The Soap Dish Soap Making Supplies: 15% Off Sale

The Soap Dish is having a sale!!  15% Memorial Day Sale

They are a family owned soap making supplier that I highly respect.  They are super honest and they try to pass along savings to their customers when they get a break in price.  From Thursday, May 22, through the end of Memorial Day, get 15% off orders of $35 or more.

Sale ends Monday, May 26th at 12 am EST.

"We value the craftsmanship and quality of products and raw materials originating from the United States, and wish to encourage our local and national economy. With this in mind, The Original Soap Dish® strives to utilize as many local resources as possible in sourcing raw materials. From our custom manufactured soap boxes to our Emu oil and honey powder, we are proud to offer raw materials and products made in the USA."

Upcoming Reviews

Union Street Soap, toasted coconut...

Ceci Cela, almond body bar...

Almond Layered Playdoh Smelling Soap

Not sure I love them.  In my mind I thought they'd be much cuter.... and smell not like almond scented playdoh.

My recipe:

Soybean Oil 16 oz

Coconut Oil (76 degrees) 12 oz

Cocoa Butter 4 oz.

Beeswax 1 oz

lye 4.8 oz (superfatted at 5%)

Almond fragrance

top layer added blue and green soap colors (why is it pink?)

I think it is time to spring for some new Lab Colors from Brambleberry.  The ones I have work in bath and body but not soap, even though they are called "Soap Colors".  Hmmph.

My next batch will be a fresh scent with a beige-brown hue.  A request from a loved one.

"David Archuleta Makes Me Throw Up In My Mouth"

If you want to read a very funny take on last night's American Idol Finals Magic, read here.

Lori Nova:: Award Winning Swirling Champ

Lori Nova owner and teacher at The Nova Studio in California, sent these soaps for me to try.  Aren't they beautiful? The Nova Studio is a workshop where Lori teaches many different classes/tutorials on: cold and hot process soap making, candle making, bath melts and bombs as well as many other crafty courses.  I so wish I were closer so that I could take her classes.  They sound like so much fun!  I wrote about her soap making boot camp before and it sounds like a BLAST!

I love the swirls in all the soaps she sent, obviously, but then the little packaging... simple cello bags with cute handmade tags and thin raffia to bind it all together.  The final touches certainly do speak to me. It shows how much time and care goes into it all.

  
The soap I tried and kept going back to, was the Lemon Cinnamon soap.  At first sniff, it smelled a little like mulled cider with a hint of lemon.  BUT, when I bathed with it, it exploded with the scent of lemon with a hint of spicy cinnamon.  It was fabulous!!  I wouldn't have put the two scents together thinking they were too foreign to each other, but it worked so well and they melded together like a ballroom dancing couple, dancing.

The size was perfect.  It was on the smallish side, but not skimpy at all.  It was also a bit thicker than a typical bar, but the shape worked quite well in my hands and the suds came willingly and easily as I rubbed my hands together.  I must say that it was a refreshing bar to shower with and it gave me the boost I so desperately needed yesterday morning.

Thank you so much, Lori, for the gorgeous soapy artwork.  No wonder you are The Soap Making Guru.  

Please check out her site and also her blog to stay informed about what is going on in the soap world and at her soap studio.

No Soap Molds

This weekend was a very busy family weekend and I never got to Home Depot for caulk and I couldn't find a good make shift wooden drawer or box at either garage sale I went to.  So my plans to make the lined soap mold with silicone caulk fell by the wayside.

It was HOT this weekend, with temperatures hitting 95 degrees with a million percent humidity. South Florida is experiencing a drought and half the lawns in my town, Tequesta, are brown and flowering bushes look sad and empty.  The moisture in the air is just teasing the plants heartlessly.  I think the last time it rained here was well over a month ago, maybe two.

It is hysterical that the motor in our water pump for the sprinkler system blew out just as it stopped raining, so my poor husband has to run around with the three sprinklers to saturate each section of our property every few days.  (We are only allowed to water two days a week: Thursday and Saturday from 4pm - midnight).  Mandatory drought restrictions.

I have reviews to do on Lori's soap (THe NOva Studio), but this will have to wait until tomorrow, as I just don't have it in me to write something eloquent this morning.

Lining Your Soap Molds With Silicone Caulk

I have been struggling with the soap mold lining dilemma.  I have tried the garbage bag.  That leaves deep creases in the soap loaf. Waste of soap, because you either have to cut of the creases or have it be ugly.  

I have tried doing this wax paper cutting/fitting thing, and I am spatially and measuring-ly inept.  I even used BitterCreek's candlesupply.com instruction sheet on how to line a wooden soap mold.   There is a lot of measuring, cutting, creasing, taping and doing it right in that tutorial.  This is a great LOOKING tutorial and if you are a crafty attention-to-detail with your fingers person, great.  Go check it out. I am not someone who can master that with the time I have and frustration levels I climb to.  Soap making is supposed to be fun for me, not a lining challenge.  The last thing I want to do is spend more time trying to line a mold than making the soap.  

It comes out perfect, and when I do it, it looks like a hyper Jack Russell Terrier got spooked in a paper factory.  You know exactly what I mean because you have probably been there yourself.  

Yeah.

But while reading Smelly Chicks, I found an easier and permanent way to line your wooden molds. I am going to try doing this this weekend.  Marr found the original tutorial on the Soap Dish Forum.  You have to be a member to access it - I just signed up as The Soap Bar so maybe I'll see you over there.

If anyone has other ways of lining a mold easily, please share and if you'd like to write a tutorial on your lining talent, I'd be happy to post it.

Open Window Soap Works

soap after the shower - notice the uber bubbles all over

It is Spring and I am reviewing "Warm Autumn Spice".  Well, I can explain.  I have been busy, BUT Open Window Soap is still selling this soap on their site, so I don't feel so bad... and anyway, cinnamon spicey scents are good all year to me, even though they can evoke memories of leaves on the ground and fireplace smoke in the air.  I know.

The soap is a nice size, with a very pretty swirly top.  I particularly liked the layered look.  The cream colored top layer is a peaceful color while the brick red bottom portion screams, "Fall!"  When I got in the shower it was a lather fest.  Very nice lather and the scent was a powerful Autumn mulled cider-like scent.  Smells like real mulled cider.

Thank you Kat of OWSW for sending me this bar.  I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Take a look at some of the other things Kat has available.  Scrumptious photos, ya?  Go check out her Etsy Shop here.

Upcoming Reviews: Nova Studio + OWSW

OWSW - Open Window Soap Works sent me a bar of Autumn Spice (They have an Etsy shop, too!)  It has taken me too too long to get to this.  (sorry!)

Lori Nova of The Nova Studio in California sent me four bars to try...lucky me!

Ash Tastic

Ashy soap - according to Walton Feed, The soda ash just needs to be rinsed off.

Well , my husband tried my "shave soap" and quickly tell me it was like shaving with soap.  Nice.  So the heaping tablespoon of clay wasn't enough to call it a shave soap.  I also tried it in the shower and shaved my tender legs with it.  It foamed beautifully, but 'tis true - it din't feel any different than a regular soap.

I am not wild about them being unscented because I don't think many people would enjoy that smell.  There IS a smell to my unscented soap.  When a recipe isn't great, gifting them doesn't seem an option.   

Ah, I will power smell the next one and make it colorful.  I have plans...