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".