Deep Purple Memories Part II

#lavender #clovebud #purplesoap #deeppurple #deeppurplememories

This is the second time we've made this popular soap. It evolved from a soap challenge we had entered to create a spinning swirl (no, this is not the soap we entered, and no, we didn't win).

We made up our own blend of essential oils; lavender, litsea cubeba, and clove bud.  It's a wonderful combination, kind of exotic but soft at the same time.  The one thing we learned (added to a long list of things we've learned) on that first batch is that clove bud essential oil causes soap to thicken pretty quickly.  That caught us by surprise.  In this case, accelerated batter wasn't in our favor because we needed loose batter to create a spinning swirl.  We definitely didn't have a loose batter, and our planned spinning swirl definitely didn't spin.

Even though the swirl didn't work as we had hoped, this soap was gorgeous and also very popular, so we made it again - in mid September to be exact.

Rather than try and explain what happened, and what didn't happen when we made this soap, it's easier to just show you the video we made of the first batch. Below is the video from the 1st time we made the soap (in case you're interested).

Below are final shots of batch number 2,  all lined up and ready to go.
The smell is absolutely amazing!

Deep Purple Memories is available though this link to our Etsy Store

Deep Purple Memories

While trying to think up a name we concentrated on the colors and finally came up with the title of a song from the sixties called Deep Purple, which color-wise totally fits this soap. Do you remember this song? It was our inspiration!

Deep Purple Memories cold process soap.

Wisteria & Lilac, we are forcing spring to come!

#wisteria&lilac  #bringonspring #handmadesoap #floralsoap

We know, we know, it's been a while….we're sorry and will try to keep the posts coming more regularly in 2016!

Better late than never, that is our new motto!  "Whaaa?" you might say. Well if you look at the pictures posted on this blog you know the trees aren't green now, they are leafless and dormant….patiently waiting for spring.  So obviously this post has been waiting since late September to be published, quite a while.

Please feel free to watch us create this lovely soap by clicking on the arrow in the next picture, it will take you directly to our youtube channel and you can create along with us.

These pictures are what we call the final shots, and show the finished soap.

These bars are available for sale ($5.50 each) on Etsy.

link to our Etsy store

Such vivid purples and greens, we love it!

We wish we had smell-o-vision because this soap smells soooooo good!

Wisteria and Lilac cold process soap.

Soap Challenge - making our own silicone mat/mold

#shellsandseaglass #beachsoap #shellsoap #seaglasssoap #soapchallengeclub

#sageandcitrus #amywardenssoapchallengeclub

Somehow the holidays are zooming towards us on a high speed train, chugging (do trains actually chug anymore?) along each day…. then as I beginning writing this blog I look across the room and there is a decorated Christmas tree staring at me!  How can Christmas be here already?!

This year along with all the pre holiday mayhem, Alison and I decided to enter another Great Cakes Soapworks Challenges hosted by Amy Warden.  Our reasoning was two-fold, first we love the challenges! We learn new techniques, we challenge ourselves, me meet other soapers and generally have a ball making whatever kind of design the challenge puts forth.  And second, we can teach ourselves how to make our own molds!

The challenge this month is to create your own silicone mat/mold!  Could we actually do this? Boy we hoped so.  (because…) In our many online soap related shopping adventures we tend to  surf in many categories, scents (we never get tired of this section), colorants, what is on sale, supplies we need, and then we slide over to drool over molds.  Molds aren't just square or rectangular anymore, they have dogs, lego, very intricate flowers, babies, stars, cupcakes, shells, butterflies….and, well you get the drift, almost anything can be made into a mold. And now we are going to try this (formerly) intimidating feat.

And this is why we love the challenge club - we are trying something we never would have tried on our own!

We bought the mold making materials as soon as Amy announced the challenges, then started wracking our brains as to subject matter for the mat.  We looked around and saw small river rocks (too big), pasta (um..no), cut grass (too delicate), assorted keys (not interesting), lace (nah), sea glass (hmmmm - maybe), cup cake sprinkles (we'd eat to many), shells (hmmmm I have a ton), dried lemon slices (would acid react to silicone?), well anyway you get the drift.  After going round and round with various ideas since both of us LOVE everything beach related we decided to use a mixture of sea glass and shells.

So without further yapping we will now take you on our silicone mat making experience.  This challenge was in two parts, the making of the silicone mat, which will be the following video.

The second video is the making of the soap, which I think we are going to call "shells and sea glass", I know, couldn't we think of anything catchier (sp?). Well, how about "sea glass and shells?"

Enjoy the video.

Final shots of the soap both before and after we cut it into bars.

Top layer = shells and sea glass; second layer = sand; third layer = white foam; bottom = in-the-pot-swirl of blues to signify the many colors found in the ocean.

Shells & Sea Glass will be cured by January 27, 2016

(that's the first time we've typed a date with 2016 in it!!)

Tall and Skinny - final, final, final, final try!!!

#prettyinpink  #patchoulirainscent #tallandskinnyshimmy

#pink soap

November 5, 2015

Obsessed - the definition of obsessed is either "to think about something unceasingly or persistently; dwell obsessively upon something."

or

It's what happens to me and why I decided to make batch #4 for the tall and skinny shimmy challenge….

Case in point:  the November Challenge for Amy Wardens Great Cakes Soap Challenge is called the "tall and skinny shimmy."  Alison and I happily entered the Challenge, bought 2 silicone tall and skinny molds, and began planning our color strategy.  We divided one of our large "loose batter" batches of soap so that each of us could play around with the color. How hard can it b?, we stupidly thought.

Rainbow, the beautiful example of what our soap is supposed to resemble once we've completed the Challenge.  This one was made by Tatiana Serko.  The idea is to get the colors to loosely flow/shimmy together……

great looking soap isn't it, looks easy, right?

When we made Tall and Skinny Shimmy batch #1, the first thing we learned is that you need REALLY LOOSE batter, otherwise the soap will look like a spoon plop and won't "shimmy." The other thing we learned was that we needed more batter for our next try (if we're going to split a batch).  Oh both bars smell great, they just aren't what we needed and are a bit short of batter…..on to split batch number two.

Batch #1

Alison is yellow, green white, and Kathy's is blue (s) and white

notice we don't have the "shimmy" going on at all!

Tall and skinny shimmy batch number 2, this time we barely mixed the batter, but a minute into the process we knew we had problems….again, with batter getting to thick to fast! Dang, what's a girl to do?  Again, we had bars of great smelling soap that looked really similar to the first batch.  Oh yeah, this is getting OLD.  

Batch #2

Kathy's on left, Alison on right

our volume was up but that's about all, the batter was too thick…..again!

On the third try we decided not to split a large batch, since in the earlier tries the person going second (Alison unfortunately) for sure had thicker (and more unmanageable) soap.  So third time is going to be the charm, right?! Do I sound a little sarcastic? A little ticked off, a little "obsessed"?????  Here is why, DOS, yes Dreaded Orange Spots ALL OVER THE SOAP!!!!!  We have no idea what happened, our oils are fine (we used same oils on #1 & #2 and they were fine except for thickening).  We used a scent called Angel Baby,  we bought it in July, it's not rancid or too old, we've used it several times without incident, but this time - oh brother, what a mess.

Batch #3

How disappointing, we actually got the shimmy, but the spots, my eyes!!!!!

we were very, very, very disappointed!

And now we are back to the word of the day - "obsessed." That would be me, Kathy.  I just couldn't let the shimmy beat us, so today I made batch #4.  Yes this is a little over the top, but I was determined to do this one.  Alison was busy and unable to come to the soap kitchen, so I forged on alone and took still pictures.  The following is a visual narrative of the creation of what I think we'll call Pretty in Pink….unless it's trademarked.

I wasn't kidding when I said pink! 

All of the colors except the top - Pink Vibrance from +Nurture Soap Supplies - came from Rustic Escentuals

In this picture I had mixed the color in the safflower oil already.

The FO (fragrance oil) I used is from Rustic Escentuals, Patchouli Rain.  We discovered it at their fall open house and absolutely love it.  Its so sweet and fresh and tangy all at the same time.  They describe it as follows:  "This fragrance oil is a fresh rain and earthy patchouli with notes of lily of the valley, cyclamen, fresh ozone, earthen moss, and hints of sweet citrus."  

Tried something a little different, added the FO into the oils before adding the lye/water.

Fingers crossed that it performs well.

Now in goes the lye. I didn't mix it much, just to emulsification as I know it will thicken up as time passes.

I have no idea which color went in first, second or what.  I realized immediately that the batter was getting thicker, so I was grabbing, mixing, and pouring as fast as possible.

You can see it's a little thick.

I know the pink on the left is Blushed Pink, it was the lightest of the colors.

Thick anyone?  only thing to do is keep on plugging away.

Only the top is left, thank goodness, it was getting seriously thick at this point.

I slammed the remaining white batter on the top and slammed it down several times hoping to get rid of any air bubbles.

I spooned the remaining nuggets of batter all over the top.

And last but not least, my most favorite part….swirling!

It's quite a pretty soap, hope it will "shimmy" for us!

Now that you've seen the glamour part, here is the mess part.  Using cups for the batter is a great idea, I'm sure we will be using them again.

Cups are everywhere, then they weren't, that's why throwing them away is so great. 

….no, I didn't get the "shimmy" and we decided to enter batch #3 (with a side of rice)!

The pink batch smells lovely and actually looks pretty good even though I didn't achieve what I was going for.

The tall and skinny shimmy was a tough one. It's pretty, but we're not sure we will use it much!

Please enjoy the final shots. 

No shimmy in these bars!

This soap will be available for purchase after Dec.18, 2015.

Our Etsy shop

Tall and Skinny Shimmy - with a side of rice

#coldprocesssoap #soapchallengeclub #tall&skinnyshimmy 

Pictured above is our entry for this month.  Read on to see the process...

Like a happy alarm clock it is time for Amy Wardens Great Cakes soap challenge.  The design for the November challenge - The Tall and Skinny Shimmy - comes from the soaping artistry of Tatiana Serko who makes Creative Soap by Steso.

The instructions were great and it looked like a fun challenge, so we jumped right in and bought two tall and skinny silicone molds (which we've wanted for ever).  We learned very quickly that the consistency of the batter is critical & we mean critical!!

Our first attempt - we used a recipe that we have used a gagillion times and split the batter in half so we could both try the technique. Oops, batter was WAY too thick!

1st attempt - split batch, no swirling, no fluidity,  batter way too thick.

Basically this turned into a spoon plop!

On to attempt #2 - This time we used a recipe that we have used many times for our intricate designs.  It stays very fluid for much longer.  Well...it usually does... Again, we divided the batch in half so we could each try it, and again, the batter got thicker than we wanted.

2nd attempt - split batch, basically same as first attempt, still didn't get the swirls and shimmy we were looking for. We have another spoon plop!

*bright side, our soap inventory is looking quite colorful at this point (and they smell great, too)!

On to attempt #3 - again we used the fluid recipe, but this time we only made a 1/2 batch so maybe we could move faster.  Kathy soaped and Alison ran the video camera...

YAY - sort of!

We got fluidity, and shimmy-ing (is that a word?), and pretty colors, but we also got something we didn't plan on - ricing! All over all the bars! 

We couldn't figure out why. We've used the FO before in CP design w/o problems, and the oils were fresh and were the same ones we've used recently without problems.

It must have been the rain!

Do we quit? (lots of discussion) 

No, I (Kathy) couldn't stand it!

I knew we could do another batch and have it work! 

Right????

Wrong!

Attempt #4 - our last try! - Again I used the fluid recipe and made just enough for one tall & skinny mold.

Pretty in pink - but no fluidity, no shimmy.  The batter (which I thought was fluid enough) wasn't pouring well.

So now that we've made you see all our non shimmy-ing soap please join us while we make the one that actually did shimmy, we call it tall and skinny shimmy - with a side of rice.

Even though we are happy that it shimmied, we are mortified to be entering this one amidst all the sure to be other beautiful entries.  The soap may not look perfect, but it sure does smell great.

Please enjoy the video as we make our Tall and Skinny Shimmy with a side of Rice!

Or you can enjoy the photos in all of their ricey glory: