I finally finished editing my coffee glycerin river soap video. These soaps were two of my attempts at the 2019 Soap Challenge Club (intentional glycerin rivers). If you’re interested, I have another post here that includes my entire process, recipe, and all of the fails. I hope you enjoy the video! :)
The February Soap Challenge Club involved creating intentional glycerin rivers in a batch of soap. Auntie Clara was our guest instructor this month. She’s written several posts explaining the science behind these rivers and has tackled several myths about them, as well. Auntie Clara also explains how you can create (or avoid) them in your own soaps. Besides describing the awesome science behind these rivers, Auntie Clara has created some of the most beautiful soaps with glycerin river swirls.
For the challenge, we had a choice of entering the regular category (glycerin rivers throughout the bar) or the advanced category (glycerin rivers in only part of the bar). Since I’ve had accidental glycerin rivers occur in parts of my soaps over the years, I thought I’d give the advanced category a try. I had no idea my previous accidental glycerin rivers would be so difficult to replicate. Let’s just say my overly confident attitude led to plenty of fails. If you’d like to see how I finally came up with a soap to enter and also see my fails, just keep reading. I filmed my process but haven’t yet had time to edit. I’ll hopefully be posting the video next week. :) Continue reading
The Soap Challenge Club is finally back and just as fun, educational, and challenging as ever. The September 2018 challenge was to create a mini drop swirl. If entering the advanced category, soap makers were to suspend drops of soap inside the base soap. After watching the instructional videos, I decided to attempt a soap that reminded me of a rainy day, with clouds above, raindrops falling, and a bluish, dark sky for the background. In my first attempt, the rain drops and ombre sky actually looked okay, but the top mini drop swirl part was lacking the drop…and the swirl. I only had time for one more batch and ended up with the soap you see here. The little drops were really fun to make, and I’ll definitely incorporate them into more soaps in the future. In my post below, I go into more detail about my recipe, my thin base batter causing a cool effect with the drops, and show more photos of the finished bars. I also made a video in case you’d like to see my entire process. :) Continue reading
I recently had a request from one of my friends to make a charcoal and clay soap. I decided to try and create an old design of mine from a soap challenge where I used dividers and a hanger swirl. Well, I thought I did everything exactly the same way, but that’s the way it goes in soap making. Trying to recreate a swirl (especially one that was an accident in the first place) is almost impossible. Not that I’m giving up. :) If you’d like the recipe or want to see the video I made, just keep reading. Continue reading
The very first soap I ever made was a 3-oil cold process soap scented with a little lavender essential oil. I purchased the oils from the grocery store and used a ziplock food storage container for the mold. I cut the soap into little rectangles and patiently waited a few weeks to try it. I was so excited about making soap. Years later, I still am. :)
I get a lot of requests to make a simple soap. I thought I would remake one of the first batches I ever made. I even created a little quart milk carton mold like I did for most of my early batches. I made a video about my whole process that includes what a light to medium trace looks like to me. Continue reading
Kápia Méra 