soap.

French green clay is full of minerals.

It's great for our skin.

This is part of my spa line.

Most spa soaps contain clay.

 

To make this soap,

I started with my most used soap recipe.

The measuring cup at the left

Contains French green clay and distilled water.

 

I added lavender and tea tree essential oils.

Then I divided the batch into equal parts.

I added clay to one part.

 

A divider was placed into each mold.

I used cardboard pieces cut to size.

I covered the cardboard with duct tape.

Don't you just love duct tape?

Thank you, Soap Queen, for the idea of

Putting the end pieces in to hold the dividers steady.

 

The soap and molds are ready to go.

Maybe you can see the lines on each soap.

I wanted a medium to thick trace.

This way the layers will stay more defined.

Now it's time to pour.

 

The first layer in each mold

Has clay soap on one side

And plain soap on the other side.

 

The second layer in each mold

Has clay soap on one side

And plain soap on the other side.

The plain goes on top of the clay.

The clay goes on top of the plain.

 

I thumped the molds on the counter.

This helped the soap to settle into the mold.

Even after the thumping,

You can see there is some excess soap.

I love excess soap in the mold.

It lets me make some textured peaks on top.

 

Here it is with the dividers out.

Now for the peak making fun!

 

Here's what it looks like

With the peaks.

 

Each bar is a unique creation.

This soap is cured and ready to go!

 

If you are interested,

You can find it in my Etsy shop.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



Clove Soap and Rosemary Mint Soap Cut

Here are the clove soaps

 

And the Rosemary Mint soaps

They are cut and stamped,

But they still need a few days of cure time.

They're available for pre-order on Etsy now.

They'll be ready to ship on January 30th.

 

Thanks for reading!

Honey Almond Soap

When I first smelled this fragrance, I was not a fan.

But it grew on me.

Out of the bottle, it’s not impressive.

It’s very strong.

Then I made lotion bars with it.

The scent became very appealing!

Then I made some wax melts with it.

Amazing!

A friend requested soap from it.

I was eager to dig in.

I made a double batch.

One loaf has a dark cocoa line in it.

The other loaf has a honeycomb pattern on top.

If you are a soap maker,

you might notice that the soap was at heavy trace

when I smushed it into the molds.

It was the consistency of cookie dough!

If you’re not a soap maker,

the way to tell is by the little spaces or holes in the soap.

Both smell delicious!

This Honey Almond is just what the name says.

There are no undertones of amaretto.

It’s a very sweet smell.

I love it in wax melts too.

 Thanks for reading!

Pig Farmer Soap

If you live in Iowa, you may know a pig farmer.  Or, you may know someone who knows a pig farmer.  What is that?  Like two degrees of separation between Iowans and pig farmers?  I don’t know. 

Anyway, I make a soap called Pig Farmer Soap.  It’s a very basic soap with essential oils, spices and clay.  It starts out light in color. Once it goes through saponification (the chemical process of oils and lye turning into soap), it becomes brown.

It’s nice and scrubby.  The clay is in there to help absorb odor.  The spices are included for their scrubbing power and spicy-good scent.  The essential oils were chosen to help eliminate odors and provide a nice spicy smell to the bar.

Want to know one other little tidbit about Pig Farmer Soap? 

It’s made with lard.

What pig farmer wouldn’t want a bar of soap made from lard? 

Do you know someone, pig farmer or not, who would love a spicy bar of soap that is good at scrubbing off dirt and grease while also pampering adding a bit of TLC to hard working hands?

 Thanks for reading!

The cutting video is up on YouTube