Eva's Soap Basket ~ Large Double Batch of Lavender and Peppermint!

February 26th Fresh made Soaps!

Lavender & Chamomile + Juniper Berry

&

Peppermint, Orange & Patchouli

 I started with a Large 8 pound batch of Oils. My recipe included: Pomace Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Shea Butter. 
Colors in both batches were made using Oxide colorants ~ these are skin safe, 'Nature identical' color powders.
 I combined my Lye solution and Oils at 105 degrees.

First batch was a Lavender Soap. I used 3 oz scent total for a 3.5 lbs batter. 
50% Lavendin EO, 1/4 Lavender & Chamomile EO/FO blend, and 1/4 Juniper Berry EO.

Here it is after the pour and dressed up with Lavender flowers on top!

It smells wonderful!

Here are some of the cut bars! Some Glycerin rivers developed in the pattern, but they flow with it. Glycerin is a natural part of Handcrafted Lye soaps. Most of the time it is not visible.  Sometimes it develops Glycerin 'rivers' like seen in these bars ~ the faint, more translucent swirls. It is just proof of the Handmade nature, and uniqueness between each batch ~ different temperatures, oils and techniques contribute to each Soaps individuality!
 These smell so wonderful!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Then I made my Peppermint Soap ~ Peppermint is a favorite for many ~

I combined Peppermint, Spearmint, folded Orange, and Patchouli.
4 oz EO for 5 lb batch of soap batter.
Dried Peppermint leaf powder.
1/2 Peppermint, 1/4 Orange, 1/8 Spearmint & 1/8 Patchouli.  ( I fogot the Spearmint bottle in my photo).

This smells fresh and bright!

I hope you have a great day!

: )

February Soap challenge - Winter Wonderland - natural colors

Great Cakes Soap Challenge 

 February 2016 Winter Wonderland - hosted by Amy Warden

Winter Wonderland theme using Natural colors!

Dreaming of a walk in the Sunshine on a Snowy day : )

Colors used: Anatto (orange/yellow), Kaolin clay (whitish), Brown clay, Alkanet (pale blue in embeds), Activated Charcoal (Black).

I had researched colorants, and experimented well in advance. However, due to a busy month I felt that I had to force this project for the challenge for some reason. There were just other things I preferred to do when I had time. So I did not try to have this entered. It was too soft to cut on time, and i feared it wouldn't be worthy of swapping. 

 I still enjoyed this so very much though! I learned bunches actually using natural colorants I had never used. I learned not to try using Pomace Olive oil ( tooo green) but it was all i had on hand. I wasn't able to whiten the batter to my liking for snow. I took a small portion and 'overdosed' it with Kaolin clay for white accents.

 Here are some photos of my experiment and steps i took! 

I chose to experiment with extraction of colorant with 3 liquids. Water, Glycerin, and Sweet Almond Oil. I had read recommendations for some colorants as far as if they dispersed best in water or oil, but wanted to actually see the difference for my personal education.

I had imagined a person skiing or walking down a snowy hill. I used Activated Charcoal for the legs, and connected them while soap was soft. The pale pink was to be arms, and the Orange heart a Sunloving face/head. A simple stick figure type of person.

 I had experimented with the Madder and Anatto 2 days prior and used this to create twirly pieces as embeds to create sunny inflections. 

 Scented with folded Orange, Peppermint, Bergamot, and Patchouli. It is fresh and outdoorsy!

 How my colorants looked in the batter prior to pouring. 

And, the final bars after cutting! 
Can your imagine what a dream of walking in the Sun on a snowy day would look like? (It might take alot of imagination here!!! : ) )   The scene is pretty abstract as it turned out!
They smell great!

 Even though I did not enter the Challenge this month, as always, I learned tons of valuable information from everyone else's experiences! 

 It is truly awesome how creative each of the other entrants are - Thanks to everyone for sharing, and Thanks most of all the Amy Warden for all the hard work that goes into this fantastic challenge!

I wish all a wonderful day!

Eva

January 2016 Soap Challenge - Circling Taiwan Swirl (Lotus Swirl)

January 2016 Soap Challenge 

The Circling Taiwan Swirl

Hosted by Amy Warden

 Hello Everyone! 

Can you believe we are in a new year?!! Starting the years monthly challenges by Amy Warden we have The Circling Taiwan Swirl also called the Lotus Swirl as it creates a lovely Lotus flower design when cut horizontally. I have been inspired by Elaine Wright of Misty Springs Bath & Body. She provided the tutorial video for this month challenge. Thank you so very much Elaine!
 If you haven't tried this type of swirl yet, it is really fun and worth a try!

Keeping the Soap batter fluid is key to a good flow in the pattern.


My Recipe included: Olive, Coconut, Castor, Shea, and Hazelnut oils. Fragrance was Bamboo Lotus by Crafters Choice. It smells really nice, a good fresh floral, more in the 'green' side - not sweet.

Here is my entry photo:

Well folks, this was my first ever attempt and recording a video. It seemed to be going OK until the Camera battery died, then my backup battery failed too! (generic) - yikes!! - Then you tube said what I had was too lengthy (24 min) so I had to cut out the first bit - mostly stirring, dividing etc. I had verbally explained my color selections in that part so I just added comments to the remaining portion. * It's been an interesting adventure - and another mark in my "learning as I go" book. hey if you don't jump in and get wet, you can't learn to swim right? : )
Here is my video attempt! :

I wanted to keep my Soap batter thin, so I wanted to keep my temp to combine lye and oils close to 100 degrees. My scent choice was a new one for me, Called Bamboo Lotus by Crafter Choice. I almost went with Brambleberrys Flower Child, but was concerned it would accelerate trace. Both scents are terrific! 
 The Lotus Blossom did not accelerate my batch at all - and the scent is coming through really well during this first couple of weeks curing.

I was able to unmold only 12 hours later - I think the quickest I've ever been able too. I did let the loaf 'set up'  for 4 more hours before cutting. It was very soft. 
After curing a couple of days, there was a noticeable whitish cast to the colors, not really a powder. I rinsed my soaps in water briefly to reveal the brightness of the colors before final photos. 

These are two of the photos that inspired my color choices. Lotus flowers are so beautiful!

Thanks for looking!!! : ) I can't wait to see everyone elses soapy creations! 
Thank you to Amy Warden for this terrific platform for us to learn from each other. 

I hope you all have a Wonderful Day!

December 2015 Challenge - Impression Mat Soap

December 2015 Challenge - Impression Mat Soaps

Inspired by Amy Warden Soap Challenges!

Here is my final Entry !!!

Beach Soaps

 I actually started preparing 2 weeks ago. My first attempt at making a silicone mold I used a 100% silicone made by GE I purchased from Lowes.

 I was able to get the silicone to harden up enough to work with in the soapy water. I happened to use Ajax dish soap since it's all I had on hand at the time. I use quite a heavy dose of it, so the water was very sudsy.
(here are some links to helpful videos on the subject of diy silicone molds: (you may have to copy/paste)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6z3_dcP1_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlptOsHth_s 
(I added glycerin to a second soap & silicone attempt later & it helped it set up much faster!)

 I pressed & worked my silicone into a tile square I had picked up from Lowes for less than $5.00 (I like to experiment cheap!). I then set it aside to cure. Well the next morning my saran wrap had gotten blow over onto the top, so I then had to leave it in place or risk destroying my mat. It was still VERY soft and sticky!!! I was having doubts about success at that point. 3 days later I pulled the still tacky silicone from my tiles, I figured it had to come off one way or the other - so I hurried the process a bit. I really thought it was a lost cause on this try! surprisingly it was (mostly) intact. 

 After sitting it on the fridge for several days the silicone finally cured! I trimmed the mat to make usable portions. It was very thin, but super flexible so I am excited to try it!

***FYI the smooth glass tiles worked great to create a mold - the silicone didn't stick to it.



 Since the 1st Silicone mat didn't appear at first to be an option to use for the challenge - I had moved ahead with getting a mold kit from Michael's (%40 off coupon - yay!) This kit was super easy to use and worked wonderfully! It was called "Amazing Mold Rubber" I chose it over the other kit as this has a longer working time.

I use as my mold fodder a selection of seashells and pebbles I had around. I happened to use bubble wrap as my material to hot glue them to. In hindsight this was NOT the greatest idea. I had the idea the bubbles would add interest, but even though I used a lot of hot glue on my items, there were still several gaps that allowed my mold rubber underneath. I was able to clean it up, but it took a lot of careful work with a sharp razor blade!

 I wanted a sandy color with some slight grainy texture. I didn't have any actual sand so I chose to color with Coffee as my Lye liquid. I boiled in in a pan then used a sieve to filter out only the large grounds. The silty coffee specks stayed in my liquid. I added 1 tsp course sea salt to my lye water before adding the lye. (2 lb. soap recipe). I chose natural colors, with some gold mica in oil to dab on in places.

I didn't get photos, of the in-between, but I put spots of color in the rocks and shells to give variety to the look. I made two loaves, one with my tile line silicone mold and one with my Beach themed rubber mold.

 After 13 hours I was able to gently remove my loaves from the main mold. I let them sit about 4 hours more before attempting to pull the impression mats from the loaves.
* The tile line mat made from silicone was easy to remove. I just took my time. I like the rustic look of it.
**The Beach themed mat was trickier. Even tho I had used salt in my lye water, the soap was still soft enough that a couple of my rocks wanted to break. All and all I am very pleased with the look of it! I plan on experimenting more with darker/more colors with this one! Melt and pour is good in this, as I experimented with that first as a trial run. I did trim a couple of trouble areason the rubber mold to make CP come out better next time. Also a harder recipe is in order.

 I am so excited to see what everyone else came up with!
Thank you again to Amy Warden for such a fun and helpful Challenge! I definitely recommend them to any Soaper wanted to really learn from others and be pushed to try new things!
I hope the Best to all - Have a fantastic day! : )
Eva



Tall & Skinny Shimmy - Amy's November Soap Club Challenge

The Tall and Skinny Shimmy 
November Soap Club Challenge 

Hello everybody!
Fantastic to be back for another of Amy's Soap Challenge Club adventures. Hooray!

 This months challenge is the Tall and Skinny Shimmy, shown to us so beautifully by Tatiana Serko. I really appreciate her easy to follow instructions.
So after 2 tries with batter evidently not the right consistency, I finally had a bit of a shimmy in my 3rd batch, so that's what I went with for my entry. It's not as curvy as I had hoped, but hey, I had super fun with this anyway.
Here's my final entry photo. 

I used a wonderful essential oil blend called "Bliss" described as: "A feminine combination of natural jasmine, lavender, orange, rose and ylang. " it is divine! I used 1 oz EO for 2 lbs oils.
I wanted to choose a flowery color scheme with a pastel hue.
 Perhaps my batter was still too thin. I had even tried using using Pomace O.O. this time to see what would happen. I did hand stir each time with a whisk. In the future I may go for the stick blender, even tho I enjoyed not having to clean it by hand stirring! 

***************************************************

ROUND 2 

 Peppermint tree!

                             My husband actually like this one. He said it looks like a peppermint plant when held upside down. It also reminds me of a Pine tree. No shimmy, but I still like the different pattern. I only 

I had used white as an in-between for the other colors on both of my 1st and 2nd batches. In this Peppermint EO soap, it seemed to want to dance a little, but maybe the white layer diluted the pattern.  I'm not sure. My 3rd try I will only use the solid colors.  Also, I plan on using fewer layers.

******************************************************************

ROUND 1

Made to Measure - a more manly scent.

  Even tho I enjoy the river-like flow of this pattern, It's not a shimmy at all! --I think my batter was just toooo thin this time. I was worried it would start thickening more than it did. Even the Fragrance didn't seem to speed it up at all. The white sections did thicken up more making it look chunky in comparison.

 Oh well, I'll just have to make more .... and i'm not really to sad either, more soapy fun!

    I had a request for some more manly scents to choose from. I am super excited about this one. It is really fresh, yet woodsy, and soft at the same time. I chose colors as a blue gradient to try.

All and all, I REALLY like this technique!! It is amazing to me how much the thickness of the batter affects to pattern. I plan on experimenting more with the taller walls, pouring differently on purpose - just to see what happens. 
THANK YOU very much to Amy and Tatiana for a wonderful lesson and experience!
 I look forward to seeing every-ones imaginative creations! 
Happy day to all! ... Eva

October Soap Challenge - water replacement and natural colors.

 Hello my name is Eva, and here's my final entry photo for Amy Wardens October Soap Challenge: Water replacement, and Natural colors.
I'm calling it 'Calico Lemongrass'.

 It's time to tell all about my adventure with my all natural batch with 100 percent water replacement for my lye solution.

 Wow, what a roller-coaster ride it ended up being - and I have pictures to prove it!
For the scent I chose 'Mother Earth' blend - an all essential oil blend from Wholesale Supplies Plus.
The batch Oil was 100% Olive Oil. 

I chose Cucumber juice as my water replacement. Cucumbers are part of the squash family and are known to have many health benefits. 
Benefits include: antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. 
*The vitamin nutrients most likely will not survive the Lye however I am curious what color and texture qualities this will add to my soap.

 Here are links for a breakdown of Cucumber nutrients and research... (you may need to copy and paste)
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42#preptips

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=62

 Since I wasn't sure my Cucumbers had been sprayed in cultivation, I chose not to include the skin in my juice, to avoid contaminates. I used a juicer that separated the pulp, so this was fairly clear juice. 
 I froze the juice before adding the lye. 

 For the color layer I chose, to add:
*Kale juice to my green to try as it seems to have such a deep color to it. I did not reduce any liquid from this juice.
*Carrot juice that I reduced down to remove some water - on the stove -to strengthen the color. I like the thought of it being a nutrient rich food, that is great for the skin as well having Retinol and multiple minerals. 
 Info on carrots can be found at:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42#preptips
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42#preptips
*Lemon zest - about 1 tsp. - steeped in 1 Tbsp. of water to release some color, then reduced water by 1/2.
* t tsp. Paprika steeped in 1 Tbsp. of water then reduced to a thin paste. 

I didn't see alot of color definition when I put the colors into the soap batter. 

NOW FOR SOME LESSONS LEARNED!!! 

I decided after molding to put my loaf in a warm oven to assist complete gel stage as I had combined at a low temp. It seemed a good idea at the time. However, my bottom / green layer that had the most liquid, well .... liquefied so badly, I could actually see bubbles move around in the mold. Egad!

I un-molded th next day and cut off most of the green. The other layers seems solid and salvage worthy.  Note to self - less liquid in colors - and maybe no added heat - ill have to experiment with that another time.

 Then I had the thought to speed up the drying out of the trimmed loaf by setting it in the sun for 'a bit'. A few hours later, before going to work I remembered my loaf. Meltdown!!! NEVER leave soap in the direct sun and forget about it!

After letting the loaf set overnight to solidify, I cut it up into chunks to use as embeds. 

The colors seem to be darkening slightly from what they originally looked in the batter. Hooray!

I again used Cucumber juice as my lye liquid replacement, and Olive Oil. I did combine at a higher temp this time - 105 degrees.

 I did not have any Mother Earth EO left - so I used Lemongrass, and Lavender to complement the embed scent.

 The top was too plain, so I zested some lemon peel and sprinkled it on top. 

I can't wait to see how it turn out when I cut!

Here are expanded views of the loaf as it was cut:

I've really enjoyed this challenge! I feel more inspired to experiment with my Lye liquids, and natural colors. I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with and reading how they did it!
 Thank you & Happy day to all!

Hello again,

 Finally the day to present for Amy's September Soap Challenge - the Clyde Slide!

Here is my final entry photo - Arabian Spice - the Clyde Slide' technique  : )

I really enjoyed this! I also and in great anticipation to see everyone else's results.

 I have so much to learn and welcome advice from others that may want to share constructive criticism. 
 I wasn't sure of the best way to display my soaps. I like all of the bars and couldn't pick just one favorite so you get to see all of them!

I hope they pass for an entry   ... Thanks again Amy for this fantastic way to experiment and be learn so much for others! Thanks to  Clyde to for your demonstrations. 
Very well done both of you!

 I found a bunch of leaves in our yard that are already changing from our recent drops of temperature at night here in Kentucky.
I think we'll have a fantastic Fall color show this year since here in the central states we had plenty of rain. I wish we could share with the west coast!

These swirls remind me of watching clouds sometimes, I think I see faces or other designs. ?? 

Happy day to all of you! 

September 20th update

HI again -
My Arabian Spice batch has been aging few day now and finally the brown background is starting to develop more. Here is a photo from today.

 

 

The colors are showing more now. I have learned to allow more time for the Vanilla to develop color, at least with this recipe. Let the adventures continue ... !

 

 

I have so enjoyed this challenge and will keep an eye out for the next one. I  have learned a lot reading all you other soapers posts. Thanks for sharing!