Pumpkin Cheese Cake Soap

It's the end of summer, school has started, meaning time to plan fall soap projects!  Each year I would make pumpkin soap once, usually around this time.  I made a recipe just for this soap, the only recipe that uses pumpkin seed oil.  The virgin cold pressed pumpkin seed oil is rather smelly, not in a bad way, it's nutty and amber brown in color.  When I tried to put in my order for more virgin pumpkin seed oil I noticed the shortage in inventory.  The 2 suppliers I normally buy from had none this year.  The other suppliers who still carry it have priced it higher than what I would  like to pay for.  For  this soap I've used up the last bit I have left.

Previously I had been making pumpkin chai scented typical bar soap.  It's getting old and boring, time for me to revamp it this year.  While looking online for idea I found this photo on Pinterest, it's actually a real desert, a frozen yogurt cake:

 It is not in a typical cupcake form, rather simple and elegant!

If you are a soap maker you probably already know any pumpkin related fragrance contains a lot of vanillin (for smelling like vanilla) and that would cause soap to turn brown when exposed to the air, it's oxidation.  I picked a pumpkin fragrance that's more like sweet pumpkin filling without heavy spice and less vanillin.  How to work around the color is always the challenging part.  Anyway, to not bore you with details, I present you my version of pumpkin soap this year:

Pumpkin Cheese Cake Soap

It's a rather time consuming soap to make, a 3 days project!  Day 1, I had to make the cheese cake middle first, unmold it and cleaned it up to dry.  Day 2, made the brown crust, put the cake back into the mold on top of the crust.  Reason for this extra step is to cover the day one's ugly uneven soap top by placing it up side down into the mold to adhere with the brown crust.

Day 3, final dress up, this is the part it didn't go as planned. Day 2's brown crust did not adhere to the cheese cake part well, it left gaps.  I had to make extra soap batter, split it to make the brown crust again to patch up the gaps.  By the time I was ready or the cream topping the batter got too thick to drizzle... sigh.  Oh well, plan B is not unusually in my soaping kitchen.

Dusting it with pearl white mica is like cherry on top, make it have this powder sugar look, totally realistic!
The only problem is, days later the soap still turned brownish... sigh.  I just can run away from browns...

 

2013 Soap Collage

Happy New Year everyone!

I made a photo collage of some soap projects I did in 2013, enjoy!

Party Favor - Mini Cupcake Soap

It's not unusual for people to plan a party and source the party favor a bit too late in the game because it's always thought to be the least important piece of the puzzle.  If you are a cold process soap maker you would understand when I say it takes time to have a custom made soap ready so plan ahead, like 2 months ahead!  Well, but what if it's too late already?  This is where melt and pour soap comes to rescue.  

What is melt and pour soap?  It used to be made with detergent and glycerin, can be transparent or opaque, made to be meltable to form whatever shape you want it to be.  Nowadays it can be made detergent free and just like cold process soap but with extra process of glycerin and high % alcohol (or propylene glycol) to turn it transparent and meltable.  Melt and pour soap can be done at home but sure not as cost effective and quality is not as good in my opinion.  Most of us source it from a supplier or directly from a manufacturer.  The advantage of using melt and pour soap is you don't need to wait for cure time like cold process soap.  And if you are not happy with your design you can always remelt it again.  Nevertheless, I still prefer cold process soap most of the time.  Cold process soap allows me to customize recipes and be more flexible with designs.  In my opinion, quality can be far more superior than melt and pour soap.

Yes, those cherries are soap, usable soap.  The only thing that's not soap is the stem.  I collected and dried these stems from real cherries thinking one day I would need them.  And I did!  I must be a psychic or something!  The only problem with making soap in the form of food is that it can easily be consumed as food if one does not read the label!