I have been furiously making soap as I have loads of markets and sales coming up. Here are just a few pictures of what I have been making
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Monday, 14 July 2014
Doughnuts - a Melt and Pour Tutorial
I recently saw this post from Anne Marie Faiola from Soap Queen and decided I loved the doughnuts so much I had to try and make them for myself. I wrote to Kelsey at Brambleberry and asked them if I could use their post as a reference and they said yes! I happened to have the mould already so I was set to go.
| What you need: |
| Clear Melt and Pour soap base |
| Fragrance Oil - I used Mango |
| Microwave jugs |
| Stirrers or spoons |
| Jojoba Beads |
| Doughnut Mould |
| How to: |
| Melt your clear soap base in the microwave. While it is melting prepare you Titanium Di Oxide and Yellow Oxide by mixing in a little IPA. |
| Once Melted add the Titanium Di Oxide and Yellow Oxide to reach your desired colour. Also add your fragrance oil. Then pour into the mould |
| Let the doughnut halves get hard then remove from the mould |
| Melt the remainder of your "yellow" soap base and pour into the doughnut mould again. This time don't fill the mould to the top. Leave a few mm's spare. When this layer has hardened so it is spongy to the touch then pour more yellow melted soap onto the top and place the first lot of halves on the ones in the mould. You are basically gluing the two halves together. |
| When these are hard you can remove them and you will have a whole doughnut. |
| Melt your clear soap base in the microwave. While this is melting prepare your Pink Dayglo colourant and Titanium Di Oxide by mixing in a little IPA. |
| When the soap has melted add the pink and white until you have reached the desired colour. |
| Let this cool down and get thick. Take a spoon and pour it over the doughnuts. |
| Immediately take the Jojoba beads and sprinkle them onto the wet icing/ soap. |
| Let your soaps cool down and then package them how you wish. |
| We put ours in cute clear boxes. |
Packaged and ready to go.
Monday, 7 July 2014
Soap Cutter - a thing of beauty (The Rose Cutter)
You may have seen all my posts about soap cutters. You can see how I started with a very basic cutter, then progressed to this which is great for cutting your slabs into logs and from that I decided I needed something to cut the logs into slices quickly. I tried to make a cutter for this purpose but it didn't really work. So then I built a single slice cutter which works really well but it is slow. When you have lots of bars to cut it can be very time consuming.
Well a few months ago I received an email from a lady called Rose who lives in America. She thanked me for the post I did on the cutter that didn't really work and said she thought she may have a plan on how to improve it. We spoke about what would be needed to make it better and Rose said she would try to make it. I then got a mail from her to say she had made one and had also popped it in the post for me and I should look out for in the the next few weeks!! Rose asked if I could please test this cutter out for her and suggest any modifications and alterations. I am still amazed at the kindness imagination of this lady. Rose has never made soap before but clearly has an idea of what we soap makers are looking for in a cutter.
I was so excited when the parcel came. It felt like Christmas.
Rose also sent an oval mould with a pusher to get the soap out. I have yet to use the mould but that will be done in the next week.
Rose, you have an amazing heart and are truly generous. I LOVE this cutter.
Rose has since email me to say she thought it might be nice to have different size cutting inserts so when you want to cut a different size bar you remove the cutting wires and slot in a whole new insert with the wire width you want, screw it on and away you go. Very easy and very efficient.
I have made a YouTube video so you can see how this amazing cutter works. from now on this cutter will be know as the Rose Cutter
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