Tiggy's "Pirates" Handmade Cold Process Soap

Through the wonderful world of blogging, I was fortunate enough to come across an extremely talented soapmaker named Tiggy who is the owner and creator of Future Primitive Soaps.  I'm sure that many of you are already familiar with Tiggy and her beautiful rustic creations inspired by the English countryside.  I am so in love with her original essential oil/fragrance oil blends. 

One of the very first soaps that I received from Tiggy was an aquatic/ozonic type bar called "Pirates". 

I chose this soap because I was so intrigued by story behind it's creation, the scent description and how perfectly her design captured the essence of the ship that inspired it.

Unfortunately, Tiggy discontinued this soap.  BUT, she was kind enough to pass along the fragrance blend to me to recreate the soap.  I suppose, I could have done a different design, but part of the soaps appeal is the design so I decide to carry on the design as best I could.

It's funny, because although she gave me the exact fragrance formula, it still only smells like a very good dupe!  I still have a piece of my original bar and it's sooooo close...but just not quite a perfect match.

Regardless, this was so fun to play with and Tiggy was super sweet to let me try♥

"Blowing Bubbles" Handmade Soap

So I've decided to give Blowing Bubbles yet another makeover.  This design was mostly Brandon's idea.  He wanted me to try something different with the soap ball embeds.  

Still using his overall color scheme and design, I decided to make the embeds a ball within a ball.  Though I'm sure that someone somewhere in the world has done this before, I've never personally seen the type of ball before, so it was very fun to create.

Posh Petals Handmade Cold Process Soap

I'm not sure if I've stated this before, but I'm am not a fan of floral scents.  For me they are too overpowering and perfumey.  However, due to customer demand, I've been venturing into the world of florals and have found several that I honestly really like.  One of which is called Posh Petals.  It is a lovely fragrance that is mostly rose water but also has some light citrus notes along with pomegranates and aloe.   

I've tried some new soap colors for this batch as well. The pink portion is mostly Pink Kaolin Clay.  I was afraid that it looked more red than pink so I did add some pink mica to it.  The black portion a Activated Charcoal and the bars are topped with dried Rose Petals.

It's been too long...but I'm back :0)

My poor blog has been sadly neglected for several months now.  Business has slowed down a bit, so this is good time to get back into the swing of things.  There are many batches on the curing rack right now, but I'll start with sharing a batch that I call "Pishsalver Potion".  The name is inspired by the Drink Me elixir in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.  The fragrance is actually a scent called Purple Hooters which is a super fruity blend of grapes and berries. 









Pishsalver Potion



On the Curing Rack: Blowing Bubbles

This soap was not only super fun to design but it's even better to smell. The fragrance is a fun, fruity blend of Strawberry, Blackberry, Huckleberries with just a hint of Pineapple, Soft Rose and a bit of Caramel.

On the Curing Rack: Watalappan

Cardamom definitely a new favorite scent of mine.  The scent is warm, sweet and spicy. A little goes a looong way.  This new soap is called Watalappan.  It's named for a a dessert from Sri Lanka that is pretty much a tropical version of Creme Brulee.

The scent is a delicious blend of Coconut Milk, fresh Eggs, Jaggery (a traditional unrefined cane sugar from India), Vanilla, Tonka Bean and of course Cardamom. Mmmm!

On the Curing Rack: Oatmeal, Milk & Honey

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey seems to be a must have in every soap shop. It's sweet, warm and comforting.  I've tried this fragrance oil from several suppliers but the Cylliba oil from Bramble Berry is the one that I keep coming back too.  The fragrance oil in CP soap tends to be on the light side (no matter who I purchase from). This time I gave it a little more of a kick by adding Honey and Brown Sugar fragrance oils to the mix. Yummy! The scent gets stronger and the soap cures.

These bars were made with of course Olive Oil but also enriched with Goat Milk, unrefined Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and Lanolin and ground Oatmeal for a mild exfoliation.

Chai Tea Cold Process Soap

Another delicious fragrance from Bramble Berry.  I added a bit of a Vanilla FO that I had from Sweetcakes to this to add a bit more buttery notes and to ensure that I got a nice dark brown color on the soap. 

I know that most people don't like browning but for this batch, I wanted the contrast between the soap and the swirl. This is a super yummy soap.

Mini Cupcake Bath Bombs

These cute little cupcakes were in my shop during the holiday season.  They're all sold out now, but I thought I'd share anyway.  The basic recipe came from Ann Marie on Soap Queen TV.   It took many, many failed attempts to finally get the "icing" on these right and I really haven't had the patience to take a day and try it all again.  Maybe I'll make some more in time for Easter.

Almond Macaroon

 

Shelter

 Apple Toffee Buttercrunch

Polar Express

 Honey B. Harvest

(HIWTK Dupe)



Midnight Rose Soap

Just in time for Valentine's Day! This soap is literally just off the curing rack :-)  I'm not usually the floral, rose scent type of person, but I really, really like this fragrance. 

It's classic Rose sweetened just a bit with juicy Black Currants.

I used Clear MP soap and a cookie cutter for the heart shaped embeds.

Twilight Woods Cold Process Soap

Twilight Woods is my other favorite "grown-up" fragrance. 

It's a stunning and beguling blend of berries, flowers, fruits, earthy roots and warm vanilla. LOVE it!!

Cold Process Soap Sieze & Save

This soap is scented with Mardi Gras, a yummy fruity fragrance that I purchased form the Sage.  For the most part, their FO's are pretty reliable in CP soap, but this one went very wrong really fast.  Although, I must say that it's most likely my own fault.  I broke too many soapmaking rules using a fragrance that is new to me. I discounted the water (a definite "no no" when using an untried FO), soaped at a warmer temp (for me) than usual, used quite a bit of Jojoba Oil (which  I once read can increase acceleration) and the list goes on.  First, the batter started to rice.  So, I used the stick blender to smooth that out.  This took it to a med-heavy trace.  Then I separated it out for the colors (which were mixed in more Jojoba Oil), stirred some more and by the time I was ready to pour, it was completely unpourable.

I won't say that the soap turned into a brick on my spoon, but I couldn't stir it anymore and had to spoon, bang!, bang!, spoon, bang!, smoosh, BANG! it into the mold.  I coun't use a chopstick or skewer as it was too thick.  So, the colors were dragged through for a semi-swirl with a small spatula.  I don't normally insulate, but I grabbed not one but two towels for this to make sure that everthing meshed together.

It's really a miracle that this batch turned out as well as it did.  One side was suppose to be purple and the other side green with a gold swirl down the center. 

Love's Spell Cold Process Soap

UPDATE 3/6/13: Hi guys! Thanks so much for stopping through.  I've seen some questions in the forums regarding this particular soap.  It's not an ITP swirl.  I "dropped" the dark purple and white colors in intervals at different levels as I poured the lavender base,  Then, pulled a skewer through at the very end to do the swirling :0) ~Kia

I first came across this fragrance back in 2002.  Everywhere we went, I would catch a whiff of it and literally chase down the scent.   It drove Brandon crazy.  He said I looked like a hound dog sniffing through the mall (convention center, park, grocery store, you name it) trying to track down the person with this scent. 

Finally, I did manage to catch someone and she pointed me to Victoria's Secret and this lovely fragrance called Love Spell.  It became my signature scent months.  Since I don't use over the counter soaps and shower gels anymore, it's nice to have finally captured this fragrance in something that I can bathe with.

CLEAN Warm Cotton Soap

This is a wonderful scent for those who like that fresh, straight from the dryer laundry type fragrance,  It's a dupe of a fragrance from the company CLEAN. 

To get this pretty Teal color for the swirl, I simply mixed Blue ultramarine and Green iron oxide.

I also used a skewer instead of chopsticks to drag the colors

Rice Flower & Shea Soap...New Name, New Look

This wonderful fragrance oil comes from Bramble Berry.  It's one of my favorite "grown up" scents right now. Twilight Woods is the other. I really like all the sweet, edible type fragrances.  But, when I'm looking for something feminine but not all florally and perfumey, this is my go to. 

The original is never in stock when I go to B&BW, so I haven't had the opportunity to smell it yet.  However, the response from my customers has been awesome.  From what they tell me, this version is waaay better than the original which they don't like at all.  SO, with that in mind, I've decided to give the soap and new look and to change the name. 

It's inspired by Rice Flower & Shea but apparently (to everyone's pleasure) not an exact dupe.   I was thinking of something like 24 K Gold or Midas Touch, but I don't think those are soft enough for such a beautiful fragrance.  For now the new name is Golden Blossom.  We'll see how well that goes over.

Bubble Bars

Bubble Bars are a really fun way to take a bath.  It's bretty much a solid bubble bath.  You simply crumble the bar under running water and the water preasure will create the bubbles. 

Monkey Farts Bubble Bar

Most peolpe like to cut them into half or even into 3rds.  I like lots and lots and lots of bubbles, so I use the entire thing.  For an even more luxurious bath, I use the corresponging soap and drop in a matching Bath Bomb OR create a "Bath Cocktail" by using different scents that compliment each other.  I once used a Salty Mariner Bubble Bar with a citrus scented Bath Bomb. The bathroom and my skin smelled soooo good.

Monkey Farts Gets a Makeover

I really wasn't that happy with the way my first batch of Monkey Farts turned out, so I decided to give it another go. Initially it was still going to be yellow but I wanted to improve the red swirl. The red swirl turned pink and then lost it's sharpness and sort of started to blend into the yellow. I used mica and oxides this time, so the colors will stay put and I'll be happy :0)

I found these really cute stickers to decorate the package for the soap  as well as the matching Bubble Bars.

Rock Starr has a new look

I'm back :-)  Happy new Year to everyone.  It was a crazy and busy 2 months for me closing out 2010. Which was awesome because that meant SALES!  Now that things have slowed back down, I can get back into the groove of things.  Starting off, I'll share my newest batch of Rock Starr which is a dupe for LUSH's Rock Star fragrance.

This scent wasn't a favorite of mine when I first made it (still isn't) but it's grown on me. 

My thing right now is all about trying to get cool swirls in a loaf soap without doing the in pot swirl.