Frankenstein!

Woooohhh seeeee myyyy creaaaation! :-o Hehe I'm kidding, here's my new soap. I thought I'd try out the soap ball embeds. The balls are made from a batch that almost failed but I saved it and made balls from it ^_^ Click on the picture above to watch the youtube video of me cutting it. In the video I use my brand new soap cutter (read dough scraper) to slice my nice even slices. I'm so happy with it, it really makes a difference to the look of the soap. I hated my wonkey slices hehe. The embeds are scented with a creamy floral fragrance while the main part of the soap is a mixture of fragrances I put together. Overall it's a clean, refreshing unisex scent with a bit of spice that I adore and can't wait to make again.

I'm sorry I've been slow on the posting but I blame it on the mail as my supplies seemed to take forever to arrive. I'm still waiting on my potassium hydroxide at the moment but I'm sure that will arrive early next week and the posts can start rolling again, yay ^_^ So I'll say bye for now and I'll be back soon with more, enjoy the video :D

New Massage Bars

Busy weekend for me and haven't had time to do much soaping at all. I did get time to make these new massage bars though. I am really happy with my recipe now and think I'll be using these instead of my lotion at night time, for some really deep moisturising. I've added some olive oil this time. They are scented with an orchid fragrance, it has such a deep scent, it reminds me of hot summer. Of course there is my clumsy gold glitter as usual hehe ^_^ I am really pleased with the colour, I was playing around with it for ages not sure of where I was going with it and I ended up with this dusky rose colour.

I'm off to write down my batch notes so I don't forget how to get this gorgeous colour. Before I go a quick note on what's coming soon. I've got a gift of supplies heading it's way to me and some other new bits and bobs. So soon I will be doing a few posts on liquid soaps, I have a new bar soap idea I want to try out and I'll be trying some body butters and creams! Lots to do as soon as I get my parcels, can't wait ^_^

Cutting Video

Here is my first cutting video ^_^ I feel quite nervous putting it out there but I see so many and I wanted to try it too hehe. I really do need to get a better camera, I promise my kitchen isn't that yellow.

I did decide to make the bay rum soap and lotion and here is the soap. I didn't realise how much I would love this fragrance when I smelled the bottle but in the soap and lotion it's even better. In the video I just cut my soap but I do talk about my lotion too a little bit. I'm pleasantly surprised at my swirl, I didn't think it would reach that deep or that rich a colour. I did get a tiny bit of ash on the top :( but not too bad. I was prepared for this to seize up but I had a lot more time to work with than I anticipated. I could have done an in the pot swirl but now I'm glad I didn't because I've really impressed myself with this one hehe.

About the lotion, on the soap making forum I expressed my skepticism about pouring it into the bottle instead of piping. I'm glad I'm not stubborn enough to not test things because now I love pouring instead of piping. It was so much easier and faster, plus I didn't waste as much product. I actually got a fifth bottle out of my batch instead of the normal four! I would now definitely recommend pouring. The only thing you need to watch out for is your temperature, most preservatives don't handle temperatures above 50°C. In the video I mention Optiphen which can be used at or below 60°C.

White Tea

Yesterday I was working on using fragrance oils that accelerate. I used a white tea fragrance, that is supposed to cause light acceleration. This scent is beautiful! It's such a delicate feminine fragrance, it's floral with some fruity notes, I love it. I made two batches of this, the first one I messed up and I poured it back into the pot and put on the stove to cook it, it came out lovely but not what I was aiming for. So I made a second batch and worked a lot faster. I poured into my flower silicone molds and I was surprised at how hot they got. They started to sweat a little about an hour after pouring so I popped them in the freezer. Unmolded today and I'm happy with them :D

I think you might be wondering what is that orange stuff? Hehe that's the gold glitter I sprinkled inside the molds, when I popped the soaps out the glitter had stained the soaps orange :(

I think when I make these again I will put them in the fridge after I pour to keep the temperatures down. The photo is taken with the soaps half sitting in the mold because they're still a little damp, I want them to dry out a bit.

Apart from the minor sweating and they glitter gloom I think I did pretty well. I used to add the fragrance to the oils before the lye and had a few problems this way, with ricing and separation. This time I added at a really light trace and preferred this, I felt that I had more control over the fragrance. Also I didn't have to worry so much about tracing and lye mixing, because you deal with the lye and fragrance separately. By the time it comes to adding fragrance you know your lye is thoroughly mixed and you're happy with your trace. Then hand stir in the fragrance quickly and pour ^_^

I think I will be trying bay rum fragrance next, some friends have asked for a masculine scent for their lotion; I thought I'd do a bay rum soap and lotion bundle for them. So maybe some bay rum pictures next or maybe something else, I'm not sure yet :-P

Captivating Cupcakes :o

So I'm late with the posting of these but at least these are better photos than the last ones hehe :D I thought these were going to be a fail batch as I had a disaster moment with the bases but I really like them now. I had put the bases into the oven to gel and left them in too long. When I took them out they had a skin on the top, I scooped that off and underneath was a lovely gel-y middle. When I unmolded the soaps the bases had lots of tiny bubbles throughout them and I was so disappointed but looking at them now, they really do look like mini cupcakes with the bubbles, just like cake sponge. A little different to the usual smooth bases but it's growing on me. The whipped soap frosting isn't amazing hehe, but it does make each of them really individual. I have been practicing with the piping though, here's a photo:

Yep it does look like a walnut whip (politest way to put it) but it's kind of getting there... I used a sandwich bag like I use for my lotions for this. Still haven't got a good piping bag yet. I can't wait to get one though and really get creative with the frosting. I'm also on the lookout for some embed molds for my soaps. I sprinkled these with glitter too, I'm getting so trigger happy with my glitters hehe.

About the fragrance, these were scented with Captivate, hence the title ^_^ It's description: Captivate - Imagine the perfect blend of vanilla, amber, sandalwood and amyris with a cologne-like heart of light jasmine and soft musk . I think that it smells very nutty though, I don't think I'll be soaping with it again, also it made my purple bases brown :( It's definitely not an unpleasant scent, just not my favourite.

Anywho today I was busy soaping and when those are unmolded I'll get a picture right away this time :D and I'll post those tomorrow at some point, hopefully not as late as today. Oh dear it's getting light out now, toodle pip! ^_^

New Pear Palm Free

Yesterday I tried a new base recipe using no palm oil and here is the result. I might try to do a lather test clip with this one once it's cured a bit. I have of course already tried it hehe but my camerawoman isn't here today :P For this recipe I used coconut, olive, castor and peach kernel oils with some cocoa butter ^_^ I'm hoping this is going to be a nice conditioning bar and I hope I don't lose too many bubbles. It's scented with pear and it smells so fresh, very summery.

I tried to do some textured 'Lyn Tops', her blog and here's her tutorial vid. It was very kind of her to share this on the soapmaking forums. I have learned so much from everybody there so thank you to all of them ^_^ It's a great place to learn and share anything to do with soap making and bath/body products :D

I'm having a real hard time getting good pictures, by good pictures I mean that they actually look like what I'm photographing, at the moment due to having two quite bad cameras. I think I'll be investing in a better camera soon so please bare with me and the rubbish photos hehe. I put some tissue paper underneath and around the soap so I could get as true a colour of the soap as possible.

Today I'm kind of halfway through making some more cupcake soaps, and I will be posting pics of them tomorrow, hopefully they come out nice ^_^

Rebatching

Just thought I'd share a picture of my first successful rebatch. In the past I had an awful time rebatching, I added too much water. This time I wasn't so trigger happy with the water and I'm actually quite pleased with how this came out. I really like that some chunks of soap stayed white and the texture is very smooth inside. It's scented with a fragrance oil I was really excited about but it accelerated really quickly and I was so sad I decided to save it because it smells sooo good :D It's description on Gracefruit: "...top notes of black orchid and cinnamon, a heart of Mysore sandalwood and clove on a base of amber, Tahitian vanilla, and Egyptian musk." It's kind of luxurious and feminine, I love it.

This is what it looked like halfway through the rebatch, I think it probably was a little too dry on hindsight but it turned out good so no matter :D Looks like mashed potatoes hehe.

Honey for my Honey

Yesterday was a very busy day for me, five batches of soap! This batch is a special batch though :D My boyfriend requested spa bars, I made them for him before and now it's the only soap he'll use for his face ^_^ I used a honey scent for these, it's a very creamy, comforting fragrance. The salt I use for my spa bars is a marine salt from Israel, it's naturally evaporated by the sun and then washed in purified salt water. This recipe is a little different to my previous bars; these are made with a much higher superfat and less salt, to make them kinder on his skin and a little more bubbly. I wonder if he'll like these ones better?

Busy Bee!

Again I have been uber busy but I finally found time to write a little something here. I mainly wanted to post some pretty pictures but wanted to let people know about me selling my soaps. First off I do intend to sell...eventually. I don't want to sell anything that isn't absolutely fabulous ^_^ Because I do intend to sell in the future I've already begun to put in place the foundations I'm going to need when the time is right, all the paper stuff really. I was very excited yesterday when the letter box clacked with my certificate of incorporation dropping in (halfway through lotion making). Araseth's Apothecary is an incorporated company and ready to trade from now on, yay :D I still have tons to do, insurance, forms, safety assessments. But most of the paperwork can be done while I'm perfecting my products. Will save me a lot of time in the future. So I won't be trading until soonest next year. For now this blog is just about my learning experience and having fun :D

Onto the pictures ^_^ Yesterday I was busying myself with the Honeysuckle lotion and some Lavender massage bars. I am very pleased with them, scent, colour, texture and I've been levelling up my piping skills hehe.



You'll probably be seeing me soon, I'll be soaping Monday as soon as my new fragrances arrive :D

Queen of Hearts Massage Bars

My new molds arrived today and so I just had to try my new massage bar recipe. Here they are my queen of hearts massage bars, named so because of the red and gold, the colours seem royal hehe. I am one of those people that love love love glitter ^_^I think glitter's a bit like marmite; you either love it or hate it. I'm not so pleased with the fragrance though, again I tried to blend my own but this time I don't like it. That's ok though this was more of a test batch. Tonight I'll be ordering some new fragrances and I'll keep my cheeky hands from trying to blend them :D Adding the shea butter really made a difference, they melt a lot faster and feel less like a lotion bar and more 'massagey'. I think I'll be playing with the oils part of the recipe next. By the way these are vegan, like all the products I make. They are made with almond wax, not beeswax. Almond wax is great for your nails, an awesome two way treat; your loved one gets a massage and you get a treat for your kind hands ^_^

Success ^_^

Yay I managed to control the alien bath melts hehe. Still could be a little tamer, will be trying again tomorrow. This time I used my thermometer I have been using for lotion to check the temperature I mixed at. It was 40°C when I added the dry ingredients, that's the minimum my thermometer can measure. Tomorrow I'll try a little lower. These ones were also put into the freezer quickly, so it really is down to the temperature for these. Really happy with them ^_^ I'll be making some honeysuckle scented lotion soon so I might be posting about that. I'll also be ordering some new fragrances for soaping on Friday, getting soaping withdrawal hehe :D So not so many bath melt posts and some more soaping posts coming up. I have a nice idea of pear scented soap floating in my head ^_^

Bath Melt Fail

I have been so busy today with housework and completing my batch notes so this post is really late (3 am~). Quite tired but really wanted to post about my bath and body ventures ^_^

So...my bath melts turned out kind of...alien :( I'm thinking that I added the dry ingredients whilst the cocoa butter was too hot. They started separating and expanding in the molds. Now a lot of the butter has oozed out and set on the top. Not pretty. I'll try again with a cooler temperature, see if that helps. Maybe a whisk would help too. The problem with taking the temperature lower is that I don't think I can get them as smooth. I got some amazing bath melts as a gift for Christmas last year. They looked so smooth and symmetrical. I really want to get the same look for mine. I'm still going to put one of them in the bath tomorrow, to test the ingredient percentages as the only problem I see so far is aesthetic.

All was not lost though this evening as I tried to cheer myself up with my first ever batch of massage bars. I also blended my own fragrance oil for them with some of the oils I have left from soaping and I'm pretty pleased with the scent, I think I'll call it Lily Fae. I just tried one of the bars on my hands and I decided I would like to make them melt a little sooner on skin contact. So I'm thinking adding some shea butter to start with and maybe increasing my soft oil percentage a little bit. The only butter I used for this batch was cocoa so I can see what butters and oils I like best.

So all in all not a bad day and lots of ideas ready for tomorrow. Oh and being so pleased with the massage bars I've ordered some new molds especially for them hehe. Some very cute hearts and flowers. While I was at it I ordered a new 1lb~ mold for my test soap batches yay excited! :D

Lather Testing!

So I said I'd try to show the lather from my new recipe and here it is. I'm really happy with my bubbles and lather so far. My mum (the awesome camerawoman :D) said she really likes it too. But we're both a bit worried that it feels just a little bit drying. I think it might be because it was only cut yesterday (impatient hehe) and that it will be better when it has finished curing. If it still feels as drying after the cure I'll be tweaking my recipe again. Would love to know what you think about the lather though, enough bubbles? I haven't tried adding sugar yet but I might consider it. I'll be back posting tonight or tomorrow with my new bath melt recipe, running out of melts to give away ^_^