Inspired by last monhs soap challenge and winner I just had to try out the beautiful rosepiping technique. It was not as difficult as I thought, just a lot of work!
Kudos to Snoblove!
Happy Soaping
Yvonne
Category Archives: hygiene
Piping Soap Tutorial
Another fun challenge, and the best of all – we got to play with different type of piping techniques. I have done a lot of (cake) piping but I have never used Russian piping tips, so I decided to try them for this soap challenge. I chose to do roses with two different rose nozzels. I also used a smal leaf nozzel and a tiny calligraphy nozzel. The idea was to make a «basket» and fill it with roses. I guess I got carryed away with the flowers, and leaf – well, I had to use all the soap in my pipingbags, or….?
I used a knitting needle to bend the rose petals so they wouldn’t all look the same.
This is my first attempt at soap piping and I must say I enjoyed «slow soaping» for a change.
I used my standard soap recipe and added some beeswax. Soaping at 38 degrees celcius to thick trace, then poured the soap in my pipingbag and put them to rest for aprox one hour. As recomended I didn’t use any fragrance in the flowers. The «basket» is scented with BB’s Black Amber And Lavender FO.
Olive oil 50%
Coconut oil 30%
Sheabutter 10%
Cocoabutter 10%
10 gr beeswax
superfat 5 %
My entry
Happy Soaping!
Yvonne
Dancing Funnel
It’s been a while since my last soap challenge so I’m really happy to participate this month, and most of all – this is a great technique witch I will be using in my future soapmaking – and of course, I will practise some more….
I took a chance and used my usual oil recipes for this soap, althoug it’s a bit heavy on the hard oils! I was soaping at low temperature, 35 degrees Celsius, and hand stirring for aprox 30-35 minutes. With no experience with this metod of soapmaking, I took «the spoon test» to see if the oils/lye/water had reached the point of emulsion. This was a bit out of my comfortzone, working without my stickblender, but I think this way of making soap is a really nice way to work – thumbs up & thanks for the opportunity in this challenge 👍🏼
I managed to keep a light trace during the whole prosess and the soap was wrapped and OP for an hour and then left «to sleep»over night. The FO is just beautiful and acted well during the whole prosess. As you can see the gold mica «got into» some of the browne parts – but, overall I’m happy with the result!
Here is my entry:
This is my first soap, all natural colored with Bamboo Charcoal/Indigo and a EO blend of citrus too keep the trace under control! My rehearsal soap was so pretty, but the next one… What happend with the Indigo, it turned out browne and then slightly green….?
Happy Soaping
Yvonne
Pink Snow & Frozen Roses
It’s time for a new Soap Challenge hosted by Amy Warden At Great Cake Soapwork. For this challenge we are going to make a CP soap with a winter wonderland theme. As usual I’m looking forward to see a lot of beautiful soaps this month. Good luck all!
Blue is an quite obvious color in a winter wonderland theme, so with that in mind I started my research for an alternative option – also, I have been making a lot of blue soaps lately….
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Liquid: The soap must have elements of snow, quite fun since it’s snowing outside, a lot…. I desided to use snow as my liquid – so, out in the garden with my bucket and shovel….
Color: Have you ever heard of pink snow? ( see picture on my moodboard ). Watermelon snow is snow that is reddish or pink in color, and it can have a smell similar to a fresh watermelon. This type of snow is common during the summer in alpine and coastal polar regions, such as the Sierra Nevada of California. Watermelon snow, also called snow algae, pink snow, red snow, or blood snow, is Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of green algae containing a secondary red carotenoid pigment (astaxanthin) in addition to chlorophyll. Unlike most species of fresh-water algae, it is cryophilic (cold-loving) and thrives in freezing water ( Wikipedia ). So, now you know why my soap is pink!
Snow: For the snow on top of my soap I used Maldon Sea Salt, and to get that beautiful sparkling snow I added a little bling-bling mica.
For the snow crystals on the rosebuds: I coated part of them with eggwhites and then rolled them in sugar.
For the «snowflakes» inside the bar I made a small batch of soap and while it still was soft I rolled it out and let it dry over night.
FO: BB’s Herbal Essence.
This month I’m going for a «less is more» kind of soap. It’s a sweet bright soap with snow crystals inside the bar. On top, spakling snow and frozen rosebuds.
My entry
In the mold: the bottom design ( silicone mat ) is collored with 3 Martini Olives mica from MO
«Ice crystals»
Colors & Snow
Snow as liquide
To avoid draging the top decor throug my soap I cut it sideways
My moodboard and end result
An other option….
Happy soaping
Yvonne
Red Wine Soap
The soap challenge this month has been an exciting adventure. At first I was thinking of making goatmilk soap but I had problems finding any so I went for coconut milk. I was not happy with the result of this soap, see pictures below, so I ended up sharing saturdays bottle of red wine with my soap!
Red Wine Soap:
The benefit beside getting happy, relaxed – and having a good time sharing a bottle of red with my soap is many: Wine is made from grapes, and grapes are a literal treasure trove for skin nutrients. Resveratrol, found in grape skin, provides you with anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties. There’s also a lot of anti-oxidant properties in grapes, not to mention a lot of different vitamins and minerals. Soaps made of red wine also have a lovely lather with big bubbles.
As I was mixing the lye with the wine, (the alcohol content in the wine was cooked out so there was absolutely no alcohol left in the wine when I was mixing it with lye), the color changed imeditly from a blueish red to a more browne kind of red. I was a bit disapointed at first, but seeing the end result, I’m so happy. I got a beautiful, glossy and good smelling soap, and I can’t wait to try it out….
For the light part of the soap I used white kaolin clay mixed with some of the wine. Fragrance: a blend of Patchouli, Ginger & Rosemery EO’s.
This is my entry
Important; cook out the alcohol before mixing with lye and let it cool down.
Please be careful, do propper researsh before starting – safety first, always!
Reference: http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/blog/making-cold-process-wine-soap/
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Coconut milk soap
This is my coconut milk soap. I used infused paprika and a citrus blend of EO’s. The natural color is really vibrant, and the soap smells soooo good….
Benefits: Coconut milk is high in fatty acids and vitamin E, which give it cleansing and healing properties, making it ideal for those with dry, sensitive skin.
Important; when making soap with any type of milk, keep the temperatures low by freezing the milk beforehand. I used ice cube trays – allow the milk to fully freeze.
Please be careful, do propper research before starting – safety first, always!
Reference: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/hscg-conference-guest-post-milk-soap/
Happy & safe soaping 😊
Yvonne
Clay & Bling-bling
Finaly I got time to make some soap, and this time it’s not for the soap challenge club.
Brazilian clay gave the beautiful pastel color and I added some mica to give the soaps a little bling-bling.
FO: BB’s White tea and ginger
Soap Challenge Club – Striped Marble
For this month soap challenge we get to choose one of three designs for our soaps. I went for the Striped Marble/Mantra swirls for my entry.
Challenge; to get enough time to do the swirls before the soap got to thick. I mixed the oils & lye at exact 38 degrees celcius, and had all my things prepared and lined up to get on with the job. To get as much of the colored part of the soap into the solid part I made a triple swirling tool – see pictures!
I still haven’t managed to find a slapmold in Norway so I had to use a cardboard box and dividers – it was a little bit tricky with the dividers when I was pouring the soap batch into the «mold» – but I’m still happy with the result.
My recipe: 50% Olive oil, 30% Coconut oil, 10% Shea butter, 10% Cocoa butter.
Fragrance: Black Amber FO from Bramble Berry. Micas from Mad Oil’s
My swirltool
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Striped Marple/Mantra swirls – rehearsal…
Basil & Citrus EO
As you can see, I modified my swirltool for my entry soap, and I got a different result.
Happy Soaping
Yvonne 🙂
