The Fugly Side of Soap

Well yesterday was a lazy day for me but later that day I decided that I needed to be productive so I made a batch of soap.  BIG MISTAKE!  I should've just spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking it easy.  Mistake #2 was that I tried a new recipe with a new fragrance.  #3 which is not really a mistake as I add my milk when I start to trace but apparently this time it was the wrong move.  #4 I got soap on a stick and broke one of my wooden spoons trying to stir it.  So now I had to dump the whole thing in the crock pot in an effort to save it.  Well that caused the new fragrance to burn off so I had to add more fragrance but I didn't have any more of the first fragrance so that didn't help in the fragrace section.  I finally got the majority of it melted down and poured it into my mold, which was almost two small  Made this batch a little larger by mistake.  Glopped the whole thing in and it looked awful.  I decided to add some pieces from another soap in an effort to make it look pretty.  Totally failed  Here are some pics from my soaping disaster.  It's ok if you laugh or cry and even feel a little sorry for me.  I'm taking it all in stride.  It may be fugly but it's still soap, LOL.

In the mold

out of the mold

The final cut.

Bubble Bars

I have wanted to make bubble bars for a while and I had to wait until I had all the ingredients.  I finally made a small batch the other day and scented it with Daisy Type from Nature's Garden.  They smell sooooo good and the color is a pretty pink and white swirl.  Pink is one of my favorite colors :).  I tried one of them to test it out and wow! the bubbles that it makes.  A nice way to pamper yourself and like I said, the fragrance is to die for in my opinion.  Here is a pic of my batch.

My ArtFire Store and My First Sale.

I am very happy to report that I have officially made my first sale on my ArtFire Shop !  I have had my shop open for about two months so I was very happy to see an email that told me that I had made a sale.  What did I sell?  I sold one of my lingerie cards!  So I would like to thank Katelyn for being my frist customer on ArtFire.  I look forward to making more sales in the future.

My Latest Project

I've been doing a lot of reading and researching and in my "travels" I came upon talk of laundry detergent and stain sticks.  Well I've made laundry detergent before and I usually made it by grating a bar of soap and melting it and adding borax and washing soada.  I usualy make it with Zote Soap. (I love the fragrance of it).  Well I had read about making it by making a batch of 100% lard or 100% coconut oil cold process soap and adding water and borax and washing soda.  I've made a batch trying this method and waiting to see how it turns out.  I also read about stain sticks and reading the rave reviews of several people who have made it as well as tried it and thought that I would give it a whirl.  Well, I must say that I am very pleased with the stain stick.  Not sure who to thank specifically for the recipie but I will say thank you to the members of the Thedishforum.  They are a very helpful, insightful group of people and I have learned so much from them over the years.  The results of my latest project was AWESOME!  I had a night shirt that had a stain from who knows where and I can't remember how long that stain had been there but I can tell you that it has been months and I had tried everything to get that stain out.  Not that anyone would see it as I slept in it but still, I wanted to get it out.  I tried Shout, Spray and Wash, Iron out, soaking it and everything and couldn't get the stain out.  Well..  I made a batch of this wonderful stain stick and didn't even wait for it to really set up before I used it.  I wet the stain, rubbed the stain stick on it and threw it in the wash.  I didn't really have any expectations but figured it couldn't hurt.  Guess what?  It came out!  I couldn't beleive it.  I didn't let it set for a while, I just rubbed and threw in the wash.  Wonderful stuff.  I gave pieces to some friends and family for them to try and waiting to hear what they have to say.  My mom used it and she said that all but one stain came out and that one stain that didn't come out was lighter than it was before and she is going to give it a second treatment to see if it will completely come out.  Here is a pic of the shirt before and after and tell me what you think.

BEFORE

AFTER

The stain stick recipe that I used on this one was 100% lard.  I made two more batches.  One 100% Coconut and one 50/50 Coconut/Lard. 

Newest batches of Soap

I made two batches of soap last weekend.  The first batch I made was Mountain Dew Soap.  Yes, I actually used Mt. Dew as the liquid in my soap.  The fragrance is also Mt. Dew and it smells pretty darn close to the taste (If that makes any sense).  When I poured the Mt. Dew it, the lye turned a deep blood orange and I wanted it to be yellow.  I used yellow pop mica and added titanium dioxide in hopes that it might look even close to yellow.  I am happy to report that it came out just as I wanted.  The second batch that I made was another beer soap and fragranced with Bramble Berry's Raspberry Porter Fragrance.  Let me tell you, their beer fragrances cannot be beat in my book.  I love all of them!  I used rapsberry leaves as an additive as well as some yougart for a nice creamy feeling.  This batch is going to be sent in for Bramble Berry's Swap and I've got two more batches to make.  Don't worry, if you think you might like to try a bar of this, I will be making a batch to sell.  I am very pleased at how both of these came out.  The white kinda looks like the foam from the beer.  I am hoping that it will not get any darker but if it does, it will be ok. (it takes nothing away from the soap).  I will be posting these on my ArtFire Shop so you can order them from there when I list them. 

Featured in an ArtFire Collection

To my lovely surprise, I received an email informing me that I had one of my products featured in a collection.  They featured one of my greeting cards (My Sympathy Card with a butterfly).  This is truly an honor to see that some of my work is getting recognized.  Here is the link...

Inspiratonal and Vintage Flutterby Collection