Posts Tagged ‘Coolness’

To Hell and Back Baby!

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Bath Bombs Round #2! Score? Bath Bombs zero, me FIVE!! I am smashing them now! Well, not literally, as that would be counter productive now wouldn’t it? But check these out!!

The mixture still wasn’t 100% here as the Purple ones have surface cracks and the orangey ones have cracked all along the seams. But still, it was enough to get my hopes up to continue, and continue I did!

Ok, so not everything was smooth sailing. As I made minor tweaks to the recipe, I had some that just wouldn’t stick. These are actually bubble bombs as well for memory, which adds a further element of difficulty as the mixture is generally wetter than bath bombs. But I did have my first play with a double colour bomb! You can see how mixed the two colours are however – there were quite a few failures which caused everything to become blended towards the end.

The Pink ones started off perfectly, even with a double colour bomb! But as the mixture tried out, they went back to the two halves not sticking together. Unfortunately I was on a slight time limit so just used a flat mold for the rest.

The Green and Red however were done with no time limit so I was able to spray some added moisture to keep going. The last bomb, well, he got a little too much moisture. Not only did it try escaping the mold, it then melted into a flat mushy mess. He can be the ‘road kill’ bath bomb.

But then … something happened. I had gone to bed the night before still slightly frustrated, but closer to getting it, and as a result, more determined. The next morning, everything just fell into place! It was like a lightbulb went off and after mixing up another batch, I realised that THIS was the feeling everyone tries to describe in the ‘how to many bath bomb’ guides. And now I know why it’s so hard to describe verbally!! That not too wet, feels like wet sand, sort of like snow, perfect bath bomb texture. I got it, it made sense. All of a sudden everything just felt … right.

Oooooooh yeeeeeeah! CHECK. THESE. OUT!

Yeah-heh-heh baby! By the end of the day I was not only doing multiple colours, I was doing EMBEDS!! Hearts and Sprinkles and perfection, oh my! And these are mini-bombs too, about the size of a ping pong ball. So while supposedly easier to work with due to less mass needing to be held together, it was harder to do the embeds as I was working with such a small ball.

So far, two days later, these haven’t cracked! They still look good and I think I have finally found my workable recipe. Huzzah!

Once I got these two batches done, I fell in a heap. I was DONE with bath bombs for the week. After five days straight of trying to get them to work, I needed a break. The new molds are definitely worth while, and once I worked out the right mixture and feel to it, I could put the hammer away. Yes, at one point I did resort to a hammer to try and get them to stay together!

The real test will be in a few days when I go back and try to make them again. Fingers Crossed!

 

 

Bombs4

ShareBath Bombs Round #2! Score? Bath Bombs zero, me FIVE!! I am smashing them now! Well, not literally, as that would be counter productive now wouldn’t it? But check these out!! The mixture still wasn’t 100% here as the Purple ones have surface cracks and the orangey ones have cracked all along the seams. But…

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SISA – Soap Items Shopaholic Anonymous

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Hi, my name’s Melani and I’m the newest member to SISA. Soap Items Shopaholic Anonymous.

I realised this morning, I have a problem. When it comes to soap items, I can’t stop buying! It’s mostly tools and molds, but if I don’t get a hold of this issue now, I can see it spreading to additives and more. I’m already getting the itch with scents, but at least knowing I have 50 or so here already can curb the need to buy more. That’s probably because I order scents online – I already grabbed a couple when I was at Auroma the other day as they were right there in front of me. So I’m sure if scents were right in front of me everywhere, I would be just as bad with those as well.

The problem with soaping tools is that they’re everywhere! That’s because kitchen tools equals soaping tools. We use the same things. Bowls, measuring jugs, spoons, spatulas, whisks, etc. Since I started looking into piping my soap cupcakes by hand, that opens the world up to the piping bags (or bottles in my case) and all the different Wilton tips you can use. Oh there’s just soooo many different tips…. to create sooooo many different looks. I want them ALL! (*Pokemon voice – gotta catch them all!*)

This morning I popped up the street for one item. One. I needed a strainer. I was going to just duck into Coles, but I wanted a stainless steel strainer, so knowing the local shopping center had General Trader (cooking store) and House (back up plan), I was going to find what I needed. And I did. Plus more!

Remember… one item. Just the strainer. All I needed. So… um… yeah:

I got the 3 pack of strainers because it was only $7.00 from Kmart. Given the single strainer was $9.00, it seemed kinda obvious to get the 3 pack. The mold, well that’s self explanatory.

The bottles are part of my piping experimentation – trying to find the right size bottle to fit the right size tip. And bags don’t really work that well for soaping (in my opinion). The 3 lots of containers (2 packs, so 6 in total) are for my colour mixing. So far I’ve been using the disposable plastic cups like your frozen coke comes in from McDonalds, but I hate throwing those out everytime I make a batch. Environment factor and all that. So I grabbed those today so I can use those instead. At $2.00 a pack, not bad!

The grater is again, for soap. I know, and not even cheese soap, which would be my first thought too. Nope, I can grate my soap to use as decoration for the top! I already have a mini grater (it’s sooooo cute), but I need those big long slices that only a larger grater will produce.

Long milkshake spoons for mixing colours with, mini-whisk for my Lye mixtures, and a plastic spatula to help scrape down the pot. The blue things are for pouring the soap from the pot onto, to help break the fall into the mold for the soaps where I want clean layers and don’t want them to mix. Tricky huh? Oh yeah, and kettle in the back ground to help keep my colours melted for when I do my soap painting.

So everything has a use! It’s not random buying. I can already imagine how every single one of those items is going to help with my soaping. Course, to a stranger it’s going to look like I’m Jamie fricken Oliver with all the cool toys and gadgets I’m slowly quickly collecting. Don’t even get me started on the beyond cute for words, cow print milk frother! I know, a milk frother! Moi, who can not cook owns a milk frother! Again, for my soap colours.

If that shopping trip wasn’t already bad enough – I had kids with me! And you just know they don’t miss out on anything. Even kitchen tools!

Yes, Savannah wanted a pair of tongs. She wanted purple tongs – how could I say no to purple tongs?! And of course two kids = two pairs of tongs.  The puppy plate was Savannah’s choice, so I got Diesel the matching space man one. And the cups were just way too cool to pass by – the middle of the cups spins around! So looking at Savannah’s butterfly one, you can see that you can make different butterflies by spinning the three inner rings.

The dinosaurs are ‘sippy’ cups. Yes, my kids are too old for sippy cups, but you’re never too old for Dinosaurs! Specially when they’re aptly named ‘Sippy-saurus!

So that’s today’s shopping spree. My poor credit card is crying (again, bloody emo card). I purposely chose not to pay too much attention to the total spendage (it’s hard across 3 different stores anyway…. right?) and will just have to work extra hard clearing out more stock over on TTC to pay for today’s needs. Yes, needs. I need them. Eventually. I will use them all. Promise!

ShareHi, my name’s Melani and I’m the newest member to SISA. Soap Items Shopaholic Anonymous. I realised this morning, I have a problem. When it comes to soap items, I can’t stop buying! It’s mostly tools and molds, but if I don’t get a hold of this issue now, I can see it spreading to…

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Bubble Brains!

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After spending all morning perfecting the label, it was time to mix in the requested scents to the bottles of bubble bath and get them ready for customer purchase. I love the new labels (100% recycled!), they just give it such a professional touch.

After mixing in the fragrance and adding a couple of drops of colour, I added in the solubilizer and was then distracted by Mr D. Seems the whole Xmas period was just too much for him (he’s 18 months) and he’s been superglued to me all day. Stopping to pick him up again, Miss S (4) shouted, ‘LOOK MUM!’ pointing at the newly scented bottle of bubble bath.

What a sight!

Click to view larger image

Normally the solubilizer is added and mixed in at the same time. Stopping to pick up Mr D allowed it to all settle a bit more slowly, and with fascinating results.

It took about 2 minutes to reach the bottom, and Miss S and my eyes were glued the entire time. Very, very cool!

ShareAfter spending all morning perfecting the label, it was time to mix in the requested scents to the bottles of bubble bath and get them ready for customer purchase. I love the new labels (100% recycled!), they just give it such a professional touch. After mixing in the fragrance and adding a couple of drops of…

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