Jessica picks some soap colors

SO my sister Jessica is staying with me for a few days, and I have been wanting to use a couple new FO’s, so we made some soap.  She picked the colors.  She went with a perfectly respectable Emerald Mica and a Yellow Oxide.

So shiny

I sort of hogged the mixing…. but I guess I didn’t want to be blamed her for lying a toe off or something.  And by lying I mean “lye” not “lie.”  Yes, I know how awesome I am.

Here’s a 3 second video of me mixing lye and water!!!  Okay, 23 seconds.

But she DID add the French Pink Clay at trace.  GOOD JOB, JESS.  The yellow looked fine, but the emerald mica….turned olive.  It was a little scary at first, but it grew on me.

Interesting.

OH and I used 1 ounce of BB’s Energy FO.  Boy, do I love that smell.  It doesn’t exactly go with the soap colors, but that’s okay.  In my mind, Energy FO is more girly, and these colors would suit a more masculine smell.  I encouraged this soap to gel.  I put it in the oven preheated to 170 (then turned off).  I reheated it right before bed, and again the next morning.  I used a 20% water discount.  I like water discounts.

Here’s a bunch of pictures of the soap’s remaining journey.  A bunch because I don’t feel like scrutinizing them to pick the 3 that look the best.  And really, who am I to rob you of picking your own favorites?

I can see the mica!

This is what I endured the entire time I cut and photo'd the soap.

I hope that’s my boobs and not my stomach.

Failed Cold Cream attempt

So…. I am really interested in making cold cream.  I NEVER wash my face in the sink.  I am a complete klutz and am guaranteed to end up with water all over myself and the floor.  But I would like to use a cold cream.  Because I would feel fancy doing so.

Right.  So I pulled a recipe out of a book I have.  It’s pretty simple- beeswax, sweet almond oil, castor oil, aloe vera juice, FO, and preservative.  First of all, I didn’t take pictures because I was not too confident in my attempt.  SO you’ll have to use your imagination.  Make sure you imagine a lot of profanity.

I pretty much melted the things that needed to be melted, combined everything, and then used a whisk to hand-mix it.  Then I poured it into 2 glass jars that I bought *just* for this occasion.  It totally separated.   The beeswax solidified on top, and left the liquid oils down below.  I was butthurt about it.

But still, there was a shimmer of hope.  *I COULD MAKE THIS WORK.*  I just had to re-melt it and mix it better.  So….I microwaved it.  For 20 seconds.  And one jar exploded.  Along with my dreams.  I just trashed the other jar, too.

Goodbye, cruel world.

Berrywine Scented Soap

This soap was….interesting.  First of all, I forgot to add a tablespoon of sugar to the water before adding the lye.  I didn’t REALLY think this would work, but I went ahead and added the sugar to the warm oils.  No, it didn’t dissolve.  But I tried to keep the batch well-mixed so that if nothing else, the sugar would be evenly distributed and act as an exfoliant.  I’ll update with a review when I get to try the soap.

Just pretend you see the sugar.

For colors… I don’t really know what possessed me to do this, but I decided to use 2 very similar colors.  I used a Red Oxide and a …dark red mica….I think.  I don’t have my notebook here.  I guess I couldn’t decide which to try, so said fuck it and used them both.  That’s how I roll.

Red and.....red.

I used 1.5 ounces of BB’s Berrywine FO.  Yes, it was a little much.  I should have used 1 ounce.  I LOVED the scent out of the bottle- mostly red wine scented with a bit of berry.  UNFORTUNATELY, as it is curing…. it smells more berry with a hint of wine.  I’ll have to let you know what happens with that.

So anyway, here are the swirls.  You can definitely see the 2 different colors, and I sort of like the subtle difference.  Well, *I* can see the 2 colors.

You had to be there.

I want to say I left it in the freezer for a few days.  When I took it out, it got some nasty ash and then proceeded to sweat all over the place as it warmed to room temperature.  And then, when I tried to blot the top with a paper towel, it smooshed some of the peaks and left a paper towel imprint on them.  @#$^%

You know… I like the IDEA of ungelled soap.  I’m not sure why I latched onto it…maybe because people said it made for brighter colors.  But freezing it for a couple days and then having to wait almost a week to cut the still soft soap is sort of annoying.  Maybe I’ll reserve “no gels” for things like coconut milk.  Which I’ve never done.  Nor plan to do anytime soon.

So here is the batch out of the freezer and then out of the mold.  I don’t know why I do not have cut pics, but I will post a pic of them on the drying rack.

It was interesting to see if the soap smell would win over the freezer smell.

NOW you can see the 2 colors. RIGHT????

Pretty. I just hope the wine smell crushes the berry smell.

OH.  And this is the first batch where I did NOT apply a water discount.  The previous batches were a 2:1 water:lye ratio….which in my calculator ends up something like 20-25%.  This was a 5% water discount.  It was mushy.  It’s still soft a week or 2 later.  Uhg.

Shit-tastic Weekend

Gretchen (now 19 months), woke up on Friday with a puffy, pink left eye.  Took her to the doctor, and found that it is periorbital cellulitus.  It’s not serious as long as it is treated, and she is on an oral antibiotic for 10 days.

Yesterday, at the MiL’s house… Gretchen was coming down a flight of carpeted stairs (backwards).  She was doing AWESOME on her own, but I stayed behind her the whole time.  At the 4th step from the bottom, MiL comes over and squeals about how well she is coming down the stairs.   Gretchen twirls to look at her, lost her balance, and swung head-first into the iron railing at the bottom of the staircase.  I couldn’t even react fast enough to catch her.  She now has a huge cut and goose egg on her forehead.  We tried to ice it, but that met limited success.  She cried for like 15 minutes straight….and so did I.  MiL tried to take the crying baby from me… I almost pushed her.

Like my baby wanted to be held by her instead of me.  Ninja, please.  I wouldn’t even give her up to Justin until she started to calm down a bit.  So now I am kicking myself for not holding onto her as she came down the steps.

BTW, we were at the doctor today anyway for them to check on her eye (looks cleared up already but we need to continue the antibiotics) and they said her head is fine….and that they see that all the time.  Even knowing that, I still would have spent last night haggard and nauseous.

Waaaahhhh.

I want this and I can’t find it.  Not even on eBay.  Monsters.

Sunset Plumeria

This one was kind of fun in a crazy sort of way…which is typically the way I have fun.  I actually picked the colors because I was thinking of a peach color and a pink, although that is not what happened.  I used less of the colorant than I did before…mainly because I wanted to see how low I can go.  I think this was a bit too low.  Back to 2 scoops.

And no, I didn’t really name the soap.  I am just running out of blog titles.  Also, the soap ended up looking sunset-y, and I am not above lying and saying I meant for that to happen.

BRB- husband has a bee sting on his ass.  Okay, back.

So anyway, I used BrambleBerry’s “Plumeria” sample scent…not because I liked it, but because I broke the lid and couldn’t close it anymore.  So I just used it.  It’s sort of a peachy fruity smell.  I guess it’s okay.  It’s not really for me, though.

I stirred the soap too long, and it started getting solid F A S T.  I ended up having to spoon it out of the bowls and into the mold.  It allowed me to create some dramatic top swirls, but there are also holes here and there because the soap was that solid going in the mold.

This time, I put the soap in the oven to encourage a full gel.

After leaving it in the oven overnight and most of the morning, I couldn’t wait any longer and got it out.  It was a little soft.  But no softer than others.  Other than the holes, I don’t mind how the colors came out.  The *PLAN* was to fill the bottom with pink & peach….swirl it, add a middle layer of uncolored soap…then fill the mold the rest of the way with pink and peach and to swirl THAT layer without hitting the middle border layer.  You can KIND of see that going on…but I didn’t think that the uncolored soap would so closely match the peach color.  Ah well.  Live and learn.

By the way…the weird bits of green and black stuck to it are because I reused the old mold liner.  Boy do I hate folding that thing.  Here are the cut pics:

OH here are a couple of pictures of my soap curing rack.  I think I need to take a soap break for a week or so… or at least until one or more batches are ready to move out and give away!!