Soap Moulds – IKEA

One of the first and very important factors to consider when creating soap is Shape & Size, in other words – MOULDS.

I tried ice-cube moulds, I tried silicon baking moulds, I had a wooden mould made by a carpenter, then I struck gold at IKEA one day with my Molger Moulds. As I found them in the bathroom section, they are probably meant for organization and storage in the bathroom but they are AWESOME soap moulds and very economical. The three moulds together in this picture cost between 7 and 8€ total.


The smallest of the moulds, an excellent experimental batch mould, makes three soaps 81mm across, between 50mm and 60mm height (depending how you want them) and the soaps in this picture are about 26mm thick, but you could make thinner or thicker soaps. None of mine are the same as I hand cut them. The soap you see in this picture is a variation of my beer, egg & honey shampoo bar. This one has goat milk, egg & honey and something weird happened in the middle, darker and speckled, as you can see in the photo. If you have any ideas on how to correct that, suggestions welcome!


The middle mould makes about 6 (and a small slice) soaps but again, it all depends on how thick you want them.


The longest mould makes between 9 and 11 soaps.


My only issue... I do love these moulds but here I go “tweaking” as my blog buddy at http://thesoapsister.blogspot.com/ calls it. In trying out other soaps, I realize I prefer smaller width soap. I am not sure I like mine 81mm across. They may just seem a bit unmanageable in the hand at first. If you look at the photo below, mine is the last one in the row.


I think my favourite width so far is the soap I got in a Soap Swap from http://cocobongsoaps.blogspot.com/ , which is 75mm across (Second one from the frount in the photo above). If mine were that width, I could cut them thicker as well, which I like. I love the look of the size of the soaps at Beguile Soaps http://beguilesoaps.blogspot.com/ and Platypus Dreams http://soapobsession.blogspot.com/. So I will most likely try to modify my Molger moulds somehow. I have been thinking of cutting a magazine down to the mould size and sticking it along the side, or I may get a carpenter to make me wooden inserts which I could just slide into any of them.

Happy soaping!!

Toxic Ingredients - Personal Care Products

Just writing to share a link, for anyone that would like more information about dangerous chemicals in personal care products. For those non-Canadians, I am not sure if you know David Suzuki. He is an environmental activist & one of our cultural heroes. Here is the link: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/projects/whats-inside-that-counts/

Soap Geek's Birthday

My Birthday

Well, today is my 40th Birthday! We are going to Malaga and Granada this weekend to celebrate my birthday and my husband finishing his masters.

So, looking back over the past year – highlights of year 39? An un-forgettable visit from Dad & Stepmum last June... taking up soap-making obsessively in October... my daughter’s various dance shows & competitions... a trip to Canada when my grandma died & reconnecting intensely with my mum & dad, family & old friends... moving house (down the block, but still a move)... morning walks by the beach... yoga... soaping soaping soaping & fantasizing about the wonderful business I am going to create...

Soap Geek?

I just LOVE washing my hands and showering, of course, as it is always such a wonderful experience trying out new soaps. Except when I am out of the house... Here is the question to you all – Do you find that you just hate the soaps and gels that you find in public washrooms now? Since making my own soaps, I have absolutely fallen in love with natural soaps and can’t stand commercial soaps & gels... to the point where I am seriously considering carrying around a soap container in my purse with one of my soaps in it... Am I a real soap geek?

Here is what I am taking for the weekend - a fresh Mediterranean Lavender (experimental Batch 2, finally ready to try!) & my Beer, Egg & Honey Shampoo bar...


Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Happy soaping!

Mediterranean Lavender

I have been working on a series of soaps that will be Mediterranean soaps, with mostly ingredients from the area where I live. The first soap in the series is Mediterranean Orange and I have created a soap I am really pleased with. The second soap in the series is Mediterranean Lavender (including wild lavender hand-picked by me) and I am still creating it. I am certain I want Lavender & Goat milk in this soap. I have done seven different experimental batches, trying to achieve the perfect one... I think I got the scent. I think I got the recipe. But the look? I have struggled batch after batch. I have been experimenting with Alkanet powder (as I only use natural colour) and found that Alkanet doesn't seem to work well with goat milk. Every time I add alkanet with goat milk to a soap, I get a muddy greeny soupy grey. So I came up with a layer idea, part with goat milk and the other part without. But with the recipe I most like for this soap, I can only get BLUE instead of PURPLE. As my favourite of the seven batches has a blue layer, I may give up the hunt for purple, and just accept my blue lavender soap...I would be very grateful for some input, so I ask 3 questions:
1) Do you like the idea of a blue Lavender soap or should it be purple?
2) Which of the following soaps do you most like the look of?
3) Do you have any suggestions?

Batch 5

I put this batch first here(although it is the fifth I made in the series) as it is my favourite look of the seven batches so far, but I am still open to suggestions. The bottom layer has no goat milk, the top does. Notice a little "wave-like" shape in the blue... I think it is because I made the top layer right after the first and poured in onto the first layer within an hour... so that when I poured, the bottom layer was still liquidy and the cool wavey indent happened!

Batch 1

This was my first attempt... please note the soupy grey-green... and the white spots? I do not think they are lye bits but not really sure. I think they may be the Aloe Vera (from my garden... picked... squeezed and blended by me...) which I didn't blend well enough? This is the only batch of the seven which has aloe vera.

Batch 2

I didn't add colour to this one... just lavender. I kind of like its simplicity. It is an option as well....

Batch 3

More grey than green but still not pretty. Also... note the little white specs? Not the same specs as batch 1 - I have had these before - I believe they are bubbles?

Batch 4

Note muddy greeny grey again. Uggg. This is a 2-oil soap. I like the texture, not the colour.

Batch 6

I like this one too, but I think I prefer the colour on the bottom... and there are the little white specs in the blue layer again - bubbles?

Batch 7

This one could have turned out awesome! It looks similar to my favourite, but, I had a disaster happen... bottom layer went fine. But I started getting into a rush with the top layer and I had 2 disasters - Just when I was about to begin mixing, I realized it wasn't plugged in. I bent down to plug it in and the mixer tipped over along with the pot with the mix in it! I decided to just keep going with what was left and I finished it, poured it on and accepted that it was just going to be a smaller experimental batch. Then I realized that I had a pot of the solid oils left over! I had forgotton to put the solid (melted) oils into the olive oil!! So basically the top part is very lye concentrated pure castille soap. Notice the crumbling in the photo.

Look forward to your feedback!!

Soap Exchange - Cocobong

I recently did my second soap exchange and was again AMAZED at what I received - 2 gorgeous sheep milk soaps from Cocobong. http://cocobongsoaps.blogspot.com/ The look and feel of them is amazing… milky soft white… bubble-free, perfect “matte” smoothness that makes me go back and touch them again and again… The size is brilliant, smaller in height and width than mine but thick – a perfect palm fit. I tried Milk&Almond in the shower – hands, body & face and what a treat! The smell is lovely – soft, sweet & luring…. The suds were phenomenal – big & bubbly, then settling into rich and creamy and they just go on and on and on… Much richer than a Goat Milk soap. Also very moisturising. It even worked on my tricky combination-skin face. Two words come to mind - RICH & LUXURIOUS. I LOVE this soap. Although I haven’t tried the second soap in the shower yet, the look is similarly beautiful – milky-white and beautifully smooth… but the smell is entirely different…. Earthy… Herbal… and Fresh. Can’t wait for my next shower!!! Thank you Julia for the lovely soaps!

Natural Blue & Purple - Experiments with Alkanet

Hello all! I am sharing some pix here of my experiments with Alkanet Root, in search of the perfect natural blue & purple.... I steep the Alkanet Root powder in an oil, then remove the powder and have a deep red oil (have tried both Olive and Castor) which, when added to the soap either when stirring to trace or at trace, turns the soap some FUNKY colours. I am pleased to share some of my past experiences. Each of the oil combinations in these recipes is different... each colour comes as a suprise to me. In these earlier experiments, I didnt' even write down the amounts of Alkanet or Oil that I used for the coloured oil... so I can't replicate them! Now with my latest experiments, I keep very detailed notes on how I got the colour. I will post my latest struggles/ experiments/ surprises in a separate post. Enjoy! If you have any information you would like to share abour your experiences with Alkanet, please comment!

Craft Fair

Here are two photos from the craft fair I participated in this afternoon in Mojacar. The first one is of my little table displaying my soaps. The second one is the view from my table. It was more of a dog show than a craft fair. I didn´t sell a lot, but I chatted with a wonderful collection of characters. All in all it was a wonderful afternoon, reminding me why I love the area that we live in. It hasn't been easy coming back to Spain from Canada last week after a three week visit with my family... but it is little things like this afternoon that help... I think what I most enjoy about this area (besides the sun and the weather and the food and living by the sea) is the lack of routine. Every day is an adventure.

Salt Soaps - Help?

Here are the 3 salt soaps I tried... They all have 80% Coconut Oil, as recommended for the suds... but WOW - they sweat and sweat or shall I say dripped and dripped. They have almost sweat all the scent out! The first one on the left was my first attempt and I made it with chunky dry salt (sal gruesa y seca). I left it to incubate for 12 hours but it was almost impossible to cut... it just crumbled at the bottom. The colour comes from Olive Oil light coloured with Alkanet Root. The second one I tried, in the middle, was made the same way except no incubation. I just put it in a pre-heated oven for 2 hours, then cut straight away. Slightly more Alkanet coloured Olive Oil. I still had problems with cutting and as I noticed they both started sweating like crazy, I tried a third attempt, this time with fine salt. The colour is from Alkanet coloured Castor oil, but steeped for a lot longer. Nice purple!! But I was aiming for a Mediterranean Sea soap and blue! I used the oven method again. This one was slightly easier to cut. But the three sweat or rather shed water like crazy. Even after 1 month of curing they still drip! The third one is nice and sudsy, but with the fine sea salt, I am not sure what is so special about the salt? It is not that noticeable. I prefer the feel of the chunky salt. Can anyone provide any guidance?

Palm Oil - How do you Feel about it?

I am interested to know how fellow soap makers feel about Palm Oil. A few of my best recipes include palm oil - it is cheap and makes my bars so hard and long - lasting. I even found I liked the suds better with palm oil. BUT - I don't feel right about using something that is so environmentally questionable. Do I want to contribute to cutting down Orangutan's homes? I'll bet I could find Fair-Trade Palm oil if I really searched but then it wouldn't be cheap....

So, I have been experimenting and experimenting, tweeking different oil quantities, trying to come up with a fabulous recipe without Palm. Some have been not bad.... One in particular I really loved until after using it for a while I realized it used up quickly and toward the end it got pretty mushy.... ah well. I was back to the drawing board.

Just yesterday I tried Batch 102 of mine (no name yet.... the photo is below) and I LOVED it. The suds are just as awesome as any of my soaps with Palm Oil and it left my skin feeling great! Loving the scent as well... a combo with lemongrass and lavender and other stuff. It smells so clean. Now I just need to continue using it in order to do the longevity & mush test. I just may have found my great No-Palm recipe. Now, please tell me - How do you feel about Palm oil?

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while, and no photos but I have come to Canada to be with my family for a few weeks. Seriously going through soap-making withdrawal but loving being with family as I live so far away.... Went to the One-Of-A-Kind show in Toronto the other day and met and spoke with some other pretty fabulous soap makers. They all say that it takes a LOT of work to make a living at this, but that it is possible. They were all passionate about what they do. It was very nice to see.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on Palm OIl.

xoxoxo

Soaps & Bubbles – Strawberry Milkshake – Soap Review

Very recently, I was the lucky winner of a contest for 2 free soaps from a very generous, talented and creative Belgian Soap Maker at Soaps & Bubbles (http://www.soapsnbubbles.com/)! This week I received them in the mail - Strawberry Milkshake & Lime Twist.

I just love the logo – classic, classy and original. I will begin with Strawberry Milkshake as it was the first I unwrapped and was addicted to the sweet fruity scent right away! I love the colour and the uniqueness of poppy seeds with Strawberry! I have seen poppy seeds with lemon or peppermint, but Strawberry Poppyseed? Creative! Just the right amount of poppyseeds as well - not an overdose. I began with washing my hands and from the first moment this soap hit water, I have loved it. My daughter as well. Big, bubbly suds froth-up almost immediately, even before the water gets really warm (makes me wonder why the delay on the suds in some of my soaps?). Then the suds get smaller, creamier and richer and so many!! Suds! Suds! Suds! Next I did the shower test and again loved it! I had never tried soap with the rippled cut before and I really like the feel on my body, almost adding to the exfoliating feel from the poppyseeds. Third test was on my face. I usually have a hard time finding a soap that works well on my face because I have combination skin. Either soap gives me pimples on my forehead or it really dries out the areas around my nose. Strawberry Milkshake soap has left my face feeling soft and clean, even after a dry-nose pollen-filled sneezy day. Wow! It has also stayed really hard after using it several times. So, in summary – a fabulous all-around mildly-exfoliating hand, shower and facial soap. Questions for Soaps & Bubbles – Can you give any tips on how to get such a beautiful lather & how to get the bar to stay so hard?