Melt and pour from scratch ^_^

Making melt and pour from scratch went really well. Going to be tweaking the recipe for better lather, less sticky, more transparent etc. I'm very pleased with it so far and would happily use it as it is for myself, in fact I have been hehe. The stickiness has reduced overnight so it most definitely needs curing, which was expected, just surprised at the difference. When I cure my lye soaps the only difference I notice in the feel is hardness really and that's over a long time. So today when I picked up my block of melt and pour and felt that it was so different to yesterday I was intrigued. Did a short video on the results and that is here:

This batch was made with propylene glycol but is palm and surfactant free, a big chunk of the recipe being shea butter. I want to see if I can make a batch without the propylene glycol. While I'm not overly fussed about being 'all-natural' for my own personal reasons, I know many of my friends and family are so getting a soap base that uses mostly natural ingredients would be great. I don't have high hopes for removing the propylene glycol but we'll see. I also didn't use alcohol to make this soap, denatured alcohol is a hassle to get in the UK just for a hobby, and I think bypassing the alcohol detracts from the clarity but I'm guessing helps keep the soap from being too drying on the skin, but is just an honest guess I haven't researched it.

Anywho it's late, thanks for stopping by, take care all :) xxx

Waiting on supplies :)

I have two projects that I'm super duper excited about, one of which is making my own melt and pour base. I've never used melt and pour because I love making things from scratch, that way they really feel like my own. However I'm really interested in the ways melt and pour soap is used, that it is very quick, that there is a larger variety of fragrances I can use and of course the beauty and sometimes novelty of melt and pour soaps. I like the idea of having my own base on standby for when I want to jump in the kitchen and create something but don't want to get out the lye and worry about trace and fragrances behaving. I'm pretty sure some fragrances will discolour melt and pour but I won't be worrying about ricing or seizing. I think it might also be a great way to build up stock when I get round to selling soaps.

As it's coming up to a year since I started soaping and I've been asked so many times now to sell my soaps and of course because I truly love making them I've decided I will definitely start to sell. I'm planning on selling next year, hopefully around spring give or take a month- I definitely don't want to rush this. One thing I've been thinking about is Etsy, Artfire or custom website? I'm swaying to the idea of starting with Etsy where I can list soaps one by one and then once I have a good range opening a custom website. Still not sure though and it's on the backburner as I'm concentrating on safety assessments/insurance/HMRC.

It's been a while since I posted and I've only made two batches of soap, one being the second Nippy and the other being a test batch for a fragrance oil to see how it behaved in CP soap. I improved the Nippy HP soap's performance by adding some yummy skin loving goodies. I cut it today and videoed it because it's been a while since I posted on youtube too:

Adding a second superfat at the end of cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some Vegetable Glycerin gave the lather a super soft creamy feel. Anyway my first lot of supplies should be arriving tomorrow-can't wait yay! ^_^ I need to get back in the kitchen and get some things ready for tomorrow, take care all :) xxx

Nippy Cut Bars

Quick update on the cut bars. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I'm planning on making another loaf of this soon and thinking about leaving it whole because it's just so pretty and cutting off a slice as needed. This fragrance and well the whole soap and process has been by far the most fun and my favourite. I will definitely be doing HP again!

Take care all :) xxx

Hot Process

I reckon there's a lot of other soapers out there like me, that were/are a little wary of trying hot process soap making because of the texture. Having seen some not-so-great photos of HP when I began soaping in December I'd decided this was not a branch of soaping I wish to go down. Since then I have learnt so much and have an ever-growing unquenchable thirst for soaping. I frequently find myself on youtube clicking through the recommendations and the other night I found some videos on HP. Watching in awe at the beautiful, rustic, simple bars I couldn't believe that I had dismissed it so readily before. I wish I had researched more on HP back then but now I take it as an opportunity to submerge myself in soapy, hot processing fun ^_^

And here it is. Today I was having fun in the kitchen creating this batch that I'm calling 'Nippy'. I will be giving bars of this in a gift set for christmas to all the people that have supported me during this journey. I can't wait to cut into this and see how my swirl came out. I love the smell of this batch too, it's a crisp, mint and menthol with a background of vanilla and then you have the cool spice of the star anise embeds. I keep sniffing it as it cools in the mold, I really hope it comes out well because I love it so much already hehe.I had a little too much soap batter for my crock pot so I decided to practice my piping on a scrap of greaseproof. As well as many soapy videos there are many cake decorating videos and I've been excited to try out some piping too. I think the little gem star piping is so cute, I would love to try a soap cake with those one day. Ahhh dreaming, dreaming. This feeling is great and I'm sure a lot of soapers feel this too, where you suddenly get a million ideas at once and are just itching to try them all right now, this very second, hehe.

Anyway hopefully my HP loaf will be ready to cut tomorrow morning, take care all :) xxx

First attempt: Framed soap

Yesterday I was busy trying my hand at framed soap, and today I got to cut it. Above are the photos I took. I did do a cutting video but didn't like it because I had my arm in the way most of the time - silly billy. I named this soap Autumn Grace. The photos of it in the mold are just after pouring, so the colours are a little more vibrant. I tried to do a copper and green autumnal feel but my copper was more orangey than I'd have liked it to be. I'm still proud of my top swirl and it's scented with a Chanel no. 5 type which is heavenly. I'm pretty pleased with the frame, even though it's uneven I still think it's good for a first try ^_^

This soap is completely cold process, vegan and palm free. This palm-free recipe is what I'm keeping now, I am ridiculously pleased with it hehe. I smile every time I think about my lather. I did do a lather test video today which I'll try to edit and post tonight if I'm not too tired.

Take care all :) xx

Et Voila! *happy success dance*

Just a small update today, thought I would share my immense happiness at finally getting my liquid soap clear. As I write this it's happily diluting in the crockpot, a beautiful deep amber. The picture above is my clarity test. For the oils I used castor, coconut and sunflower, can't wait to try it tomorrow, I might even do a lather test vid ^_^ Take care all :) xxx

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 ^_^