Soaping Indian Amber Resin

My knowledge of the amber resin (for scenting) before I had the chance of getting some was some kind of harden thousand year old piece of stone like jewelry.  I was wondering how perfumist uses it to make those warm sexy exotic base note in the upscale perfume, grind it into powder???

Last month I had joined an online co-op and got some to try.  Boy is it expensive!  It's sold by gram, GRAM, singular digit!  This is the information I got from the coordinator of this co-op about amber resin:

"Amber is a composite of many natural resins and herbs, created in India by one of several master formulators.  Each has their own secret recipe which is handed down through the generations and is guarded as a family trade secrete."

When I first open the little zip bag I received I was very very impressed with the intense exotic incense like scent.  Makes me want to rub it all over my skin.  It is very hard to explain how it smells like, it has many different notes of spice and musk and woods and so much more!  And it does not look like jewelry... surprise!  This is the photo taken by the co-op coordinator:

I was not sure if all the lovely complex notes would survive cold process soap saponification, I desperately hope it does!  I tried 2 different method, 1st time I directly melted the resin with a small portion of my soaping oil and added into the soap; 2nd time I melted the resin with soaping oil and let it infused in warm heat for 3 hours before soaping the whole pot. 

First try: Dare Me Soap

I mixed a duplication of Truth or Dare perfume with the amber resin.  This is a white floral amber musk blend sweeten by vanilla, classic yet modern and sexy.

Second try: Mayan Gold Soap

I mixed a fragrance oil called Mayan Gold and the amber resin.  This is an oriental type scent with rare woods, spices, amber, musk, chocolate, with a kick of vibrant citrus.

They are both warm and sensual blends, preparing for the Autumn season, it's never too early!

Photo Inspiration - Glass Pavilion

Inspiration can come from anywhere, sometimes it starts with a new fragrance I bought, sometimes it starts with an image I saw, sometimes it starts with a color scheme I want to achieve.  This one all started when I bought a new fragrance from a reputable supplier.  It is one of their new summer collection scents, fresh, crisp and marine type.  For awhile I didn't know what I'm going to design, nothing came to my mind.  I really like this scent, but a soaper's block hit me while I was tangled in new packaging making machine drama.  Let's not go there, it was a mess and a long story.  Nevertheless, I was able to dig myself out of the frustration and came back to what I'm really passionate about: making soap.  I know I wanted a blue soap, something related to words like summer, cool, refresh, spa, crisp... etc.  I saw this stained glass design picture on line and that is it, my inspiration!

This is my interpretation in soap:

 

What do you think?  A success?!

Journey to my New Soap Box

My packaging for the longest time has been wrapping each bar of soap one by one with white dry wax paper, colorful ribbon then sticker tags front and back.  It is very economical but very time consuming.  I've always been searching for a more exciting, professional look new packaging idea.
I could order a whole bunch of custom made boxes from suppliers, but that needs a rather LARGE minimum order to get the price economical.  I do like the idea of soap in a box.  That would give the soap a more uniform look.  But as restless as me, I probably change my design way too often to make the pre-order worth awhile.
One day one of my soaping friends introduced me to this crafting machine that connects to any computer to design, print from any printer then send it back to cut.  It is a little pricey but I totally got excited by the flexibility this will give to my packaging need.  I can change my design anytime I want with no minimum order to worry about!
I started sketching my first box idea:

 Using a graphic program to draw and print, cut with plain old pair of scissors for prototype study #1:
Yes, it is very colorful, LOL, doing it so I can see how different planes come together.

I sent the design to cut with my new toy to test prototype #2: text choice is not good for cutouts... sigh.

Testing more fonts for cutouts and found the one that works pretty well:

Now thanks to my honey, I got some professional looking product photos!

Pipping Soap Poppy Flower

Soaping is very much like cooking, to be more specific, very much like baking.  Whatever you can pipe onto a cake for decoration it can be done in cold process soap also.  I'm not much of a baker, why make it myself when I can just buy all kind of yummy treats out there easily?!  I confess, my very first pipping experience is not for food, it's for soap... that's serious soaping addiction, LOL.

Pipping cupcakes is actually pretty easy as long as you get the thickness of soap batter under control.  Pipping flowers is a totally different story.  All the youtube clips on pipping flowers make it look so easy and effortless.

These are my first pipped flower, they are supposed to be poppies but... oh well, good enough, LOL

It was no piece of cake for me!  I had to pipe it again and again, scrap the failed ones, throw it back into the bag, do it again until it looked decent.  The last 2 flower petals started to crack all over the place because the soap batter had gotten way too thick and dry for pipping.

Oh well, next time will be better I tell myself!  Hey, at least they look like flower!

If you want to give this a try, take a look at this video first: 

Thank you Kim from Alamo Candelaria for showing us how to pipe poppy flower!!

Second Trial Live Video Soap Session

Still not perfect, but huge improvement from 1st trial!

Thanks for all 5 volunteered participants for helping me take a step forward towards the determination of this exciting future "class" offering!  I can finally see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.  To read my 1st trial blog post click: First Trial Live Video Soap Session

I studied the mistakes I made from 1st trial and made a couple significant changes to this round:

• Definitely set a specific color scheme per class (unlike the 1st time, inexperienced me let everyone chose their own color scheme).
• Demonstration by me before letting all participants start

I got great feedback this round, everyone had a great time to the point we kept on chatting soap related subjects after class that we just couldn't stop!  Here are some soap photos from this soaping session:

My pre made Melon Spritzer Soap to show participants the color scheme:

This is soap by Nicole Sullivan from Lather & Love Bath & Body Creations

Nicole uses natural colorants only so her colors look different from the rest but shows you how natural colors can make eye catching design too.

This one is made by Barbara Wilde from Wildevines Soapery

Next one is made by Angie Cavaiuolo from Handmade Natural Beauty

Last but not least, soap made by Pamela Leis from By The Sea Soap

I think I will host a 3rd round of trial then I can be ready to offer it as a "class" for real!  Super excited!

Bee's Wax in Soap

I don't remember when was the last time I tried adding a small percentage of bee's wax in soap, probably ages ago.  I totally forgot the reason why I ditched this ingredient, more curious why I want to give it another try.

Well, I think that jugged my old memory!  Bee's wax is very hard, it requires high temperature to melt it and stay liquid.  That is why it's being used for lip balm to maintain shape even in hot summer.  It is the same reason soapers use a small percentage in making soap, to harden and lengthen the use in shower.  Wax, any kind, is not saponifiable, meaning it would not react with sodium hydroxide (lye) like other oil and butters, it stays wax even in cold process soap, it's the reason why only a very small amount should be used or soap would start to lose lathering power.

I usually soap very cool temperature, it gives me more time to play with design as I'm slow, takes me forever and a day to finish a batch!  Well, with oil butter temperature so low it would not be able to keep bee's wax liquid.  I thought I was being a smart ass to melt bee's wax separately and pour into the soap when the batter is about thin trace.
WRONG!!!
Hot liquid bee's wax riced on me the second it hit the batter!  I had to stick blend the heck out of the pot trying to smooth it out.  I did my best, even trying to filter the bits out by running it through a mesh.  The batter got too thick it just won't go through the straining mesh 1/3 through the way.  I hurried up and added the color and FO and into the mold it went.  You can still see the tiny white translucent speckles if you look closely.  I can smell the sweetness of the bee's wax faintly through the soap.  But no way am I going to try using bee's wax in soap ever again!  I don't care how good it is, it's not going into the soap.  This is it, the very very limited batch!

 

Reinventing Old Techniques with New Combination

I have to say, it's pretty hard to invent a new technique in soaping style, that doesn't mean you should just do same old same old over and over again.  If you want, combine 2 or more techniques together in one soap will bring the boring soap back to live!

Here are my recent soap mini obsession: layering + tiger stripe (or ITP swirl) + balls (yes, how can I skip that?!)

 Bubble Gum (essential oil blend)

Love Potion

Now what's your reinvention of combining old styles?!