Making Soap - an unexpected adventure

Amy Warden’s Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge 2013 - Week Two - Elemental Swirl - Follow-up

Hello there, I hope everyone is doing well this fine Spring afternoon.

I’ve had a few follow-up questions about how I did this soap, so here are some answers in case others are interested as well:

1) What fragrance did you use? When/how did you add it?

I used Brambleberry’s Yuzu Cybilla as the FO. I added this fragrance using the Strong usage rate from the BB fragrance calculator to the melted oils BEFORE I added the lye. I had as much time to work on these swirls as I wanted. Part of what made this successful was my ability to bring each color to the right consistency (thin trace) predictably. After separating the batter, I only used a whisk - and then had to whisk each cup for probably 60 seconds each.

2) Can you explain how you poured this in more detail?

Sure. After placing a cardboard divider in the 5 lb loaf mold (I would tape it if I were to do it again), here’s the sequence:

1) Separated melted oils & lye into 2 batches. Didn’t mix lye into the oils in either yet.

2) Set-up color cups - two color cups + one cup for uncolored batter per swirl. That’s why you see 12 cups for the 8 colors in the prior post’s picture.

3) Mix oil & lye for batch #1. This batch covers two swirls, the ones that will be on the bottom left & right of the soap.

4) Separate batch #1 batter into 6 separate cups - about 8 ounces per cup.

5) Use a whisk to get all 6 cups to thin trace. Mix each of the swirls (pour 2 color cups from each into the uncolored batter).

6) Simultaneously pour both sides.

7) Mix oil & lye for batch #2. This batch also has two swirls, the ones that will be on top left & right of the soap.

8) Separate batch #2 batter into 6 separate cups - about 8 ounces per cup.

9) Use a whisk to get all 6 cups to thin trace. Mix each of the swirls (pour 2 color cups from each into the uncolored batter).

10) I did this alone, so for the upper swirls, I poured them one at a time because of the need to hold a spatula to disperse the pour force so I didn’t split into the lower layer. During the first upper pour, the divider started tilting over - and I needed to grab it with a finger while I finished the pour then did the opposite side. Awkward. Next time I’d tape the divider.

11) Pour the first upper swirl. Make sure the divider is solid, then pour the swirl over a spatula placed close to the surface.

On all pours, I poured at the center point of the loaf mold, letting the swirl extend out to the edges on its own. I did not move the pour back and forth. The batter on all pours was still thin trace.

12) Repeat Step 11 for pouring the last upper swirl.

3) What was the hardest part?

The hardest part was doing the math to split up the batches & color cups properly.

4) How long did it take you?

1.5 hours to set-up & do the math. About 10 minutes for the pours. About 2 hours cleaning up so many color containers. /ugh

Hope that helps!

Amy Warden’s Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge 2013 - Week Two - Elemental Swirl

This week’s challenge was to complete an Elemental Swirl (original version). An elemental swirl is two ITP swirls layered on top of one another separated by a mica line.

I wanted to push myself, and I couldn’t decide on just two elements, so I DID ALL THE ELEMENTS. :D I did a split loaf mold doing two ITPs on each side then removing the cardboard divider.

I designed this soap to be named Four Elements. Red for Fire, blue for Water, yellow for Air and green for Earth.

I LOVE how it turned out. I’m so surprised it went well. Next time I would pick more contrasting colors for each element (I used two shades of each color), but other than that, I’m thrilled with how they came out.

Picture of me ready to do the pours:

So much fun! Huge shout out to Amy & Great Cakes Soapworks for all the time & energy spent giving back to our community! You are awesome, Amy!

If you like this soap, Like my business page on Facebook to see more of them! I’m just getting started, so any support is appreciated.

As promised, I’m reporting back on the performance of the Handmade Natural Deodorant that I made last week. IT WORKS!

I’ve used it for a week now with great results. I only smelled sweat on one day - and it was a day I’d spent re-packing moving boxes so there was a lot of physical labor. It wasn’t overpowering BO either, just noticeable.

I have to admit I’m super surprised that it works. A big shout out to Free Range Mama from My Healthy Green Family blog who was the source for the recipe I modified. The reason I picked this recipe is because it replaces a lot of the traditional sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) with arrowroot powder. Sodium bicarbonate can make you break out so I wanted to avoid that. It’s also designed as a stick deodorant with the beeswax in it, so this was a second important factor. Sticking a finger in squishy deodorant goo every morning to smear onto my armpits is really not fun. The other modifications I made to the recipe were choice of essential oils & obviously the addition of the Brambleberry Deodorant Additive (yeast enzymes that eat up the smelly ammonia in your sweat). I also reduced the amount of beeswax. I think the deodorant is still too sticky, so in future batches I may lower the beeswax amount even more.

Here is the full recipe that makes 6.5 ounces:

Cocoa Butter - 1/8 cup - 26.3 grams - 0.93 oz
Beeswax - 2 Tbsp - 28.9 grams - 1.02 oz
Coconut Oil - 3 Tbsp - 41.1 grams - 1.45 oz
Sodium Bicarbonate - 1/8 cup - 29.5 grams - 1.04 oz
Arrowroot Powder - 3.5 Tbsp - 51.6 grams - 1.82 oz
Deodorant Additive (3%) - 5.6 grams - 0.20 oz
Chamomile Essential Oil (0.8%) - 26 drops - 1.5 grams
Mandarin Essential Oil (0.8%) - 26 drops - 1.5 grams
Sandalwood Essential Oil (0.5%) - 17 drops - 1.0 grams

Melt the cocoa butter, beeswax and coconut oil in the microwave using short bursts so you don’t burn it. Then add in the sodium bicarbonate and arrowroot powders. Finally, add the deodorant additive & essential oils. Pour into a container (like a recycled roll up deodorant tube).

Tip: Any time you’re using Beeswax, use a silicone bowl for making your product. Beeswax is a pain to clean out of glass or plastic because it hardens like a rock. In silicone, you just let the beeswax harden, flex the silicone and it falls right out. For deodorant and lip balms, I always use a silicone mixing bowl. Here’s the set I got off Amazon (affiliate link).

It’s a winner. I’ll be making more to continue using it daily. So happy to find a great natural solution that doesn’t include aluminum!

Soap Challenge 2013 – Week One

Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks is doing a four week soap challenge designed to stretch the learning & experience of soapmakers by introducing new techniques in each week’s project. For Week One, our challenge has been to create a Tiger Stripe soap. I’ve never created a tiger stripe soap, so I was excited to do this week’s challenge!

The pictures above show my entry for the challenge. I created a traditional tiger stripe using a 10” silicone mold. I used my normal recipe with Brambleberry’s Sage and Lemongrass fragrance oil. For the colors, I used activated charcoal for the black (1-3 tsp PPO) and Tangerine Wow + Brown Oxide for the brown. I intended for the brown to be more orange, but I overdid the brown oxide.

As soon as I added the fragrance oil, the recipe started to move fast/accelerate. Since this was a layered technique, I just moved as quickly as I could. The pours were very thick. If I did this technique again, I would use a FO I know doesn’t accelerate.

It was great fun. You can see all the challenge entries in Amy’s Tiger Stripe Challenge Link Up.

I made a batch of natural handmade deodorant today. Most of the ones I’ve tried haven’t worked, but I’m hopeful about this recipe.

What’s special is that I’ve included “Deodorant Additive” sold by Brambleberry. This is a yeast enzyme that turns the smelly ammonia in our sweat into harmless amino acids that don’t stink!

Handmade Deodorant Recipe (small 1.8 oz test batch)
Cocoa Butter - 7 grams
Beeswax - 8 grams
Coconut Oil - 11 grams
Sodium Bicarbonate - 8 grams
Arrowroot Powder - 14 grams
Deodorant Enzyme Additive - 2 grams (or 25 drops)
Chamomille Essential Oil - 7 drops
Mandarin Essential Oil - 7 drops
Sandalwood Essential Oil - 4 drops

Melt the cocoa butter, beeswax and coconut oil in the microwave using short bursts so you don’t burn it. Then add in the sodium bicarbonate and arrowroot powders. Finally, add the enzyme additive & essential oils. Pour into a container (like a small jar or recycled roll up deodorant tube).

I’ll report back after I’ve had a chance to try it. If you make it & try it, post your reviews in the notes!

Reading up on pinterest marketing. Pretty good book so far.

It was $13.50 at Amazon: Pinterest Power: Market Your Business, Sell Your Product, and Build Your Brand on the World’s Hottest Social Network

1 month ago

Recently, it seems like the soap batches I’m making are so unpredictable. Sometimes they come out fantastic, and others, just total disasters.

I think I’m in that stage of experience & skill where it’s like rolling dice. I need to move past this into some sort of consistency.

DANG IT! I want CONSISTENCY.

ETA: so it turns out that the batch I was worried about turned out perfectly when I cut it. It really does seem like rolling dice these days. /sigh

landscapelifescape:

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Small Business (by Bernardo Johannsen)

Source: Flickr / bernardojohannsen

I spent the day entering raw materials inventory into the new Soapmaker 3 software program I purchased ($89 from www.soapmaker.ca). So that included all of the oils, butters, lye, fragrance oils, colorants, additives, herbs. And supplier & pricing info for all of the above.

Whew that was tiring. BUT -

I now know that I have:
$537.04 in base oils/butters
$35.99 in lye
$906.47 in additives (fragrances, colorants, etc)
$7.50 in packaging

I skipped adding a ton of smaller quantity fragrances (1 oz) from sample packs, and I haven’t added in essential oils yet. I’m only going to add in EOs where I have volume over 8 ounces each. There is some packaging stuff that isn’t entered either. But the vast majority is entered!

So happy.

And so exhausted. It’s 10 PM. I’m going to take a shower and watch some Netflix then crash.

drat. the soap i made yesterday was a disaster. i bought some amber fragrance oil from a local supplier that i hadn’t researched. it ruined the soap, but damn, it smelled good. i had to throw it out.

i must find a well-behaved amber fragrance oil so i can soap it. /sigh