Temporarily Insane....

Temporarily Insane, 5 Projects in 1 Day, 

or

The Longest Blog Post Ever!

Thursday, October 8, 2014

We've gone off the deep end, or lost our noodles, or our marbles or.....well, maybe we never had them. Hmmm...this may be our longest post ever.

We tackled five different projects today! Okay, some were wrap-ups from yesterday (see Alison's candles), but the rest (count em, 4 projects) were started and finished today!  A new Soap Lily record!

Since there is much to post about, we will be brief (well, we'll try).  

Ready? Set?  Here we go!

Project  #1 was finishing up the candles Alison started yesterday. They had settled a little near the wick as the wax cooled and hardened, so we reheated the leftover wax and did a second pour. This leveled out the top layer of wax and made the candles look more professional.  Alison describes it in her post about the candles.

On to projects #2 & #3 - two batches of HP soap at the same time. We staggered them 15 minutes apart so it wouldn't get too crazy.

We decided to use silk in both batches. The above picture shows the tiny pieces we cut; the silk dissolves in the lye much faster if the pieces are small.

When we had the silk ready and all of our supplies organized, we added 

the lye beads and silk into the water.

The silk dissolves in the lye/water; however, if you look closely in the above 

photo you can see the silk fibers before they had completely dissolved.

We measured and mixed the oils (coconut, sustainable palm, olive and castor)

and had both crock pots ready to go.

 We added the lye/silk/water to the the Cannabis Rose batch about 15 minutes ahead of the Jasmine.  We didn't want them to be exactly on the same schedule as it's hard to stir 2 batches at once.

 The fragrance oil came from Nature's Garden and is described as " a blend of Bulgarian rose, pomegranate flower, bergamont, cannabis accord, sheer asmine, dark chocolate, white musk, patchouli and oolong tea."

We combined colorants to create a light rose and dark rose color.

For the darker rose color we blended TD and  Fired Up Fuchsia (both from Bramble Berry) mixed with Diamond Dust Mica from Nature's Garden.

We added the colorant powders to 1 TBSP of Safflower oil.

The dark rose color looked like this when mixed.

We created the lighter rose color using Blushed Pink Mica 

from www.rusticescentuals.com.

We added 1/2 tsp. of colorant 1 TBSP of Safflower oil.

It made a beautiful shade of pink.

The Cannabis Rose batch was in the stainless crock pot on the right.

Initially we let the Cannabis Rose batch cook for 30 minutes.

We could see lots of activity under the lid.

Thirty minutes passed quickly, and above is what the batter looked like when we took the lid off.

We found a thin layer of "non gelled" soap batter right on the top - it acted kind of like a pancake.  We stirred it back into the gelled batter where it promptly melted and set the timer for 15 minutes.

After 1-1/2 hours the soap was done, so we added the last few ounces of water and stirred.

Next, we added the Cannabis Rose FO and mixed until the FO was completely

incorporated throughout the batter.  When we were satisfied that we had an even mixture, we divided the batter into three parts.

 

We mixed the light shade of pink into one portion of the batter.

So pretty! 

Then we mixed the darker pink into another portion of the batter.

Once we had both shades mixed evenly,

we poured them back into the crock pot with the white portion 

of the soap then gently folded themtogether two create an "in the pot swirl."

After swirling the three colors together, Kathy plopped the batter

by heaping spoonful into the loaf mold.

She tamped it down several times to get rid of as many air bubbles as possible, then

placed the mold in the curing room to cool and harden for 24 hours.

By this time, the second crock pot was ready and it was time to move on to the Jasmine batch of soap.

For the Jasmine batch we used a scent from +Natures Garden that is described as "the exotic blend of freshly cut jasmine flowers with a base note of rose petals."

The soap will be another in-the-pot-swirl but this time of yellow and green mixed with the white (uncolored) batter.

We used colorants from Bramble Berry (Fizzy Lemonade Mica), 

and Rustic Escentuals (24 Karat Gold Mica) 

to achieve the yellow shade we wanted.

We mixed the two colors together in a TBSP of Safflower oil.

  

For the green color we mixed Enchanted Forest Mica from Rustic Escentuals 

with Patina Sheen Mica from Bramble Berry.

We mixed the two colors with 1 TBSP of safflower oil.

The batter looked like this when we had finished stick blending, it's called heavy trace, 

very mayonnaise like texture.

We put the lid on and let it cook for 30 minutes. (no stirring during this time slot)

What a change! After 30 minutes in the batter had almost completely gelled. 

While the soap is cooking we line up all of the remaining ingredients 
so they will be ready to go when it is done.

After 1-1/2 hours of cooking, we used our Ph Strips to test the soap then zap tested it several times.  Yay!  It was done.

At this point we add the 3 ounces of water we had reserved from the water we added with the lye.  Adding water at the end of the cook gives the soap a looser consistency and makes it easier to blend colors.

We added the incredible Jasmine scent next.

Then we pulled out 2-1/2 to 3 cups of soap batter so we could color it green.

Above shows the green once we had it mixed evenly. 

We added the yellow colors into the other reserved portion

and mixed it well.

We plopped both colors back into the crock pot where the remaining non-colored soap batter was patiently waiting.

After a quick "in the pot swirl" we were ready to fling the soap batter. Yes, we fling it into the mold, trying to close up any holes where air bubbles may lurk.

Once all the soap was in the mold we slammed it down on the counter numerous times. We really don't want air bubbles.  To be more specific, Kathy slammed it.  Alison was completely focused on the blog at the time and almost dove straight under the table when Kathy started slamming the mold on the counter.

Above is the soap with dividers in place, ready to cure overnight.

And you thought soap making was all fun!  This is the pile of dirty dishes we have when we are finished. And, by the way, we had been cleaning up as we went along so this photo really could have been much worse.

Here is what the completed soaps looked like,

Now on to project #4 - more candles!  These use Red Currant Fragrance oil.

We are recycling old candle containers and jars, and had been melting out old candle wax and scrubbing the jars in between soap work for the last few days.  Above, you can see that we have the wicks in place, held there by the blue tape across the top of the jar.

Above is the melted wax after Kathy added the colorant.  We didn't have a red color so we combined pink and yellow like Alison had done yesterday, then we crossed our fingers.

As in soap, the FO has a flash point, so we checked the temperature to make sure the wax was below 131 degrees.

This is a great candle scent, back in the day Kathy used to sell Votivo candles and this was one of her favorites.

Once the wax was cool enough we poured it into the containers, then all that was left was to wait for the candles to cool.  They may need a little touch up if the wax settles around the wick.

By Friday, with the exception of trimming the wicks, they were done. They aren't currant red, but who's looking?

They smell as great as the high dollar ones!

Gasp, we are on to project #5.  By this time Alison had left the building, so I was flying solo.
I made this batch in our 10" silicone mold, in other words it was a small batch.  Think Christmas gifts!

I used two scents pictured above. 

Bedtime Bath Type is from +Natures Garden and is described as "a bedtime blend of manadarin, lavender, chamomile, neroli and lily of the valley with bottom notes of hay and musk"  it does smell divine.  

I mixed it with a 1/2 ounce free sample we got from +Bramble Berry  called Chrisp Anjou Pear.  The pear scent is described as "designed after the crisp green anjou pear, it's sweet and fresh at the same time"

Here I go....

I probably should have used a green color (for the pear), but I have wanted to use the Cornflower Celebration Mica ever since we got it. So I did.

Here the colorant is freshly dropped into 1 TBSP of Safflower oil.

And here it is after I mixed it. I love the color.

I added Tussah silk to this batch.

The combination of oils I used in the batch were the usual coconut, olive, sustainable palm, but also Shea Butter and Sweet Almond Oil.  It was a little different than Old Faithful.

You know how we always talk about being careful with lye. The photo above shows why.  

While I was mixing the lye/silk/water into the oils, and after it had emulsified, I got splattered!

As you can see from the goggles, if I hadn't had them on it could have splashed right into my eye.  In addition to the splats you can see, there was another one on the lower rim of the goggles. Again, if I hadn't had the goggles on, it could have splattered right under my (regular) glasses into my eye.

Safety first!!!

I cooked the soap for 1-1/2 hours and after the usual testing, it was done.  I added the 

2 ounces of water I had withheld at the beginning and stirred it in.

Then I added the fragrance oils, again mixing well.

Next I took out about 2 cups of soap batter and added the beautiful Cornflower blue mica.

It's almost as pretty mixed into the soap batter.

I plopped the blue batter back into the remaining white and swirled/folded it until it was a good mix of colors.

It looks grey, but is actually white and blue. I just hate having to wait 24 hours 

to see what it looks like.

But, in the blogosphere 24 hours passes quickly.

And here it is, smells as good as it looks!

What a day we had, all in all it was fun and neither of us got splattered with lye or candle wax.  Our day was successful no matter how you look at it.