Spirulina

For those interested in using spirulina in cold process soap for color...I would suggest that you do not bother. The soap below was made March 15 and you can see the picture on the bottom how bright the green swirls were. The photo on the top was taken to show you all that after a little more than 2 months the green has faded to a pale green/tan color. Very disappointing...though I have found that stinging nettles makes a really great natural green color that lasts. Now I need to find something else to do with all my spirulina powder. Maybe it would work as a colorant in lotion...but would people want to rub a green lotion all over their body? Maybe it could be marketed for children.

Chocolate Covered Nuts Salt Bar

I recently made this yummie scented batch of salt bars. This is a fragrance blend that I came up with and I am really pleased with how it came out. When this batch was fresh out of the mold and just cut it had a nice swirl pattern of brown (cocoa powder) and white, but as time passes it is turning more of a solid brown. The swirls may pop back out after it gets wet, but we will have to wait and see. I tried a sliver of it in the shower yesterday and it had a great lotion like lather.

Obama Speech

This past weekend I had the honor of hearing Barack Obama speak at the Wesleyan commencement. It was really exciting getting to see him. So many people from the area, but not Wesleyan related, came and apparently there was about 15,000 people that attended. Though it was kind of sad that as soon as Obama finished speaking about 10,000 people left even though no diplomas had been handed out yet. Obama talked about the need for people to volunteer, join the peace corps, or do anything to make a positive difference in the world. He was very inspirational and I recommend everyone to watch his speech on youtube.

Ramblings

Well...I guess I have lagged. It has been too long since my last post. I have been working on some new items though. I have made a chocolate covered nut scented salt bar that I swirled (more like marbled) in cocoa powder. They smell delicious and have a great lather. I also made an ocean rain scented soap that I swirled in what was supposed to be blue but it turned a lovely shade of purple. Anyone else every have trouble with this? It was an FD&C colorant. I also just received my package of incense so that I can dip my own. I am pretty excited about making them.

On another note, I am really excited for Sunday. This weekend is graduation at Wesleyan and Ted Kennedy was supposed to speak, but now Barack Obama will be taking his place! So, I am really excited to hear him speak. I will try to take pictures to post.

Mango Hair Conditioner

I have been lurking in some courses being given by the yahoo group southern soapers classes for the past 3 weeks. I finally received my class kit from southern soapers and made a hair conditioner as taught in one of the classes. I really love how silky the conditioner feels and how silky it leaves my hair. I did not add any additives to the conditioner besides preservative and FO but I will likely add some proteins and other goodies in future batches. I just love the Mango FO that southern soapers put in my kit. It leaves my hair smelling of mangoes ALL day long...yum!

Liquid Soap

Well I attempted to finish making my liquid soap. When you make liquid soap you first have to make a gel-like soap from oils and potassium hydroxide. Then you have to take some of the gel and dilute it to your desired consistency. Well, I tried to dilute the soap by placing first an equal amount of water and soap in a sauce pan and boiling it on the stove. This did not dissolve all the soap and the water evaporated away so I added another part of water. Still did not entirely dissolve the soap...finally I added another part of water but still no luck. The picture below shows what I ended up with once the soap cooled. I think the chunks are from boiling the soap. I will probably try to make it in my Crockpot next time over low heat until the soap dissolves and I will likely start with at least 1 part soap to 2 parts water. Lets see if I can get this soap dissolved tomorrow. I give up for now.

Cream Soap

I made a basic cream soap recipe from a class on the yahoo group cream soap making a few weeks ago. I was getting really concerned because it had not thickened up...I was about to buy some boric acid to thicken the soap. I decided today that maybe it needed to be whipped. So I put it into my kitchen aid and mixed for about 30 minutes. It ended up turning into a thick marshmallow fluff-type texture (without the stickiness). You can see below the initial water type texture of the soap.
Below is a photo when it thickened up. It is like a cool whip texture...dense but fluffy cream.I added French green clay and ginger souffle FO to this part of the cream soap batch. Dylan tried it out and thinks it is really cool. I can't wait to see what it does with a mesh sponge in the shower.

Ramblings

I have been really busy preparing a display for a local pizza place. They approached me about a month ago to put up a display with my soaps. I am really excited...but man it has turned out to be a lot of work. I am really hoping to get everything ready to put up tomorrow after work. Once I finish all of that I will have some time to update you on my latest experiments. I have made a batch of cream soap, liquid soap, laundry soap gel, and breast milk soap. I actually have a friend who will be having her second baby in October and she just mentioned wanting me to make her some breast milk soap, too. Their first baby had really dry skin and she is interested in trying breast milk soap to see if it will help with the babies skin. So, maybe i can make a business of custom breast milk soap! I know many people think it is gross, but I love the idea. I mean I would not want to use soap made from another women's milk, but if I had a baby I would certainly make some from mine. I think it is so cool that our bodies can produce such things so why not take advantage of it. Anyways, enough ramblings I need sleep! :)

Sweet!

I just got my May/June Saponifier issue and low and behold I am the lucky reader in the showcase gallery. I sent in my info a few months ago, never fully believing that they would even use me in their showcase. So fun! The last time I had my picture in a magazine I was in 4th grade so I am pretty excited!