Triage From Home » handmade

Saving My Rain Soap

Helen — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:19:47 +0000

Last fall my biggest seller was a soap I called ‘Vancouver Rain’. The scent I used for it is called Rain Cybilla from Brambleberry.com. It’s one of my favourites. The other day I thought I would whip up a batch and do an In-the-pot swirl with white and blue soap. Before my eyes, the bright blue colour morphed to an ugly gray as I mixed. UGH! It got worse as I poured it into the mold. At that point I just decided to pull out my trusty crock pot and cook it down. No pictures of this part– it was a pretty messy operation!

Once it was all cooked, I added my colours again till I had a pretty blue then glopped it all back into the mold. Here’s what I ended up with. Decent colour, but YAWN….kinda boring. I wanted my favourite soap to at least be interesting looking.

Time to get creative. I did a couple of embedded ball soaps before with varying degrees of success. I decided to give it another try. I cut the loaf in half and then cut half of it into long rectangles- about the size to fit horizontally into my small silicone loaf molds.

Next I trimmed the edges to get it closer to a cylinder shape, then wrapped them in parchment paper and rolled them individually against the countertop to try to get the sides rounded. It was harder than I expected it to be. This took ages! I decided to only make a few of these and do the rest into little balls I could drop into the soap. Still time consuming, but it’s not as difficult to make them nice and evenly round.

The next step was to make a couple of batches of white soap. I used goat milk and a little TD added to get it whiter. I wanted a nice contrast with the blue. The goats milk makes the lather so creamy and smooth, and I love the creamy white colour it gives the bars too. I didn’t get any photos of making the new soap. The camera was getting kinda soapy and slippery! I left the large mold outside overnight to cool and put the smaller ones in the fridge. When I use TD I like to try to avoid gel or I end up with streaky lines in the soap that remind me of stretch marks- ew!

Here’s how they looked just before taking them out of the molds them the next day, and then the larger one unmolded.

A few cuts later and here are the finished bars. I’ll let them harden up a bit more, then smooth out some of the rough edges. I’ve still got half a loaf of the solid blue bars left, but perhaps I’ll just keep them as-is. Not everyone is an artsy soap fan. Some people just want to get clean! Imagine that— I know, I don’t get it either!

This photo was taken in my new kitchen (yeah baby!) so the lighting is a bit different there. The other photos were taken in my soap-making area in the laundry room. The soap is really a creamy white colour.

Making Heart Shaped Sea Salt Bars

Helen — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:47:59 +0000

I decided to make a batch of Heart Shaped Salt Bars tonight. I made them last year for Valentines Day and they were a big hit. I tweaked my method and recipe to try to improve upon last year’s batch. I started out by melting some white melt & pour glycerin soap base and mixing in some raspberry pop mica for a pretty pink colour. Last year I made the heart embeds out of cold process soap, which meant I had to wait about 2 days between the batches to finish these. I also had some trouble last year getting consistent colour in the little hearts- some of them went ashy and in some the colour disappeared or was mottled so I couldn’t use them. I figured that using melt & pour soap for these might be more reliable and easier.

I thought I’d add a bit of bling to this batch, so I used a paint brush to coat the heart shaped ice cube tray molds with a bit of cosmetic glitter before pouring in the soap.

Next, I poured the soap and set it aside to harden. See me pouring with my left hand while I took the photo with my right? NOT easy- aren’t you impressed? (I guess that would be why this photo is so blurry- ha!)

When the tiny soaps were cooled, they easily popped out of their molds and I set them aside for later. Don’t they look like candy in this photo?

Next I weighed out the oils to make the main part of the soap which is done by cold process. Here is the coconut oil being weighed out. Then, I melted it and added sweet almond and castor oils. Salt bars need a high percentage of coconut oil so they will lather well.

I added the lye water and the essential oils at this point. I used a blend of Lavender, Eucalyptus and Rosemary. I call it my ‘spa blend’. Notice my gloves? Lye burns are no fun!

Here, I have split the batch into 2 bowls so I can make layers of different colours. I added titanium dioxide mixed with a bit of water to one half to get bright white, and raspberry pop mica mixed with a bit of glycerin to the other half to get pink.

I used a stick blender to make sure the colour was mixed well into the pink portion, then added the sea salt.

Here I go with my left-handed tricks, pouring while taking photos. This is just for the photo- I had to pour all the rest of them right-handed:-) I poured the pink soap into the molds to about half full. These silicone heart muffin tin molds were a great bargain. I picked them up at Target one day on the ‘dollar shelf’– $2.50 each!

Back to the white portion of the soap, I added the salt and gave it a few blasts with the stick blender to thicken it up a bit.

Then I gently spooned the white soap on top of the pink layer. I remembered not to fill them too full this time so I would have some space for adding the tiny hearts afterwards.The first time I made these they kind of overflowed and I had to do ‘plastic surgery’ on the edges to tidy them up.

After a few minutes, the soap started to set and I pressed a tiny heart soap into the centre of each bar. I like the way the white soap puffs up around it a bit when it’s pressed down.

Now, they will set for a couple of days before I un-mold them. Salt bars can get kind of crumbly if you try to remove them from individual molds too soon, so I’ll have to try to be patient. I’ll update here with un-molded photos when they are ready.

Thanks for reading!

Update Thursday Dec 30th:
So much for waiting a couple of days- I have no patience at all when it comes to soap! I un-molded one bar today (after about 17 hours) and it popped out perfectly, so of course I had to take them all out and do photos. I was surprised that the layers look so equal. I thought I had poured too much for the pink layer. I ended up with one and a 1/2 solid white bars that didn’t have embedded hearts. I took notes so that next time I will know how much M&P I need to make enough hearts for the whole batch.
These will get incredibly hard as they cure. Salt bars don’t feel gritty at all- they shine up like a polished stone with use and last for ages.

My Haul From the Soap Queen Swap

Helen — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 06:17:47 +0000

I participated in a handmade soap swap that Anne-Marie hosted on her blog recently. So much fun! I sent in a 12-bar batch of my hot process soaps scented with Brambleberry’s Salty Mariner fragrance, and in return I received this fantastic pot-pourri of gorgeous handmade soaps in lots of great fragrances. I feel like Christmas came early for me today! 10 out of the 12 fragrances were new to me, so I’m looking forward to test driving them before I use them for my own soap.

My favourites in terms of fragrances are Sandalwood Vanilla, Spiced Mahogany and Clove Mint. I have to mention Summer Melon Spritzer too because I’m taking that one directly to my shower. It reminds me of summer time and I am really sick of fall right now!

My pick for best design has to go to Anne-Marie for her incredibly complex embedded and layered bar scented with Cranberry Fig. It’s just gorgeous! There’s a How-To posting on her blog about it here.

Here’s a breakdown of the soapy bounty I received today, with links as I was able to find from the packaging.

Sandalwood Vanilla from Owl Tree Soaps

Marrakesh Goat Milk Soap from a soapmaker in Grant, Michigan

Cedar Saffron from Foster Creek Soap & Botanicals

Summer Melon Spritzer from Tub Time Treasures

Clove Mint from Freshwater Handmade Soap

Mango Sangria from Sweet Peas Soap

Cranberry Fig from Anne-Marie at Brambleberry

Spiced Mahogany from Dreaming Tree Soapworks

Karma Essential Oil Blend from Carmel Soaps

Lychee Red Tea from Barclay’s Soap Box

Cranberry from Bungalow Soap Co.

Rosehip Jasmine from Ali Mendelson

Looking forward to the next swap- this was so much fun!

New Stuff for Fall

Helen — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:58:06 +0000

I keep thinking about blogging and haven’t done it! (obviously!) so here I am. It’s not like I don’t have time, maybe just not much to say…? I’ve been doing a bit of soaping in recent weeks, gearing up for the upcoming craft fair events. I thought I’d post a few photos here and share some of my new goodies. First are a few Christmas themed soaps. I’m calling this first one Candy Cane. It’s peppermint scented with a dusting of glitter for bling. Here it is in the mold, and then the cut bars.

Next I tried out an idea I saw on the Soap Queen’s blog for Hot Cocoa With Marshmallows. This one was really fun to make and even though my marshmallows collapsed on this first batch (I shouldn’t have insulated the mold) I was pretty happy with the result. This fragrance is mouthwatering too! My son Devon already grabbed an off-cut from this batch for his bathroom.

These little guys are my first successful Melt & Pour soap projects. Working with M&P takes a steady hand and there is definitely a learning curve to figuring out the proper temps for pouring and levels of fragrance and colours. I’m really happy with how these came out. I’m making more this week!

Oh, I almost forgot my Pumpkin Pie Soap! This was made in 2 layers. The bottom layer has real pureed pumpkin in it for the great orange colour, and the fluffy white topping is made from a separate batch of whipped soap and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spices for the final touch. Who doesn’t love the scent of a pumpkin pie baking? This fragrance is fantastic!

My history with making bath bombs can be summed up in one word: FRUSTRATION.

a) I can’t get the 2 halves of the round bombs to stick together consistently

b) My round bombs usually get big cavernous cracks around them when they dry

SO– this is my solution: Bath bombs made with soap molds! I love how these came out. The details are so pretty. These are scented with Fresh Rain fragrance which I also used to make my Vancouver Rain soap.

A Bevy of Bubble Bath Bars

Helen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:46:09 +0000

Bubble bath Bars are one of the products that I’ve always wanted to try to make myself. The first time I tried one years ago, I knew what a great idea it was: No paying for all that water and plastic bottles and I could control the ingredients to make it exactly like I wanted. My recipe includes super-bubbling surfactants, baking soda for water softening and skin soothing properties, a touch of sweet almond oil for moisturizing without an oily feeling, as well as glycerin for its humectant property (it draws moisture to the skin) I have lots of different fragrances and essential oils to create some wonderful scents for them.

Recently a couple of my new customers ordered a bunch of these little babies in a variety of scents, so I had fun experimenting with different colour combinations and styles. Each 4 oz bar is enough to last about 3 baths. The bubble power of these bars is incredible. We’re talking mile-high suds, especially if you agitate the water really well or you have very hard water pressure. Our water pressure is pathetic here, so I just splash the water back and forth with my hand after crumbling part of the bar under the running tub faucet- it works great. I include a warning on these to be careful using them in a jetted tub- the suds will climb right over the top if you aren’t careful!

Here’s Black Raspberry Vanilla

This one is scented with Peppermint and Spearmint essential oils. I call it Double Mint. Here you can see one of my handmade wooden soap dishes too. They are great for keeping handmade soaps drained and dry between uses, but here this one is just a photo prop:-)

This one is Ginger, but I used this colour for Creamsicle too

In the group photo at the top, you can also see Lemongrass Lime (yellow and green swirl), Oatmeal Milk & Honey (tan with added colloidal oatmeal) and Energy (yellow and green blend)

You can purchase these in singles or as a pack of 4 in my Zibbet Shop. For larger quantities, please contact me directly via my shop contact link. There’s a long list of scent choices there- choose your favourites. If you’re local to Vancouver BC, don’t forget to use the Coupon Code LAZ289 during check out so you won’t be charged shipping!

I make these bars fresh to order and they need about 2 days to dry before packaging. No artificial preservatives are added, so they should be used within about 3 months of purchase.

The Soaping Process

Helen — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:51:12 +0000

I realized the other day that I only had a couple of bars of lavender soap left, with a big selling event coming up! I haven’t been making much soap lately because my inventory is pretty full so it was fun to finally make a new batch. I took a few photos of the process and the outcome to share here.

First- here are the measured and melted solid oils next to the liquid oils, ready to be mixed. In this batch I used palm and palm kernel flakes for the solids and olive and castor oils for the liquid.

Meanwhile a mixture of lye, salt, sugar and water sits in an ice water bath to bring the temperature down. The lye water and the oils should be nearly the same temperature when they are combined. I’m usually too impatient to wait and end up soaping hot. Doesn’t seem cause a problem most times, unless I’m using a touchy fragrance oil that might speed things up.

Here the oils are mixed with the lye solution and I’ve added some grape pop mica which is a skin safe colourant. It makes fantastic bright colours in soap. I added a little pearl whte mica as well because I thought I added a little too much grape. Sorry this photo is out of focus and the doorframe reflection doesn’t help!

At this point I didn’t stop to take any photos, but I separated some of the batch into another container and added more grape mica for a deeper purple, then I mixed both bowls with my stick blender to thicken them to a medium trace. I wanted the bars to be swirled with the 2 shades of purple, so I poured the darker soap back into the main batch and mixed once or twice, then poured it into the waiting mold. I saved a bit of the darker soap to pour on top and add a bit of swirls using a cardboard coffee stir stick.

Here’s how it looked in the mold after that:

Jon made my soap molds so they would fit perfectly inside the oven. I nearly always oven process my soap for one hour at 170 F, then shut the oven off and leave the soap in the oven overnight. It’s ready to cut first thing in the morning. The only soaps I don’t oven process are my milk or honey recipes since they can heat up pretty well on their own. I usually leave my individually molded soaps like the cupcakes or hearts out to set at room temperature as well.

Here’s how this lovely lavender loaf looked after I unmolded it the next day. I was kind of bummed that the colour faded. Too bad – I would have liked more contrast between the two shades.

…and here it is about to be sliced into bars with my handy dandy craftman soap cutter. This cutter is awesome- eight perfectly straight cuts in one go. I love this little gadget.

Finally, here are the cut bars all ready for the curing rack. They will air dry on the racks for 4-6 weeks for the excess water to evaporate. The soap gets better and better as it dries out and ages.The curing time also ensures a hard bar that will last a long time. Aren’t they pretty? They smell great too. Lavender is a scent that has grown on me since I started making soap. It really is very soothing and relaxing.

New Venue For Handmade!

Helen — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:30:44 +0000

I’m quite excited about a new online shopping site for handmade items called Zibbet. They also have members who sell crafting supplies and vintage items, like Etsy. The great part is: you can join and list items for FREE with a basic account! I think this is great for new sellers who are just trying to test the waters. Basic accounts let you list up to 25 items for free. Premium accounts are a monthly subscription- right now they are offering it for $8 a month— NO listing fees, NO percentage of sales. You can list as many items as you like for no extra charges.

I signed up for a premium account today because I wanted the extra functionality such as adding widgets to my shop (Faceboook, Twitter, links to my blog, etc), unlimited listings and customizing the look of my shop with colours and photo sizes. They even have their forums OFF site, so that sellers can disuss things away from the buyers. So many great features that Etsy doesn’t have! I’ve always felt like a tiny fish in a HUGE ocean on Etsy, especially being a soap maker since there are SO many soap sellers there. On Zibbet I’m more likely to be noticed. The down side of course is that Etsy is the Ebay of handmade online and Zibbet doesn’t have the traffic…YET.

I’m giving it a try and will be tweeting about it to try to drive more traffic there. I’m not leaving Etsy yet, just branching out but so far Zibbet gets my vote!

(If you’re an artisan and want to sign up for a premium account on Zibbet, please use my referral button on the left (or above) I get a discount on my subscription fees for every new member referral- and you can do the same!)

If you want to try a premium account for FREE, you can use the coupon code FREETRIAL when prompted during sign up and you get the first 7 days free, cancel anytime! You can also use this code if you start out with a basic account and want to upgrade to a premium account.

Juicybath Soap Giveaway

Helen — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:47:37 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! To start the year off right, I’m holding a little giveaway contest. If you’d like the chance to WIN your choice of THREE bars of my handmade soap, here’s your chance.

Shipping of the prize is limited to Canada and the USA.

It’s so simple to Enter to WIN !

**Just hop over to my etsy shop here, and/or the soap list on my own site here (more products are listed there) Have a look around and then come back and leave a comment telling us which soaps you would like to win (don’t forget to leave your email for contact- it won’t appear publicly)**

For additional entries:

1. Tweet a link to this giveaway! (one entry per tweet– no limts!)

2. Follow me on Twitter here

3. Subscribe to my blog

4. Add a link back to this giveaway on your own blog (give us the URL in a comment here)

5. Blog about this giveaway with a link back here

6. Add my blog to your blogroll

7. Post a link to the giveaway on Facebook

8. Add my blog button to your blog

Please leave a separate comment below for each of your entries. The contest will run for 2 weeks, from Jan 1st till Jan 14th at noon (or as soon as I get a chance to do the draw that day)

Winner will be announced here and will be contacted via email. The winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn and you’ll forfeit your prize.

Good luck everyone!

Jan 14/10 Update: The contest is now closed. Thank you everyone for visiting and entering to win. The winner has been contacted and has 48 hours to respond to claim his/her prize.

Happy New Year!

Helen — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:59:51 +0000

Well, it’s actually 2010. I remember when Vancouver won the olympic bid for 2010 several years ago and I thought to myself what ages my kids would be that time. It was hard to imagine Alison at 20 and Devon nearly 18, but here we are! Time sure flies.

Looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings. Devon is graduating this year which is amazing to me. It’s hard to believe the school years are nearly done for us. Can’t imagine what he’ll be doing after that but I sure hope he comes up with something soon. What couldn’t my kids be the type that had their futures all planned out? Well, I can’t complain too much since I was exactly the same at their ages. I didn’t figure out that I wanted to go back to school until I was around 20. I spent a few years making low wages and working much too hard for it before I realized I was the only one who could change that.

I hope to find lots of opportunities to grow my soap business this year. Right now I’m working on soaps and other products for Valentines Day. I’ve rented a cart to sell at Semiahmoo Centre in White Rock from Feb 7th – 14th. My challenge is to have enough product to fill the cart and make an attractive display, but not so much that I have tons left over when I’m finished. There’s just no way to guess how much I’ll sell, so I’m thinking I’ll plan for enough product to at least triple my costs.

A few ideas I’m working on for Valentines Day Gift Packs:

Triple Delight: A Bar each of ‘Bouquet of Roses’, ‘Box of Chocolates’ and ‘Bottle of Wine’ soaps, wrapped elegantly with a handmade wooden soap dish. The soap scents I’ll be using are English Rose, Expresso Chocolate and White Zinfandel. I’ve already made a couple batches of the Roses and Chocolate soaps– they smell fantastic!

Then for the men, I’m planning a ‘Six Pack of Suds’, which will be a package of six different half-size bars of Beer Soap. Jon gets the credit for the name- I love it! Here’s a shot of one of my current beer soaps, made with Labatt’s Pilsenser:

Of course, I’ll bring all the rest of my soaps and products along for sale. I’m also thinking of doing some sort of Chocoholics Gift Pack, including a soap, an edible body massage butter, lip balm and bath bomb. I’ve ordered some new fragrances to try out as well: Extremely Sexy For Men, Love Spell, Lick Me All Over, Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Back Raspberry Vanilla. They all sound incredible. I’m planning some coordinated gift packs of different products with the same scent too. Makes it easy when it’s all wrapped up together.

Off to get started on some more soap!

The Countdown Is On

Helen — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:49:21 +0000

Only 5 days till Christmas! This is the week where I start getting really anxious because I never have all my shopping done. We are having Christmas dinner here for the extended family, so the house needs to be cleaned, food (and booze!) shopping needs to be done, presents wrapped….and probably a million other things. I’m working today and then overnight tomorrow, so my time is getting really crunched. Hopefully I can motivate my men to help me get things ready. So, just need to work a night shift tomorrow and then it’s full-on Christmas prep!

Every year, we do a big Christmas breakfast to eat after we open our gifts. I do an egg strata the night before that goes straight into the oven in the morning, and overnight french toast for Devon. Maybe I can actually get all my gift wrapping done before Christmas Eve this year. I hate that late-night frantic wrapping and tagging!

In other news, I’m waiting to hear back from a leasing agent about renting a selling cart space at Semiahmoo Centre during the week leading up to Valentines Day to sell my soaps. There’s a Body Shop in the mall though, so I had to submit a letter describing my products and how they differ from The Body Shop’s stuff and we’re waiting to hear back from the mall administration. No word this week- hopefully Monday! If it’s yes, then I’ve got lots of soap to make by then. Of course I have no way of knowing how much I will sell, so it’s really guess work knowing how much to prepare, and which products to include. I’m planning to focus on my soap though.

Here’s a pic I took of part of my soap display at my last pre-Christmas craft fair. I loved how my soaps looked on this. I made it out of scrap styrofoam packing materials!

Here’s my most recent batch right after cutting. It’s scented with Pineapple Cilantro but I think it smells just like fresh pineapple. I added some coconut shreds for scrubbiness too. This one will be ready for sale on Jan 13th.

I got my first 2 sales from my Juicybath Etsy shop this week! Out of the blue– a Rosemary Mint bar, and then later the same day, a Licorice scented Lump of Coal. I was so excited. I actually found a couple of local buyers to purchase the rest of my batch of Lump Of Coal Soaps. I was so glad because I did a lot of work to get the packaging and the tags just right. I think they turned out really well.

In case it’s not readable in the photo, the gift tag says:

You’ve Been Naughty

Here’s Your Lump Of Coal

Handcrafted Soap

Licorice Scented