Custom Soaps for Tiara Publications

We recently made custom Teddy soaps and loved them soap much we thought we would try something a little more sophisticated.

To order a custom soap for a special occasion you contact us here

Soap for Crystal Barn Country Estate in the Natal Midlands

Making soaps for Crystal Barn Country Estate – such and honour. You can see a quick Youtube video here

Custom order baby shower Cold Process soaps

Every once in a while we get to make something cute and I love it when the mum to be says – just be creative and have some fun.

So this is what we came up with.

We used Bran, Blue Cobalt Mica, and Aquatic Zest Fragrance oil.

SoapMaker–The best soap making software around.

In 2007 I started making soap and I soon realised that it was a real pain working out the lye content and oil percentages every time I wanted a new recipe. I am pretty sure you all know what I am talking about.
If you are not a lover of Math's then this may lead you to break out into a cold sweat. I do like Math's but I like to save time more. So I did a little internet research and came across an AMAZING tool – SoapMaker.  My business was just starting out AND the programme was in dollars!! The cold sweat was back. What to do? I emailed the contact address and asked if there was a payment plan option not really expecting a reply. Boy was I surpried when an email came back with a link to download – FREE. Please note the options available now are a lite version for $49.00 or Pro version at $99.00.Ever since then I have done everything in my power to download every beta test they have and test the heck out of it.
I recently realised that I communicate with this faceless person (Crawford Woodman) and it would be nice to know more about the man behind SoapMaker. You can see the basic information on his about page.
I have decided to write this post of my own accord and have no affiliation with SoapMaker, other than using it to run my soap business.
SoapMaker was created By Crawford Woodman as an aid for his wife, Diane’s, soap making business. She was very involved in the initial programme creation and always had the best soap with many repeat clients.
Where about in the States are you? State is good enough. (boy am I on the wrong foot already I know you Americans and Canadians love getting mixed up!! – OOPS):
We live in Canada, in Perth, Ontario. It's a small town with a heritage flavour - lots of lovely stone buildings built after the Rideau Canal was finished in the early 1800's.
If you don't know where it is, like me, Google it. Wow is it pretty.
Do you have any children?
We have 3 - two daughters and a son. All are grown up and married. We have 4 grandchildren.
I see that Jason Bowles was/ is your programmer for SM. Does he still work on SM? If so is it a full time undertaking?
Jason was only involved in the early days. I wrote version 3 myself.
Version 3 is the latest update and it is AWESOME
Do you have any programming background? What was/ is your profession before SM took over your life?
I worked for Nortel for 30 years, first as a programmer and then as a manager.
I also had to Google Nortel. Nortel was a multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer founded in Montreal, Quebec in .
Do you employ other people to work on SM?
Nope - just me.
If you started SM from scratch what would you change or do differently? If anything?
I would use a platform that could easily be ported to different operating systems like Macs and Android. But I'm stuck with Windows. There are over 100,000 lines of code and it would take a complete re-write to do that now.
Is there a vision for SM? I.e. is there some sort of plan or does it just grow depending on what users ask for and what is feasible?
I'm 73 and don't really have the energy for major adventures anymore. But I enjoy hearing from users and trying to make the program as useful as possible. Our son is studying computer programming - maybe he'll want to undertake some major changes.
How do you decide what feature makes it into an update? I.e. Do you have to have a minimum no of people ask for it?
I don't really have a set algorithm. I guess it's a combination of how many people ask for a feature and how feasible it is to build it within the overall structure of the user interface and the database. And often if I notice something that seems a bit awkward while I'm testing, I'll decide to change it.
Does your wife have any input about new features and how useful they will be?
Diane used to. In fact SoapMaker was originally created for her soap-making business.  But she retired from soap-making a few years ago so now she hasn't kept up with the program. But she's supportive - doesn't complain when I spend hundreds of hours on a new update.
Do you know how many users you have? You can see a list of some of them here
I have almost 8000 registered SM3 users, and one of my resellers sells CDs which do not always get registered so there could be more. I don't know how many are still active -it seems people get into the business for a few years but then drop out later. There are also still people with the old version 2 SoapMaker - I still get the occasional upgrade purchase.
For all you die hard SoapMaker users there is a Facebook group that is a great help if you are stuck. My advice, though, is to use the programme as much as possible to get the most benefit from it . This programme will save you so much time – I could not survive without it.
Thanks Crawford, you and SM rock.

Rimmed Soap– March soap Challenge

I have wanted to learn how to do this for a while so I jumped at the chance to learn this technique when Amy from Great Cakes soap Works offered it for the March 2016 challenge.  I have not made a video nor done a tutorial but will do at some stage soon.

Piped Rose and Lavender Soap

#Riverlea Soap

International sponsorship with Great Cakes Soapworks

I am very pleased to announce that Riverlea Soap will be the International sponsor for Great Cakes Soapworks July contest. Amy has graciously allowed me to supply gift vouchers for the winner, second and third place plus the sponsors choice. Thanks so much Amy.

I am so excited to see what lovely entries you all create.

Have fun.

#Riverlea Soap

Ebru Soap - A Soap Challenge entry

This month Amy from Great cakes Soapworks decided on the Ebru technique for our challenge. This was quite difficult actually. It requires the skill of free hand drawing, something I don't have.

This was my inspiration for the soap I made but as you can see it did not turn out quite like that. I figured if I chose something really simple that did not require too much drawing I think the thing I noticed most about the differences between the two mediums is the consistency. I think doing this technique with soap is really hard as your soap is setting while you work but with the marbling ingredients they remain fluid all the time.

I used  a slow moving fragrance and did not put any fragrance in the colours BUT what I found was the base started to set up while I was dragging/ drawing my pattern. I think that I may have had my oils too cold but I was afraid if they were too warm they would set up faster. Decisions, decisions!

Despite the difficulties encountered it was a fun technique to try and I will definitely attempt it again. I might have to do a little more research though and see what the other contestants tried.

#Riverlea Soap

 

Neroli Spoon Swirl - A video

I love making this soap. I smells gorgeous and looks amazing.
I used Neroli Essential oil and Titanium Di Oxide with Peacock green Mica 
You can see the video here.


#Riverlea Soap

A walk down Soap challenge memory lane and some exciting news

Dandelion Soap Challenge

Amy Warden from Great Cakes Soapworks contact me today to ask if I could let all my peeps know that she has a GREAT soap challenge competition on the go at the moment. As she has amassed a very large following of national and international soapers she has decide to have two competitions in one. All contestants will enter the same way but there are two categories - US entrants and International entrants.

This is what Amy had to say on her blog ...."Of course, this month we are doing something a little bit different and special for the international soapmakers. Anyone who is outside the U.S. will have their very own link-up and their very own prize! I’m so pleased that Gracefruit Ltd. is excited to sponsor this portion of the challenge with a £50 gift certificate for first place and a £25 gift certificate for their Sponsor’s Choice prize. Spread the word!"

See the rest of the post here.

Below are some of my past entries.

Graduated Soap Challenge

Tiger stripe Challenge

Faux Funnel Challenge

And most recently the Butterfly Challenge.

I have had a LOT of fun and would really encourage soapers to join up.

 

#Riverlea Soap

Even More Valentines Soap 2015

#Riverlea Soap

Jerome (Jian) makes soap

 

My husband recently had a colleague (Jerome/ Jian) from China visit us and he mentioned that making soap might be fun. We put on our soap making kit and got to work.

   

I am sure Jian will be happy to hear that his soaps sold out VERY quickly

We used Green Oxide, Pink Dayglo, Titanium di oxide, and Violet Ultra Marine. We used the Drop Swirl technique. 

#Riverlea Soap

 

Butterfly Swirl - Soap Challenge video tutorial

I have wanted to try  this technique for a VERY long time but Christmas time was a busy period so I did not have any time to play.
I then saw that Amy Warden from Great Cakes Soapworks was offering it as the January Soap club challenge so naturally I signed up.
I used coloured Micas from Kolortek that I purchased in December.
    

This is the soap cut. I was quite happy with it but had to give it another try.

I quite like this attempt.

How to create the butterfly swirl

You can see the video above or got to YouTube.

#Riverlea Soap