International Soap Swap - Sabons Carmeta & iamhandmade.com

The wonderful Julia from the Soap Artists blog (http://www.soapartists.blogspot.com) organised a HUGE international soap swap and I was picked to swap with Carmen from Sabons Carmeta based in Spain.  I was a little behind in sending out my parcel but I held off on my blog post for her soaps until she received mine.  Then Titch and I did a video and Titch did a photo shoot of the soaps.  They were all fabulous, the packaging (as you'll see in the video) was amazing and she even included her own, homegrown, lavender which will definitely be included in one of my soaps very very soon.  She sent a wonderful selection of her soaps and they all smelt incredible .. check out the video for our reactions, we were VERY happy indeed.  Below are the stills photos that Titch took, I think you'll agree the soaps look amazing and Titch's photos really brought out their natural beauty.

Check out Sabons Carmeta on http://www.sabonscarmeta.blogpsot.com if you would like more info about her soaps... her post about my soaps is there too (I can't seem to link the title I'm afraid, pity).  If you'd like to see more of Titch's photos, check out her page at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch.  All our soaps can be seen and bought on http://www.iamhandmade.com.

Thank you so much Julia for introducing us and thanks SOOOOOOOO much to Carmen for allowing me to experience and enjoy your soaps xxxx

Enjoy!

Orange Pippin Nectar - Pure Beer Soap

So, four down, two to go in the six pack of Pure Beer soaps.

The penultimate soap is called Orange Pippin Nectar.  Made from Kilkenny beer which is a reddish colour pale creamy beer, I instantly thought of a fragrance blend of oranges and apples.  I then needed to find something that'd tie them together and thought of the warm colour of the beer and what would warm both fragrances and immediately thought of ginger and cinnamon.  I thought how would this work with the beer and what would I call the soap, and I came up with Orange Pippin Nectar ... there is a type of apple called a Cox's Orange Pippin, the pippin in the name would illustrate my apple note, the word orange worked with the 5 fold orange essential oil I used plus the name was just damn cute too!

I had recently ordered some new clays I'd not worked with before and when I saw the Australian Red Reef clay, I just knew I had to use it! What a luxurious colour it is and boy, does a little go a long way! I added my usual white clay as it's soooo good for all skin types and colloidal oatmeal as it's so soothing and has so many skin loving qualities.  Of course, I used my favourite silk because it really adds a smoothness and luxuriousness to the final soap.

I am very very happy with this soap... my little tester bar produced a massive amount of lather and that was from a freshly made soap, imagine what it'll be like when it's fully cured.

The soap is available for pre-order right now on http://www.iamhandmade.com/ourshop/prod_2017608-Orange-Pippin-Nectar-PreOrder-Cure-Date-11-June.html and will be fully cured on 11 June.

Huge thanks, yet again, to Titch for her fabulous photos - make sure to check out her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch.

Auburn Nectar - Irish Beer Handmade Soap

Auburn Nectar - I had a beautiful red tinged beer all ready and waiting to be turned into soap and the word "auburn" ran through my mind.  So she had to be made, my Auburn Nectar.

So what do you fragrance "auburn" with? It was easy, let your mind go free and see what happens... what happened was an infusion of mystical Amber, sensual Sandalwood & deep, dark Vetiver... and, oh my, how good does she smell? Very, very good is the answer.

Along with the sparkling Irish Wheat beer, I've used Kaolin Clay, Colloidal Oatmeal & Pure Silk... this is just one pretty auburn baby!

The soap is available on Pre-Order from http://www.iamhandmade.com/ourshop/prod_2010457-Auburn-Nectar-PreOrder-Cure-Date-4-June.html and will be fully cured by 4 June.

Huge thanks, as ever, to Titch from http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch for her photos (make sure to like her page!)

 

Friendship Soap Party - Intrigue

You might have read on some soaping blogs about a Friendship Soap Party that's being held - 9 of us, from Ireland, Spain, the US and Canada, got together and decided to make soap for each other.  We found out a lot about each other by telling our stories .. most especially what we liked most about soaps, what our preferences were etc.

So, my hubby (you know, the movie star) and Titch and I made a video of hubs picking out the names of who makes soap for who (yeah, I know, that should be whom but that makes me sound like an English school marm!).  Here's the video if you'd like to see ... as ever, hubs is nuts!

So, I got to make soap for Emily Shieh of Shieh Design Studio who set me a challenge:

1 - make a soap with one additional natural ingredient, over and above my usual silk
2 - use a combination of colours that I've not used together before
3 - use a new technique

Well, that's a challenge and a half, for sure!

So I decided to:

1 - out challenge Emily and use both goatsmilk AND aloe vera juice
2 - use purple and gold together .. colours I've used seperately but not at the same time
3 - try out a hanger swirl, no idea what I was doing but hey ho, I'll always meet a challenge
4 - I fragranced the soap with my own blend of Geranium, Lavender & Patchouli and decided to call it Intrigue

Here's the soap making video:




Titch from http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch helped me out, as you can hear!

And here's the cutting video:



And here are the final photos ... Emily, this is for you!! xx

Still Photography courtesy of Ger Holland, www.facebook.com/takenbytitch

Hope you've enjoyed the Friendship Soap Party and hope you love Intrigue.  If you would like to order, these will be available online (8 bars only) from early March.  

New Year, New Technique, New Soap

Well, we're into 2012 and I've decided that I want to try out some new techniques.  Some I've tried, like the In The Pot (or ITP) swirl and others I hadn't ... but I did the other day! I fancied making a soap using the Faux Funnel Swirl I saw first on the Soap Queen blog and I've seen others making it and really liked the effect.  So now it's my turn!

I made my usual formulation soap and decided to use some fab green micas as I was going to fragrance this with a blend of Peppermint, May Chang and Eucalyptus essential oils.  What a blend, fresh and lemony and like a breath of fresh air! Lovin' it baby!

So I went ahead and made the soap the other day and, as I love ungelled soaps, I had it in the fridge for 24 hours and then out, demoulded for another 24 hours.  And today, to celebrate Friday and the coming weekend, Titch and I made a video of me cutting the soap! It's still a little on the soft side but OH. MY. GOD. It's divine! The look, the colours, the fragrance... can you be in love with a soap?

Have a look see and tell me what you think.....



And, if you get this via email, you can click the link direct to the You Tube video http://youtu.be/XI_YAHfWwJ0.  

Laundry Day - The Making of a New Soap

I haven't made a soap in a week (oh Lord, what a calamity!) and decided that I'd make one today; I've not made a blue soap before (bar the Wild Blueberry one which turned a hint of green because the fragrance oil turned the batter yellow!).  I wanted a nice calm, clean, cool blue and choose a cool cotton fragrance .... it smells like freshly washed laundry blowing on the clothesline on a summers day, really lovely. 

As some of you will know, Titch (my honorary daughter) has developed a strong interest in photography and decided to take pictures of the soap making process .. she even threw in a short video too.  Actually, I've never really taken a video on the camera before but it worked really well! But I'm running ahead of myself. 

So, I thought it'd be great to do a whole blog post on the making of a soap for those readers who don't know how a soap is actually made.  Beware, this is going to be MEGA pic heavy!!!

So, here we go.... we're at the point where I've melted all the butters and oils and I've prepared the water & lye and dissolved the silk so we're ready to go and MAKE SOAP!

Here are the butters & oils all melted and I've just added the fragrance oil in and I'm stick blending it a little just to make sure it's fully incorporated

The jug contains the lye water which has the silk dissolved in it and I'm carefully pouring it into the melted oils/butters, stirring with the stick blender as I go

The stick blender is just mixing the lye into the oils ... you can see vague whiter whisps in the mix, this is the start of the lye reacting with the oils - the stick blender is whirring away at this stage

Still stick blending and you can see the mix becoming more and more creamy as the mix comes to the point of emulsification

Still mixing - the oil is being mixed in more and more as I stick blend

Almost there!

Hardly any oil left now

A nice shiny pretty creamy trace! Yay, this is what I want to see, nicely liquidy still and shiny and lovely - I stop stick blending now

Here, I'm dividing the soap batter into 3 jugs - one for each colour; the spatula gets out every tiny little scrap, waste not want not!

Pre this picture, I had mixed three colours - one dark blue, one pale blue and one white; I poured the soap batter (as you saw in the previous picture) equally into three jugs, one for each colour.  This is the white titanium dioxide mix with the creamy soap batter

The titanium dioxide mix pre mixing

Here, I'm adding my ultramarine blue to which I added a little glycerine so I could mix any lumps out of it and adding it into the soap batter 

The ultramarine blue poured into the soap batter

Mixing the ultramarine blue into the soap - hmmmm, this isn't working... perhaps I should stick blend this?

Oh yeah baby, now that is a pretty stick blended blue!

Here I'm mixing my pastel blue ... again, it might need a little stick blending to encourage it!

Ah yes, stick blended pastel blue... you can see the glisten of the mica on the lip of the spatula

A nice creamy pale blue

Here's my white all mixed up, again this was stick blended to make sure there were no lumps

Very pretty ultramarine blue soap ready to use

Pretty pastel blue, ready to use

And some lovely white ... all three jugs, ready to go

Here's my lined mould, ready and waiting

So I pour the ultramarine blue on the base - I adore this colour

That's 95% of the UM blue in the base, slightly flattened out to make a straighter layer (but not very well, oh well!)

Now I begin to put the rest of the soap out - because of a mix of the stick blending and the fragrance oil, the batter is a little thick but no worries, I love the dollops of what looks like fresh cream - creamy and delicious looking

Some pastel blue and white dollops of soap

Now more white ... the soap is building up

About this time, we started making a little video - very very short but it's our first one...

A very quiet video showing me working on the soap and banging the air bubble out of it

More blue and white - see how shiny the soap is? I love that look!

I've only got a bit left ... I need to think about working on the tops I think

I kept back a little of the UM blue to put on the top ...more dollops again!

I love this picture... UM blue, pastel blue and white ... all layered up

More soap dollops

Here's me putting some of the pastel blue soap on the top of the soap using the spatula (I move to the spatula when I've only a little of the soap left)

Final colours added to the top

Last little bit of pastel blue being added

Now to begin the tops!

How cool does that look?

Look... lots of swirls baby!

More and more top work

The next few pics are of the top as I work on it... I never know when to stop!

So, that's it .. the soap then went into the fridge and it's still there now.  It's going to be called Laundry Day and it smells just divine.  We might do a demoulding and cutting video now that we know how to do them! Hope you enjoyed the picture and understand more of the process now and thank God nothing went wrong with it!!!

Huge huge thanks to Titch Holland who took all these pictures and the video - check out her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch - she's gaining more experience at the moment but is very interested in working on taking product photos, especially for those who make handmade products so make sure to like her page and keep an eye on her work!

Thanks for reading and make sure to come back and see the cutting pics!