I’m just plain mad at myself right now. I had my lip butter recipe all figured out – finally found a shea butter that wouldn’t turn grainy in my lip butter, and wouldn’t you know I forgot that there just aren’t any substitutes. And I substituted. My friend Cynthie who has been helping me with [...]
…are coming to those who wait! Thankfully, I have been feeling better every day! Yesterday, I made my first gradient soap and put it in a warm oven (it’s that CPOP method I was telling you about that Elle used). It forces the soap into a hard gel phase very quickly, so more of the [...]
Just a quick post to thank all my wonderful customers who made purchases at Greatcakessoapworks.com yesterday to raise funds for the American Red Cross of Central Texas!! I just made a donation on your behalf for $212.70! You guys are incredible, and I pray that God blesses each and every one of you for allowing [...]
My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes in the wildfires that are still burning across Texas, and now I’ve found a tangible way to help. My friend Michele of Tierre Verde Soaps just made me aware of someone who is going to make a difference for the victims of these wildfires. [...]
It’s been three years since I made my first and last soap with anise in it. I blended it with a little bit of lavender, and it actually smelled pretty nice. If you like anise, that is. Seems a little bit like patchouli – there aren’t many people on the fence. They either love it [...]
Being the nerd, tech-y, self-taught computer geek that I am, I was reading Problogger yesterday and came across a very interesting post called “How to Email Your Posts Like a Problogger“. Now I have to admit that many of the posts from this blog are either not applicable to me, require too much work, or [...]
I am following up from the previous post on mixing soap colorants since I claimed that oxides and ultramarines are best dispersed in glycerin or oil, and then several soapmakers commented that they disperse their oxides and ultramarines in water. Ruth of Sirona Springs wrote: I use water almost exclusively with my oxides and UMs, [...]
There are three different ways (that I know of) to mix soap colorants. One is with water (which only works with water-soluble colors such as FD&C, most micas, clays, and water-soluble titanium dioxide). The second way is with vegetable glycerin, which seems to work best with micas or pigments/oxides. And the third way is with [...]
Brambleberry recently announced the names of the fragrances we tested for the summer SOAP Panel! As you may recall, I tested the eight mystery fragrances in cold-processed soap: Then I made a set of lotions to give away to one of my local customers for participating in a survey. I couldn’t wait to give them [...]
All of a sudden things are a bit crazy around here! First, we celebrated my younger daughter’s 8th birthday on Thursday with a Minute to Win It Party. She had six friends come over and we set up a bunch of Minute to Win It games for them to play in the living room. Super [...]
