DOS (dreaded orange spots) are definitely showing up on the tops of my soaps that have iridescent glitter sprinkled on them. Not all of them – maybe half. The first soap to have issues was the Bayberry from Christmastime. I still have a few of these left, so I took a photo of it along with one I made recently, the Sweet Dark Cherry:

DOS on glitter soaps - Sweet Dark Cherry and Bayberry

Now to figure out why SOME of the soaps with glitter have DOS, but not all. Could it be that the soaps that had glitter applied more liberally are getting spots? Or the soap wasn’t covered long enough after it was put in the mold?

Anyone else have this problem with glitter?? To me, this seems like a cosmetic problem. From the pattern I’ve observed, I don’t think it’s caused by rancid oils. So the soap is still good, right?

But the real question I have is whether it will stick in cold-processed soap. This stuff isn’t cheap, so I don’t want to waste it! The only CP soap made with natural vanilla that I’ve had the pleasure to experience is Dreaming Tree Soapworks Voluptas. It’s absolutely perfect. But then I’ve also been reading that natural vanillas don’t tend to stick. I don’t need Meghan to give away her secrets, but I would like some general guidelines from anyone who has used a natural vanilla blend in soap. How much to use per pound of soap, that sort of thing.

Anyone?

Here are the results you’ve been waiting for:

Category 1: Best Photography – Naiad Soap Arts

Category 2: Best Soap Reviews – Cocobong Soaps

Category 3: Best Soap Showcases – Cocobong Soaps

Category 4: Best Information on Making Cold/Hot Processed Soaps – Soap and the Finer Things in Life

Category 5: Best Information on Making Melt & Pour Soaps – Soap and the Finer Things in Life

Category 6: Best Overall Content – The Soap Bar

Congratulations to the winners – I have contacted them and given them award badges to display on their blogs if they choose to do so (if you didn’t get an email from me, please let me know)! Huge thanks to everyone who nominated their favorite blogs and voted in the final poll!! I’m very excited about the new blogs that have been recently “discovered” as a result of this event. I hope we can do this again next year! Please leave your comments about the experience and any suggestions you might have for next time. For example, I had one suggestion to add the category “Best New Soap Blog” which I thought was an excellent idea. I’m open to other ideas as well, so please let me know your thoughts!

I hope you have found some great new blogs in this process, because I know I sure have! Huge thanks to everyone who has already voted – as of this moment, that would be 178 of you! I am so excited to be able to share the winners with you tomorrow. Until then…have a wonderful evening!

It's Time to Vote!

Here are the blogs that have been nominated in each category, listed in alphabetical order. They are linked to their location so that you may visit them and make your choices. (There was no way to create links inside the poll.)

Best Photography
Between Friends
Cocobong Soaps
Future Primitive
Inner Earth Soaps
Naiad Soap Arts
Simply Soap
Soaperstar
The Soap Bar

Best Soap Reviews
Cocobong Soaps
The Soap Bar

Best Soap Showcases
Cocobong Soaps
Soap is Beautiful
Soaperstar
The Soap Bar

Best Information about Making Cold/Hot Processed Soaps
Artisan Soaps
Cocobong Soaps
El Sapone
Jenora Soaps
Lovin Soap
NaKIN
Soap and the Finer Things in Life
Soap Sister

Best Information about Making Melt & Pour Soaps
Soap and the Finer Things in Life
Soapylove Daily Ditties

Best Overall Content
Adventures with the Sage
GCDSpa Stuff
Inner Earth Soaps
NaKIN
Simply Soap
Soap City
Soaperstar
The Arty Soaper
The Soap Bar

The poll is now closed.

Here are the categories for the nominations:

Best Photography
Best Soap Reviews
Best Soap Showcases
Best Information about Making Cold/Hot Processed Soaps
Best Information about Making Melt & Pour Soaps
Best Overall Content

How it works:
You may nominate your own blog or someone else’s in as many categories as you wish. I will gather up the nominations and create a poll to discover the winners. Use the comment section for your nominations (all nominations from a single person can be entered into one comment). You may also nominate anonymously if you like – just write “Anonymous” instead of your name. Remember this is for the best bloggers – not necessarily the best soapmakers, although they may be one and the same. Comments will close on Friday, March 4th at 10pm CST. Feel free to share this post around Facebook and Twitter. Let’s have some fun!

Nominations are now closed.

Members receive a wide array membership benefits including general and product liability insurance (if qualified), a free hosted webstore, discounted merchant services, inclusion in the Find A Soapmaker list and Soap Gallery, discounts on the Annual Conference and from Vendor Members, and more.

Members may participate in the Certification Program and once certified, may display the Certified Soapmaker logo.

Most importantly, members have the opportunity, through elections, participation and volunteerism, to shape the direction and future of the HSMG and the handcrafted soap industry as a whole. (all information comes from the HSMG website)

The annual conference will take place May 18-20, 2011, in sunny Miami, Florida, this year. I would absolutely love to go, but I figure it would cost me about $1400 to attend. So I’m already composing my answers to the scholarship application, and praying for a miracle! Are any of my soapmaking friends planning to go? I would love to meet you there!

Do you ever find yourself wondering why you use certain methods when you make soap? I can remember learning early on from other seasoned goat’s milk soapmakers that you should prevent gel – either by putting the raw soap in the refrigerator or even the freezer right after pouring, or by using a fan. I’ve been forced to use a fan since my log molds are too long to fit in a refrigerator or freezer. The reasoning was two-fold: 1. The milk heats up the soap and can cause it to volcano out of the mold, and 2. Ungelled soaps are lighter in color. You can see my tutorial on making Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap here.

Suddenly, after years and years of making my Creamy Castile soap, I find myself questioning this reasoning because sometimes it comes out crumbly around the bottom edge. It only happens with the castile soap – not with any of my other goat’s milk soaps.

I thought I found the solution to the problem after the last batch when I decided to wait on pouring the soap until it finally reached a medium trace. This took a LONG time! I had to blend, wait 15-30 minutes, blend again, wait 15-30 minutes. I don’t even remember how long it finally took! I used to pour as soon as it reached a light trace, thinking it would heat up and start to gel if I didn’t.

Last week I tried using the same method again – waiting until medium trace – and ended up with 50 bars of partially gelled and crumbly soap. It’s either going to have to be re-batched, or sent to Clean the World. I have a feeling it will be the latter.

Creamy Castile Soap - Crumbly and Partially Gelled

This made me think – could I possibly make Creamy Castile soap and actually allow it to gel? It went against everything I thought I knew!! Lo and behold – it worked. The soap I made yesterday turned out smooth throughout. There was no volcano, and the color is just slightly darker. Amazing!

Creamy Castile Soap - Fully Gelled and Perfect!

So now I’m wondering. Those of you who make goat’s milk soap: do you let your soaps gel, or not? Any other words of wisdom you care to share are much appreciated!

Yummy Soap you can make with Pumpkin Pie fragrance!

Update: IT’S SOLD!! YEAH!

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” – General George S. Patton

Not only did it make me thankful for those who died fighting for my freedoms, but it really made me think about my own purpose in life, and whether or not I’m living up to my full potential. What does God intend for me? I do know that I want to spend more time seeking God and with my family. I’ve decided that I’m intentionally going to let some things slide in my soap business this summer – or at least organize my time better – so that I can do those things more effectively.

Over the weekend, I had some down time at the pool with my girls, but also spent quite a bit of time cleaning out my soap storage room to make room for the baker’s rack I purchased several weeks ago. Because when I got back from selling at the farmer’s market on Saturday, my husband was cleaning out the garage!! It was a pretty major undertaking for him considering how FULL it was, but I took that as my cue to get things ready in the basement in order to move the baker’s rack out of the garage.

The biggest task for me was moving my big metal storage cabinet. I had to unload everything out of it and move it out of the storage room into the main room. Not ideal, but it was better than having the baker’s rack out in the open, all loaded up with naked, curing soap. At least the storage cabinet has doors that close.

Here’s where the storage cabinet sits now. Right outside the door to the storage room:

Metal cabinet holds fragrance oils, herbs, colorants, lotion making supplies, and anything else that will fit!

This next photo shows what you see when you open the door to the storage room. Brace yourselves. It ain’t pretty (yet):

Great work space if it ever gets cleared off!

The piece d’resistance now sits where the metal storage cabinet once was:

Seven different kinds of soap currently curing!

Hubby says I need to lay the soaps down on the long edge so I can fit the trays closer together and get more soap on the rack. Right now, if you look at the previous photo, you can see I’ve put the finished soaps in the boxes on the two top shelves. He thinks we could use those shelves for more pantry space – yet another rare commodity around here since I started coupon shopping! I’m thinking if the trays are closer together there won’t be enough air flow to cure them in the same amount of time that I’m accustomed to. So we’ll see.

Across from the baker’s rack, I’ve re-organized the plastic shelves so that there isn’t anything hanging over the edge of the shelves anymore. Otherwise, the trays won’t go in and out of the rack!!

More fragrance and essential oils that won't fit in the metal cabinet, and other random supplies

It’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy with it so far! What did you do over the weekend?