Coolah Creations

Playing with Bubbles!

On Jan 21, 2013 1 1 Comment

For some unknown reason Friday afternoon, the overwhelming desire to play with my liquid bubble bath recipe took hold. I could think of nothing else. I don’t know where the urge came from, what caused it, or why, but I have learnt to listen to these feelings when it comes to my recipe’s as it’s usually when I go, “WHAMMO! That’s it!!”.

After dropping the kids off with their dad, I returned home and jumped straight into my play session with all things bubbly. I pulled out my folder of notes and the most recent attempt…. recent being about 6 months ago.

A lot happens in six months! I have learnt more about what I am doing, and about individual products, as well as discovered some new ones. Instead of just blindly following a recipe written in a forgeign language and hoping for a positive outcome, I was able to understand what I was reading, and how to fix anything holding it back.

And fix I did! The final product now has bubbles lasting well over 30 minutes in a stand-alone test (ie no kids), and in fact, were still there an hour later!! The real test will be tonight with my guinea pigs in the bath, but I have high expectations. My main concern is the slippery factor, that is, ending up with kids that are too easily dropped or that fall over due to the excess oils in the bath water.

The only frustration I faced with the new formula is the fact it was ready for testing Friday night, and I had no kids home until Monday. Doh!

Nice and clear!! Way clearer than I was expecting actually!! It also ended up a lot thicker once it reached final room temperature – a massive bonus if it means I don’t have to include any thickening additives!

Showing the thickness by the ability to capture the bubbles sitting in the mixture!

First testing showed nice thick, and strong bubbles. Not only thick in that they covered my hand, but the fact that I could hold my hand upside down while taking a photo and not have them all run off was awesome. Although can be a pain when you have a child that hops in, and then straight away wants to hop back out of a bath – getting all the bubbles off them first can be tricky when they are as awesome as I make them!

Shaking the bubbles off my hand back into the bucket showed just how dense they were – they were able to stand up all on their own! And I am seriously biting my tongue by not commenting what I originally called it when it appeared….

Timer starts at 30 minutes in the initial testing…

And 30 minutes later, you could barely tell the difference. Apart from the fact they had dropped a bit, there were still plenty of bubbles left. This is of course in a child-free testing environment with no moving around. Tonight will be the second phase of testing when they are pitted against two monsters of splashing!!

If that holds up, the fun of fragrance is added and then it will be interesting to see how many little hands shoot up when I need to expand the testing group!

ShareFor some unknown reason Friday afternoon, the overwhelming desire to play with my liquid bubble bath recipe took hold. I could think of nothing else. I don’t know where the urge came from, what caused it, or why, but I have learnt to listen to these feelings when it comes to my recipe’s as it’s…

Liquid Soap Making – Success!!

On Nov 22, 2012 0 No Comments

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BOOYAH BABY!!! What’s THIS?!?!

That’s liquid soap!! I ROCK!!

And yes, I’m quite pleased with myself about it all too.

After multiple recipe tweaking, and various method attempts, I finally found myself with bottles of beautiful, golden, liquid soap. Giddy didn’t even begin to describe my level of excitement when I realised it had worked. Glycerine is a beautiful, beautiful thing!

The only thing the above soap isn’t, is goat’s milk. After five failed batches, I decided to go with a basic, out of the book, non goat’s milk recipe. Just to see if it was in fact me that was the problem. Turns out, it wasn’t! (We so knew that already) Woo Hoo!

So, I made what’s called a ‘bastile’ liquid soap. When a soap is nothing but olive oil and the lye to make it soap, it’s called castile. Bastile is the bastard child version of mostly olive oil with a bit of coconut, and in this case, castor oil. Just for the bubble factor.

Apparently the soap gods were very pleased with my efforts as the batch has the most intoxicating, seducingly sweet smell, ever! At first I thought I must have been smelling something in the air, but after continuously trying to snort my own hand, I realised it was the soap I was smelling. Lemony…? Sort of. Sweet…? For sure. But I couldn’t pin point it. The closest I came to nailing it down to something familiar was the jam found inside hot jam donuts purchased at markets on a Sunday.

What ever it was – it was AWESOME! Especially for a soap with no fragrance added! For someone trying to lose weight, I’m amazed I didn’t try and eat my own hand!

All in all, this soap was a massive success to me. And just the confidence boost I desperately needed to keep trying!

Rinsing off the slow cooker bowl. This is like winning the lotto when making liquid soap – clearly bubble factor was good!!

The little pots of gold!!

Probably not as clear as other liquid soap makers, but I chose a method that is more concerned with the end result benefits than the clarity. For a clearer soap you actually OVERDOSE your lye on purpose, then neutralise it back out and such. I’d rather the ‘less is more and leaves excess fatty acids” method. My skin certainly isn’t complaining about the additional ‘cloudy’ nourishing.

I was trying to work out how to show the thickness of the soap. I didn’t use any additive thickeners with my recipe, and it came out the most wonderfully gel like consistency. A considered downside to home made liquid soap is the water like consistency the end result produces. Some embrace this and use the ‘foamer’ pump bottles, and others add thickeners to bring it more into a commercial like thickness. I am happy that I didn’t have to do either and with a close eye on my cooking method, was able to produce a feel most people will expect from a liquid soap. Yay me!

Once I started getting it poured into some bottles – BIG mess maker – I could see that the soap was in fact quite clear considering I made no attempts at making it crystal clear. Yay me again!!

First official test…. eeeeeek!

Trying to show that it didn’t just all wash off my hand and instead more ‘goo-eed’ it’s way off. Nice and thick!

YAY!! BUBBLES!!!

I was intent at trying to capture the thickness as I ~~was~~ AM so proud of it. After purchasing a bottle of maple syrup for the pancakes today, I realised it’s about the same consistency. Awesomely wicked!

Thought this picture was just too cool! This is after stirring it with the fork. You can see the bubbles suspended in a very cool pattern.

And that’s, my first successful batch of liquid soap!! Took me one… two… *counts on fingers*… four… FIVE days of batch, after batch, after batch to finally succeed. Each batch taught me more and more though, so nothing was a failure. Everything I was reading that made my head spin before, finally switched on like a lightbulb and just made sense, and that alone is invaluable!

Now I understand the process, it’s a matter of honing my own recipe and technique to result with something I am truly happy with. The first bottle of this (and the following goat’s milk batch that succeeded) are already with my number one tester, with more in line to receive over the next few days. Can’t wait to hear the feedback – especially with the donut jam like scent of this batch. Man it’s so yummy!!

ShareBOOYAH BABY!!! What’s THIS?!?! That’s liquid soap!! I ROCK!! And yes, I’m quite pleased with myself about it all too. After multiple recipe tweaking, and various method attempts, I finally found myself with bottles of beautiful, golden, liquid soap. Giddy didn’t even begin to describe my level of excitement when I realised it had worked….

Liquid Soap Making – The Beginnings!

On Nov 19, 2012 2 2 Comments

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Liquid Soap …. SUCKS!!!

I decided that this weekend was going to be liquid soap making weekend!! I managed to find a place about twenty minutes away from me that sells potassium hydroxide (aka liquid soap lye) which saves on postage and picked up a wee little kilo of it to give it a go.

I had been reading up on it all and was excited to give it a go. I had worked out my recipe and the method by which I wanted to cook it all, so Friday I jumped in! Admittedly, I went in cocky. I make CP soap – I can do this! Pssht! That’s like saying a fisherman can operate a submarine! (You know, coz they both go in water…)

Day 1.

I decided to attempt something new even with kids in the house. I only did so because of the time length involved and the knowledge that if I needed to stop at any point, I could do so safely. Unlike my bar soaps, liquid soaps takes hours (days!) to do and the first stage is anywhere from two to ten hours cooking in a slow cooker. No having to measure, mix and pour all in one hit.

As I measured my oils into the slow cooker bowl, I noticed that my thoughts of doing a small batch to start with wasn’t the best idea when I was using a five litre slow cooker. The oils barely covered the bottom and would be near on impossible to stick blend safely. So, I quickly doubled my recipe.

This is where I am ashamed to admit my rookie mistake. I doubled my oils, but then forgot to run my recipe back through my lye calculator and instead, used the original lye amount. Bow Boooooow. It took a bit to work out why my soap was still milky white after three hours.

Batch trashed.

Day 2.

It’s Saturday. The kids were dropped off to their dads the night before so I enjoyed a slight sleep in. After waking, I realised that I am either a hard core soap addict, or just completely have my priorities the wrong way round – I get my second batch of soap prepped BEFORE having breakfast.

I ran it all through my calculator again and am satisfied that my recipe is correct this time. I measure everything out and begin the cooking process. It runs a lot smoother this time and I watch it all go through it’s predictable and recorded stages until it becomes translucent as the books say it will. Woo Hoo!

This is where I come unstuck. The soap at this stage is a thick, taffy like paste. In order for it to be liquid soap, you need to dilute it. But, I hadn’t worked out how much water I needed to dilute it, and none of my notes explain the process to work it out. They all had recipes to follow which told you how much to add, but I had made my own recipe.

Not to mention everyone else works in ounces and in backwards upside down land, we work in grams. I ended up finding some Aussie notes that explained the process:

We recommend using the 35% water rate for KOH (liquid soap) recipes to liquify your caustic. The dilution water rate should be the initial water rate x 6 (minimum) or x 8 (maximum).

That made sense!! I worked out my water amount and it ended up being close to 4kgs of water. Yikes!! At the same time as I had found those notes, I had asked in a soaping group I am apart of how to work out a 30% dilution rate and had been given the answer of just over 500 grams. Eeeerm… 500g? 4kgs? Big difference.

So, freaking out that I had poured too much water in, I tipped three quarters out. Then wondered why my soap paste resisted diluting like a delinquent teenager.

Batch, binned.

I also learned that you don’t try to dilute your soap paste in cold (yes, refrigerated) water. You end up with your spoon stuck to the soap, that is stuck to the container. Doh! Re-reading my notes I realised boiling water. Aaaaah. Lightbulb!

I’m also iffy on the whole ‘one part paste – two parts water’ for the test dilution. I watched a YouTube video where they only grabbed the tiniest amount of soap paste for a test… trying to work that one out.

Day 3.

I woke up late after a pour night’s sleep and after a quick, unsatisfiying breakfast, I began the arduous task of cleaning up the kitchen from the mess created the day before. There was taffy like soap goop on the bench, on the outside of the slow cooked and amassed in the slow cooker bowl.

I managed to get everything cleaned up and was ready to take on attempt number three, I printed my record sheet out, weighed the pot and wrote it down. The same steps I had done two days previous. As I did so it occurred to me that it was unlikely the bowl had in fact lost or gained any weight over night. It’s ceramic. I’m an idiot. (I used the exact same pot all 3 attempts… )

I added ingredient after ingredient, just like I had done the two days prior. Happy with hitting the exact gram weight for all but the coconut oil (four grams over) I transfered the bowl from the scales to the slow cooker container and turned it on.

BOOM!! Sparks flew everywhere!!

“FRACK!!!”, exited my mouth.

What in the hell just happened?? I quickly turned the slow cooker off and realised that it had blown up on me. Oh my! Three or four times I tried to get up the guts to turn it back on, but being the wuss I am, pulled back before reaching the dial. I grabbed a hand towel to protect my hand – yes, like that was going to stop me dying from electrocution. *eye roll*

I leaned forward and turned it on.

Nothing.

Off. On. Off. On. Off-on-off-on. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Well phooey! My slow cooker was dead. “Craaaaaaaap” I assume it’s due to soap or water getting into the base from when the batch over flowed or from when I was cleaning it. Or both.

After my heart resumed it’s normal beating rhythm, I grabbed the second slow cooker I had – that silly little thing that was one day waiting to cook actual food. I began scraping all of my oils into the back up plan and realising that some were being left behind, thought to myself that, ‘(a) that extra four grams of coconut oil was actually a bonus, and (b) I am so smart, I can just weigh the pot and it should equal the oil amount, right?’

It was then that it came to my attention that the back up pot was smaller. Meaning it would weigh less. “Craaaaaap”

After resetting the electrical box (thank goodness for safety switches), I hesitantly put the new slow cooker on. No light on the front, but I’ll assume it’s working. I chuckled to myself that it was only yesterday I was thinking I should look for a spare bowl for my slow cooker so I could make batch after batch without having to wait for it to be clean. Looky that, I just created a spare bowl! HA! Not funny…

Like the day before, the soap batter went through all the required stages including hitting the taffy – rock like taffy – softer taffy stages and eventually translucent. After approximately three and a half hours I was ready to start diluting. Only this time – I would do little bits at a time.

250g of boiling water added.

*poke poke, prod prod*

Another 250g of boiling water added.

Now I realise that liquid soap takes levels of patience my brain just can not comprehend, but after nearly an entire day I was ready to rush it along. I grabbed my stick blender and tried not to kill it breaking up the paste. This would then later prove a nearly pointless task as the taffy was in fact that silver liquid terminator guy and would congeal back together after a few minutes. Grrr…

Today (technically day 4), I have been seeking out my fellow soap makers to try and help me see where I am going wrong and after showing pictures of what I was working with, was told to add more water. Enter another 250g of boiling water – bringing the grand total of 750g of water to approx 1.9kgs of soap paste.

From there, it went ok. More of the goop broke down and I ended up just scooping off the last bit. I poured what was left into some plastic pitchers and stared it down. I had either made liquid soap…. or Guinness.

Now goat’s milk will make the soap go brown. Not worried about that as I’m after the quality, not the clarity. Cocoa Butter will make a soap go cloudy, so I assume that’s why you can’t see the pint size Guinness confused drunkard I buried in the middle of each jug.

The only problem I have with it, is it’s watery thin. After doing LOTS of research and reading, that’s a normal trait amongst ‘real’ liquid soap and is usually overcome by a thickening agent. The common one – borax. Hrm… not really an ingredient I am happy to use.

I am tempted to use an ‘out of the book’ recipe tomorrow – including it’s borax – just to see if it’s something I am doing specifically, or just that I haven’t learned enough to wing the process with my own recipe / dilution rates. The one I have even gives you how much water to add in order to dilute. Coolah proof!!

The Weekend Wrap Up:

1 x Blown up Slow Cooker.
1 x Broken Stick Blender.
3 x Batches of Ruined Liquid Soap
Immeasurable levels of frustration.

Tomorrow morning after Kinder drop off I will be picking up some borax and giving it yet another go. I’m stubborn. I simply can NOT let this rest until I beat it. That’s how I got the nickname Soapinatrix – if you don’t do what I want, I bring out the whips until you do!!!!

Picture Gallery of Failure:

The beginning of the first batch, when my hope was still high!

I thought this stage was cool – one I don’t normally see with my CP soaps. But this is the start of ‘gelling’ and the soap reminded me of chewy caramel!! Caustic, burn your tongue right off but calorie free chewy caramel.

If any of my non soap maker readers get confused when I talk about ‘gelling’ – this is what I am talking about. It’s cooking the soap all the way through. This is a ‘full gel’ meaning that all of the soap has been cooked through … right to the edges.

For my liquid soap, this is what I was looking for. The soap begins to go translucent and starts to losen up again. Trying to stir it between gel and the ‘taffy’ stage was near on impossible!

Coming unstuck. I kept ending up with this hard bubble crust on top. Was driving me nuts as every time I would stir it in, it would re-appear!! But I think I got my answers to all that today and am curious to see if I can avoid it tomorrow.

I WILL master liquid soap! And I WILL master goat’s milk liquid soap that is what people would expect (thick and gel like, not too dark, etc). Once I set my mind to something I don’t give up!! Like…. EVER!

Welcoming ALL comments, tips, tricks, advice from any fellow liquid soap makers. It’s the dilution part I am really coming unstuck. How much water to add, how long it takes to dissolve, do I stir it periodically or just ignore it like the weird kid at school, etc, etc. Oh… and how to thicken it !!

ShareLiquid Soap …. SUCKS!!! I decided that this weekend was going to be liquid soap making weekend!! I managed to find a place about twenty minutes away from me that sells potassium hydroxide (aka liquid soap lye) which saves on postage and picked up a wee little kilo of it to give it a go….

Moving into the big leagues!

On Oct 25, 2012 1 1 Comment

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I’ve now been officially soaping for a year – October 9th was on my first anniversary.

To date, my batches have been around the 1kg mark. A perfect fit for my silicone molds. That was until, I decided to change the width of my bars, and a single batch took me from 10 bars down to 7. This occurred at the same time as I took those brave steps into the public eye and started promoting my CP soaps. It was time to start looking at bigger batch sizes!

Yesterday, I made FOUR KILO’s of soap!! My biggest batch, EVER! Exciting, and scary, it was my first move into the ‘big leagues’. Taking off my hobby play time apron, I adorned my “I’m a soap maker” hat and proceeded to … watch every thing go wrong!!!

*takes a deep breath in…*

I ran out of my normal olive oil, so had to use the back up oil which is as green as an unclean swimming pool. Less than two minutes into mixing, my stick blender broke, dumping the shaft into the fresh lye added soap better. Trying to re-attach it so I could finish mixing introduced enough air bubbles I’m amazed the bucket didn’t fly away.

I had planned on an ‘in the pot’ swirl, only my purple colour bottle slipped and fell IN to the portion of mixture I had separated for that colour, and despite tipping the last of the colour in (bottle was COVERED in soap, not to be saved), it still morphed into a fugly green colour.

I knocked my bottle of red colouring over, and despite the fact it was such a large batch of soap, it all accelerated at lightning speed and instead of being an in the pot swirl, it was more an in the pot dump!

I’ve unmolded it this morning and it’s just a blend of fugly. No distinct colours, no swirl pattern. Just… bleh. Very lovely smelling bleh!

Given the colours were Red, Purple, Green and White, you can’t really tell. I will reserve final judgement until it’s cut (in a couple of days), but I’m not holding my breath. A couple of the bugs will also go straight to the reject bin as they didn’t pour properly.

Overall, absolutely nothing special about this batch besides the fact I got to clear out some fragrance oils from the cupboard, and that my 5kg bucket FINALLY got a decent work out!

That’s A LOT of soap right there!!

And my favourite stick blended… *sniff* I should be able to fix it, but it will never, truly, be the same again…

ShareI’ve now been officially soaping for a year – October 9th was on my first anniversary. To date, my batches have been around the 1kg mark. A perfect fit for my silicone molds. That was until, I decided to change the width of my bars, and a single batch took me from 10 bars down…

Lotion Plosion!!

On Sep 30, 2012 0 No Comments

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What happens when you ever so carefully try and test your kitchen aid to see if there is a half way mark between one and off?

LOTION PLOSION!!!

It had a momentary think about it, before going “F this” and jerking back into speed one. Part crunch, part bang sound and milky goodness was sprayed high and far. It covered the mixer, the bench, the floor and the bookshelf that sits against the edge of the kitchen. Oh yeah, and all over me. Naturally.

By the time I had navigated curious kids back to the lounge room and started cleaning up, the milk mixture was now more a thick cream where it had sploshed. While going through wet wipe after wet wipe, it occurred to me that I should have just stripped off and rolled all over the bench to let my skin soap it up. Doh!

Then again, my neighbour is probably very glad I didn’t… he already thinks I’m a bit looney when I’m in the kitchen in my bomb squad gear stirring funny liquids around…

Mr Mixer, you won that round… but you will not win the war! Till we meet again my friend…

ShareWhat happens when you ever so carefully try and test your kitchen aid to see if there is a half way mark between one and off? LOTION PLOSION!!! It had a momentary think about it, before going “F this” and jerking back into speed one. Part crunch, part bang sound and milky goodness was sprayed…

Lotions, Lotions, everywhere!

On Sep 18, 2012 4 4 Comments

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As I had planned, I spent the weekend mixing up different variations of my lotion recipe until I was happy. I am now VERY excited that I not only managed to settle on a base to move forward, but that little pots are already in testers hands and so far the feedback has been fantastic!!

My best friend was the first to get her hands on a tester – naturally. Trying it straight away for me, she announced it was perfect and I didn’t need to change a thing! Woo Hoo!

The second tester to provide feedback used it on her daughters cheeks and text’d to let me know that the redness that I had seen just an hour earlier had disappeared straight away and how much she loved it. Wicked!

I love it, I’ve used it every day! But it still almost takes me by surprise when other people love it just as much as I do. Like, I constantly doubt my leet skills.

What I did love, almost as much as the finished product, was the process of making it! I love making lotion – seeing it go from it’s raw ingredients to the creamy goodness. The anticipation, the waiting and watching, too scared to blink moments that you spend just praying something hasn’t gone wrong. Especially as I was chopping and changing my ingredients around to find the perfect blend… you never know if something just may not work.

Having to disinfect and sanitise EVERY piece of my equipment between EVERY batch was a bit of a pain in the bum, but at least my bath tub is MEGA clean right now!!

For a body lotion, I am happy with the thickness. This certainly won’t run away from you…

Yet despite it’s ability to defy gravity, it goes on super smooth, spreads so wonderfully and soaks in like it was just waiting to merge with your skin. After much recipe fiddling and tweaking, I am happy to laminate this one as my lotion potion! Sweet!!

Continuing the coolness of the weekend, I also dragged some of the soap off-cuts from the curing rack into the shower with me on the weekend. The ones from my new tweaked recipe. Even with only the half allotted cure time, I was still quite happy with them! I think, at least for the time being, I can put that recipe through the laminator and mark it as done too!

One weekend – two recipe’s decided upon. How productive! Now, to go clean up all the mess and start actually thinking about the Mornington Market that’s less than two weeks away now!!!

ShareAs I had planned, I spent the weekend mixing up different variations of my lotion recipe until I was happy. I am now VERY excited that I not only managed to settle on a base to move forward, but that little pots are already in testers hands and so far the feedback has been fantastic!!…

A Professional Blogger I will never be…

On Aug 13, 2012 1 1 Comment

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My biggest complaint as a child? I’m bored!
My biggest complaint as an adult? Not enough time!
Oh the irony…

A professional blogger I will never be. I envy those who can find the time to write daily. Then again, lately I also envy those who can shower daily! Ok, so I’m possibly not that busy, but some days it’s amazing I remember to blink!

I knew August was going to be a busy month – two markets, an adult toy party (tee hee, that was SO much fun on the weekend!), letting my hair down on the one free weekend and getting my big tattoo done (two weeks to go now!). Throw in a bit of a life curve ball early in the month to really throw me off balance and this month just feels so hectic.

I’ve done one of the markets this month – the Pakenham Expo. This once a year event is larger on scale than a standard market and with 70 stalls, roaming entertainers, face painter, jumping castle and stage acts, it was a great day for the family to get out and about.

I freaked out in the morning when the stall holder beside me was telling me how last year was so busy that it was wall to wall people, prams didn’t fit and while checking out my soaps was amazed that was “all” I brought.

Then of course this lady proceeded to basically stand in my stall trying to steal all my customers most of the day. Every time I got chatting to one, she was right there beside me with her 2 cents to add in. She had either been through something similar, knew someone who had, or her best friends untie had a dog that once had fleas and the fleas cousin had been on a cat of a neighbour that knew someone who had experienced what ever we were talking about at the time. /eyeroll

Being a Pregnancy, Baby and Kids Expo, the amount of beautiful bellies and adorable bubbies around made my ovaries cluck until they hurt! But didn’t really help sell the soap. Too many babies, not enough kids. Got to meet some fantastic customers though! My new favourite work is ‘Facestalker’ – the name for those that stalk my facebook page!

I did sell some items – not what I thought would sell, but isn’t that always the way? “Don’t make too many bird pairs, no one will want those” I told myself. “Make lots of Dinosaurs, they are so cute they’ll get snapped up” I thought. And of course what happened?? Birds sold out, Dinosaurs came home. Doh!

Hair Detangler moved well. And I learned that offering variety in Lip Balm flavours isn’t always the best as people were just too overwhelmed with all the choices.

All in all it was another good learning experience – each market done has taught me something knew. I got my name out there, and being hosted just down the road from me, was great networking and meeting locals.

My little corner of the market. Thank goodness I was allowed to set up that second table in front of the windows as I never would have fit everything in otherwise!

My new Lip Balm displays in action. Three displays was just way too many choices for people. Next time I will take just two I think…

My Licorice All-Soaps, which, despite selling out at the previous Pakenham Market just a couple of months ago, did not move at ALL this time. Not a single bag sold… weird.

Cupcake soaps don’t move around here, so I decided to use the cupcake display to sneak in some adult soaps as well….

My table of kids soaps.

ShareMy biggest complaint as a child? I’m bored! My biggest complaint as an adult? Not enough time! Oh the irony… A professional blogger I will never be. I envy those who can find the time to write daily. Then again, lately I also envy those who can shower daily! Ok, so I’m possibly not that…

Back 2 Skool!!

On Jun 28, 2012 1 1 Comment

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Guess what?! I’m going back to school!! And, unlike most of my childhood life, I’m actually super excited about this!

I’ve been debating this decision for a bit now, however it was driven home like a punch to the face the other week when I launched the new massage bars and was contacted by quite a few pregnant women wanting to know if it was safe for them to use. That night was the deal maker for me – decision made!

I’m going to become a qualified Aromatherapist!!

I’m currently doing a lot of self-study about the chemical components and such used in soaping (the different surfactants and what they bring to the party is the current topic killing my brain cells – damn bubble bath!), but that’s more so I can perfect my recipe’s and actually know why different components cause different results.

I’ve decided to work on my Aromatherapy skills so I can expand my knowledge and eventually my line of products and know that I am qualified to put together essential oil blends to help people with different ailments. I already have all the general ideas for products I want to make, so now it’s time to learn the what and the why of the oils instead of just coping random recipe’s off the internet and assuming the author is knowledgeable.

I will be specialising in ante/post natal, babies and children mostly, but the course also covers a range of other areas. Including aromatherapy massage, which requires practice and clinical hours – gee, wonder how hard that will be to find guinea pigs for.

This week I’ve been busy getting everything set up and today walked a nerve wracking twenty or so meters from one bank to another with my course fee money – all the imaginary muggers in the world spring to life when I’m carrying a wad of cash like that.

It’s done now though! I’m officially enrolled and ready to start once these coming school holidays are over. I find it highly amusing that I’ve also enrolled my daughter into her first school this week as well. My baby girl starts Primary School next year *wipes a tear away*

ShareGuess what?! I’m going back to school!! And, unlike most of my childhood life, I’m actually super excited about this! I’ve been debating this decision for a bit now, however it was driven home like a punch to the face the other week when I launched the new massage bars and was contacted by quite…

Bath Bomb Hell

On Jun 1, 2012 1 1 Comment

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I am in bath bomb hell! After waiting nearly a month for my new molds to arrive, they have been a major disappointment. To top it off, the recipe I had mastered before is lost and all attempts to recreate it are failing, miserably. I know I had written it down, but that was pre-moving everything over to the computer stage, so it was just a piece of paper. In this house that means it was most likely pinched by a child and drawn all over before I’ve rediscovered it and assumed it was scrap.

But that’s ok, after all bath bombs are easy. Right? HA! That’s what all those bath bomb makers want you to think! *mumbles*

Once you’ve worked out what ingredients you want, you then have to get all those ingredients to stick together … in a ball shape! Ok, yes they can be made with just Bi-Carb, Citric and Water. But that’s like a breakfast of toast… plain toast. Without even butter! Boring. And yeeeess you can use any shape. But I want balls! And I want balls that love my skin. AND I realise you’re all smirking right now so let’s just get it out there … balls, balls, balls. BALLS!

This is my goal. I want to be able to produce bombs that are a perfect sphere with fun details, stripes, embeds, etc. I had so many plans for them. Plans that did not include spending three days just trying to get two halves to stick together!

Yes, THREE DAYS I’ve been at this now, and am no closer to the “easy and fun activity” of making bath bombs. I’ve tweaked my recipe to include corn starch, not include it, added clay, removed clay, mixed in cocoa butter, sprayed, not sprayed. I’ve had it too wet, I’ve had it too dry, I’ve had it feeling like wet sand, I’ve had it feeling like smooth snow. NOTHING has worked.

I have been frustrated, angry, and depressed over these stupid little balls. I’ve stood there counting to ten so I didn’t lose my cool, and at one point I was managed to get to seven before the counting failed and my hands slammed down on the kitchen counter. But of course I’m me aren’t I? So I didn’t just slap my palms and make them sting. No, that would be a normal person getting frustrated. I’m special. When I slammed my hands down, I mis-aimed by about 0.5 of a centimeter and hit the edge of the bowl. The bowl full of dark purple lavender bath bomb mixture. The same mixture that then went flying up into the air. What a pretty site the purple mist that filled my kitchen was … Yes… hrm.

I’ve pulled out the bath bomb making book I bought, read websites, forums and even the annoying kids activity pages that made it sound so easy I should be able to sneeze them out.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Maybe I just SUCK at bath bombs. I keep thinking that this is just cold process soaping all over again. I had so much trouble when I started with that, but now I love and enjoy it. Maybe I have to go through the same process with bath bombs? If that’s the case … .UNIVERSE! I’m about to hit breaking point, so give in already!

The last three days haven’t been fun, and they certainly haven’t been easy. My bath bombs don’t look anything like everyone else’s. Most noticeably (to me) is the lack of smooth surface or the fact they just fall out of the mold. None of mine fall. Not like all the ones on the YouTube videos do. Nine out of ten of my bath bombs crack in half. With the top half of the mixture stuck in the mold.

The Ant Bully has been played a lot in this house lately. Ever seen that movie? It’s a good movie. Nicolas Cage’s character Zoc gets frustrated trying to create a potion …. “Hova, the potion is supposed to change color. It’s not changing color! IT’S NOT CHANGING COLOR!”

That line was on repeat through my head for the past three days. “It’s supposed to stick together. It doesn’t stick together. IT DOESN’T STICK TOGETHER!”

ShareI am in bath bomb hell! After waiting nearly a month for my new molds to arrive, they have been a major disappointment. To top it off, the recipe I had mastered before is lost and all attempts to recreate it are failing, miserably. I know I had written it down, but that was pre-moving…

Knots be Gone!

On May 19, 2012 1 1 Comment

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A first for me. Two actually! (hey, that rhymes!)

Last night I put together my first attempt at hair detangler. Sick of purchasing chemically laden store bought bottles that seem to get used up too quickly and hurt the little ones eyes if the mist comes near it, I added a few extra items to my last soap haul and had a play!

I must say… pretty chuffed with myself right now. And very pleased with how well it worked!

My subconscious must have known something was going on as I woke up this morning looking like I had stuck my finger in the electrical socket over night. The doona was tossed on the floor and I could just tell I had either tossed and turned all night, or just moved around a lot. I mean normally I get out of bed looking like a supermodel… don’t we all?

Miss S came up to my desk while I was working with the above photos…

“Is that you?”

“Yes that’s mummy’s head”

“But your hair has black?”

“Yes, it has black”, I chuckle. “That’s because mummy only colours the top of her hair”

“Did you paint it?”

“The blond? Sort off, well, um, you know when mummy..” I get cut off.

“No… the BLACK! Did you paint the black? Why are you allowed you paint your hair black but you yell at me when I do it to mine? You’re not fair”

And she promptly stormed off. Um… lol!

So you have to excuse the bad photos as I used my phone to do them. My camera is too big and too expensive to try and navigate around the back of my head. Gotta love the iPhone! As you can see. Mess! Knots and Gnarls and generally not what I want other people to see.

Now I will admit that I didn’t actually have high hopes for the detangler. Not sure if it’s a first time thing, or just a general doubt in myself, but I have this problem when ever I try something for the first time. I remember being completely shocked when my first CP soap actually acted like, well, soap. Perhaps it’s an environmental conditioning that only big corporations can make things like this? Who knows.

But, I held my breath, sprayed my hair and waited thirty seconds to a minute. Then I picked up the comb…

SHAZZAM!! A couple of the really bad knots needed a gentle hand, but after about a minute of the detangler concoction sitting on my hair, it was super easy to comb!! My hair was temporarily wet – wetter than when I’ve used commercial products. But that’s to be expected given 90% of my mixture is water. But hair dries. And mine did.

I called Miss four and a half in to test it on her hair. Miss S was the reason I discovered detangler in the first place! Like my hair, hers knots up with a violent sneeze and although I can tolerate some pain while brushing, Miss S, as a child, can not. From her first year onwards I’ve been using detangler every time I need to brush her hair – wet or dry!

Not the best test subject due to her hair length – it used to be quite longer, but Kinder plus Scissors, plus teachers not paying attention and well, this is now the length. But, it still get’s quite knotty. Especially that back section.

I asked Miss S what she thought of it, and first comment was “Mmm, smells nice!” This is due to the fact I added a very small amount of fragrance oil that is a dupe of the perfume scent Angel. The amount is probably akin to one perfume spray across your entire head, not even. Nice and subtle.

I asked her if it hurt getting the knots out and got a very excited ‘NO!! It DIDN”T! You’re so clever mummy!” reply with a squeezy hug. Naaaw.

So that’s my first hair detangler attempt under my belt. It’s also my first time using a preservative. Now, before you wrinkle your nose at that word, I had to use one. With such a high water percentage (or the fact it has water in it at all), a preservative is required. This stops the mixture growing mold or bacteria or other nasties. I spefically chose a very mild preservative that is paraben free and can be used at very low concentrations.

All in all, my detangler consists of four, yes four ingredients! This mixture has five as I added a very small amount of fragrance oil. I just counted the product I was using and it has twenty-five! O_O

My ingredients will grow as I want to look at adding some hair loving ingredients (Vitamin E for examle), but it will (hopefully) never reach that number. Even if it does, mine will be easy to pronounce!

Now the hardest part of all… working out what to name it!!

ShareA first for me. Two actually! (hey, that rhymes!) Last night I put together my first attempt at hair detangler. Sick of purchasing chemically laden store bought bottles that seem to get used up too quickly and hurt the little ones eyes if the mist comes near it, I added a few extra items to…

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