Wow

I have been in college a long time, I mean a really long time.  Feels like an eternity since I started. Oh, waite, it was a lifetime ago.  I started college out of high school and took time off around my kids. My oldest is now getting ready to drive and my youngest turned two in December.  Boy, does time fly.  The whole graduation ceremony reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:

"The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get." 

Jim Rohn

It was an absolutley beautiful day to have a graduation.

Vanilla Mocha Oh Yeah!

 This batch of soap surprised me. It could have gone wrong in sooo many different ways, and I honestly thought it did, a couple of times.  I learned some things from this batch that I haven't learned from others.

1. Remember art class from so many years ago, it can come in handy.

2. When in doubt, cure and cut anyway.

3. You never know what your going to get.

Ah, art class, not just time to screw around but to learn the color wheel, complimentary colors, and that your cly sculpture can explod in the kiln. To me I thought it was just fun and never thought I would retian some of that information.  I also never realized that the complimentary color thing would help me in soap making. 

Most of my soaps are made with a lot of olive oil, which has a yellow greeen hue to it, and I use palm oil (sustainable and Orangutan safe, of course) which also has a lovely yellow hue.  So when I was mixing the lye into the oils it did not occur to me that the cocoa powder I used would turn the mixture green, instead of the brown I was so longing for.  The complimentary colors of the color wheel popped into my head and I added the slightest bit of red oxide. And would you know it?!?!?! Brown. Deep beautiful chocolatey brown. 

The whole batch got layered with a coffee strip, I used real coffee grounds for the stripe and for a gentle exfoliating factor but I did not realize that it would smell funny.  Like a slightly foul conatiner of left over noodles stuck in the back of the fridge foul. Ewww! I thought I had killed the whole batch, it was setting up and there really was no other alternative.  So, it was wrapped and left to cure, smelly or not. I forgot about it, for like a week.  When I finally got around to cutting it, it smelled...good.  Like chocolate vanilla coffee with a little musk added in.  Kind of weird but better than I had thought it was going to. I cut the loaf into bars anyway.  Now that it is pretty much cured, it smells fabulous and I find myself sneaking a sniff whenever I get the chance.  

Like a chocolate bar with a hint of coffee.  Vanilla Mocha Oh, Yeah!

Little Information and another experiement

The little information part is easy,  I am taking any baking I do and putting it on my other blog. Foodylove.blogspot.com I think it should go there rather than here. :) Makes sense to me. There. Done.

Now on to the experiement. The thing that I did was a thing I have not done before but thought about many times.  Mixing Melt & Pour and cold process. Sounds easy, right? Well, I found out I was kind of wrong and well...kind of right, but I had a few other things happen I had not thought about.

I made my cold process soap like I always do and mix it at about 95 degrees F., added my fragrance at trace and tried to layer the M & P before I swirled it. I thought it would just swirl right in and that it would turn out like I was thinking in my head.

Sounded good to me.  Except I did not take into consideration two things; 

  1) My fragrence oil accelerated trace and,

2) M&P gets hard at lower temperatures

The accelerated trace was no big deal, I have salvaged many a batch from the dreaded sieze. But I was feeling a little sheepish for not realizing that the cooler temperature that I mix my CP at would have such an effect on the M&P.   I went to swirl like I usually do and stuck my knife into the batch and it was met with hard melt and pour. Ooops!

Overall, the batch turned out really well and it smells fabulous! Not quite the swirl I wanted but....a success afterall. (I do love the marble effect.) Next time, I'll try soaping at highter temperatures and swirling between layers.  Wish me luck.

Sugar Scrubbie Experiment

This ones too hard, this ones too soft, and this one is too oily!!  Sugar scrubs that is.  I found a recipe for them on  the SoapQueen ( I do love the Soap Queen) and have always wanted to try to make sugar scrubbies.

I printed the recipe and gathered all my gear to try them the next day. The recipe wasn't bad I just thought it was a little oily and wanted to "adjust" the recipe to my taste. So I conducted a wee little experiment in order to find a recipe that was jjjuuussstt right.

Now, I probably should have used the same fragrance oil and mica for each one, but I am working under the assumption that the different fragrances will not reall have an effect since there is not a huge chemical reaction like making cold process soap.

I made three batches with different amounts of ingredients. The blue/green is the original recipe, it can be found here.  This is one is for comparison. 

The purple scrubbie is made with:                                     

 2 oz. clear M&P soap                                                                       

  1 oz of oil, I used Olive Oil                                                                

  6 oz Sugar                                                                                          

  25 drops FO and                                                                             

  1/8 tsp. lavender mica

Then the gold scrubbie is made with:

3 oz M &P soap

1.5 oz Olive Oil

6 oz Sugar

20 drops FO

1/8 tsp gold mica

After cutting and comparing each one I truely do prefer the the gold one.  Hands down!!!  It's jjuuusssttt right!! It cuts well, I think the extra M & P helped and it does not have the oily feel that the other ones did.  Now I have to remember with my next batch to thuroughly pack them into their molds. then it will be perfection!

Boy Does Time Fly

O.k. So it has been a while since I have posted anything.  I haven't been ignoring soap, actually the opposite, but I have, dispite my best intentions, gotten busy and unfocused.

Life got in the way.  It seems at times that it does that. 

So it is time to get back on the wagon and talk about some of my favorite things.  SSSOOOAAAPPP!  Amongst other things.  I should do it more often. This is something I do because I love to share.  My schedule will match my intentions and I'll post more often. Since life is a work in progress, along with this blog, I will make the time for it.

The Pink Dotted Owl on Etsy

Everyone meet Hootie and Owlivia

 

I love owls, they are wise, majestic, and slightly mysterious. Except these two; they are just the cutest soap owls. Love It!

Thanksgiving; The forgotten holiday

Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday.  After Halloween, things seem to jump right to the winter Holidays with out even a look back.  I find the Holidays come earlier every year, I mean the shelves are stocked with stocking stuffers, Christmas candy, and presents before Halloween is even over.



The Praying Paisley Thankful Wall Hanging



It seems there is no reason to celebrate Thanksgiving if you can't give everyone in your family the most expensive gifts for Christmas.  If you watch the news, there is no reason to be thankful, it is all negative gloom and doom.  But I am thankful.  For all kinds of things, I am thankful. Thankful for the ability to write here, and the roof over my head, the sun, the moon, the seasons, the snow, heck, I'm thankful for indoor plumbing.  Thankful for the beautiful mountian town I live in.  I am grateful for my husband, and my children and my dogs that bark too much.  There is so many things to be thankful for and a lot of them we take for granted. 



That is why Thanksgiving is such an important holiday because it is not about the stuff you get, it is about appreciating the stuff you have.



Im So Crafty Thankful for You



Satin and Birch Cornicopia Soap      Solstic Scents Candied Yam Soap



Laurie's Tutu Boutique Little Turkey Tutu
Isn't that just the sweetest thing!

Soooo Important

I usually do not title my posts with exclamations and pressing things but this one is important for all lovers of handmade soaps and cosmetics, especially the small businesses manufacturing them.

The Safe Cosmetics Act....not so good.

This is the second (or is it third) that the government has recently tried to make it more difficult for small businesses to stay in business. It seems that the government, all though with good intentions, is trying to save us from ourselves and kill small business for fun and profit by passing more regulations that require more time and money from those of us trying to run small business.

You can decide for yourself by reading the full legislation here.

Write your representative and tell them no on the The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786).

Here is a copy of the letter I composed (with the help of The Soap Queen)and sent to my representative here in Colorado.


Dear Representative John Salazar,

I am writing to express my concerns for H.R. 5786, The Safe Cosmetics Act. I make lip balms, soaps, and lotions and sell them at my local Farmer Market and festivals. I make less then $5000 per year. I sell them to pay for my daughter's new clothes and my son's snowbaords every year. what I make enhances my families income and helps the quality of our life, puts money back into my community, and helps deter the effects of the downturn in our economy.

I make soaps from common ingredients that you can find in your kitchen. For example, I have a great bar of soap that I make out of four ingredients: olive oil, lye, water, and essential oils. H.R. 5786 has a lot of extra reporting requirments that would be virtually impossible for me to comply with. I am just one woman in a kitchen. I do not have a huge staff to help with this paperwork nightmare. I often change formulations based on the season and consumer demand. Being nimble is a huge advantage for me and if I have to submit a new safety and ingredient affidavit for every product that will take away one of my key advantages. This legislation is unnecessary because it is already illegal to manufacture unsafe cosmetics and disclosure of ingredients and contact information is already required. Buying handmade and homemade toiletries is a prefferable choice for many consumers; these handicaps to small business like mine, could put me out of business and take that choice away. Please don't take away that choice. Please do not support H. R. 5786. It is well-meaning but it is written in such a way that I will not be able to stay in business because I will not be able to keep up. Estee Lauder started at her kitchen table. Please do not take that oppotunity away from me.

Sincerely,

Cass Smith


Make the decision for yourself and take the time to write your Representative. Help small business' do what they do best, business.

You can also check out the Oppose SCA website and sign the petition to Oppose the SCA here.