French Green Clay Cut

French Green Clay Soap Cut

 

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New Video

French Green Clay Spa Soap

New Video

 

 

After a year or so,

I finally posted another soap making video on Youtube!

Yay!

 

I hope you enjoy it.

 

I'll post the cut in a few days.

 

French Green Clay Spa Soap by SoapArt

 

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!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



Rosemary Mint Soap from Scratch

One of the first batches of 2013

was Rosemary Mint.

The batter contains these oils:

Olive, Canola, Coconut and Palm.

It also contains lye and distilled water.

 

I added rosemary powder, rosemary essential oil,

and peppermint essential oil.

I used the in the pot swirl method like I did for the Clove Soap

 

 Here the batter is divided into two parts.

Both parts already have the essential oil incorporated.

The rosemary powder was aded to the part on the right.

I like to mix it in with a wire whisk.

 

 In this picture, the powder is partially mixed.

 

 Now it's time to pour the part with the rosemary powder

Into the plain part.

 

 This shows the difference in color between the two parts.

 

 Almost finished pouring.

 

 All the batter is now in the big pot.

Without stirring the parts together,

I poured the mixture into the molds.

 

 Here are the loaves after the pour.

 

In future posts,

I'll show you the cuts of the clove

And rosemary mint soaps.

 

Thanks for reading!

I hope you'll check back soon.

 



Making Clove Soap

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I don’t know where 2012 went.

Some parts of it are just a blur.

The year was full of blessings.

For that I am thankful.

 

Best wishes to you all

For a blessed year in 2013.

 

I finally soaped again on Friday.

That is, I made soap from scratch.

It had been too long since the last time.

 

Here are the first soaps of 2013!

Now comes the hard part –

Waiting for them to cure.

In 3-4 weeks they will be ready to go.

Today I'll tell you about the clove soap.

Future posts will focus on the others. 

I made a five pound batch of clove soap.

I wanted to make double that amount.

But clove essential oil tends to accelerate trace.

I thought I better play it safe with my first batch of the year.

 

 After mixing the batch and bringing it to a light trace,

I separated it into two equal parts.

I added ground cloves to one part.

 

I like using a wire whip to mix in the cloves.

 

See the little patterns in the soap?

Those indicate trace.

That means the process of saponification has started.

Saponification per WordWeb:

"A chemical reaction in which an ester is heated with an alkali

(especially the alkaline hydrolysis of a fat or oil to make soap)"

This chemistry is part of why I love making soap.

 

Ingredients are measured by weight in making soap.

Here the essential oil for one part is weighed out.

I like to use Clove Leaf Essential Oil from Bramble Berry.

 

Here the clove essential oil is being mixed into the plain base.

 

Now the clove EO is mixed into the base with the ground cloves in it.

 

I used a technique called in the pot swirl.

It involves pouring one part into the other.

 

Here it is all together in one pot.

For this batch, I didn't combine them any further before pouring.

 

As I poured, some of the base with cloves went into the mold.

And some of the base without the cloves also went into the mold.

No two batches come out exactly the same.

No two bars are identical.

I love that each bar is a unique creation.

 

All the base is now in the molds.

 

The finished loaves.

I decided to make little peaks on the top.

Just for fun.

 

This soap is a good seller.

It is also my go-to soap.

I won't say it's my favorite soap.

That would be like choosing a favorite child.

It just can't be done.

I usually keep a dozen or more bars of clove soap on hand.

And I always keep one in the shower.

 

Thanks for reading!

French Green Clay Spa Soap Cold Process Soap for Body and Face

This French Green Clay Spa soap is all natural.  By that I mean that no synthetic fragrances or colors are added.  I love color; I love fragrance.  I usually add synthetic colors and fragrances to my all natural cold process soap in order to get the results I desire.  But this one needs nothing more than the French Green Clay and the beneficial essential oils of tea tree and lavender.

During this photo shoot I felt like a little kid again.  But instead of playing with blocks, I was playing with soap.  In this photo the French Green Clay soaps are gymnasts making a pyramid. Welcome to my world of random and sometimes odd thoughts.  I will spare you the other four shots of the soaps making geometric patterns.

This French Green Clay soap is full of ingredients that pamper skin.  It’s a wonderful all-over body soap, but also makes a superb facial soap.   Here’s why.

It contains French Green Clay which is an excellent detoxifier and has up to 19 minerals that are believed to help prevent the appearance of premature aging.  Hmmm.  Maybe that’s why I felt like a kid during the photo shoot!  Anyway, the French Green Clay gives the bar a wonderful gentle exfoliating quality.  I love a little scrub in my facial cleanser.  But I don’t want to walk away with scratches on my face.  Hence the gentle exfoliation.

The soap also contains Tea Tree Essential Oil, which is well known for its various properties of treating problem skin.  Some things that tea tree is said to do:

Serve as an anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory agent. 

Provide relief from insect bites.

Soothe and clear rashes.

Reduce acne. 

Tea Tree Essential oil is also said to help relieve athlete’s foot and soften corns.  Those aren’t qualities I need in a soap I plan to use on my face.  But they can be quite beneficial when the soap is used as an all-over body soap.  Tea Tree Essential Oil even gets credit for improving dandruff, so this soap is also a wonderful head-to-toe soap.

If you want to read more about this soap, or if you would like to purchase your own bar, they are now available at the SoapArtOnline website. 

Don't forget to get your name entered as many times as you'd like in the Sweepstakes giveaway of some sets I made using the Bramble Berry S.O.A.P. Panel Test Fragrances.
You can earn entries by commenting on this blog post, commenting on SoapArt Facebook posts, Sharing SoapArt Facebook Posts, Pinning SoapArt products, and signing up for the SoapArt e-newsletter.  Complete rules are available here.  The sweepstakes ends March 20th, with a random drawing of three winners on March 21st.

Thanks for reading! 

Clove Soap

My go-to soap from scratch right now is Clove. It’s hard to choose a favorite, because I love all of them (Well, almost all of them. I must say I’m not a fan of lavender yet). Here’s what I like best about the clove soap:

- It’s moisturizing
- It’s exfoliating. I add ground cloves to give it scrubbing power.
- It’s bubbly!
- Clove is a natural odor combatant – so I feel extra clean : )
- Last, but best of all – the fragrance is amazing!!

Clove soap is a great unisex soap that can be used as hand soap or as an all over body soap. If you’ve tried the Clove Soap, would you take a minute and let everyone know what you think?