Another treasury...I am on a roll! :)

I have been included in another treasury made up of items from members of the Mad Scientists of Etsy. Check it out here and comment!

Treasury

My Kahlua Vanilla Coffee soap has been included in a treasury made by a member of the CT Etsy Team. You can check it out here and please comment so we might have a chance to be on the Etsy home page!

Grumpy Girl Soaps

Some of my Yahoo groups have been talking recently about the amazing swirled soaps at Grumpy Girl on Etsy. Check out this soap called Acid trip.


You can find a tutorial she gave on how to make these amazing 9 color swirls at Craftserver. The tutorial is here.

Yay Finally!!

After many months of finishing experiments and tweaking my paper, I was finally given the approval by my Professor to submit my manuscript to the Journal of Biological Chemistry on Monday. Now I have to wait about 6 weeks for it to get peer reviewed before I hear anything. Hopefully, I will not have to do any more experiments. So, with that project behind me I now have to finish up my two other projects. With lots of luck I will graduate this May...or that is what I keep telling myself.

Salt Bar Tutorial

I was recently asked by Joanna at Product body and The Soap Bar to write up a salt bar tutorial. For the pictures I made a Frankincense and Myrrh scented soap with French green clay. I am really loving how it came out. If you want to check out the tutorial it is now on The Soap Bar blog.

I also came across a blog about my Jasmine salt bars on E-tailer's Mall...thanks for checking out my store! :)

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.