Baby Rose Soap

  As Anna ROSE I love any thing rose related and that includes the scent! I have already made one rose soap (english tea rose from WSP) but I couldn't resist trying another rose fragrance. This time I used Bramble Berry's baby rose FO. I have been planning this soap for a while in fact I made the curls months ago. On one of the warm days the spring-like weather got me finally  making the batch.


    BB's baby rose has a sweeter smell then WSP's engish tea rose and it is also younger in fact Bramble Berry describes this FO as "... a lighter, pinker rose than our English Rose. It smells like the petite baby roses that come in teensy little planters small enough to fit on your desk. Think of a hip, corporate 27 year olds perfume smell rather than a cloying old-fashioned rose and you'll be right on target for this fragrance...."  Now I couldn't tell you which I like better because it depends on the day, english tea rose when I feeling more classic and baby rose when I feel more fun. I used .75 PPO  (per pound of oil) of baby rose and it is holding up great so far!

   The design is simple in consideration of the floral fragrance, which they said accelerated a bit. I was actually going to do this in a loaf mold only to decide on the slab mold as the lye was cooling (a typical Anna Rose). I made the rose buds by shaving off the side of my previous rose soap and rolled together multiple shavings to get a fuller rose. I also tried to do a mica-glycerin swirl on top. The  most important aspect of the design is of course the colors, I used micas both from the Conservatorie (my new fav place to buy micas). Below are pictures of mixed colors and the amounts that I used them.

1. Sea Foam Green Mica- 1/8 tsp
2. Hot Pink Mica- 1/4 tsp 

 

                                                                                                                                      Before the cut pictures I also wanted to show you a picture of the soap mid-gel, this gives a very good example of what gel looks like in cold process soap.

   Now here is hhe picture of the cut Baby Rose soap. My end notes are that while it is possible to do 2 colors with this soap I suggest a one color. Even with the acceleration I will buy the fragrance again since it is such a bright rose compared to all the rose scents I have smelled.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy soaping!!!

Soap Design Planning, with PDF

     Today I will show you how I plan my soap designs and a PDF for helping you plan your future soaps!

   Ever since I started soaping I have been trying to perfect my soap planning. At first I just had a vision in my head then went straight to soaping it, I soon realized that that is not a good idea.... Since then I have tried many methods, although they all worked the took up time with cutting, drawing (straight line and I are not friends), and other inconvinces. Finally I found the best method for me, a good old fashioned computer drawn bar, all I have to do is print, color in the design, write the FO and design name, and some times on the back how I plan on doing it (I only do that on difficult designs).

   First I will show you a little example of how I use it print off (plus a little preview of a soon to come soap). Then you will get the PDF that you can print off and use your self!

Sorry about the cluckiness But to can see my example above, and now here in the PDF of the blank version of the image above for you to print out to help you design your next soap!

For YOUR OWN soap design PDF click on this link! and press the print button on the top left of the screen to print out as many copies as you need.

     How do you plan out your soaps? Please share them in the comment box below, and...

Thanks for stopping by and happy soap planning!

Spring has Sprung.... Easter Soap Time!

     Spring is officially here and finally feels like it too! Sadly not for long though we may have snow here Tuesday :(. So while in the springy mood I whipped up some Easter soap I have been planing for a while. Before the reveal just close your eyes and imagine a colorful easter egg resting on plush green grass, and you will see what I was going for.

     Now how to pull it off.... A while back I decided to decorate cakes anf got all the fancy piping tips and the whole mess of tools. Hidden in the pile of baking supplies was wilton tip #233 AKA the grass tip! Next up for this soap was an egg mold, after looking extensive I found the perfect mold at Joanne's (also made by Wilton) and also cute rabbit and flower molds to boot!

     I made some melt and pour eggs, bunnies, and flowers in multiple colors to put on to of my cold process soap. I dusted mica on some parts of the MP soaps for accents (don't pat attention to that awful orangey yellow bunny, he got trashed).

    The most important aspect of the soap is next, the colors, design, and scent. First off I scented the soap with cranberry fig, described as a fall scent but is bright, fruity, and springy to me, I may call it easter fig?  I colored with soap with micas, and did a simple ITPS (in the pot swirl) of yellow, pink, and purple as a base for my nice bright green grass. I will note that I used pink sparkle mica from Wholesale supplies plus and it faded so bad in my CP that after adding 2 more teaspoons of mica I finally added some neon pink to get a nice color.

1. Pink sparkle mica + tutti fruttie neon pink (neon pink no in the pink above) 
2. Purple rainbow mica
3. Yellow rainbow mica
4. Green rainbow mica

     I will also show you the colors mixed into un-soaponified soap to show you 1. how the green morphed in lye active soap(it did change to original color) and 2. how much the pink sparkle faded before I finally added the tutti frutti neon pink to brighten it back up.

     After I poured the swirled base into my slab mold I stick-blended the green to a thick trace anf put it into a piping bag with the grass tip. I piped the thick batter (should have waited longer though) over the whole surface, then added the M&P soaps on top.

Finally Rosie's dream Easter soap cut! ***insert dramatic drum roll***

Thanks for stopping by and happy soaping!

Moisturizing Avocado Bar: Winter Soap Crafting Cub Part II

     February's soap from the Soap crafting club (see posts on previous months' soaps here, here, and here) was a simple but fun design, what made this batch special is that it has pureed avocado to add some extra moisturizing power to this soap!

     Now onto my version of the soap, it was scented with wasabi fragrance oil (.7 oz per pound of oil). I did not expect to like it but when i opened the bottle I was pleasantly surprised, it is a very green, bright fragrance perfect for spring! A final note on this fragrance is it moved quickly as you will see in my video, but it is still workable for maybe an in the pot swirl, but I would suggest keeping it to either one color or some basic layers.

     Next up is my personal favourite part the colors! This was a simple layered batch with three colors, green, lime green, and yellow. while personally I do not like yellow oxide I think it is very fitting for an avocado bar since it is kind of like the color in the center of an avocado. Finally here are the colorants and how much I used for my 5 lb batch (each in 1 Tbs of a light oil).

complete with a puppy nose!

1. Yellow (two cups)-  1 tsp yellow oxide
2. lime green (four cups)- 1/2 tsp green chrome oxide + 1 tsp yellow oxide
3. Green (four cups)- 1 tsp green chrome oxide

     The reason we used only two cups of yellow is because that the layer doesn't go all the way across, instead it is dolloped right down the center like whipped cream, then texturized. If I do this soap again I might pipe the yellow down the center, wouldn't that be gorgeous?

     You will notice that these bars have crackles in them, these are called glycerin rivers and can be caused by many things such as over heating and sometimes when you use titanium dioxide, there are more thing that can cause it that i just cannot remember for the life of me. I am not sure what caused it in my soap but I am thinking it has something to do with the avocado and it overheating a bit from the sugars in it (if you think you know what caused it please comment below!!). I actually really like the look, it's like the crackled antique furniture.

(I also notices that Amy from Great Cakes Soapworks' version is also crackled, you can see hers here)

Viva La Juicy Drop Swirl

     The first perfume I ever got was on my first trip to New York City, we were at Bloomingdales and my grandmother bought me a bottle of Viva La Juicy that I was drooling over. So on my last FO buying spree at Wholesale Supplies Plus (15% off, who could resist?!?) I was pleasantly surprised to see a Viva La Juicy dupe! When I got my box in the mail this was the first bottle to sniff, along side the real thing of course... They smelt 95% identical!!! Obviously this was the first of that order to soap!

  

Viva La Juicy in the bottle

     

      After much thought I decided I would do a drop swirl with a twist. My colors were inspired by the perfume bottle, gold for the insignia, hot pink for the bow, and beige for the actual color of perfume. The twist was two mica veins, pink and gold, that I planned for the drop swirl to break through (it didn't). While it didn't work this time due to the batter being to thick I think I will try it again.

1.            1/4 tsp pink rainbow mica + 1/8 tsp tutti frutti neon pink

2.            1/2 tsp merlot gold mica

3.            1/4 tsp oriental beige

4.            1/2 tsp titanium dioxide

     Before the cut pics I present to you my first ever YouTube video!!! I still have some improvement on my video making skills AND need to say the right things (if you watch it you will notice I said in the pot swirl and not drop swirl on many an occasion)

    Finally I give to you the cut pictures of the Viva La Juicy drop swirl! It is not how I imagined but I will try again.

Thanks for stopping by and happy soaping!