I now have a monthly newsletter!

I've decided to start sending out a newsletter on a bi-monthly (2x a month) basis.  This will be to notify customers of new products in the store and events that I'll be at where they can purchase products in person.  If you're interested in signing up for my newsletter, please send an email to newsletter@maitribathbody.com.

2 New Goat's Milk Soaps!

I got this great fuschia mica from The Conservatorie, so I wound up using it in 2 batches in a row!

 

 

This is a rosemary-mint goat's milk soap with tussah silk and colloidal oatmeal added for exfoliation (that's the brown specks).

 

 

I'm calling this one "Hippy Dippy" - it's a straight patchouli soap.  I love the little hearts that appeared to either side - I wish each bar was like that!  Only these 2 have the hearts, though.

 

 

How Commercial Soap is Made

Someone on a forum that I frequent posted this video.  I thought folks might find it interesting.

Perfume!

My darling husband bought me a perfumer's kit for my birthday!  What a great guy :)  I've made 4 beautiful scents to try out in the NewBo Market this weekend, and they're also for sale at my shop online.

 

 

Aerafel ~ A 1-dram roll-on perfume oil made with 100% pure essential oils. Violet, ginger, coconut and allspice - alluring and exotic!

 

Deruyael ~ A 1-dram roll-on perfume made with 100% pure essential oils. Tonka bean, fig, black pepper, and mandarin! A spicy yet sweet blend!
(yes, I know it's the same pic - when they're boxed, you can't tell the difference in pic!)

 

 

Caluveh ~ A 1-dram atomizer (spray) perfume made with 100% pure essential oils. Sandalwood, rose, lemon and coriander. Subtle and alluring!

 

Zoraias ~ A 1-dram atomized (spray) perfume made with 100% pure essential oils. Grapefruit, clary sage, and geranium. Young and lively!

Each of these new scents is only $8 each.  I'll have them available to sniff at my booth this Sunday at the NewBo Market, from 10 am to 6 pm!

 

 

Great Video ~ Butterfly Swirl

This is a video tutorial from Youtube for doing a butterfly swirl in CP soap.  The soapmaker is Roberta, who is on one of the mailing lists that I'm on.  Very cool idea!

Free E-Book for Kindle Today!

 

Click here to get free at Amazon today!

Goat's Milk Soap - CPOP

This is my 2nd attempt at a CPOP. It' a new batch of my pina colada, which was the 2nd batch I ever did, and one of my testers loved it so much that she specifically requested it again. This is a goat's milk soap with tussah silk. Turned out beautiful!

Free Kindle e-book today

Homemade Beauty Treatments and Skin Care Recipes (All Natural Cosmetics) by Vesela Tabakova is available for free on the Kindle today at Amazon!

My first soap rocks

Earlier I posted about a great M&P soap rock tutorial by Soapsmith at Artfire.  I did try the tutorial last week and I'm pleased with the results!

 

Free Kindle E-Book - the Aromatherapy Essential Oils Handbook

Currently on Amazon for free.  Go snag it!

 

 

Next Event ~ February 23rd, 2013 - Miracles in Motion Vendor Fair in Iowa City!

Great tutorial on making soap rocks (not mine hah!)

Someone on a forum pointed me towards this great tutorial on making soap rocks.  I have very minimal experience in using M&P but the artistry of this really speaks to me.  I'm going to give it a try this weekend!

 

That soaper is really talented.

My first CPOP and Tussah Silk Soap

 

 

Tried CPOP for the first time the other night.  Turned out great!

 

I was struggling with how to add tussah silk when I use goat's milk for my liquid and freeze it, then add lye to the slushy frozen GM to melt it, which makes my lye liquid not warm enough to melt the silk.

 

My total liquid amount in my standard formula is 17.68 ounces.  So now I am using 16 oz of GM and 1.68 oz of distilled water.  I nuked the water in a small dish in the microwave until it was steaming, then added the silk to that.  It mostly dissolved and then I added it to my warm oils to finish the dissolve that way.

 

For the CPOP, I made my soap as usual and then preheated my oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit (the lowest it would go).  I turned it off as soon as it was preheated and then put the soap mold in.  I left it overnight.

 

When it came out, it was slightly oily.  I wasn't sure if that was due to the silk or the CPOP.  It sounds like it was the CPOP that was the culprit, though, after talking to other soapers who do CPOP.

 

The soap was firm enough to cut after 8 hours in the oven, and smells/looks great.  This is a take on the song "Midnight Blue" by Melissa Manchester.  The scent is White Tea & Ginger, because I like the unexpected (delicate fragrance with a strong color).

 

Think I'll be doing CPOP going forward.  This soap should be fine to use within a week.

 

Cleaning up bars

I discovered this trick when cleaning up my bars for my first craft fair.  I had bought an edger from Amazon that worked ok but took off more of the bar than I would have liked.

 

My husband suggested using a credit card, and voila!  We had an old plastic card that was the size and shape and thickness of a credit card, from when my husband went to Atlanta on business, and that he no longer needs.  It was practically nothing to swipe it across every flat plane on the bar of soap and the bits and bobs just fell away.  Easy peasy!

Using tussah silk in goat's milk soap

I had a failed batch last weekend!  Hmph.  I was trying something new so it was a lesson well learned.  Basically, I used my tried-and-true formula that is:

 

26.9% coconut oil

26.9% grapeseed oil

38.5% lard

3.8% castor oil

3.8% shea butter

34% water discount and a 5% superfat

 

Typically I use all goat's milk for the liquid and add 2 TBSP kaolin clay to my oils before blending. 

 

I bought some tussah silk on Ebay and wanted to start using it for every batch.  However, I freeze my goat's milk because it tends to burn when lye is added to it if it's not frozen.  So, I had my plastic container with a slushy goat's milk, and I added the pinch of tussah silk.  Sprinkled on the lye bit by bit.  Once it was all added, the goat's milk looked fine and so I added it to the oils and proceeded from there.

 

(I was trying a mantra swirl for the first time but failed miserably - the husband has to help with that next time I try!  What a mess!)

 

Everything looked ok when I put the mold to bed, but last night when I went to cut it, the creamy white/beige soap had little brown specks all over it!  Feh.

 

So after doing some research online, this is what I've found.  This is from the TalkSoap Forum:

 

When using sodium lactate, salt or some other ingredient that is to dissolve before adding the lye, or ingredients that need the lye to dissolve (like Tussah silk), I'm actually adding more water!

We've discovered that water has no lasting benefit in soap-making process; it is only a conduit to combine the lye and oils then evaporates out of the recipe after it served its purpose. Some discount the water to cure the soap faster.

When using all goat, coconut milks or some other liquid to combine with the lye, I will actually add about 2 ounces of water just to combine the sodium lactate, salt, sugar or other additive that should be dissolved before adding the lye or for Tussah silk that needs to dissolve in the lye water.

After the silk dissolves, I will add the frozen or slushy milk, cream, or fruit/vegetable juice.

I don't think you can't efficiently dissolve the above additives in frozen or slushy milks. When adding the lye directly to goat milk the temperature is low and will not dissolve the Tussah silk. We've also read to discounting the water could result in cracked or dried out soap if adding oatmeal and some other additives that may need to absorb the water.

 

I'm going to follow this advice, since I also plan to try an oatmeal, milk, and honey soap next.  I'm glad I didn't waste my ingredients again and have the oatmeal not work properly either!

Pomegranate Dragon Soap

 

Goat's milk soap with shea butter.  Red oxide and activated charcoal blended for the red swirl.  The scent is a mixture of Moonlight Pomegranate (BB), Red Clover Tea (Peak Candle) and Dragon's Blood (Bitter Creek).

Mardi Gras Soap

This soap was done for the Mardi Gras challenge over at the Soap Making Forum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a goat's milk soap with jojoba beads and confetti shavings from other soaps on top.  The scent is Tangerine YC dupe from Saveonscents.  It's also got a couple of ounces of heavy cream in it, as well as shea butter.

 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

My first farmer's market

 

 

 

 

SO much fun!

 

This was at the local indoor farmer's market on a Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm.

 

I made some great networking contacts, including 1 other CP soaper with whom I will be good friends, I am sure - she's a hoot!  She does all-vegan soap, so we won't be competing with each other thank goodness!  The other soaper who was selling does HP and is a high school student (!) so I felt a little bad for potentially taking her business.  Hopefully our stuff is different enough that there's room in the market for both of us.

 

All in all, I made enough to cover the price of the table plus a modest profit.  And handed out lots of flyers and business cards.  Yay!

 

I'm going to send out some of the soaps that didn't sell yesterday to my testers, to make room for the new batches that are currently curing.  Next farmer's market is on Feb 10th, right on time for Valentine's Day!

Mojito Soap

I am just not happy with this mica that I bought from The Conservatorie.  This is the 2nd or 3rd time that I've soaped with it, and it just turns grey.  The name is Starlight Green Mica.  From now on, I'll have to mix another green with it.

 

On the bright side, the soap smells great!  It's a spearmint and lime EO blend with powdered lime peel added as well.  Shea butter & kaolin clay.

 

 

 

As you can see, the blue is nice and vibrant, and the base is a light yellowish beige due to the lime peel powder, but the grey part of the swirl is supposed to be a nice light green.  Ick.

Update

Hi everyone!

 

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while.  I have been going back and forth with the thought of not using the blog going forward.  But I think I'm going to keep up with it for now.

 

I'm happy to report that I've perfected my recipe!  My basic oils are coconut, grapeseed, and castor, along with lard.  If I have shea butter I will include that also, however I don't always keep that on hand.  I wanted to go with supplies that I can buy locally, and I don't have a reliable local supplier for shea butter.  If I'm placing an order with Amazon, I'll go ahead and include it, which means it won't always be available.

 

In other news, I have tried soaping with goat's milk and love it!  I use the goat's milk frozen into ice cubes.  It makes a lovely creamy bar.  It's going to be my go-to liquid from now on.  I tried condensed goat's milk, which is ok but turns orange when frozen (which doesn't affect the soap), but I prefer dehydrated goat's milk rehydrated with water and then frozen.

 

Here are some of my more recent soaps:

 

 

This is not a goat's milk soap, more's the pity.  I ran out!  But I really wanted to soap this scent.  I'm calling it "After the Rain" and it's a really nice fresh unisex scent.

 

 

This one *is* a goat's milk soap.  I got the idea for using Save On Scent's Yankee Candle "Sun & Sand" dupe from a coworker who loves the fragrance.

 

 

Also a water based soap.  Cucumber melon scent - I love the colors!