Tale of a Mermaid

I've been honored to be invited to participate in Brambleberry's Soap the Rainbow series.  What is Soap the Rainbow?  Basically each invited soap maker has an assigned color from the rainbow, each week the soap maker will make a soap project based on the assigned color.  For details see the link: Soap the Rainbow Series & Contest

Guess what my color is for this week?  BLUE!!!

So fitting for the hot hot summer!

Here are a few of my inspirations:

Coffee Table Made by Christopher Duff of Duff London

Glass Sculpture Made by Ben Young

Glass Sculpture made by Paul DeSomma and Marsha Blaker

Ocean Counterpoint made by Stone Ridge Glass

Besides the ocean theme (the obvious choice) for the blues, I want to add a little romantic element into the scheme,  what can be more perfect than mermaid, seashell and pearl?  I have an image in my head that involves a mermaid's tail flopping on top of the rising waves chasing after the precious pearl washed up to the white sand beach.  I don't want to buy a ready made mold to make the mermaid's tails, I prefer a more organic look, so I decided to find a way to pipe them using a cake decorating tip.  You can use any tip that is used to pipe rose petal, it's quit easy.

Everything went smoothly, the soap was made, video was recorded, then the day after I realized the video file was never saved!  What a nightmare...

I had to make another "emergency" batch to record again the night before this tutorial is due!  Unfortunately I only have limited mermaid tails left, but you can see the entire process.

Last but not least here are some salon shots of the original batch of Tale of Mermaid soap:

New Soaping Book and of course Soap Making

This is my first blog post of 2016!  I know it's already February, time flies...  I will be starting up my blog this year by talking about a new soaping book.
Brambleberry is one of the most reputable online soaping suppliers in the US.  I was recently invited by them to receive a copy of the founder/owner, Anne-Marie Faiola's (aka Soapqueen) new soaping book and make soap with one of their new soaping kits.  Her new book is called Pure Soapmaking, here's the link if you are interested: Pure Soap Making

I was given 3 kit choices to pick what I want to try.  I picked Aloe Vera swirl kit because it's the one with beautiful greens.  I love using colors!  What surprised me is the size of the package, didn't notice the whole kit is to make 5 lb soap log, including soap mold and a handy hanger swirl tool!

This new soaping book has lots of color photos and detailed step by step instructions.  With a wide range of recipe, additive, and soaping styles, I'm sure even the pickiest soap makers would find at least one they can't wait to try.

Pure Soap Making is all about making soap with natural ingredients.  In the book there's a section talking about all different colorants we use to color cold process soap.  The greens being used in this kit are oxides.  There are debates on whether or not oxides are considered natural.  Oxides used to be the mineral colorants mined from nature.  But those that mined from nature are heavy in body harmful metals.  Without filtering and refinement these oxides are not legal to use in cosmetics.  Because of the harm risk and extensive refinement process, nowadays oxides are man-made but identical to naturally mined.  Therefore a portion of soap makers consider oxides to be natural.  However, I disagree with this classification.  It's like saying man-made diamond is diamond.  Man-made diamond is identical to naturally mined diamond, in fact they are better than naturally mined diamond as they are literally flawless without a bit of inclusion.  So, would you consider man-made diamond real diamond?  I wouldn't think so.  When buying jewelry, sellers have to indicate whether the stone is naturally mined or the word "lab created" has to be indicated.

The book calls for swirly soap top but I'm never one who is known to follow instructions well.  I always have to put my own spin on soap.  I ended up peaking up the soap top with a spoon and sprinkle these tiny white soap balls I had rolled previously from left over soap.  I think it looks like heavy snow on evergreen forest.And don't forget to sprinkle some sparkling mica for an instant eye catching shin!Over all this new book is very well done.  It covers enough information for both beginner and more advanced soap makers.  I give it a thumb up!  Check out the kit and book deal from Brambleberry: Aloe Vera Hanger Swirl Soap Kit & Book