Coolah Creations

August is over!! Hurray!!

On Aug 30, 2012 5 5 Comments

While not officially ending until tomorrow, for me, August wrapped up on Tuesday. The busiest month of my year is finally over, hurray!! Four weekends in August and mine consisted of Market ~ Adult Toy Party ~ Market ~ Girls Night Out! Only the girls night out turned into partying Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. And the Toy Party was a massive weekend too!! So basically, I’ve had no sleep for the past four weeks! Now that I’ve sat down, rest, breathed a sigh of relief it’s over…. I’m sick. Boo!

It always happens with me. I go, go, go with a busy period and once it’s all over I let my guard down which results in me coming down sick. Tuesday was the official end of my busy period – a new tattoo, my largest, added to my collection. Then Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and could barely swallow. Today is Thursday and while the throat is better, my ability to breath has been taken away. I knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any more bearable…

Tuesday afternoon I sat the wrong way on a chair with perfect gaps for my thighs to squeeze the crap out of the back as a couple of tender areas were worked on, enjoying the three hours that ended my month. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but knowing that I was just about done with a month that I had slightly been dreading (due to the busy factor) was awesome.

As is my tattoo!! Check out this baby!

This is a firebird / Phoenix. It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites. Both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. This has a lot of meaning for me right now, and the words I chose to include with it are ‘I will always dance again…”

Dancing has always been a huge part of my life (in a non professional / I think I look way better than I am kind of way), but it’s something that I have not “felt” inside of me for nearly a decade now. Separated from my ex, I am finally feeling it once again and am loving my body having a rhythm and grooving along to the music. No matter what happens in the future, I will always, dance again!

This is my biggest tattoo to date – about 10 times the size of all my others lol. He is located on the back of my right shoulder, and I LOVE him!!

He also marks the end of my month. I literally felt myself go “aaaah” after he was done. My shoulders dropped, my pace slowed down. The month, was over.

It was a good month. The first Market (Expo) went fantastically, and the second was a great chance to catch up with friendships blossoming with other stall holders. It was a really quiet market, despite Elmo and Mickey Mouse being there!

Elmo was mute. With a guy in the suit, there was no high pitched ‘Elmo Loves You’ voice coming out. I had to chuckle at some of the kids being confused that larger than life Elmo was just waving and not speaking hehe.

Among other attractions was a facepainter. A WICKED face painter!!

And my little corner of the room. I only had the one table to set up on, so didn’t take as much as I normally would as I knew it wouldn’t all fit. Still, not too bad I guess. I still find it amusing that the things I thought would sell, didn’t. And the ones I expected to sell none of, nearly sold out. Go figure…

The little duckies were a big hit, even though they didn’t actually sell. Everyone thought they were soap and were fascinated by the detail I had included. The visible disappointment when I corrected them and explained they were toy squirty ducks was almost painful. Perhaps I need to raise my game when it comes to my kids soaps…

Overall it was a good market. I broke even, sort of. I am currently working on a new way of doing my kids soaps as, while it was what I started with and got me hooked, I’m just not that interested in M&P soaping anymore. If I can perfect my new floating kids soaps, I will do all of them that way and do away with the M&P completely.

Between now and Christmas (which by the way, is scaringly close!) I only have two markets to worry about. I am going to be spending the next few months perfecting the items I have been working on, having a go at new ones I’ve been wanting to try, resume my studying and aim to start the new year ready to just “do”. This year has been great learning. Next year will be less learning, more “doing”.

For now though, I am off to “do” my couch. *Cough cough, sniffle, sniffle*.

ShareWhile not officially ending until tomorrow, for me, August wrapped up on Tuesday. The busiest month of my year is finally over, hurray!! Four weekends in August and mine consisted of Market ~ Adult Toy Party ~ Market ~ Girls Night Out! Only the girls night out turned into partying Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. And the…

No Mojo!

On Jul 27, 2012 5 5 Comments

Share

I’m one week from a Market and have zero mojo. Not good! I know a month on and off sickness didn’t help. A toothache is current distracting me. And lack of sleep due to a very clingy toddler certainly can’t be doing me good either. And of course the more I think about how much I’ve NOT done for the market, the more I stress and sit here doing nothing. Vicious cycle!

I thought I would jump on my local soaping forums this morning but that only made my frustrations worse. A newbie soaper posting how they only started six weeks ago yet have “sold so many soaps” already and are getting prepared for their first market kicked off my now irritated state. Six weeks. *shakes head*

And don’t even get me started on the high school like “cliques” that occur via private PM and are obvious via public replies to other’s. God forbid I post something without it covered in chocolate sauce, sprinkles and a cherry on top. I’m all for a happy posting environment, but that shouldn’t mean everyone can do what ever they want with their soaps and receive a pat on the back. Sometimes things are what they are, and cheaper usually means inferior regardless of what type they are. Reality doesn’t give cuddles.

*shakes it all off*

I’m a sleepy bear with a toothache. I think I should shut off my internet and just be content with my cave today.

Now that my blog is also working again (the past week I had the ‘log in redirection’ issue) I can now update some cut pics of the soaps I did a week…. no, TWO weeks ago now!!

Blackberry Sage. Smells divine, as always. I let the lye/milk mixture get almost completely cold with this one and ended up with a ‘skin’ on the top. Mixing it back in left little speckles of milk which appeared in the soap. Not happy about that ><

Black Raspberry and Vanilla. VERY happy with the colours of this batch!

Blue Musk (Mens) Soap. Not happy with how this turned out. Happy with the layers, but wish I had left them alone and not tried to further swirl them as the end result just shows where I stuck the swirl stick in and no actual swirls. Bugger. LOVE the colours however!!

My first EO blend of Lavender (Bottom) and Peppermint and Spearmint (top) soap. Non-therapuetic grade oils due to being a wash off product, but still good. I’m absolutely loving everything I’m learning at school and even more so now I can start putting it to use!

And Miss 4′s soap!! Remembering the scent is Choc-Mint, the colours don’t match at all. But she loves them and I love how well they turned out. Not bad for a first soap for a four year old!!

Since this is a show off post, these are the Licorice All-Soaps I’ve made for the market.

Scented with a very realistic black licorice FO, I really don’t enjoy making these lol. But they sell, and they get attention, which is why they are included.

And lastly, my current project that I should be working on. My Batman soaps. I’ve had these before (done differently) and they got attention, so I’m hoping with the latest movie out, they will sell well. If not, Miss 4 is currently way into the Batman cartoons and upon spotting these, squealed with delight.

ShareI’m one week from a Market and have zero mojo. Not good! I know a month on and off sickness didn’t help. A toothache is current distracting me. And lack of sleep due to a very clingy toddler certainly can’t be doing me good either. And of course the more I think about how much…

Hi! Remember me?

On Apr 26, 2012 6 6 Comments

Share

Oh my goodness, I’m alive!! Just lol. The past two to three weeks saw my clutz gene (my own personal gremlin) rear it’s ugly head and saw me fracture my leg! It was the most dramatic thing to …. I walked into my own flippin bed!

It’s not the first time I have inflicted pain upon myself. I’ve rolled my ankle (which then ripped all my ligaments and tendons) getting out of bed, broken my little toe getting out of the shower, fell over walking to the couch and fractured my arm, etc, etc, etc. I’m like a life long blonde moment. Even as a child (7th grade I believe), I managed to break, fracture AND dislocate my little finger trying to give the dog a cuddle. I’m …. special.

On top of my bed attacking me, I came down with a bout of Mastitis (it’s a female / child thing … basically an infected boob for those that have no idea) which saw me spend one night so cold my chattering teeth kept waking my 4 year old. She was not pleased at all about that either. But I was so cold, the thought of uncurling from the fetal position and actually getting out of bed to turn the heater on was just too much. Plus, my fever was so bad I was awake for maybe 30 seconds at a time – just long enough to hear the end of the ‘muuuum, SHOOSH!”. The following night however, I sweated to the point of needing to change my bed sheets … twice!

So there went 48 hours of my life, plus a further five to six days curled up on the couch feeling very sorry for myself. April has been a month I will gladly see the end of!

Not before the 29th though! I have my first MARKET!! Eeeeeek!! I’m majorly freaking out right now! I’m not too sure why I agreed to do it – caught up in the moment talking to a friend who was egging me on perhaps? Thinking that I really need to start getting my name out there as I’m starting to drown in made soap? Who knows. I’m glad I’m doing it, don’t get me wrong, they’re good butterflies. But they’re butterflies all the same. And at the moment if feels like someone slipped them three cans of red bull and then pissed them off! Oi…

Giving myself only three weeks to get ready for my first market was a silly idea though. Especially when I was already low on funds AND low on M&P base! I’m only taking M&P soaps to this one as it’s a ‘baby and kids’ market so my CP ones don’t really fit the bill… although I have asked to take along my Energy soap as it smells like fruit tingles and is coloured with kiddy colours.

But it’s mostly Cupcakes, Soapsicles, Smurfs, Monkeys and toy embeds. Oh, and my new Batman soaps!

I’m not sure how many of the baby and kids Markets I will do, it’s turned something I do for fun into something that’s stressed me out a bit. I’m hoping to use it more as a way to start getting noticed, but at heart I’m a soaper who does it for the pure enjoyment of it. I love trying new technique’s, playing with my swirls and experimenting. I’ve discovered I’m not real good at the mass production thing.

Of course, the good thing is it’s gotten my thinking about where exactly I see my soaps going. There’s a fellow soaper I chat to that makes my jaw drop – she has an entire range of products (soap, balms, creams, etc) and an entire shop displaying her goods. I look at that and go “Oooh! I want to be her when I grow up!”

Problem with that is, I’ve already worked out I don’t want to keep the same range of stuff all the time – I much prefer doing different things constantly. Plus, if I had to try and duplicate a soap, I would likely fail and then get frustrated. I wonder if I could just have a shop that is constantly changing?

The good thing, I think, with constantly changing and trying new things, is I’m also hopefully constantly growing and improving. I figure as my business (hopefully!) grows, I will just expand in size. Instead of making a 1kg block of soap, I’ll start increasing it to 2kg, 5kg – dare I say 10kgs? That way I can still be different, but making/selling larger quantities. *nods convincingly*

For now, I’m concentrating on Sunday. Three sleeps to go. I figure if the shaking, trying not to vomit from nerves seller doesn’t get people’s attention, the scents will. I’ve read there are ‘food’ stalls there (cakes and cupcakes mostly I think), I plan on being the best smelling stall in the building! Wish my luck!!

ShareOh my goodness, I’m alive!! Just lol. The past two to three weeks saw my clutz gene (my own personal gremlin) rear it’s ugly head and saw me fracture my leg! It was the most dramatic thing to …. I walked into my own flippin bed! It’s not the first time I have inflicted pain…

Key Lime … SIGH!

On Apr 8, 2012 0 No Comments

Share

I lurve Key Lime Pie fragrance oil. To my nose, it’s a sickly sweet smell. The description calls it; “Bitter lime and green lemon zests on a dry down of vanilla cream”, but to me it’s just sweetness on sweetness.

Vanilla – like. Lemon – like. Bitter – how do you smell bitter? I know a bitter taste, I know bitter old ladies, but never a bitter smell.

Frustratingly, as much as I love the smell, it’s a PITA to soap with (CP anyway).

This was just cut – so you can see the colour I intended the soap to be. I thought with only 2% Vanillan content I could squeeze it through without any stabilizer. I was wrong. I would have used stabilizer except I didn’t have any at the time.

The batch also over heated on me – can you see the ring of frustration? I tested a bar in the shower last night as I always do before listing, and there were zero bubbles when used on the body. Now this is the exact same recipe I’ve been using for all my soaps for the past month, but this is the first major disappointment in the shower.

At first I thought it was me (no no, it’s not you, it’s meee) and perhaps I was just super dirty. Would have been odd given I had just laid around all day, but you never know. Have you ever washed your hair and the shampoo just didn’t seem to do much lathering, but if you rinse out and wash again, you are drowning in lathery goodness? I thought the soap might have worked the same. I was wrong.

Rubbing it between my hands produced bubbles, so I know they were hiding in there. But rubbing it straight against my body produced nothing. So, I’ve advised my friends and testers that they are hand soap only, because this scent is just way too good to bin.

Was it the scent? Was it the over heating? Was it just a bad day in the shower? Not 100% sure. I’m leaning towards the over heating…

Refusing to believe it was the scent, I did a second batch with my M&P base. Wanting to cover all bases and perhaps wondering if it was me *gasp*, I also enlisted my latest assistance – Miss four and a half. Please don’t forget that half, it’s very important!

Together we were able to produce this little masterpiece:

The soap has an oatmeal base which can help exfoliate, a sweet middle center and a whipped soap top. Miss 4 and a half loved making the whipped soap as it filled the kitchen with fairy size bubbles (they were really teeny tiny)…

Next I will try bath bombs!!

ShareI lurve Key Lime Pie fragrance oil. To my nose, it’s a sickly sweet smell. The description calls it; “Bitter lime and green lemon zests on a dry down of vanilla cream”, but to me it’s just sweetness on sweetness. Vanilla – like. Lemon – like. Bitter – how do you smell bitter? I know a…

Super Soap Show Off – A Sea Breeze and Twilight Woods

On Apr 7, 2012 6 6 Comments

Share

For the past month or two, I’ve been extremely frustrated with my M&P soaps. Pretty much anyone can make plain coloured soaps, some can do layers or details, but few can do truely outstanding creations. I want to be one of those few! I want to make soap that makes other soapers jaws drop.

I’ve been working hard to improve my M&P soaping, and I have been extremely pleased with the last two results.

A week ago was my first success. Having picked up a bottle of the scent Sea Breeze (OMG so nice!!) from Auroma down the road, I had made nearly everything in one weekend – bath bombs, bath salts, CP soap and… with just enough left for some MP soap, I wasn’t going to waste it. I was infatuated with the scent and the idea to create a ‘waves/ocean’ soap was a pretty obvious choice.

I had pondered making a beach soap – sand and water, but my gut feeling told me not attempt the sand as I would be disappointed. So instead, I sat down and worked out how to soap the ocean.

With my piece of paper and my daughters blue textas, I started working out my plan. Layers, would definitely need layers. A gradient affect would be best. Variations in blue to look like deep to shallow water, and some white frothy caps. I then started to play… and tweak… and try. Eventually, my first super soap show off was born!

This soap sat in it’s mold and taunted me for an entire week!! Having always disliked the wavy cutters, all of a sudden nothing else would do! And, of course, I didn’t have one did I? I looked everywhere local to pick one up – Bunnings, Spotlight, House, General Trader, etc. No where. In the end I bought one from the fantastic supplier in WA and paid express postage to get it to me quicker.

Result? Perfection! I was SO glad I waited.

Twilight Woods

Yesterday’s was the unveiling of another week long project. Twilight Woods made to (hopefully) look like, the woods! The scent has nothing to do with the movie Twilight… *bursts out* TEAM JACOB SQUEEE!!!! *composes self* sorry about that. However the scent is just as lovely as the moment when Jacob takes his shirt off after the motorbike fall. *drifts off and mumbles ‘You’re kind of beautiful’….*

Ok, ok, ok… enough about Jacob. (*writes note to go watch Twilight later*)

The soap Twilight Woods is really nice. I didn’t know it was actually know it was a re-creation of Bath & Body Works scent! Their description of the scent is:

A new distinctly feminine fragrance, an alluring blend of bright flowers, surprising spices and creamy woods – layers upon layers of youthful luxury with an elegant touch of cashmere, captures the singular pleasure of a twilight stroll.

Further researching for a fragrance description only confirmed why I like it:

This fragrance combines the scent of ripe forest berries and soft sensual musk, with middle notes of sweet mimosa flowers and apricots, along with subtle hints of oak and juniper.”

I love musk, and fell instantly in love with Juniper Breeze when I had it, as well as quickly discovering awesome mimosa (just not with mango!). I think I will have to track down more of this scent when it runs out…

I have CP soap curing, I have bath bombs sitting behind me and now, I have a MP batch to add to the trio!! And check… it… out!

The idea was to make it look like the deep forest – brown for the forest floor, tree trunks and then the green for the tree tops with blue for the sky. The soap worked out a smidge lighter than I had originally pictured – I had wanted more deep green colours, and a blacker night sky. BUT, I am still beyond thrilled how it turned out!

And once again, there’s that crinkle cutter making it even better!

Feeling slightly more positive about my MP soaping once again. Just have to work out what to do next…

ShareFor the past month or two, I’ve been extremely frustrated with my M&P soaps. Pretty much anyone can make plain coloured soaps, some can do layers or details, but few can do truely outstanding creations. I want to be one of those few! I want to make soap that makes other soapers jaws drop. I’ve been working hard…

Easter Frustrations!!

On Mar 7, 2012 1 1 Comment

Share

I had a plan. An Easter plan. AND IT’S NOT WORKING!!!

I wanted to put together little Easter ‘packs’ for kids – a cute little tub, some chocolate scented Easter egg shaped soaps, a bunny cupcake and a couple of real Easter eggs tucked away in these awesome plastic ones I found. I had the whole thing set out in my mind and it looked AWESOME!

But the Universe doesn’t like my idea! It doesn’t agree with the image in my head. It’s NOT playing fair!

The Bunny cupcakes are working out WAY better than I thought!

Originally I wasn’t happy with the shape of the bottom portion, but purposely shortening it (not pouring as much soap in) made it look one hundred times better! So that solved that. /triumph

The Googly eyes were way better than my painted attempt and the nose, well, it’s passable. It’s a bit odd how far it protrudes out from the face, but I swear I heard a whimper when I considered shaving it back.

The whiskers are still the bunny bane and are ticking me off. I don’t have a steady hand which makes painting them on straight nearly impossible, and because of the way the mold is, they are raised from the rest of the face, so the ‘too wet’ paint tries to run off if tilted 0.0001% the wrong way!

I wanted to go up to the craft store to get thin wire and do them that way, but then realised that kids + wire = not smart. Still thinking on that one…

The Soap Eggs however, are what’s really bringing an end to the ‘idea’. They are just not working!!

1st Attempt = Slowly pour the detail soap in.
Result: MASSIVE FAIL! The soap went everywhere, over-poured the details and generally made a huge mess of it all.

2nd Attempt = Use the Soap Syringe
Result: FAIL! Again, the soap over-poured the details and made a big mess. My second and a half (or technically 3rd) attempt saw me put even less soap in the details and try to swirl the mold around to spread it – that just ticked me off! I would get one part working, but in trying to get the other sections right, the first one would spill everywhere.

There was at least one moment where I swirled the mold around like it was caught in a hurricane while grunting and cursing. Gee, wonder why that didn’t work? /ponder I bet I looked like a complete dick head as well!

3rd Attempt = Soap Paint
Result: High hopes… but fail. I tried painting the details on after I poured the soap but it didn’t really work. If you want to experience my frustrations, grab some oil paint and try to recreate something by Van Gogh on your cleanest pane of glass. Grrr.

Then I had an idea! What if I painted the soap paint right into the mold (silicone has better ‘stick’ than fresh soap) and then poured the soap in. So I spent all day yesterday, straining the back and my eyesight to paint the fine details of my Easter egg mold. I had to let each layer dry before I could paint the next and it literally, took me all day!

After the painted sections had dried, I carefully poured in my soap and let it sit over night. I removed them this morning and although some of the paint had stained the soap with it’s colour and pattern, all the paint remained firmly in the mold. GRAH!!

It was right about then that I cracked it, big time! I twisted and turned the mold wanting to rip it in half. But the mold is silicone. If I thought I looked like an idiot yesterday, that was nothing compared to this morning. There I stood in my kitchen, still in PJs, trying to rip a RUBBER mold in half.

Twist… turn… scrunch… grunt… twist… puff… pant…. stop… sigh… put mold down… flick hair out of face triumphantly…. walk away. Mutter.

The frustrating part is I am seeing not only the exact same eggs as the mold I have out there, but other, more intricate eggs with detailing done. So I know it CAN be done, just not by me. Which is a huge blow to my confidence levels at the moment – not aided any by other soap failures I’ve experienced unrelated to the eggs.

I think it’s time to move on. I don’t have the patience levels at the moment to continue trying, and with the Easter time limit looming ever so close (having to also factor in postage time and such), I think it’s time to concentrate on something else.

It’s just SUCH a shame that I won’t get to use these guys, they are just too awesome! They’re the plastic eggs that I was going to put real Easter eggs inside.

ShareI had a plan. An Easter plan. AND IT’S NOT WORKING!!! I wanted to put together little Easter ‘packs’ for kids – a cute little tub, some chocolate scented Easter egg shaped soaps, a bunny cupcake and a couple of real Easter eggs tucked away in these awesome plastic ones I found. I had the whole thing…

I long for boredom!

On Feb 19, 2012 0 No Comments

Share

This weekend was by far my busiest … possibly of my life! Saturday was spent getting down and dirty and cleaning the house! And I mean really cleaning it! Not just tidying or shuffling stuff around like previous weeks, oh no no, this weekend the dust mites were afraid. And with good reason! Sick of Miss 4′s bedroom not having a visable floor, I decided that enough was enough!

And clean I did. Oh boy did I clean! The kids bedroom, the toy / spare room, the lounge room, my work space, the kitchen. You name it, it’s now clean. (Please don’t name the bathroom….)

Satisfied with my now presentable house, I spent Sunday messing it up! My workspace was cluttered with more clothes being cleared out from my main business of the past 18 months. The kitchen was well and truly de-cleaned with glorious soaping ‘stuff’ and the results of said stuff being whizzed and whirled around.

I. Am. Buggered!

I am so longing for the feeling of boredom right now. Those moments when you just look around realising that you kinda have nothing to do. I remember complaining when there was nothing on TV … now I’m lucky if I can remember to turn the damn thing on it’s been so long since I’ve watched.

All weekend I was doing ten different things at once! That said, it was productive. Apart from the clean rooms lasting more than two minutes (kids were with their dad), I started on the men’s soap samples, managing to finish off five already.

P.S. Single white female making the most amazingly scented men’s soaps all weekend is CRUEL!!!! I would have just about jumped any guy that knocked on my front door today! Course who knocked? My ex… /facepalm

I also managed to whip up these beauties:

The delectably edible Vanilla Oak with shredded loofah and ground Walnut exfoliating soap! Smells D I V I N E! Best Vanilla scent I have inhaled so far!

The Tea Tree loofah food scrubs. Apart from the fact Tea Tree scent makes me gag, I was a tad disappointed with how little they seemed to smooth out my dreaded feet. I hate my feet. It’s my own fault – I own two pairs of shoes: Thongs, and Thongs. (Or for the non-aussies: Flipflops and Flipflops). One pair at the front door, one pair at the back door. And everything in between is bare feet.

This was a simple recipe followed and it was a good learning experience. It involved sticking a full loofah into a cylinder container and then pouring the soap mixture over the top. What wasn’t explained was the half an hour of holding the bobbing loofah down!! And I do mean bobbing … as in up and up and down. I’m not just PG rating my swear words there.

I was tempted to just leave the last 1/4 of the loofah sticking out – it was coming up for air every three seconds! I ended up sticking a plastic spoon on it, popping the lid on the pringles container (my ‘cylinder container’) and walking away. Still working on that patience thing…

What little patience remained this weekend was spent on round two of the rainbow slice soap. I decided to change things around this time as the last ‘rainbow’ only had five colours. Oops. This time I aimed for more numerically correct layers but I’m not so sure I am happy with the results. I will reserve final judgement until it’s cut.

I also decided to pipe the top this time instead of whipped. My first time pipping – at all! Not just pipping soap, but pipping period! Mostly happy with it.

This is my ‘bit-o-everything’ soap.

I needed to make a batch of soap (CP) to pipe the top of the rainbow cake, but you can’t make just that small an amount, so I might as well do something with the rest of the batter…
I had melted too much white soap and later on too much pink for the rainbow soap. I had also looked at a photo just this morning of twirly whirlies in the top of a batch so naturally decided to give it a go.
My first go at embedding MP into CP!

The idea was for a red/pink bottom half and a white top half with the pink and white twists in it. Instead the red barely showed through the batter and the fragrance oil turned my ‘white’ into yellow. Doh!

Red/brown and yellow soap with pink and white twirls and glitter. This poor soap feels like it was made by a colour blind drug addict! I can’t even work out how I will cut it! I guess that’s what I get when instead of concentrating properly, I’m going “shit hurry up, hurry up, the piping bottle is going to set! Aaah frack it just shove them in!”

ShareThis weekend was by far my busiest … possibly of my life! Saturday was spent getting down and dirty and cleaning the house! And I mean really cleaning it! Not just tidying or shuffling stuff around like previous weeks, oh no no, this weekend the dust mites were afraid. And with good reason! Sick of Miss…

I’m just never happy…

On Feb 10, 2012 0 No Comments

Share

I started soaping with M&P bases. With kids underfoot and a newbie to the world of suds, it was the safest option. The problem was, all the YouTube tutorials I fell in love with were done with CP soap. The column swirls, spoon swirls, stick anything long and pointy in swirls. ALL Cold Process.

I tried to replicate it with my MP bases. But try as I might, the only things I ended up with the almost mixed – not quite mixed – let’s call it marbled look. The best I got was an almost half and half soap. But still, I wasn’t happy. There were no clean lines, no defined swirls evident.

Determined to produce soap that was swirly, I took the plunge. I gathered my ingredients, and one day with the kids off at their dads, I took a deep breath in and pulled out the feared Lye. In the end, the only danger to me was the fact I forgot to let go of that breath until the soap was done. It’s amazing I didn’t pass out!

Like a child jumping into the deep end of the pool for that first time… I was hooked! Again, and again, and again I kept jumping!

Fellow soaping buddies are fully aware that I have not had the easiest of entrances into the world of CP. I’ve hit the bottom a few times, jumped to early and hit the edge with one part of the body or another, and god knows how many belly flops were felt. I was like an entire pool montage on Funniest Home Videos.

But, I didn’t care. Ok, I cared a little. I swore a lot too. But ignoring that, it was all practice for me. Every batch, whether fail or success taught me something new AND allowed me to practice swirl to my hearts content. Some more glop than swirl, but each and every batch was another step towards those soaps that had inspired me enough to start in the first place.

Then comes tonight. I make a batch of CP soap and purposely keep my batter runny. For what reason you ask? So I could produce this:

An almost mixed – not quite mixed – let’s call it marbled look soap. /facepalm

The scent is Fresh Mango (BB) and Pink Grapefruit (BB), and in my mind, I wanted to create something that looked like pureed fruit.

Right … so I spent a couple of months with M&P trying to get the defined swirls and hate the fact that the only thing I can get is the marbled/mixed look. I then switch to CP soap and, after a couple of months, purposely aim to create a batch that looks like the soaps I hated previously? And NOW I’m happy.

Now I know why men’s heads spin when they try to work out us females lol. Even I baffle myself tonight.

ShareI started soaping with M&P bases. With kids underfoot and a newbie to the world of suds, it was the safest option. The problem was, all the YouTube tutorials I fell in love with were done with CP soap. The column swirls, spoon swirls, stick anything long and pointy in swirls. ALL Cold Process. I…

No pot of gold at the end of these Rainbows!

On Jan 26, 2012 0 No Comments

Share

A couple of weeks ago I had a request come through for some Rainbow soaps. I was excited! Not only a request for my soaps, but a challenge! Ideas started running wild, however I was instantly drawn to doing a rainbow butterfly. One that is vertically striped.

And I’ll do it. One day. Just not today. MUCH harder than I thought!!

I started trying horizontally striped butterflies, until I remembered that pink isn’t in the rainbow colour list and stuffed myself up. Doh!

I spent nearly an entire day continually going back to my mold storage draws looking for inspiration. I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t figure it out. I looked at the different molds I had – butterflies, bugs, love hearts, etc, but nothing jumped out and said ‘yes, I am the one!’ Then, in the fourth draw, BINGO!!

My Popsicle mould!! I hunted everywhere for this mould, and now, finally, a reason to use it! It was a bit trickier than it looked, and the first colour pour saw me spending tripple the time cleaning up the runs down the edges than it did pouring. But I’m smart, and on the second colour pour, I did so through a funnel! Brilliant! No mess to clean up.

It took the better part of the afternoon getting them done – at least 4 hours that I counted. I also poured ‘by eye’, meaning my levels in each mold were eyeballed and not numerically measured out or guided by a line. That’s why one of them has a veeeeery thin line of yellow. Oopsie!

That said, I’m MEGA happy with the results!!

Getting these suckers OUT of the mould was the hardest part. So hard in fact that I broke my mould!! Only a little bit, and won’t affect it’s use, but still, there is a little tear where there wasn’t one before. Once I worked out the trick however (push from the bottom, don’t try and pull from the stick), they popped right out!

I think I will need to add an extra label to these soaps – DO NOT EAT! My patience got a wee bit tested when Miss 4 saw them the next morning and didn’t seem to understand that she couldn’t eat them. Scenting them with Jelly Beans probably didn’t help …

ShareA couple of weeks ago I had a request come through for some Rainbow soaps. I was excited! Not only a request for my soaps, but a challenge! Ideas started running wild, however I was instantly drawn to doing a rainbow butterfly. One that is vertically striped. And I’ll do it. One day. Just not…

August is over!! Hurray!!

No Mojo!

Hi! Remember me?

Key Lime … SIGH!

Super Soap Show Off – A Sea Breeze and Twilight Woods

Easter Frustrations!!

I long for boredom!

I’m just never happy…

No pot of gold at the end of these Rainbows!

My Soaps

Post Categories

Latest Posts

Reader Comments

Post Archives

Post Tags

My Soaps

Post Categories

Latest Posts

Reader Comments

Post Archives

Post Tags

Modal header