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My apologies to those who aren’t involved in the Soap Challenge – I promise to post about new soaps tomorrow!!
I had 54 people take the survey – thank you very much for your input!! The overwhelming majority are ready to keep going, and the newer soapers especially are ready to tackle anything and everything! LOL! Looking at my calendar, things are about to get busy with my local farmer’s market starting up this Saturday, and then my girls get out of school May 24th!! So…let’s give it six more weeks, and then summer will hit and everyone will be doing their own thing anyway – at least in the northern hemisphere!
Now, what shall we do for the next six weeks? The survey results are very interesting:
I also had several people request doing infusions or making soap with fruit or veggie puree or natural colorants which I thought would be an excellent challenge as well.
Based on your feedback, here are the final six weeks of challenges: Week 6 (starting April 22): Faux Funnel pour soap Week 7 (starting April 29): Gradient colored soap Week 8 (starting May 6): Salt Bars (regular sea salt – Dead Sea salt will NOT work) Week 9 (starting May 13): Peaked Tops Week 10 (starting May 20): Landscape soap Week 11 (starting May 27): Making soap with natural ingredients (This one will be pretty open-ended. Some of you have communicated that you have some ideas on what you’d like to do already, so just make sure you have the ingredients you would like to work with!)
It wasn’t easy to choose, but I had to include the ones that most people wanted, and also make sure we had some easier techniques mixed in with the more advanced ones. As before, you are of course welcome to sit out the ones you aren’t interested in. Or if something comes up and you aren’t able to participate that week, that’s no problem either! The goal is to learn and have fun making soap!!
Swap News: Looks like we will be doing a 1 to 1 swap for anyone who is interested – 47 people responded positively to a swap on the survey. I will post more about that next week and give anyone else who might want to join in a chance to sign up!
You know I always encourage you to go check out the link-up from the week before at this point! Some fabulous soaps as usual, and LOTS of learning experiences this week from the alcohol soaps.
Here we are on the last week of the challenges – that have been announced anyway. I want to find out if you are interested in continuing the challenges, and if so, which ones you would like to do. I had also mentioned at the beginning that we might do a soap swap with this group. So I’ve created a short survey for you to let me know what your thoughts are about continuing the challenges and about participating in a swap! Please take a few moments and DO THE SURVEY NOW so you don’t forget. Thanks!
Now, on to this week’s challenge: mixing your own scent blend! The challenge is to make a soap using a new blend of either fragrance or essential oils (or a mix of both) you’ve created yourself using what you already have in your stash.
There are three different reasons why I have created scent blends in the past:
1. I was tired of the scents I had and wanted something new without spending any more $$$$$$$!
2. I have a ton of sample bottles or small amounts left in bigger bottles and wanted to use them up.
3. I was creating a new blend for my regular line of soaps.
Now, there are two different approaches to creating scent blends. The first one is just to dump and add until you like what you get. I’ve done this with sample bottles before because I knew I wasn’t going to duplicate it again. It’s not a very scientific method, but you can do it.
The other way is to create your blend on a small scale, using drops or Q-tips. Each drop or Q-tip is translated into a “part”. I prefer the drop method. Using disposable pipettes and paper towels, I will simply leave a drop of the essential or fragrance oil on a piece of paper towel, writing down what I’ve added and how much of each one. Some people like to dip Q-tips into the fragrances and put them in a glass jar with a lid over it for a day or so to let it “marinate”.
Here’s a video of a recent blending project that I’ve been working on for this week’s challenge. I am creating a new scent blend for my Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap in my regular line:
So, how do you know which scents will go well together? The easiest blends are the ones that blend like scents together – such as florals with florals, citrus with citrus, or spicy with spicy. According to Aromatherapypoint.com, the easiest scents to blend are florals. I would agree!
You can also check this list of essential oils that gives information about which ones blend well together.
You may have also heard about fragrance “notes”: some are top notes, some are middle notes, and some are base notes. This refers to how fast a fragrance flashes off and what you will smell first, next, and last. You can check out this list to see how different essential oils are classified by their notes. A basic ratio would be 3 parts top notes, 2 parts middle notes, and 1 part base note.
You can also blend fragrance oils – either single note scents or more complex scents. Sometimes this can be easier than blending essential oils because you have a much larger range to work with. Once again, blending like scents together will create the best outcomes. For example, I have plans to create an apple spice soap this fall with several different apple and/or spicy fragrances because I need to use up samples and small amounts left in the bottom of several bottles. For summer, I like what Jennifer came up with for her rum soap last week: mango-peach, pineapple-orange, and coconut. The possibilities are endless!!
Optional: get some guinea pigs – friends, neighbors, or family members work well – to smell your blends and tell you what they like or don’t like.
Once you have your parts figured out, now you can create a blend for any size soap recipe. For example, let’s say you have 3 parts grapefruit, 2 parts bergamot, and 1 part patchouli. (I’ve never made this blend, so I don’t know if it’s good or not!) Here is the math equation to figure out how much of each scent you will need: number of parts divided by total number of parts multiplied by the total amount of scent needed for your soap. Just make sure you stick with the same unit of measurement – probably either ounces or grams! Say you need a total of 2 ounces of your blend. Let’s start with the grapefruit: 3 divided by 6, multiplied by 2 = 1 oz. of grapefruit. Then bergamot would be 2 divided by 6, multiplied by 2 = 0.66 oz. of bergamot. Finally patchouli would be 1 divided by 6, multiplied by 2 = 0.33 oz. of patchouli. You get a total of 1.99 ounces, which is close enough! I know this can be confusing for some, so if you need any points of clarification, please ask!
For the link-up this Saturday, please be prepared to show a photo of your soap that you made using your custom scent blend, and since we lack the technology to smell your beautiful scent blends, I would ask that you also share what you used to create your custom blend. If you’d like to share the specifics (amounts and/or suppliers of fragrances) so that others can duplicate your blend, that is completely up to you. Many soapmakers consider this information to be proprietary, which I completely understand if you are planning to sell the soap in your regular line as I plan to with the Oatmeal, Milk & Honey. My plan is to share a few blends with you in the link-up post on Saturday in addition to the one I’m making for the challenge – so you’ll have a few others to try if you would like!
How did it go this week? Alcohol soaps can be rather challenging! I wasn’t overly excited about the way my Mokalata soap turned out with the kahlua, but it does smell rather amazing! Not only did I end up with holes in the sides of the soap, but I had a some issues cutting it, as you will see:
Mokalata Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks
See how dark it is? I’m glad I was able to get a little bit of contrast in there, or it would have been a really boring dark brown soap! It’s sort of marbled, I guess. This soap will be available at Greatcakessoapworks.com on May 5th
Now, let’s see how your soaps turned out! Please share what type of alcohol you used and if you were able to add the lye directly to the alcohol, or if you had to add the alcohol at trace. Also, did anything unusual happen with your soap or lye solution? What scent did you use? We want to learn from others!
Bloggers: Create a post telling us about your soap and show us some photos! Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!).
Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post – include as much of the above information as you can! To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)
YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! There will be a little frog icon instead of a thumbnail photo of the soap, but anyone who clicks on your link will be able to see your video. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. Then in the next step, ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button.
Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. Just put n/a in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.
This week’s challenge is going to be fun! We are making soap with alcoholic beverages. The sugars and alcohol create loads of lather, but they also create challenges when you put them in soap! If you’ve never made a soap with alcohol before, I suggest starting with beer. It will still be a challenge – trust me! Besides, beer soaps have great label appeal. I’ve had LOTS of people make comments on my Patchouli Beer Bars at the farmer’s market and other events.
Here are a couple things to expect when you make soap with alcohol:
1. Your lye solution is going to STINK and heat up fast. Be sure to add the lye to completely FLAT beer. I have even started boiling the alcohol out of the beer before cooling it down. And that’s the other thing – make sure the beer is REALLY cold. You might even use an ice bath while pouring in the lye – and pour SLOWLY while stirring. This is a serious safety precaution. If your lye solution heats up too fast, it will bubble up and OUT of the container. Yes, it has happened to me! Fortunately, it was contained to my glass cook-top stove.
2. Your soap is going to SET UP FAST. Use the full liquid amount and cooler temps (80-90°F/27-32°C max) to help slow it down. You will also want to add any (well-behaved) fragrance to the oils before adding the lye solution to make sure they get fully incorporated. There have been times when I didn’t even use a stick blender in my beer soap because it set up so fast. Do NOT expect to add any fancy swirls to your beer or alcohol soap.
I have a photo tutorial on how to make beer soap here, if you’d like to check it out. I’ve changed my methods just a bit since then, but the photos are pretty good.
Wine soaps are also pretty popular, and can be made using the same method as the beer soap. Since I make beer soaps on a regular basis, I decided to try something new for the challenge – and it’s not wine. Check out my video. Seriously, if you are going to try something other than beer or wine, please watch the video:
Wishing you all a very blessed Easter Sunday!! Our church is live streaming their services today at 8am, 9:30am, and 11am CST. If you want to check out some phenomenal music, see a live artist painting on the stage, and find out who Jesus is, click here to view the service. (If you click on the link after the live services are over, you should be able to see the recorded version.) Making soap is one of my favorite things in the world, but it doesn’t even compare to knowing Jesus Christ!!
I’ve heard all kinds of feedback about this week’s challenge – some people had a lot of fun, others not so much… I had fun making the cupcake soaps, but I’m still not convinced that I want to make more piped cold process soap! Although they have a really great berry scent, the colors on my cupcakes have morphed quite a bit. This is mostly due to the fragrance oil turning the soap a very lemon yellow color, despite the titanium dioxide that I added to the base color! The pink frosting is now a mauve-rose color, and the cupcakes are just plain yellow. The supplier’s notes said this fragrance would discolor to cream at the most. Hmph.
Here is the one I made with the extra soap in a plastic cup instead of a paper liner. The colors are a bit funky and dark. In fact the frosting reminds me of a cat’s tongue. LOL!
Can you say UGLY???
And here are the rest, still in their paper cupcake liners. This is pretty true to the actual color of the soap:
Not as bad with the yellow part covered up!
I’m probably not going to be making these for Mother’s Day. I’m already planning a different soap for that!!
So, now’s your chance to share your piped soaps with the rest of us. Tell us how it went – and don’t hold back how you really feel!
Bloggers: Create a post telling us about your soap and show us some photos! What scent did you use? How did you decide what kind of soap you wanted to pipe? Talk about what worked, what didn’t work. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!).
Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post – include as much information as you’d like! To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)
YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! There will be a little frog icon instead of a thumbnail photo of the soap, but anyone who clicks on your link will be able to see your video. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. Then in the next step, ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button.
Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. Just put n/a in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.
If you have questions or problems with the link-up or with your piped soap, please leave a comment. I’m looking forward to seeing your soaps!!
Black Raspberry Creme is one of those fragrances that never goes out of style. I love it because it’s sweet and yummy – AND it is a dream to work with in soap. You get that creamy vanilla scent without the dark brown discoloration that so many vanilla fragrances create in soap. And it never sets up too fast either which gives me plenty of time to play – love that!
This time around, I did a little bit different swirl in the mold that I’ve never done before, so I will be anxious to cut it tomorrow!! Until then, here is a sneak peek at the top – with just a little bit of glitter:
My older daughter told me that I swirl the tops of my soaps the same way every time. I can’t help it. So I decided to change it up and do diagonal zig-zags instead. But then the edges didn’t look finished, so I had to do my usual curly-ques – but only along the edges! See if she notices!
Here’s your chance to go check out the link-up from last week! So many beautiful milk soaps made with a variety of milks!
For this week, I am joining the beginner class as I have never attempted to pipe soap before. I’ve seen it plenty of times – especially lately. I mean, have you seen these beauties?
Cupcake Soap by Starlet Glam for MTV Movie Awards
Cupcake Soap by Platypus Dreams - Black Raspberry Vanilla
Cupcake Soap by Edens Secret - Sparkling Lime
I watched this video to get some basics before I got started:
And here is what I came up with:
I will admit the reason I haven’t piped soap before now is not because I didn’t think I could do it. I figured my cake decorating experience would come in handy.
No, these are all my objections to making cupcake soaps (and I would really like you all to convince me otherwise):
1. It seems too pretty. Like the customer wouldn’t use it, and this beautiful soap would just sit next to someone’s bathroom sink and collect dust.
2. They are too time consuming to make! Can you really get paid enough for the labor that goes into them?
3. Shipping nightmare: How can you package them to survive the trip to the customer?
4. Impractical to use. (However I did find this video by Platypus Dreams on how to use a cupcake soap, which makes perfect sense.)
That said, I had a lot of fun with this, and I’m still undecided about making more. A couple of tips from Darlene Sandau of Mountain Farms Soap:
1. Make sure the soap is good and thick before piping or it will fall flat.
2. You don’t need to alter your soap recipe – no extra water discounts. I (Amy) normally figure my recipe with SoapCalc and use whatever amount of lye it recommends for my recipe, then double that number for my water amount.
I can’t wait to see what the piping pros come up with!! You can pipe cupcakes, or entire cakes. You can even pipe on top of a soap log. If you are a newbie like me, here are some more ideas from Eden’s Secret to get you started. Or if you need a challenge, check out this hydrangea soap by Newt & Fig. So many creative ideas out there!! I know you can come up with your own special soaps!
This week’s challenge was to create a milk soap. There are so many different types of milk that can be used to make soap! When I announced the challenge, several participants told me they would be using coconut milk. Some said they would try almond milk or yogurt or kefir. Several participants mentioned this would be their first milk soap, so I will be anxious to hear how it went for everyone!
Here is the video of me cutting the Salted Caramel Brownie soap that I made with buttermilk:
I took some photos so you could see how much the soap has darkened. It still smells incredibly good, and is still softer than my other soaps are by this time. I have set a tentative ready date for the Salted Caramel Brownie soap to be Saturday, April 21st – which is opening day for our local farmer’s market! If it’s not ready by then, I’ll let you know!
Salted Caramel Brownie Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks
Better view of the sides of the soap
Now it’s time for participants to show everyone what you made this week! Since last week was the first time using the link-up, I know we had a few problems. I’ve come up with solutions for most of them so that hopefully everyone can add their links without any issues this time.
Bloggers: Create a post telling us about your soap and show us some photos! Which milk did you use? What does it smell like? How does the soap feel? Talk about what worked, what didn’t work. Please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!).
Facebook business page photos: Upload your photo(s) into a photo album, and write a descriptive caption on the photo you are linking up to this post – be sure to include what kind of milk you used for your soap. To link the photo, click on it, then copy and paste the URL into the “blog post URL” blank at the top. In the next step, it will show your photo, and you will need to select it. (If you press the “crop” button instead, you can adjust what the thumbnail of your photo will look like.)
YouTubers: You can create a link to a YouTube video of your soap! There will be a little frog icon instead of a thumbnail photo of the soap, but anyone who clicks on your link will be able to see your video. Starting on your video page, click the “share” button and copy the URL. You can use this URL for the “blog post URL” blank. Then in the next step, ignore all the tiny blue boxes and click the “direct image URL” tab across the top and paste the URL of your youtube video in the blank again and hit the “submit query” button.
Uploading a photo from your computer: If you don’t have a blog or business page on facebook or a youtube video, you can still upload a photo from your computer. Just put n/a in the “blog post URL” blank and go to the next step. It will give you an error message, but it will still work! Just click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer” and you will be able to browse your files and upload a photo. I will remove the dead link ASAP.
If you have questions or problems with the link-up or with your milk soap, please leave a comment. I’m looking forward to seeing your soaps!!
Before I get started on this week’s challenge, I really have to tell you how impressed I am with the participants’ in-the-pot swirls from last week! If you haven’t seen them yet, please go check them out! If you are still working on last week’s challenge, the link-up will be open through Friday. (Did you see we are up to 81 participants now?)
Now for this week’s challenge: milk soap! The main thing you want to avoid is burning the milk with the lye. There are several different methods to choose from. If you want to make a soap with 100% milk for your lye solution, it will take a bit of prep work if you aren’t in the habit of making milk soaps. You will need to freeze the milk that you use for your soap ahead of time – either in ice cube trays, or even in a freezer ziplock bag. Lay it down flat in your freezer so that you end up with a frozen milk disc that will be easy to break up into chunks when you are ready to use it. Then you can add the lye directly to the frozen milk. Here’s how I do it with my fresh goat’s milk soaps:
Since I had experience making milk soaps with fresh goat’s milk, I decided to challenge myself to using buttermilk instead using the same method. Check out the video to see my results:
I think you can probably master the 100% buttermilk soap if you need a good challenge. I would suggest using the full liquid amount and adding the lye very slowly. My Canadian soaping friend who makes buttermilk soaps explained how she does it: “I freeze the buttermilk into ice cubes and then very very slowly add the lye. Like, sprinkle some in, wait…sprinkle more, wait…when it starts to melt…stir…sprinkle more, stir etc. It can take me 20 min when working with milk soaps just to do the lye.” Or you might try using half goat’s milk, half buttermilk (Holly‘s idea).
If you are just getting started, I recommend trying the method that I used to create the Salted Caramel Brownie soap in the video. It doesn’t require freezing the milk ahead of time, and the results are much more consistent. It does require that you make a very strong lye solution, however, so you will need to be VERY careful! Take your recipe and use whatever the lye amount says is correct. Then use the same amount for your water to make a 1:1 ratio, adding the lye to the water. Now take the amount of water you would normally use, subtract the water you’ve used for the lye solution and measure out the rest in milk. Then you can either add the milk to the oils before blending the soap, or add the milk after the soap is just emulsified like I did.
What kinds of milk can you use in a milk soap? You don’t have to use fresh goat’s milk or buttermilk. Here are some other options – some of them you can make from scratch if you are so inclined:
1. Canned goat’s milk – Meyerberg brand is available at Walmart. It’s concentrated, so be sure to re-constitute it before adding it to the soap!
2. Canned coconut milk – available in the Asian food section of the supermarket
3. Almond milk – usually in the refrigerated section or make your own!
4. Soy milk – also refrigerated, but I’ve heard you can make your own as well.
5. Hemp milk – I believe it can be found in the non-refrigerated section with other non-refrigerated milks at the grocery store, but you can also make your own.
6. Whipping cream
7. Plain yogurt (Greek yogurt would probably work too)
8. Fresh cow’s milk
A word of warning about using 100% milk or cream for your recipe: please be sure that the amount of liquid in your recipe is at least equal to the amount of lye. I just had one of our participants tell me that she has attempted a 100% cream soap and used the full liquid amount and ended up with caustic soap! Because of the fat content in milk, superfat is altered, so that needs to be considered as well in crafting a proper recipe. I usually use 4% superfat (decreased from my usual 5%) for my fresh goat’s milk soaps, made with 100% milk.
Also, you may want to consider not gelling your milk soap if you would like it to remain as light-colored as possible. I wrote a post about gelling vs. not gelling milk soaps and received some excellent feedback in the comments, if you care to read more about the subject.
The Soap Challenge has already exceeded my expectations! Every day this week, there have been new people asking to join in! Officially, there are now 76 people from around the world who have told me they are participating, and there could be others who are unofficially participating as well – which is totally fine! If others want to join us along the way, that will be just fine too. Each challenge is a stand-alone technique, so there’s no reason to keep someone from jumping into whichever challenge we happen to be doing that week.
And now it’s time to reveal the fruit of our labor this week! I can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to! I challenged each of the participants in this week’s Soap Challenge to create a beautiful soap using an in-the-pot swirl method. Each person could choose their recipe and how many colors they wanted to attempt.
For my first soap, I swirled just one color: white! I used the Vanilla Hazelnut fragrance that I’ve been using in my Whipped Shea Butters for several years now. It’s a very popular fragrance, so I thought I would try it in a soap. The scent isn’t quite as strong as it is in the shea butter, but still quite yummy!! The fragrance oil is already starting to discolor to a nice taupe brown to create contrast with the white swirl:
View of the tops of the Vanilla Hazelnut soap
Better view of the sides - Vanilla Hazelnut soap
In case you are wondering why the photos seem smaller than usual, I’ve actually used larger 800x600px photos this time, but wordpress will only let me choose medium or full size to insert in the post, and the full size is too large. So…if you click on a photo, it will open the larger size in a new window.
And now, the one you’ve been waiting to see since Sunday…Mango Melon!!
Here are some photos of it before I cut into it:
Mango Melon Soap - just out of the mold
Close-up
And here are some photos of the cut soaps:
Tops of the Mango Melon soap
Side view of the Mango Melon soap
My favorite angled shot!
The Mango Melon soaps are going to take a bit longer to cure because I added more water. However, I think they will be ready just in time for the farmer’s market to start on Saturday, April 21st! Of course I will add them to the Great Cakes Soapworks website as well.
Now I’ve shown you mine – it’s time to show me yours!! Remember, you can either link to a blog post of your soap or just upload a photo from your computer if you don’t have a blog. If you are blogging about your soap, please include a link back to my blog in your post (either the home page, or this post should work nicely!).
For those who don’t have blogs, you can use your Facebook business page. Upload your photo into a photo album, click on it, and copy and paste the URL into the blog post URL blank at the top. The rest is easy! If you don’t have a facebook business page, just put n/a in the URL blank and go to the next step where you can upload a photo from your computer (click the tab across the top that says “upload from computer”).
If you have questions or problems, please leave a comment. I’m looking forward to seeing your soaps!!
