Christmas Soap Gift Set

My december was occupied with soap making. I prepared soaps for my family and friends. Remember the recycled jelly molds that I used to make cute li'l soaps? I used the same mold again. Then packed the soaps into mooncake PET containers and placed 4 pieces of individually wrapped soaps into mooncake boxes. I am so happy with how the gift sets came out.

Here are the photos of  the soaps I made this month:

Wanna see how? Below is the video:

Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year to all.  This is my last post for 2015.

Wanna know my New Year's resolution? I've decided that I want to actively post videos in my youtube channel. I want to follow a schedule and I think posting a video once every week is manageable to me.  I posted a total of 10 videos from 12 September to-date. If I can follow my new year's resolution, I will need to post atleast 50 videos next year.  (Cough, cough. ahem, ahem) Alright supposed to be 52? Why? Because I plan not to post any video during the Holyweek. The other one? I am not so sure yet but a little bit of leeway would not hurt right? lol.

Tomorrow hello to 2016!

It's not just soaps..It's art.

I love handcrafting soaps mainly because of its science and art.  

Come to think of it, there is nothing so special in handcrafting soaps, right?  Its chemistry is so basic that even kid's can do it (with adult supervision due to safety concerns in handling chemicals).

Traditionally, soaps are produced by combining fats/oils and alkali.  The fats and oils from vegetable, mineral sources or animal origin are degraded into fatty acids using lye and the saponication process would produce crude soap (alkali salt of fatty acid).

Did you know that today, most soaps available commercially are not true soaps but synthetic detergents?  Read your soap labels and if you see chemical names like Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS) and/or Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate ( SLES) it simply means that the manufacturer had added an anionic detergent and surfactant for its additional benefits on foaming, cleansing and emulsifying properties. 

Enough, with all this technical terms.  Now the fun part - the art behind soap making.  What makes soap making so interesting is that you can add a wide range of additives:  natural colorants or synthetic pigments, mica for sparkle, fragrances and essential oils, fruit and vegetable extracts, and so on and so forth.  Providing you with that wonderful experience obtained from vibrant colors and aromatic goodness while nourishing your skin for that healthy and radiant glow.

With all this additional ingredients in soaps, the bar that you are currently holding could either be classified as a cosmetic or drug depending on the manufacturer's claim and also depending on the regulatory standpoint.  If that soap had moisturizing effects, or that soap will help you to smell nice or would deodorize your body, then that is classified as cosmetics.  If that soap is antibacterial or claims to help to clear acne, claims to make you slimmer or would help to whiten your skin, then it is categorized as a drug.  Bottomline is that, whether it is a real soap, a cosmetic or a drug, manufacturer's are still allowed to name their products as soaps because its main objective is still to cleanse your skin.

Now going back "It's not just soaps. It's art."  I came up with this tagline to always remind myself that when I make soap I am embracing the simplicity soap crafting and its underlying complexities. 

Hera's Rage Soap

It's All Saint's Day!

I recently bought a 4-cavity square shaped mold from an online seller. I was very excited about it, but I turned very disappointed when I received it. Each cavity has L'ese embossed to it. So if i'll use this on my soaps, each one will have this brand engraved to it. Can you believe that?

I want to file a complaint. Luckily, I went back to see the listing and zoomed the photos.
There you go! I didn't notice the embossed wording there before! So to make the long story short, it was my fault. Hence, I didnt file any complaint. lol.

What to do with this molds? Then, I remembered that at the back of my mind I want to make an oatmeal milk and honey soap. Voila! that is my solution.

I cut square pieces of bubble wraps. Placed it in each cavity and molded my soaps there. 

If you noticed my previous soaps were always named with positivity, Nymph's Fantasies, Cupid's Kisses, Aphrodite's Love, etc. Today, with this whole hu-ha in mind, i've decided to name this soap, Hera's Rage. Another reason for that name is that I want to make another version of this with added oatmeal bran. Since its a scrub soap, I want to make that contrast to differentiate this againts my other creations.

See that sheen in front? I used gold mica dust for that. In the end, I enjoyed making this soap. I had left over base so I molded it to make cute li'l flower soap:

I'm sure that you want to learn on how to do this. 

Feel free to watch the video below. 

Hey, it would also not hurt me if you would "like, share and subsribe" to it. :-)

Until next time..

Cute Li'l Airplane Soaps Party Favors

Today is Ate Berna's 50th Birthday celebration.  

This is a surprise birthday party that we had arranged since September.

My task was to prepare 50 pcs of party favors.  

The theme was "Travel" so I've molded airplane soaps in shades of purple (her favorite color).

With the purple color request, I've decided to match it with lavander and lemon scent.

So I packed the party favors in cute boxes.

Here is the video link

Happy Birthday Ate Berns.  More birthdays to come...

Nymph's Fantasies Soaps

I did a quick search to check on what benefits does one get in Lavander essential oils and Lemon essential oils.

Well, I found out that Lavander is one of the most popular aromatheraphy oil because of its calming and relaxing benefits.  While Lemon, helps with mental clarity and reduce stress and depression. 

Combining all this benefits into one, I came up with Nymph's Fantasies Soap and scented it with Lavender and Lemon essential oils. 

Now for the design part.  

I noticed the embroidery in our table runner and the photo below inspired me.

So I decided to make a big curl and embedded it inside the soap.

I used wax paper taped on the four corners and filled it with a very thin layer of soap.  The embed's transclucent effect were obtained through the combination of 30% opaque and 70% transparent melt & pour soap bases.

Apollo's Delight Soap

I want to make a soap that would make me and friends as if 

we just came out from the shower.

So I mixed grapefruit, sweet orange and lime fragrances.  

I can't believe it, the smell is really refreshing.

For the design, I made the soap look like it's a tetris game or checkerboard.  

I made a thin loaf layer of pale green soap.  Then, I cut it into strips just like stringbeans.
Then placed 3 strips at the bottom of another silicon loaf mold.
Then, layered it with transparent and opaque soaps.

I think that it came out really amazing.
See how lovely is the floating effect of the cubes?

Of course this post is not complete without the videolink

on how I made Apollo's Delight soaps.

Bye for now.. Until next time..

Cupid's Kisses Soap

I always wanted to make soaps with embedded curls inside. 

So today, I handcrafted Cupid's Kisses Soap.

I added a mix of chocolate scent, caramel, butterscotch, nuts and cherries.

Each bar is slightly heavier than my normal output, ~120g to ~130g instead of ~100g bars.

The fragrance oil that I used contains vanilla. Vanilla fragrances had always been the culprit in color changes in soap (turns into brown color).  I intentionally didn't add any vanilla color stabilizer to this soap because my aim is to use the change in color to my advantage. 

See how nice looking this soap is!!

Wanna learn how?  Click on the video below.

Your feedback, comments, suggestions, questions, and even violent reactions are welcome.

Just let me know.  

I want to improve my skills and my crafts so I hope you can spare some of your time to communicate with me.