I'm Getting Good At Botched Batches!

I made more crappy soap. This time I followed a recipe through MMS and their lye calculator as some of you suggested. Everything was fine until I added the fragrance oil. Instant separation. What?!?? What was happening? I had read about separation and why it occurs when the recipe is unbalanced or cools too quickly. But neither occurred. The soap mix was creamy and at a lovely trace and then, BAM! I added un-Brambleberry, untested fragrances. It was a combo of marshmallow and Honey (type). They must have been the culprit because everything was fine until then. The whole thing separated as if the fragrance oils (FOs) marched in their and broke up the kissing that was going on in the pot.

I was too mad to let it go, so I started to cook it on the stove top. I had it on low and stirred every three or four minutes, but no one was kissing again, it just got worse! They were a hateful bunch. 50% of the information I got on the internet said to throw it out, and the others said to cook the batch, pour it and see what happens. So I cooked the beasts and poured what looked like really nasty vomit into my wooden mold. The smell of the sweet fragrances gave me a whopping headache and filled my house with what smelled like a honey latte from Starbucks.

I have a new appreciation for Anne-Marie and Brambleberry, because now I understand the comments in the fragrance oil's description...such as,"accelerates trace" or "discolors cp soap to a brown"...If I had read more on soapmaking, I wouldn't have trashed all that raw material! I want to know ahead of time that the FO isn't going to turn my creamy yummy soap into a vomitous vat of waste.

I have made 4 batches. 2 flopped. That is 50% success in making soap. (I never said great soap, either, just soap). A footnote on batch #3, Elizabeth of Gracefruit gave me a tip and I turned my bad boy batch into real soap, even though lather is minimal.

A lesson is learned here (my husband's words were trying to penetrate my sad head last night). I should try to see this whole thing as a learning step. Now I know that I should pull a bit out of the original batch to scent it and hope there is no separation, or use the fragrances that have been tested by our vendors to begin with.

I have no photos for you, but hope to find my son's camera before the weekend.

It might be time to get a soap book with tried and true recipes and my own camera.

(sniff)

Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Conference

This year in Vermont!

Conference Speakers:
Sandy Maine, Ralph Bronner, Marie Gale, Lori Nova, Debbie May, JoAnn Hines, Jamilia White, Sheila Stewart, Jackie Thompson, Luis Spitz, Kevin Dunn, Kayla Fioravanti, Anne MArie Faiola and Alicia Grosso.

Please go check the conference information out at: soapguild.org

Quoted from their site:

Come network with other soapmakers from around the country and around the world! Learn new techniques for your craft and for your business. Whether you are a seasoned soap maker or just starting out, you'll go home with material you can use in your soap making endeavors. With classes on soapmaking, business, demonstrations and an expert’s panel you will be sure to learn valuable tips to improve your product and your business.

Conference attendance is open to members and non-members of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, Inc. The registration fee includes attendance to all classes, demonstrations and workshops, participation in door prizes, drawings and prize awards and optional participation in the Soapers Showcase. Meals and snacks are provided as part of the conference fee.

Registration starts on the evening of Sunday, April 27th continues the morning of Monday, April 28th. Conference classes and activities run all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, culminating in the Annual Awards Dinner on Wednesday evening. The Annual Membership meeting is held over lunch on Tuesday. Certification testing will be done on Sunday evening and Tuesday morning. See the conference schedule for details.

Conference attendees qualify for special room rates.

Wish I could go. Anne Marie, Lori Nova, Alicia Grosso... a powerhouse of participants! And look at the beautiful Inn.

Love Spell

Anyone have a supplier for Love Spell (type)? Aussie Soap Supplies has it. I just don't want to pay International shipping. I bought some from Flicker's but it isn't on the money.

Any thoughts?

Alkali Soap Studio- Creations Galore

I found out about this couple through Sharon at Platypus Dreams in an email and then saw their soaps featured on Oats N Honey (Love Miche), so thank you all for the "head's up" because I am finally in the know, now! Alkali Soap Studio. This husband wife team is pure talent. It's hard to believe all that creativity is under one roof. Mary and Jon of Northern New Jersey create soap magic with colors, swirls, designs that I have never seen before in cold process soaps.

I am hopeful that I will get my hands on some of their soap babies and tell you all about it. The good, the (probably not) bad and the (gorgeous) ugly. :)

Please go visit them at their Etsy shop is here or check out their seriously funny named blog: Kicking dirt's ass one soap at a time.

Here are some Alkai Soap Studio creations:

Aurora

SoHo

Espionage

Jabberwocky (love the name!)

Mitsumata

Obviously all photos were taken by Alkali Soaps and belong to them as well. I am simply borrowing them to show anyone who visits my blog. My prediction: These folks will be famous very quickly. Watch - Martha or Oprah will tag this as their favorites.... Enough said until I get my hands on some of their soaps. The true test will come in the shower when their soap kicks my dirt's ass.......

Update on Photo Contest

I wasn't too clear last night when I posted about the contest. Send me a photograph of your most unusual soap with a description of what makes it unique/unusual. Photos can be submitted until April 12th. Winner will be announced on the following Monday (4/14/08).

The Winner gets a full feature post including photo and website address, one month of free advertising space on the side bar of The Soap Bar and a full feature post on Product Body Blog, my other blog.

GOOD LUCK!

New Contest...Photos

Send me photos of your favorite looking soap and write a brief description about what makes it unusual. The best photo gets a feature and my good praises... Never know who is reading the blog. Send them now! :)
Send them to:

jo(at)productbody(dot)com

Good luck!

Hey Jude - Diaper Star

A better singer than most of the people on American Idol and she (or he?) knows all the words!

Soap Swap

I am part of a soap swap, which I am so excited about! I am sending 7 little packages out with two out of three soaps I've made so far. One of them is my BAD BOY ones that smell like graham crackers, yum. It doesn't lather as much as I would like, but it is SUPERfatted and was the weird batch I had to cook to death.

I will try another batch with the same scent just as soon as I am not falling over with exhaustion. :)

Not An April Fool's Gag (Breast Milk Soap)

The last post I wrote about breast milk soap is all true and NOT an April Fool's gag, I promise. Follow my links to my sources and you will see. And as I said in my earlier post: I believe in breast feeding. It was the most wonderful memories I will take to the grave with me. As far as soaping with my milk? Nah. It was all over me at the time because I produced A LOT!

But soap and soup? Not my bag.

Breast Milk Soap - what?!

I read on Parent Dish that you can make breast milk soap. Huh??

The first sentence says, "Breast milk: it's not just for breakfast anymore". Why is this funny to me? The article then leads us to another site that provides the recipe, Storknet. On Storknet, they give recipes for breast milk bread starter, cottage cheese and soap.

I am all about breast feeding. I think it is a wonderful choice. I breast fed both of my kids and I would do it all over again if life repeated itself, but I feel as this is somehow crossing some unsaid line that makes me have that scrunched up grimace on my face every time I think about using breast milk for anything but feeding babies. I guess it makes sense. Milk is milk and if you can use goat's milk, what is so different? It's different to me. If you make breast milk soap and want to send it to me, I don't want it, thank you.

OK, so for anyone who is into this which might end up being a trend in the Le Leche League after this post, here is the recipe from Storknet.

BREAST MILK SOAP

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lye (NaOH)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup cocoa butter
1 cup breast milk

This recipe will give you 24 oz (if you used muffin the you'll get 12 soaps.)

So there you have it. Breast Milk soap. I bet there is wonderful conditioning properties and is really like any other bar of soap. Oh, I don't know. What do you think (and please keep in mind that we do not want to bash anyone).

While I was looking around to find an interesting breast milk photo, I found that there is human breast milk cheese and soup out there! No joke.