Oatmeal Stout Beer Soap

Move over Oatmeal, Milk & Honey...there's a new kid in town!! I swear this is one of the best fragrances that I have ever, ever smelled!. (Pumpkin Lager too, but I'll talk about that in another post.)  Bramble Berry really outdid themselves with this delicious fragrance. 

Do you know how we aren't really suppose to sniff the fragrance out of the bottle to determine it's true scent?  Well sniff away I say!  Even through the rigors of cold process soaping, it still smells the same as it did oob.  This fragrance oil  totally delivered and all of the promised flavors came through beautifully.

Using Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout beer, I mostly followed the soaping instructions found on the Soap Queen blog. 

*NOTE - She really does mean don't turn your back on the beer while boiling! Don't ask me how I know ;0)

The only exception is that I soap at room temps, so I placed the beer in an ice bath to cool down while melting and mixing my oils.  This fragrance oil does accelerate trace a bit but it wasn't really a problem.  It discolored to this gorgeous shade of brown that has darkened to a rich chocolate since taking these photos. 

Overall, I give this Oatmeal Stout fragrance oil two enthusiastic thumbs up OR for any In Living Color fans out there: "2 Snaps Up!"

Snowcakes Soap (semi-whipped)

This batch of soap is a dupe for the wildly popular Lush fragrance "Snow Cake".   The soap was suppose to discolor to a light beige but I really wanted it to stay white, so I used Titanium Dioxide. 

To doubly ensure the whiteness, I also used more hard oils than usual and whipped them up some with an electric hand mixer before adding the liquid oils.  For the "stars" I did a second batch of soap that was completely whipped and pipep them on using Wilton 2D & 21 decorating tips.

While purchasing my tips from Michael's I also grabbed a few flexible rubber molds that are perfect for leftover soap batter.  I can make these cool samples to give away to my awesome customers!

As you can see, the 2D tip is my favorite.

Lime Coconut Pie Soap

I was browsing the net and came across this super yummy recipe for Lime Coconut Cheesecake.

  Right away I start thinking of the soaping possibilities.  I rarely plan batches of soap out, but I worked on this one for a couple of days before settling on a design.  At one point I even considered pulling out my spring form pan do try to mimic the actual dessert. I decided to go with the loaf though...

This batch is scented with a non-discoloring Key Lime Pie (Southern Soapers) fragrance oil. I had some leftover end cuts from a batch of Island Coconut (Brambleberry) CP Soap and since that batch did discolor to a pretty goldenish color, it was perfect for the toasted coconut required for the recipe. I  used Wilton's 2D tip to pipe some whipped CP soap for the whipped cream portion.  Finally, I topped it with real lime zest for garnish.

There was even enough left over to  get 2 soap cupcakes.

Bamboo & Sugar Cane Soap

Awww!  This fragrance is an intoxicating blend of Cane Sugar, Roses, and Jasmine with burst of Citrus.  I love it.  It's the perfect combination of Sweet & Fresh. 

There's a thin layer of ash on top, but this time I actually don't mind.  I like how it made the colors lighter.

Monkey Farts Soap

I've seen this scent floating around the web for awhile, but to be honest, the name really turned me off.  Finally, I decided to purchase a bottle and give it a whirl.  Boy was I surprised!! 

Despite the name, this fragrance smells absolutely delicious.  It's a fun, fruity combination of everything that monkey's love: bananas, pineapples, cherries, watermelon, grapes and much more. 

Love Child Soap

I know that I said that my next swirled batch of soap would be 15-20 colors but... I chickened out.  What can I say.  Instead this has only 8 colors.  This scent is a delicious blend of Clementine and Trippy Hippy (both from Southern Soapers) which is an Indonesian Patchouli.  Patchouli is one of those scents that you either love or hate and I LOVE it.  It reminds me of wet dirt, awwww.

Usually when I make Orange Patchouli, the Patchouli tends to dominate the soap (which is fine with me, btw).  This time, however, I decided to let the citrus take center stage.  The Clementine fragrance oil is very realistic true to it's name and the Patchouli grounds it beautifully with an earthy edge.  I can't stop sniffing it.

Lavender Fantasy Soap

For this batch I used a fragrance oil from Southern Soaper and Labcolors from Brambleberry again.  The Vanilla content in the FO caused it to darken.  It started off as a nice off white color with Purple and Flamingo Pink dropped in. 

As you can see, glitter is my new thing.  It's perfect for cosmetically fixing up "soaps gone bad".

Water Nymph Soap...saved from disaster

This batch of soap gave me the honor of experiencing my very first seize.  After adding the fragrance oil directly to the soap mixture, (although the manufacturer recommended diluting in oil first),  I poured a portion into two jars for the colored portion then began pouring into the mold.  The mixture actually firmed up on me mid pour!! 

 I quickly began spooning the remaining batter into the mold then clumped the colored blue portions on top.  I was determined to get some sort of swirl in there, so I forced the spatula in to the mix and pulled everything around a bit, then banged the heck out of it onto the counter.  The top actually reminded me of the rustic look that Hot Process soap has.  I decided to cover that with some iridescent glitter.  It's a good thing that I tend to soap at cooler temps or this would have wound up being HPed 

"Water Nymph" has a fresh aquatic scent.

Passionate Pomegranate Soap

I swear this scent form Southern Soapers is hands down one of the most delicious fragrance oils that I have EVER smelled.  My favorite type of soap is almost anything fruity and this takes fruit to a whole other level!  

It smelled nice out of the bottle but was nothing to scream about. But, WOW! It really came to life in the soap.

I've really mastered the  use my Birch Mold and those dividers that didn't seem to want to let my soap go. lol.  I'm 2 for 2 with it now  :0)

The uncolored portion of the soap turned yellow at first but has lightned to an off white in the time after these pictures were taken.

O.K., so, this is not a regularly scheduled post!!

I am so, so, so excited right now! I am literally twitching in my seat and making so many typos that it isn't even funny.  Don't worry, I'll clean it up before posting :D

I was contacted to do and interview and giveaway contest for a blog that I found back in my EntreCard dropping days AND today it was finally  posted.   Besides my own blog, I've never had a entire post dedicated to just me and my products. I feel like a Rock Star!!

Please go check it out.  Here's the link: http://theredheadriter.blogspot.com/.  The Giveaway ends October 8, 2010 at 11:59 p.m

Brown Sugar Etsy Treasury

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year so of course I had to share thisbeautiful fall Treasury curated by Beth owner of The Queen of Cups on Etsy.

BROWN SUGAR

Polar Express Soap

"Polar Express" is another fragrance that I grabbed from Southern Soapers.  I'm not sure what I was expecting it to smell like exactly, but it I was a little bit disappointed to find that's it's pretty much Rosemary Mint.  Which has actually been a huge seller for me in the past.  It's just not one of my personal favorites.  I think that the soap is pretty though :0) 

I mixed blue ultramarine with a bit of black oxide to get the wintry blue and sprinkled some iridescent cosmetic glitter that I just got from Brambleberry on top.

It's fresh and uplifting  without being too overwhelming.  I did add just a bit of Peppermint and Rosemary essential oils to this so that it would still have that little tingle to it.

Cherry ba da Bing! Soap

Southern Soapers is closing and I managed to nab a few ounces of their fragrances in time. I’ve never used any of their products before but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I used their Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Serendipity along with Brambleberry's Vanilla Select for the scent.

I also used Brambleberry's Red Velvet Labcolor for the pink portion.  It was supposed to be red.  That's my fault though, because I didn't read the instructions first and had to wing it.  I diluted a few drops with a few drops of distilled water and then added that directly to the soap.  I know that I missed a lot of important steps but I was already making the soap when I discovered that there is more involved to this coloring process than I initially thought.

Hopefully the color sticks and doesn't fade out or, worse, morph as it cures.

I'm naming this soap "Cherry ba da Bing!".  

Honey I Washed the Kids

This is another LU$H type soap.  I've been trying to come up with some ideas for renaming it.  Brandon came up with "Honey B. Harvest".  I kind of like that but, we'll see.  I've been wanting to try making the soap with the holes on top for awhile and this fragrance gave me the perfect opportunity to try.  I only made a 6 bar batch because I wasn't sure how the fragrance would work in CP soap.  I've never used fragrance oil from this particular company before.  I'm really funny about deviating from what's tried and true when money is involved, lol.  But, the oil soaped beautifully.  No discoloration or acceleration.

Pumpkin Spice Soap

I grossly overestimated how much soap I needed to fill this mold.  The bars came out ridiculously over sized. The heaviest one weighed in at 7.8 ounces when I cut them.  I cut the tops down some and these are much better.  They're still huge but, still, much much better. 

This was also my first attempt with the Cocoa Powder black line.

Pumpkin Spice

Available in 4-6 weeks

Sliced Cider Barrel Saop

Not too bad for my first time.  The base of the soap was originally suppose to be red (for apples) but I guess the Brown Sugar fragrance oil must have had some vanilla in it because it's turning dark.  I think it still works though.  This is suppose to smell like apple cider with a little twist.  I was serious when I said that I had to keep the kids away.  I just caught one trying to lick it, lol.  I don't think I've had a soap of mine smell this realistic and edible before.  It really, really, really smells good.  Did I emphasize that enough? It really smells good!!

I'm not sure if the picture shows all of the detail, but there is a thin line between the colors made with Mocha mica and I've also sprinkles some on top.

Soap Curls and Chunk Embeds-First Attempt

This is my first time attempting to add this type of stuff to my soap.  It always looked a bit too much in my opinion, but I'm kinda of bored with the whole swirling thing and wanted to try something new.  The crazy part is that I just got my Slab Birch Mold from Brambleberrya few days days ago and the only soap I can think to put in it right now is Castile.  I've been longing for that mold for months and now I finally have it and...well let's just say Brandon wouldn't be very happy right now after spending money on it, lol.

So, back to what I was saying.  I'm over the swirls right now and I decided to give these decorative soaps a try.  Now, I'll admit, I cheated a bit.  It's not my fault though.  I have a serious problem with impatience.  I decided to make my curls and chunks with melt & pour soap.  I have the low sweat CP like base from BB.  I think most soapers make their embeds ahead of time using CP soap colored and unscented.  Most of my ideas come to me when I'm laying in bed too wound up mentally to fall asleep.  All these ideas just start running through my head and I jump up ready to try one.  Needless to say, that doesn't leave much time for planning ahead.

At any rate here are the results.  I'm tentatively calling it "Cider Barrel" It's a combination of scents that include apples, brown sugar and spices.  You may also pick up some notes of caramel and pecan.  It smells really, really good.  I'm having trouble keeping  the kids away from it :0)

"Rock Star" 5 Swirl Soap

I just received my Birch Mold from Brambleberry about 2 weeks ago.  Until this point, I've had 2 unsuccessful attempts at soaping in it.  However, I've gotten over that learning curve that comes with new things sometimes and now my new mold and I are getting on quite well.  This soap is scented to smell just like the "Rock Star" soap from LU$H (Great store. I've been there to visit, but the prices are kind of...WOW!).  I only used 5 colors but it was still really fun to make.  I'm hoping to move up to a 15-20 color swirl next time :0) 

This is what the soap looks like on the inside.  It's pretty cool when the swirls are throughout the whole bar because it's like a piece of art that changes everytime you use the soap.

Delicious Green Smoothie for Breakfast

This is how I like to start  and end my day.  A nice tall glass of Green Smoothie.  I'm sure you may be looking at this and trying not to gag, but this drink is absolutely delicious.  I first heard about Green Smoothies about 2 years ago when I decided to become a Rawist (eat raw food) for awhile to detox my body.  It wasn't an extremely difficult transition for me since I've been a vegetarian my entire life.  Unfortunately, I'm also anemic and never really had a lot of protein in my diet (I have "0" muscle tone). 

Green leafy vegetables are extremely  low in calories and loaded with antioxidants, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium (I don't drink milk, ugh), Iron (yay!) and of course fiber (double yay!).  I like to make my smoothie like a frozen desert.  I start with some bananas, then add strawberries, a generous scoop of whey protein and a several handfuls of spinach.  Spinach is really cool because, raw, it doesn't have a whole lot of flavor so it tends to take on the flavor of whatever fruit you add to it.  Dump in some ice sometimes a spoonful or two of honey and there you have it!  A nice healthy, totally delicious drink.

Chai Tea Soap

This is really a super yummy scent from Brambleberry. I didn't have to add any color to this batch.   Right now it's they're this pretty beige color but, I don' t think that it's going to last.  This fragrance oil is suppose to discolor brown.

These little fancy spots that pop up every now and again are so cool.  I couldn't duplicate it even if I tried.

Lavender Breeze Soap

This was my second attempt making soap with this fragrance. The first time, I used Alkanet root powder to color it, but that didn't work out too well.  But, I'd say that this time things went much better.  These probably won't make it to my Etsy shop though.  My in-laws LOVE pretty much anything Lavender... and that's about it.  So, most likely these soaps will be taking a little trip north up to Maryland.

Our New YouTube Channel

I'm so excited!! I've been quite busy this week. Creating new products (I'll post them over the next few days) and tweaking some of the old ones. Brandon, my fabulous husband, has once again become active in helping me to expand my humble little company. For me that's really great news. He's taking over more of the business side of things, which leaves me more time to concentrate on creating.

His first official act as the Business Brains of this operation was to get my Twitter account activity going again. Check us out: https://twitter.com/beaconcreations.

Next, he helped me start a YouTube channel. I know that I am VERY late to the party but they do say, "better late than never" right? I'm way behind the times when it comes to utilizing social media, but I'm starting to catch on :0)

We've even had our very first Haul Review (I just heard about one of those for the first time 4 days ago)

Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/beaconcreations

A word of Encouragement to my fellow Artists

So this morning I log into my Etsy shop and this message was waiting in my inbox:

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your soap. I bought about 4 or 5 bars in April and I put them aside in a basket by my tub. Fast forward to about 3 days ago and I was feeling a little blue while getting ready for my day and I spied your soap. I opened it and placed it in my shower. I know it is a little thing, but it was such a nice start to my day and I did feel better using such a lovely bar of soap.

Have a great weekend.

Susan

How cool is that!! Sometimes slow sales, creative dry spells, etc. can really get me down. To know that something I created could bring a little bit of joy to someone else, totally makes the ups and downs worth while. I hope that this can be encouraging to all my fellow artists as well. Keep your chin up :D

Sunripened Raspberries & Honey Soap Unmolded

Here are the pictures of the soap unmolded. I poured these in, went to the theater to see Twilight Saga: Eclipse (woohoo!!), came back home and they were ready to unmold. How fast was that!? I'm considering adding salt to all of my recipes now.

Sunripend Raspberries & Honey Soap

Don't ask me what made me combine these two fragrances. I can't stand the smell of raspberry bath & body products. But, the two bottles were sitting there and I thought, hey, why not?

The combo really does work. If you're a fan of raspberries, you should like this. 

As you can see, I'm really having fun with this whole swirling thing. I most likely will keep it up until my lye runs out and then move on to something else. But for now, I'm really diggin' this. It's a lot of fun!

Using Old Soap as Laundry Detergent

When we were younger, my sister and I and some of our cousins used to go with our grandmothers down to the family house in Virginia. It is out in the middle of nowhere. Back then it even had an out house. We had to do the laundry with a wash board and brick hard bar of lye soap.

That got me thinking of a batch of soap that I made back in November scented with Cool Water. I forgot to superfat with Cocoa Butter. It's rock solid and just doesn't look like anything that I would want to use on my skin. I was feeling adventurous, so I pulled out the cheese grater and shredded it up and also threw in some lavender essential oil scented soap; also lye heavy...I forgot to add the Palm Oil :0(  Combined they sort of remind me of Gain's Spring Lavender detergent.

I know that there is a proper way to make laundry detergent that includes borax and washing soda and I know that this isn't it. But, it's my laundry and I'm allowed to experiment, lol. The shredded soap dissolved completely in the water and made lots of bubbles. Pretty cool. I did a load of bath towels and then a load of clothes (although I did add some baking soda to the 2nd load). Both smell and feel like any other load that I wash with store bought detergent. I'm definitely going to try this again, but,with the borax and washing soda added.

Dreams for Riley

This is a beautiful Treasury curated by Julie of Julieslittlebits on Etsy.  She made this collection with prayerful thoughts of her young nephew who is in ICU right now battling for his life. He's been fighting leukemia since he was 5 years old and the family can really use lots of prayer and support right now. You read about Riley on her blog: http://juliesbits.blogspot.com/ .

More fun making Bath Bombs

Now this is what I call a Bath Bomb! Granted my hands are on the small side, but this thing is huge (and heavy)!! My Mondo mold arrived a few days ago along with my Kaolin Clay. I used my last bit of Citric Acid to make this as soon as I had it out of the box. It's scented with Juniper Breeze and weighs just under 8 ounces (a tad larger than a tennis ball).

It was super easy to make and popped right out of the mold without a hitch.