Black Cherry Blossom

I always seem to be a season behind so I decide to start on my spring soaps.  Winter is not my favorite season......I love Thanksgiving and Christmas but the older I get the more I have a hard time with cold weather.

 

I bought this fabulous black cherry fragrance oil from Wholesale Supplies Plus which smells amazing in cold process soap and decided to add blossom to it's name so I could Spring it up abit LOL!

 

Here's Black Cherry Blossom.

 

I did an in the pot swirl then added a layer of white then piped the leaves and blossoms.

 

 Have a very Blessed Thanksgiving!

Gloria

 





Soaping101

 

I am so pleased and excited to have my soap packaging featured on the Soaping 101 facebook page!  I have watched all of their videos on Utube made by Cathy McGinnis who is a wonderful teacher. 

 

This is how I packaged my Tiger Stripe soap for my Etsy  shop.

 

Have a Blessed Week!

Gloria  

  

New Candle Melts

 

I have spent the last couple of weeks working on my candle melts for my Etsy shop.  I love to design little boxes for my candles and soaps....it's the scrapper coming out of me!

 

Here's a few of my new candles.  You can see them all here.

 

 

Now to get back to some serious soaping!

 

Blessings,

Gloria 



I Luv Room Temperature Soaping!

 

Now that fall is here I can get out all my animal print clothes, scarfs, and accessories!  Since  in my teens animal prints have always been my favorite wardrobe  picks so why not in my soaping!

 

 

 This is my first attempt at the Tiger Stripe but not my last!

   I used Bergamot & Mandarin from Wholesale Supplies Plus. It was a dream to work with and smells amazing! 

 

My next soap is also a first attempt at the Leopard Spot.  I was not as happy with this one...next time I will make the spots a little more defined.  But I was extremely happy with the scent....Black Raspberry Vanilla also from WSP.  Nice and strong also and very easy to work with.

 

Both of these soaps were done with the room temperature method.  After measuring out all my oils and getting everything ready I mixed my lye last then after it was clear I pored it into the hard oils and butters to melt them.  After the oils and butters were melted I added my liquid oils and brought the mixture to a light trace then added my coconut milk and fragrance. I then separated the batch for coloring.  NO CHECKING TEMPERATURES!   This was so easy and I don't think I will ever go back to the old way. 

There is a great tutorial on this method at Soap Making Essentials with wonderful instructions and photos.

 

Have a Wonderful Week Soaping!

Blessings,

Gloria

Off the Curing Rack!

After 4 weeks of curing the verdict is in!

I soaped with Cucumber Melon and White Tea & Ginger,

both scents are from Wholesale Plus.

 

First is Cucumber Melon.  WSP describes this as an aroma of sweet and sour cucumber and a deep oily green note with hints of violet, with a background of sweet, freshly sliced honeydew melon.  I loved this scent when I first cut it but after 4 weeks the scent has faded.  Still a lovely delicate scent of cucumber and melon, just wish it had stayed alittle bit stronger.  I soaped this at 1 ounce per pound of soap.

The next is my favorite, White Tea & Ginger.

Described as top notes of white tea, yuzu, lemon, bergamot and ginger, followed by middle notes of Earl Grey Tea, rose, nutmeg, and geranium, sitting on base notes of woods, musk and berries.  I really don't quite understand all the top, middle, and bottom notes thing but I know what I like and this smells amazing!  Still nice and strong after 4 weeks.....I soaped at 1 ounce per pound of soap on this one also.

And this is the way they are packaged on my Etsy site.

Blessings,

Gloria

So Glad to be Back!

Doctor finally gave me permission to go back to my normal routine which means I can soap again!!  I have to wear the foot boot for another 2 weeks but I can handle that as long as I can get back to my normal routine. 

Love the combination of Lavender and Roses and this soap has been curing for 4 weeks and smells amazing!  Added sugar and kaolin clay and the lather is amazing....will do this more often!



Blessings,

Gloria

No Soaping Allowed!!

 

Don't know how it happened but I have an inflamed Achilles Tendon and the doctor says to stay off my foot for 2 weeks.....this is the beginning of the second week and I am having soaping withdraw.  Don't miss the cooking and cleaning but not making soap is tough LOL!  Here's a little cupcake that has just finished curing and smells wonderful!

 

I used Puakenikeni Hawaiian Flower fragrance oil from Nature's Garden.  This is the flower the Hawaiians use to make their leis.  A very floral and exoctic scent.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

 

Blessings,

Gloria

 

 

Wisteria Rose

I just love this scent!  Nature's Garden describes this fragrance oil as a truly refreshing, clean aroma with top notes of fresh rose petals, middle notes of wisteria and cyclamen, bottom notes of sandlewood and vanilla.  I named this fragrance Wisteria Rose (more romantic) but Nature's Garden calls it China Rain LOL!

This fragrance oil soaped like a dream with no acceleration and plenty of time to play.

Blessings,

Gloria

Frosted Pumpkin....Yum!

Fall is my second favorite time of the year (next to summer of coarse)!  I love the cooler sleeping weather, the turning of the leaves, fall flowers, and PUMPKIN PIE!! 

I used Frosted Pumpkin fragrance oil from Nature's Garden.  Out of the bottle it smells amazing and the scent in my soap is awesome!  I hope it doesn't fade after cure....makes my house smell like I'm baking a pumpkin pie! 

And I designed this little Raggedy Ann box to hold the soap.

Blessings,

Gloria

New Cupcakes and Gift Box

Love to combine my two favorite things to do.....Soaping and scrapping!

Used Anjou Pear Blosooms FO from Nature's Garden.  This is a very light scent of fruits and florals with a touch of bergamot and vanilla.  The adorable little butterfly came from Tiny Little Charms an adorable little shop on Etsy.

My gift box was made using heavy cardboard and adorable digital cupcake images from anothe awesome shop on Etsy called WhimsyDust and they are so cute!

The little tag is Psalms 34:8









Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

 

Blessings,

Gloria

Love My New Mold!

Just got my new mold from Soap Making Resource and couldn't wait to try it out.

 

The fragrance is Cucumbers & Melons from Nature's Garden and it smells amazing!  Hope the scent sticks.  I decided to not gel this soap because the colors are so pretty and creamy looking so I put it in the freezer until tomorrow morning.  Then I will let it thaw out for 24 hours before cutting.

I love that I can see the design through the mold.  This little mold only holds 2 pounds which is perfect when I'm trying out a new recipe or fragrance oil. 

I will post pictures in a few days of the cut bars.

Have a Blessed Day!

Gloria

Gift Box

Decided to get out my scrapbooking supplies and make a little gift box for my Juniper Breeze Soap.  This soap looks so much like ocean water that I decided to use a beach theme.  

The little beach girl tag is removable and perfect for a little note on the back.

Inside the soap is wrapped and tied with a little bow.  A tag is tucked in the ribbon which has the ingredients and weight printed on the back.

Had so much fun scrapping again!

Have a Blessed Day!

Gloria



Swirls Bah Humbug!

I have admired all the beautiful soaps that have the most awesome
swirls ever since I began soaping.  Well yesterday I decided to try my hand at it.  I have seen all the pretty soaps that were entered into the Mantra Swirl contest (given by Great Cakes Soapworks) on utube and thought I can do this....LOL!  After cutting out the dividers for my mold and preparing my soap dividing it into 4 different colors I poured.  DISASTER!!! 

My card board dividers collapsed and I had one big mess!!  I left it all in the mold and gelled overnite  for rebatching.

Not one to give up today I decided to try the linear Swirl from Soap Queen in my 9 bar slab mold.  I used a recipe with a lot of olive oil which usually moves very slow for me but used a fragrance oil called Beach Baby that I bought from Nature's Garden but has since been discontinued and I didn't have any info on how it soaped.  You can guess what happened ..... it riced on me and by the time I blended it out and added the colors I could barely scoop it into the mold!

Tried to make it look like waves LOL!

 

On a positive note it does smell good!

Have A Blessed Day!

Gloria



Floap Cupcake Bath Melt

It's sooo nice to be back to soaping.....missed it and missed sharing with my friends!

After watching Cee Gee over at Oil and Butter make whipped soap (which I had never heard of)

 I decided to try it as a topping for my bath melts. After tweeking the recipe a little this is what I came up with.  The first melt is fragranced with Juniper Breeze from Nature's Garden the second fragranced with Chanel #5 from Nature's Garden also... and they both smell amazing!  What a treat....a great moisturizing bath with a soap topping too!  The soap should last for a few baths and it floats!

 Thanks Cee Gee!   

On the curing rack....Eucalyptus & Spearmint

Tried this fragrance oil from Nature's Garden and it smells amazing!  Their description is a invigorating herbal blend of eucalyptus and spearmint with fresh citrus lemon, lavender flowers, and a hint of sage.

I used very muted colors of teal green, mauve and off white.  I did gel this soap but wanted to get that creamy ungelled look.  It worked and I really like the way it turned out.  I did add a little salt to the lye water for hardness and a bit of sugared water to the mix at trace for added bubbles.  Can't wait til it cures to see if it makes a difference!  Of course I added my little touch of silk flowers and ribbon.....just can't resist LOL!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Blessings,

Gloria

Shop is Open.....Well Almost!

After many months of thinking do I really want to do this I finally decided to open an online Etsy shop.  I have been selling my soaps for over a year in a local beauty parlor and have repeat customers which I take as a very good sign that my product is good......not just relying on my family's opinion LOL!  Since I live in a resort area I wanted to give my out of town customers a way of ordering my soaps and candles online.  Besides making soap has become so addicting that I need to pay for my expensive hobby.....as quoted by my squeaky clean hubby (he can only use so much soap)!   I still have alot of product to label and take pictures of for the shop but at least I have put my foot in the water as we say here at the beach!

Blessing,

Gloria 

No Gel Soap

Wanted to try something a little different so I decided not to gel this batch of soap and placed it in the freeze overnite instead.    I used my silicone mold from Crafter's Choice and Juniper Breeze fragrance oil.

I love the look of this ungelled soap!  It turned out so creamy and NO ASH!  The smell is amazing and strong.  The only draw back is I could not unmold as quickly....it stayed in the mold for 2 days.  It took one day to completely thaw out and then another day to harden enough to remove.

I will be soaping this way again!

Blessings,

Gloria

Wedding Favors.....Love is in the air!

June is just around the corner  so I decided to work on my Wedding Favor samples.  What's cuter than mini cupcake soaps!  These are nice little gifts and a great way to get your product sampled.

The cupcake wrappers are silver, they are wrapped in cellophane and decorated with ribbons and custom tags with the Bride and Grooms names and the very special date!

Have a Blessed Weekend!

Gloria

    

Cookie Candle Melts

Had to make up a couple orders of my cookie melts and thought I'd share them with you.  They are made with 100% soy wax and bakery scented fragrance oils.

They come 5 cookies to a bag......lemon kiss, blueberry, caramel pecan, chocolate fudge and peppermint patty.  Makes your house smell like you've been baking all day!

When I first gave these to my daughter Tami, she put the blueberry one in the warmer....a few minutes later my granddaughter Maddy yelled from the bedroom, Mom are you making blueberry pancakes?   Best compliment I've had on my candle melts yet!! 

Blessings,

Gloria

Srawberry Kiwi......Yum!!

 This fragrance from Nature's Garden smells so yummy!  Wasn't really going to decorate the tops of these bars....had nice little peaked tops on them but they developed ash on top which isn't pretty at all!  So I cut off the tops and added a little bit of strawberry fields LOL!

Did a little bit of a spoon swirl on the bottom and added some poppy seeds just in the green part.  Not what I had in mind but turned out kinda pretty!

Blessings,

Gloria