So little time in each day....sigh

Lots to update you all on, but like always time has flown by and I need to sleep very, very soon. In the next few days I will show pictures of the cut and cured goat's milk soap, my sensitive skin soap, a new shaving soap, and a yummie smelling candle! I have also been working on a Salt bar tutorial for Joanna over at the soapbar.

Pirate Party

It has been a busy few weeks planning for our annual Pirate party. The party was on the 21st and we had a great turn out. Probably around 50 people showed up. My brother came down from Vermont and we had a lot of friends that came from all over New England and New York. This party is always held sometime between May and July depending on when most people can make it. We started the annual party as a party for Dylan's birthday, though he would never tell people that. So every year I make a pirate boat type cake and I thought you all would like to see a picture. I am quite happy with how it came out. It is certainly my best so far. Of course I have only made a couple fondant covered cakes so I am sure there is much I can improve on. The cake was a chocolate vanilla swirl covered in a layer of buttercream frosting and then decorated with fondant.

Dylan and I always get decked out in costume. I made all of mine except the corset and Dylan has compiled his costume over the years. He bought the Jacket last year on Ebay and had a local tailor put in pockets this year. He also had the tailor modify the pants he picked up at Goodwill last year so that they tied off just below the knees. Dylan made the shirt he was wearing and I made his hat a couple of years ago. I was excited to see that many of our guests actually got dressed up in costume, too, though none quite as elaborate as ours. Next year I may try to get some on my girlfriends to wear wench costumes like mine.

Liquid Soap

I finally got the courage to dilute my liquid soap paste and while I thought I was being modest with the amount of water I added to dilute, it turned out a little too watery. In one of the yahoo groups I am a member of people have been discussing ways to thicken liquid soap. One method was using Hydroxethyl Cellulose (HEC). So since I don't have HEC and it reminded me of Pre-neutralized carbomer I tried using the PNC that I had on hand. Well it worked okay, but it seems like the PNC "crystals" just sink to the bottom of the container. It does make the soap thicker, but it is not pretty. Compare the two photos: the top one was from yesterday and the bottom from today...see the separation? :( I do like the color though and I scented it bubblegum!

Soy Wax Candles

Here is a picture of the 3 candles I made this weekend. the pink one is scented a cinnamon spice, the blue is blackberry, and the yellow is banana. I really love the look of soy wax and it is so much nicer to work with than paraffin wax. Now if only I can figure out how to get the banana candle out of the mold. I am wondering if I need to use the pillar type wax for that type of mold. Anyone know the difference between pillar and container wax?

New items in Etsy shop

I posted a few new items in my Etsy shop today and I will be posting 2 different soaps tomorrow. Feel free to check them out here.

I played around with some candles today and I must say I am so impressed with the new one pour waxes. I had not made soap for many years and what I worked with back then was just paraffin wax or beeswax and both would get divots as they cooled. I will post some picture of them tomorrow.

I also made a super luxurious soap for those that have very sensitive and irritated skin. All the ingredients are known to help with eczema and dry skin. I used neem oil in this soap and man does it smell bad. I have had the neem oil for about a month, but it stank so much through the unopened container that I have avoided using it until now. The smell is supposed to fade during the cure and I can already tell that it is getting milder in scent.

Goat's milk soap

This was my first attempt at replacing some of my olive oil with soybean oil. I did not plan to do this but once I started weighing out my oils I saw that I only had about half the amount of olive oil I needed. So I went back to my soapmaker program and reformulated to add soybean oil. This was also a larger batch practice...instead of my normal 4lb batch I did 8lb. I may be getting a wholesale customer that will require me to work more efficiently if I am to keep up with her demands. This soap looks nice, but I did not incorporate the GM powder as well as I should have and now I have little chunks of GM powder in the soap. I think it actually looks cool, but I am not sure if I should sell this batch. I will have to try it out and see if the powder feels gross or nice or scrubby. I finally made a fairly nice top though...I used my whisk to create the little peaks. I guess if I don't like the specs of goat's milk powder that i could try to rebatch it.

Homemade Toothpaste

I have been actively commenting on the soap dish to try and get my 100 comments needed to use soapsaver. There has been discussion about homemade toothpaste or tooth soap on there and someone happened to mention using cream soap as a toothpaste. This sparked my interest due to my recent batch of cream soap. So I went and tasted my soap to see if it was nasty tasting...but low and behold it tasted great! It must be due to the glycerin in the soap, cause it has a light sweet flavor. I am planning to add a bit of baking soda and some peppermint EO and make a bit of tooth paste to try out. I am not sure how much of each to add so any suggestions would be welcome.

Cream Soap 2

Day 2 for cream soap. This soap was formulated with some palm oil since it is rich in stearic acid. Stearic acid is really what gives cream soap its sparkling white luster. Often cream soap is made entirely with stearic acid or just a little liquid oil. When you add palm oil to act as some of your stearic acid it apparently makes the cream soap very very thick and almost salve like. My last cream soap batch (see here) was basically a thick sticky liquid after 1 day. I do not think I like this recipe as much as my last one. Though I have be able to get a better consistency if I whip in in my kitchen aid and add some water or aloe gel. I will keep you updated on how this soap changes over time.

Cream Soap

I am in the process of making another batch of cream soap. This time I tried a recipe from the Failor bulletin on cream soap. This batch is made with stearic acid, palm oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. The picture below shows the soap after the cook and super creaming. It was in the process of cooling and you can see how it is starting to turn a creamy white color instead of a translucent gel. It is really quite interesting all the stages cream soap goes through before it actually becomes the nice creamy soap it is destine to be. Any suggestions on what to add to this batch?

Soap curing rack

When the undergrads moved off campus a couple weeks ago, I did a little scavenging. I found some large plastic storage containers that now hold most of my container supplies for packaging product. I also found a bunch of those 1ft x 1ft metal cube rack pieces. I decided that they would be great to use for shelves in a soap curing rack. We had some extra wood just sitting in the basement so I asked Dylan for help cutting the wood and I was lucky enough that he decided to do the whole project for me! He put some caster wheels we had in a toolbox on the bottom of the rack so I can move it around. I really love it...I am wishing that I had another! There are plenty of shelves left so I would just have to get some more wood. So maybe in the future I will have more..Dylan are you reading this? Haha

Anyways, I thought I would post a picture since I always love looking at others soapers spaces, I thought you all might enjoy.