Coconut Oatmeal Milk Soap - part 2

The reveal!  I know it's not good lighting to shoot at east facing sunlight in my kitchen early in the morning, but this is the only time I'm available before I head to my office to start my whole day of work.  It's hard to see the sparkle mica I painted on the top under bright sunlight.  The soap top ashed, to fix the appearance I took a small paint brush and dusted light gold (gold mix with white) mica all over it.  Really sparkling in real life, too bad it doesn't show on photos.   The speckle in the soap is grind oatmeal for light exfoliation, mix of fine and medium grind.

Coconut Oatmeal Milk Soap - part 1

After cooking a meal of Indian curry, I need to use up the left over coconut milk in my fridge.  So into the soap it went.  Oh~ why not!  Add some grinned oatmeal!  Since I'm using fragrance oil called Sage & Citrus from Wholesale Supplies Plus, I colored the mixture orange, the citrus part.  You'll see me dropping in green soap balls soon, that's the sage part.  That's the theme for tonight's soap.

Ok, now I had to let the left over mixture sit for awhile to let it go to heavy trace.  As restless as I am, I went ahead and washed all my tools, put all my supplies back to where they belong, and even made some paper rabbits (that's for a baby shower I soon to host for my maid of honor) while watching TV.  20 min. later, ready to spoon it.

 Keep on piling up.

 Did a little swirly with my spoon, the restless way.

 Why not?!  Sprinkled some oat on the top, not too much, I don't want to clog anyone's drain!  Voila!

Texture Top - Clock Soap!

Please ignore the ugliness of the silicone sheet, not meant for sale, as long as it serves it's purpose.

So I cut it to fit my rectangular individual silicone mold, 5 sides.

Test run! 

How you like it?!  Item available in my Etsy store:Clock Soap and you can custom your color and fragrance!

Texture Mold - DIY

I always want to make an interesting unique texture top for a plain bar of soap.  But buying fondant silicone sheet is $$$.  One day I was surfing an online scrapbooking store and embossing tools gave me an idea, it's like a big light bulb turned on!  To experiment, I bought this 5"x7" plastic embossing folder for $7.65 and am going to try using my brushable silicone to make my own texture sheet for soap.

This will make a very good fun soap for little boys.
Silicone sheet is being cured right now, will reveal it tomorrow or the day after.  At the mean time, let me show you a loaf I did with Bramble Berry's Berrywine fragrance.  I'm fascinated with this fragrance, how can it smell like wine out of bottle?!  Anyway, I soaped it, and it smells divine!  But, look wise... sigh... see for yourself.  I was afraid of over heating so I did not insulate it at all and this is what happened... heat lost, all over the embeds!  I want to scream!  Not to mention that I used Merlot and Luster Black Mica and it turned out pink!  !#&^(@$^% aaahhhhhh~

 

Restless - Jewelry Section

Spring is here, reminds me of a necklace I did:

Spoon Swirl Reveal

Ok, reveal time, finally hard enough to take out of the mold.

I also threw some leftover soap balls from previous scraps, just a little twist to the inspiration.

It is now available on Etsy: Vetyver Blossom Soap

Swirl Challenge - Spoon Swirl

Isn't this pretty?!  It's done with a method called Spoon Swirl by soapsession blog, literary scoop and drip spoon by spoon with alternating colors:

My version of Spoon Swirl is done with 3 colors, teal, pink and white.  Also trying out a mix of 2 fragrances I just purchased.  One is too masculine (Vetyver) and the other, too floral (Linden Blossom), so a marriage of these 2 should be perfect, right?!  We will see.  Log will be cut tomorrow.
PS. Next day, checked, still too soft, I'll let it sit for one more day.

Another Swirl Challenge - Spiral Swirl

I found my next experiment!  I was online looking for "soap porn" and inspiration and this one jumped at me!  Now it is screaming in my head none stop.  I got to do it!

Midnight Snack - Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

Here it is again, 0 calorie sweets! Why do I always have cravings this late at night?!  Thank God it's just soap, phew!

Column Swirl Take 2

2nd time around is always much better, you learn from your own mistakes.  This time I chose the fragrance oil that would not cause acceleration at all and also used a formula known for slow trace, even slower than take 1.  The fragrance I used is called Fresh Snow from Brambleberry.  It is a very ozone-ish and crisp clean scent, with a hint of floral and berry.  

Again, out of habit I used contrasting colors...  Now that I cut it, the more I stare at it the more I think I've turned it into "dirty snow"  Oops...  Oh, well, time to rename this fragrance!
If you are interested it is available at my Etsy shop: Pure Breeze

Column Swirl Take 1

Column swirling is done by pouring many different color soap layer by layer onto a square column object at the center of the mold.  Then after filling up the mold, you take a skewer stick and draw fan pattern lines inward or outward.  This was my first take, unfortunately the fragrance oil I was using caused acceleration, made the pouring not as free flowing as I expected.

Very colorful, some people think it is rather, psychedelic!  And if you are interested it is listed in my Etsy shop: Secrete Lover

Soap samples!

After a long Friday, major deadline at work, came home way late, tired and cranky, guess what's in my mailbox?!  My soap buddy sent me soap "candy" to try, all 15 of them!  I could smell them 10 feet away!  I should've taken a picture before opening them but I got too excited I forgot...  Till there were only 4 left...  Here's how they come:

 Starting tomorrow I will be sniffing them, touching them, and physically taking them for a test drive in the sink.  I want to know which one is the winner.  There are 2 samples that jumped at me at first sniff: Red Apple & Oakmoss Sage.  I wouldn't call them my favorite yet, we will see.

Sugar Scrub Recipe Trials

Summer is coming, I miss using commercially made sugar scrub I used to buy from one of those fancy stores.  I went on a search for good recipes to make my own semi-solid, paste like scrub.  One of my all time major complaint about those commercially made scrub is that it is greasy and after awhile the oil tends to separate from the sugar.  Is it inconvenient to use my fingers in the jar mixing it first before scoping some out.  Tonight I'm testing 2 recipes I got online.

#1 no soap no water
liquid oil 22%
butter 7%
emulsifying wax 4%
stearic acid 3%
Vitamin E 1%
brown sugar / salt 60%
FO 2%
preservative 1%

#2 with liquid soap
liquid oil 17%
butter 9%
emulsifying wax 6%
stearic acid 9%
liquid soap 9%
brown sugar / salt 46%
FO 3%
preservative 1%

#2 recipe is actually from lovinsoap blog, except I left out the water portion, I do not understand why so much water needed to be in the scrub.  Even with the water taken out from the formula, the result still ended up watery.  I have a feeling it is the liquid soap.  I will try to add more emulsifying wax to see if I can mix the "water" back in.

#3 with M&P soap
M&P   2 oz
liquid oil   4 oz
 brown sugar / salt   3 oz
FO
preservative
Recipe is kindly donated by my soap buddy mella, except I up more defoliant amount.  Made it at night, really watery, thought I failed.  Recipe did call for waiting period of 24 to 48 hours.  This morning I checked and this is how it looks like: 

Alright, time for physical testing.  I used #1 to scrub my left hand and padded dry, this is how it looks like:

 This is my right hand without scrub:

Conclusion, I do feel my left hand is softer, but not significantly.  Back to drawing board.

Experimental Topography Funnel Swirl Take 2

This time I actually make my lovely husband to take some photos while I'm making my 2nd try on the my so called Topography Funnel Swirl.

Here's me using my cheap hand held mixer.  I got to go get one of those stick blender!

 The fragrance oil I use this time is called Provence, supposedly fresh and clean type.  To me it's a bit too masculine.  I  decided to pour a layer of white on the bottom first this time.

 I'm using 4 colors: pink, yellow, blue and teal.

Started pouring with my funnel randomly.

 Ok, I have to admit, not what I expected...  Too much color contrast... out of habit...

 This batch used more water and the recipe traces slow.  I had to let it sit for 2 whole days before I can touch it.  The top got ashed even though I covered it with plastic wrap.   I will wash the ash off later when the soap gets a bit firmer.  You can find this item in my Etsy shop: Provence