Tag Archives: soap

Beauty in Haiti

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BANNER

 

In January, Marla Bosworth and I are traveling to Haiti!  We will be teaching a group of 24 women over two days how to make soap and other beauty products including natural hair care! Their goal is to start a business to help raise funds to support themselves and their community.

Who We’re Helping

There is a group of women in Haiti, near Port Au Prince, located in a government-owned tent camp whose lives were torn apart in January 2010 after the country’s disastrous earthquake. These women are known as OFEDA (Organisation des Femmes Devouees en Action). They are a unique and independent women’s group founded after Haiti’s disastrous earthquake.

The women, who range in age from 18 to 82 years old, came together for the first time in January 2010 soon after the earthquake. They began meeting under a tree in the tent camp to support and encourage each other with hope and possibility.

These women have a dream, and we want to help them achieve it. By starting businesses together (their first being a handmade greeting card company), they hope to find a way out of the tent camps to reclaim their lives and to continue moving forward with dignity and security.

We need your help so that we can teach the OFEDA women how to make handmade soaps and natural haircare products to sell through a series of hands-on workshops in January 2013.

Please visit our campaign page!

 

Thank you for your support!

-Amanda

Flowers on Cold Process Soap

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Original flower design tutorial here…

Here is how to create flowers on top of your cold process soap.  You’ll need a slow moving cold process soap recipe, squirt bottles and skewers.

The recipe:
Sweet Almond oil – 1.25 oz
Coconut oil – 12.5 oz
Olive oil – 10 oz
Rice Bran oil – 3.5 oz
Shea butter – 2.75 oz
Sunflower oil – 2 oz
Lye – 4.6 oz
Water – 7 oz

Bring your soap to a steady emulsion. You want it to be nice and thin to have time to separate and color your soap.  Divide out your soap for the base and the individual colors.  Put the colors into squirt bottles.  Here is the basic design process inside a single mold but you can do this across the surface of a slab mold as well.

Pour the base into your mold.  Using the squirt bottles, draw a circle onto the surface.  With another color, draw a circle inside of the first circle.  Do this until you have about four rings as shown below.

Next, put the skewer into the soap on the outside of the circles and drag to the center. Pull the skewer out, wipe it and do this three or four more times to create the petals.

This is a great flower!  You can leave it as it is or you can pull the petals out to make pointy petals.

Insert the skewer into the middle of the flower.  Pull the skewer through the middle of the petal to the outside.  This will pull the point out as far as you like.

So easy to do! You could even have a little yellow in a squirt bottle to dot in the middle as pollen if you wanted. Here are some flowers spread out over a slab.

Creating Custom Colors using Oxides and Ultramarines – Color Palette 1

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One of my favorite things to do as a soap maker is to mix colors! I’m by no means an expert but I wanted to share how I mix, test and use colors. In this post we’ll focus on oxides and ultramarines. Oxides and ultramarines are my favorite type of colorants to use because they are stable, easy to predict (what you see is usually what you get) and they don’t usually fade, bleed or cause other issues. The only problem I’ve had with them is using too much and having it come off on a wash rag…especially reds. So I’m going to show you my process for coming up with and testing new color combos.

During this tutorial I only use yellow oxide, brick red oxide and ultramarine blue. That gives us our base colors of red, blue and yellow which we can mix to create a rainbow of colors. It’s good to have a little color theory knowledge. I might go into that in a future post but for now do a little research on color theory and paint mixing and you’ll find some great info online.

First we need to setup our base colors. People color mix two ways. They simply mix dry powders or they wet/suspend them and then mix them. I prefer mixing wet. I just think it’s easier to see what you’re going to get and to also add additional parts of a color if needed. I simply mix about 8 tablespoons of glycerin with 2 tablespoon of pigment. I didn’t have glycerin today but used sunflower as it’s a nice light oil. You can even do 4 tablespoons glycerin to 2 tablespoons pigment; just a matter of preference. Give these a good mix. I love using the little frothers. I buy mine at Ikea but I think Bramble Berry might sell them also. The pigment will start to sink down if left alone too long so always give it a good mix before you start measuring them out into the little cups to color mix.

Now for the fun part! Its time to mix colors!  I like to mix colors in the little plastic bathroom cups. I use teaspoons and keep track of “parts” so the color recipe is easily scaled up or down. For example if I want to mix a purple, I will measure 3 teaspoons of blue and 3 teaspoons of red into a little cup. These are equal parts so the color recipe is 1 part red and 1 part blue. Be sure to keep track of the parts; I like to write on the cups with a marker to keep track.

Where do you start? Some simple and common combos are blue and yellow to make green or blue and red to make purple. I start with equal parts and then go up or down to create different hues.

For example, take a look at the colors below. The one on the left is 1 part blue and 1 part red. The one on the right is 5 parts red and 2 parts blue. Usually I would have flipped that and done a 2 parts red and 5 parts blue…but I didn’t this time. You can be methodical or just throw parts into a cup to see what you come up with! Have fun with it!

To get a better idea of the color you can dab a little onto a paper towel.

Once I get the colors where I want them, I test them in MP. This gives me a better idea of how it will come out. My soap recipe is not as white as MP but it is pretty white. You can skip testing it in MP if you want. I just prefer too.  Here you can see I’ve tested them in MP.

Then it’s time to test in CP. Use your standard recipe. Please note that the colors of your oils will affect the colors you end up with. My recipes tend to be pretty white, barely creamy. Some people use olive oils that have a green tint to them. This is why it is important to test. I usually test about 5 colors at a time so I make a 1 pound test recipe. I use a silicone muffin pan as a mold. I also like to see what the color difference will be between ungelled and gelled soap. Gelled soap seems to be more vivid and slightly darker. So I use a heating pad to force gel on the muffin pan and I’ll pour little sample sized amounts into a brownie pan which will not gel. This way I can see the color difference between gelled and ungelled…simply a matter of preference.

I’ll also test them to see if the lather is colored. If it is…I’ll know to use less next time. Usually I only have this issue with reds.

So here are some color recipes that turned out great.

From left to right:

(1) Green – 1 part ultramarine blue / 4 parts yellow oxide
(2) Blue – 3 parts ultramarine blue / 1 part yellow oxide
(3) Purple – 1 part ultramarine blue / 1 part brick red oxide
(4) Maroon – 5 parts brick red oxide / 2 parts ultramarine blue
(5) Orange – 2 parts brick red oxide / 4 parts yellow oxide
(6) No color

(Ignore all of the ugly bubble marks in the pic above.  I mixed using the frother and that just added tons of bubbles.)

I went a little heavy handed with the colorants.  I used about 1 teaspoon of the mixed color per 4 oz of raw soap.  I kinda thought the maroon would bleed/have colored lather but it actually didn’t.  See below.

Once you find color combos that you like…you can make up bigger batches of them and keep them in bottles already mixed and ready to go.

Do you have any oxide/ultramarine combos that you really like?  If so…let us know so we can give them a go!

-Amanda

2012 Alabama Soap Conference!

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WOW!!! A great time was had at the 2012 Alabama Soap Conference!

Keynote Speaker, Marla Bosworth, kicked off the conference with her “Spotlighting U” talk. Marla is probably one of my favorite speakers in the industry. I first heard her at the Miami HSMG conference with her seminar on wholesaling. I gleaned so much information from that seminar; I was truly impressed by her knowledge and her willingness to so freely share that knowledge.

Next up was me! I did a demo on how to make single cavity silicone soap molds! I couldn’t have done it without my partner in crime…I mean all things soap…Holly Port of Lotion Bar Cafe.

Holly and I had a ton of behind the scenes fun practicing for each demo in our hotel room! The hotel we stayed at was great and the front desk guy was awesome! He hooked us up with a table, a knife, a roll of tape, a glass of milk…whatever we asked for…he found it for us!  And he didn’t ask questions!  Haha. 

 

Michelle Rhoades from Mossy Creek Soap was next. She gave a presentation on “Finding Your Soap Personality with Creative Packaging!” What a great presentation! This was her first big speaking engagement and she did great! She had several samples of creative soap packaging. Some of the things I never would have thought of…including using gauze to wrap soap!

Next up was Tammy Doering, AKA The Mud Queen! She showed us how she makes her Dead Sea Lavender and Emu Facial Bar! She also hosted a spa night in her hotel room where everyone got a little mud on their face! It was a blast!

Here’s Marla and Holly at the spa party!

Elizabeth Hill gave a great talk on creating products from stuff you have in your kitchen. She made a fantastic scrub out of honey, grits/cornmeal and yogurt! I couldn’t believe how great it felt! And with such simple ingredients. She hosts spa parties where she goes to peoples houses and makes these simple products.

Next up was Theda Gatlin. Theda showed us how to make Hand-Dipped beeswax Candles. I love this demo! She had the most beautiful candles on display.

Day two was another fantastic day. Marla kicked this day off with a demo on formulating lotions and creams.

Sandi Garrett Little showed us how to make massage candles! I didn’t realize how easy they were to make so I’ll be making some soon!

I think one of my favorite presentations was Mono-Fat Soap by Deborah Bruijn. She made several different single oil soaps and brought them so that we could try each of them out! She also talked about the different types of oils and what properties they contribute to our soaps.

Then it was my turn again to demo the Peacock Swirl!

T.A. Helton closed the conference down by showing us how to make Firestarters! They are so easy to make and turn out absolutely beautiful with the white wax!

I had a blast! You can’t beat the friendliness and hospitality of this group. Thank you so much T.A and Sandi for inviting me out to the conference!

Thank you to all of the wonderful sponsors who contributed to the goody bags or provided awesome prizes! 

If you missed it this year…be sure to make it next year! This conference is definately worth traveling to if you don’t live locally.

www.alabamasoapmeeting.com

The Peacock Swirl Soap Design

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Inspiration here.  I saw this paper on Paper Mojo and thought it would make a wonderful swirl in soap!  So here’s how I did it.

You’ll need a slow tracing/moving recipe.  Something high in olive oil, low in castor and low in hard oils/butters will work.

The Slow Moving Recipe:
Olive oil – 12 oz
Lard – 12 oz
Coconut oil – 8 oz
Rice bran oil – 4 oz

Water – 11 oz
Lye – 4.98

I used charcoal, spirulina powder, sandlewood powder and rose clay to color the soap.

Make your lye solution and melt the solid oils. Add the liquid oils to the melted oils and let everything cool down to about 115.  While things are cooling down you can measure out the natural colorants into each of their containers.  I added some water to hydrate the colors for easier dispersion and to hydrate the clay.

Make sure your molds and squeeze bottles are ready to go.  You don’t have to use squeeze bottles…I just thought it would be easier to line up the color pours in straight lines.

Bring your soap to a really thin trace. If you can recognize emulsion before you get to trace…that’s even better.

Divide the soap into the different containers. I believe I did about 3/4 cup for each color.

Pour all of the soap into squeeze bottles. Again…you don’t have to use squeeze bottles…I just thought it would make things easier.

Pour a layer of uncolored soap into your mold.

Rotating between all of the colors and white…layer the lines until you use all of your soap batter. You don’t have to pay attention that closely as you go along. But when you get to the surface of the soap make sure you have each color visible and that you try and have light colors touching dark so you have plenty of contrast.

Make sure the lines are going all in one direction.

Now its time to swirl! Using a small spatula or a craft stick we’re going to swirl through the lines.

Here’s a line drawn so you can see how I drug the utensil.

Now mirror that move. Start back up at the top.

Repeat that down the soap.

So that’s the peacock swirl! I haven’t had a chance to cut it yet but will post pics when I do. Next I want to try it with peacock colors and round out the humps a bit more like the paper. But this is the general idea.

Hot Process Soap Series: The Great Pumpkin Loaf

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Moya, Minnie and I decided to start off with a project perfect for fall.  A pumpkin loaf made with real pumpkin, oatmeal and scented with an EO blend of Orange, Cinnamon and Clove.

The Recipe:

Palm oil – 8 oz
Coconut oil – 8 oz
Olive oil – 8 oz
Sunflower oil – 4 oz
Mango butter – 2 oz
Castor oil – 2 oz

Canned pumpkin – 10 oz
Water – 2 oz
Lye – 4.48 oz (6% SF)
Sodium lactate – .5 oz

2 tablespoons ground oatmeal
1.5 oz blend of orange, cinnamon and clove essential oils

Step 1 – Make the lye solution. We decided to use canned pumpkin in place of water to give our pumpkin soap a wonderful baked pumpkin bread color. Make sure you used canned pumpkin that is just pumpkin! Check the ingredients. You don’t want to get pie filling that is full of sugar and other stuff.  Mix 10 oz of pumpkin with 2 oz of water and add the lye slowly while stirring well.  I set ours in a cold water bath so it wouldn’t burn.    

Step 2 – Measure out the oils into your crock pot.  Go ahead to turn on your crock pot to high.  Here’s a time saving tip from Moya.  If you aren’t using any brittle or really hard oils or butters such as cocoa butter or palm kernel you don’t really have to worry about melting them.  Of course if it’s cold where you live and your palm and coconut oil is super hard…go ahead and melt.  But if your oils are nice and mooshy…don’t worry about it.  So measure out all of the oils and butters and stick blend to mix smooth.

Step 3 – Add the sodium lactate to the lye water/pumpkin puree.  Don’t worry about the temps when you’re hot processing.  You don’t have to worry about the lye cooling down.  Add .5 oz of liquid sodium lactate.

Step 4 - Gear up in goggles and gloves!  Pour the lye solution into the crock pot of oils and mix until you reach trace. 

 

 

 

Step 5 – Put the lid on your soap and set to cook.  If you are new to hot process soap or are trying out a new crock pot I recommend cooking your soap on medium or if your crock pot has just low and high…set it on low.  One of the biggest mistakes when hot processing is over cooking the soap.  We set ours to high which turned out to be too hot!  But I’m glad we did because we can show you what CAN happen when you HP and show you how to fix it!

We set our soap to cook (on high) at about 2:50 pm.  15 minutes later…here is what we saw.  You can see the edges starting to gel.  You can also see a liquid on top that is generally thought to be a mix of glycerin and condensation that has dropped down from the lid. 

There are two types of hot processors…those that stir and those that don’t!  I am one that doesn’t and so is Moya!  We both simply wait for the soap to completely gel and do a poofy/turn type of dance (which you’ll see in the next soap) and then give a good stir and check for zap.  Well this soap decided to separate a bit.  So we went ahead and added our oatmeal and gave it a good mix. 

I didn’t get a good picture of the initial small amount of separation.  But here we are mixing and adding the ground oatmeal.

It’s better to add the oatmeal at trace.  We just forgot. 

We put the lid back on the crock pot and decided to turn the crock pot down to medium.  Separation is often times a sign of overheating. 

About 15-20 minutes later we checked on it.  EEK!  We now had major separation!

Alright.  No big deal.  Breath.  And stickblend that baby back into emulsion! 

With our crock pot still on medium we let it cook for another twenty minutes and then tested for zap.  To test for zap I like to take a craft stick, put a dab of the soap on it, blow on it to cool and harden and lightly touch it to your tongue.  If you get a zap…the soap is not done.  Let it cook for a bit longer.  If you don’t get a zap then it’s done!  Ours was done. 

Moya decided to take the spatula over to the sink and test out the lather.  Looking good!

We took the temp of the soap and it was at about 200 degrees F.  That’s a bit hot to add the essential oil blend to so we put the lid back on it, turned off the crock pot and let it cool down for about 15 minutes. 

Once it was cooled down a bit, we added the essential oil blend and mixed well. 

Then it’s time to pour it into your mold.  Moya’s tip is to pack it down and smooth it down as you pour (or glop if your mix is thicker).  This helps get rid of any air that might get trapped.  

Again, push down and smooth as you go. 

Moya decided to pack it up high, shape it like a loaf of bread and top with a bit of oatmeal!

Looking good!

Unmolded 24 hours later…it does look like a loaf of pumpkin bread!

 Slice it up and enjoy!

Check out how smooth it is!  It almost looks like CP soap!

It is generally said that hot process soap does not need a cure and is ready to use right away.  I do agree that you can use it right away but I think even hot process does good and gets much better with at least a two week cure.  I don’t think there is a right or wrong…you’ll just have to decide for yourself.   

 Some hot process soap making tips:

  1. Use full water when calculating your recipes.  This will allow for evaporation during the cook and help with a smoother pour.  We actually discounted a bit in our recipes except for the pumpkin soap.  Try full water then if you decide you want to discount…go from there.  (Full water = whatever the online calcs spit back at you.  If will vary by calculator.)  I tend to think of full water as 3 times your lye amount. 
  2. Don’t get hung up on “stages”.  I notice that alot of hot process tutorials mention the stages of the cook including mashed potatos, vaseline…etc.  But in my experience you’ll see these stages or not depending on the mix of oils you are using. 

*A note on sodium lactate. Sodium lactate comes in both powder form and liquid form. It is easily soluble in water should you choose to get the powder form. When I mention sodium lactate anywhere on my blog I am referring to the liquid form as that’s the only type I have used. Sodium lactate is a salt of lactic acid. Sodium lactate is used in hot process soap to help create a smoother pour and also harden up the soap.

Sodium lactate can be added to both hot process and cold process soap. Usage rates for the liquid sodium lactate are between 1-5% of oils. Moya mentioned that she uses it at the lower percentage in hard recipes (recipes that contain 50% or more of hard oils/butters) and higher percentages in softer recipes containing higher amounts of liquid oils such as olive, avocado, sunflower, apricot kernel…etc. She noted that using too much with a high percentage of hard oils results in a soap that is crumbly and flaky. I’ve noticed the same results when using it in cold process soap. I recommend starting with 1-2% and going up from there. 5-8% is when I starting getting the flaky crumbly results.

Sodium lactate can be a great additive when making hot process soap.  Sugar is another great additive that I’ll talk about in a later post. 

Coming up in the hot process series is a two toned beauty!

Until then…Happy Soaping!

-Amanda, Moya and Minnie

 

Natural Soap Colorants Gallery – Clays added at trace

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Here are some results using cosmetic clay to color your soap naturally. From Nature with Love has an awesome clay sample pack (affliliate link).

Sea Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Rose Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Rhassoul Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Red Kaolin Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Red Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Pink Kaolin Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Multani Mitti Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Green Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace


French Green Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Yellow Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Color Soap Naturally – Calendula and Paprika, Layers and Swirls

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This is an advanced soap design using natural colorants.  It includes calendula and paprika for color and texture and swirling and layering techniques.  I’ll also show you how to do the thin cocoa line you can see between layers.

Bring your soap to a stable emulsion.  You don’t want to see trace or you won’t have enough time to separate out your colors and swirl. 

Divide your soap into three containers.  The amounts are up to you but I did about 2/3 for the bottom base, 1/6 for each top swirl color.  Add a pinch of calendula petals to the base container and stick blend to a thicker trace.  Stick blending with the calendula helps break the petals up a bit so they aren’t so big in your soap.  Pour the base mixture into your mold and spread evenly.  Drop your mold down onto a counter or the floor to help the soap flatten out. 

Add 1/8 teaspoon of paprika to one of the swirl containers.  Do not stick blend these as we want them nice and fluid so we can do a swirl.   

Next we’ll do a cocoa line.  I like to use a tea strainer to help sprinkle on the cocoa.  Cover the bottom layer of soap with a thin line of cocoa.  Don’t completely cover the surface or you might have soap with layers that separate.  You can see plenty of the bottom soap surface peaking through.  It will still look like a solid layer when you cut.

Now we’ll do our swirl on top of this layer.  Since we brought it to a thick trace before we poured it into the mold we shouldn’t have any problems with it supporting the top layer.  But just to test, gently spoon some soap onto it.  See if it stays on top or if it breaks the surface.  If it breaks the surface let it sit for a bit longer. 

Spoon enough soap to completely cover the surface.  Then simply rotate pouring the two different swirling colors until your fill your mold.  I poured in lines all going the same direction. 

You can leave it as it is or you can take a skewer and swirl the top.  We don’t want the skewer to break the cocoa line and mess it up so make sure you don’t insert the skewer that deeply.

And there you have it!  A beautiful soap design using natural colorants.  I love the way the calendula doesn’t just provide color but also provides texture. 

When you cut this soap be sure to lay it on it’s side and cut in that position.  That way you won’t drag the cocoa line.

Happy Soaping!

Amanda

Color Soap Naturally – Advanced multi colored design with infusions

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Okay, so making a solid colored soap with an infusion is easy. But what if you wanted to color a soap four different colors using different infused olive oils? You wouldn’t want to make your standard recipe, divide the traced soap in individual containers and add a tablespoon of infused olive oil to each container. Why not? You would be over superfatting your soap if you did that. You could always make different batches of soap at once but who wants to clean extra containers if you don’t have to? I sure don’t. So let’s go over how to make a multi colored soap colored with different infused oils.

First we have to modify our recipe a bit. Take your favorite recipe, plug it into a lye calculator such as soapcalc.net and change the lye discount/superfat to 0.

Recipe:
Palm oil – 300 grams
Olive oil – 300 grams
Coconut oil – 300 grams
Lye – 138 grams
Water – 280 grams

Decide what you want your superfat to be. I like to use an 8% superfat.

Add up all of your oils and multiply by 8%.

900 grams (oils) x .08 = 72 grams

72 grams is the amount of infused olive oil you have to work with to bring this batch of soap up to an 8% superfated soap. Since we want to do a four colored soap divide 72 by 4.

72 / 4 = 18 grams of each infused olive oil color

Let’s make some soap! I want to do a four colored swirl.  Here is what the different colors will be.

Annatto infusion colored
Alkanet infusion colored
Plain – no color
Textured using black walnut seed powder

I will make my recipe at 0% superfat. Divide it exactly into four containers which will contain 18 grams of olive oil (two infused/two not).

The first thing I do is make the lye solution.  Then measure out the oils for the 0% superfat recipe above.  Do not include any infused oils. 

In individual containers measure out the following:

18 g infused alkanet olive oil
18 g infused annatto seed olive oil
18 g plain olive oil
18 g plain olive oil with 1 tsp black walnut seed powder

This can be a bit confusing at first so let’s go over where we’re at. 

We have our base oils and lye solution all ready to go.  Our base recipe is made with a 0% superfat.  Our superfat oils are measured equally out into individual cups based on the amount of colors we want.  We are doing a four color swirl.  We had 72 g to work with to bring our soap up to an 8% superfat so we divided that by 4.  That gives us 18 g in each cup.

Bring your base to a very light trace.  Using the scale divide your soap between the four containers.  I like to weigh my mixing container empty, then weigh it with the traced soap.  Minus the mixing container weight from how much the container + traced soap weighs and this will give you the exact weight of your batter.  Divide this by four and weigh this number into each container.  We want to divide it equally because we want each color to have the same superfat. 

 

So above we have equal parts of plain soap, annatto colored, alkanet colored and black walnut powder colored.  Now it’s time to swirl! 

I simply rotate pouring each color in the same direction into my mold. 

Then take a skewer and swirl.

And now you have a naturally colored swirled soap with an accurate superfat!

Guest Post on Soapqueen.com – Gnomes!

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Once I saw the Gnome Mold at Bramble Berry I knew I had to have it.  Gnomes are in right now.  You see them popping up on Etsy and if you have kids you might have seen the movie Gnomeo and Juliet.  I wanted to give the gnomes detail and color so I thought Water Soluble Paper would be the perfect way to do that.

Head on over to Soap Queen to see the rest of the tutorial.  Be sure to leave a comment!   Thanks!