Cut Bars of Frangipani (Plumeria) fragrance from Elements Bath & Body

Frangipani

 Good morning and voila, as promised here are the cut bars from the Frangipani batch. I'm very pleased with how these turned out. My inspiration was this photo of the actual flowers.

Frangipani (Plumeria) for Spring

I fell in love with a new FO I tested today - it's Frangipani from www.elementsbathandbody.com.

This will be available very soon! I must get my hands on more as this is just the thing for Spring. Definitely a keeper - this is the first plumeria type floral I've tried that didn't accelerate to the point that I couldn't swirl.  I soaped at cool temps and added the FO to my lye water. I added Titanium Dioxide and White Diamond mica to the base part, and the swirls were pretty bright sparkly yellow mica and then a blend of Blush mica with Pink Champagne, which resulted in a golden pink shimmery color.  No problem with time to swirl, although it did harden right up soon after I finished. I like my swirls imprecise and a little mixed up for interest.

I haven't unmolded this yet, but will tomorrow morning and post the cut bars.  I just adore this mold!!  Next up I'll do a log mold configuration with this same mold, so I can make the Chocolate Covered Cherry soap.

Valentine's and Easter Soaps

I'm still playing with my new Soap Hutch mold, and will try to get those first pics uploaded asap. In the meantime here's a pic of some cute M&P soap that I made for the local shop  here in Gillespie - The Chandellier (Upscale Resale). They have some gorgeous new items in store - handbags, glassware and some new furniture pieces too.
And of course, now have a nice selection of my Valentine's soaps in store as well, with more coming soon! There are beautiful Rose Heart soaps, as well as handpainted Soap Roses, and more Whipped Butters in stock. I'm also working on some cute little Easter sets with egg-shaped bath bombs, a soap and a purse spray fragrance, so check back for more pics. Today I'll be swirling in my new mold and trying out some sniff-a-licious new floral fragrances from www.elementsbathandbody.com; Blossom, an upscale gorgeous floral blend, as well as Frangipani, Kumquat and a few more. Happy Soaping!

New Soap Hutch Soap Mold

The FedEx truck pulled up late this morning and I almost attacked the poor man bringing me in my box. You see, I knew it contained my new Soap Hutch mold. I simply could not contain my excitement! If you've never heard of these or seen one, they are the Bentley (better than a Rolls Royce) of soap molds. I used to think Uplands were the best. Well, no offense to them intended, but this mold makes wood, silicone and rubber bands seem really old fashioned. And let me tell you, as I unwrapped it and put it together I realized it's even better than I thought it would be. I actually cried as I put it together. I mean really and truly wept tears of joy over this mold.  To which my husband commented "Gee honey, you didn't cry over the new sectional sofa I just bought you for Christmas".  Poor, dear man. I do love my new couch; it's super comfy. But it lacks one thing. It can't make soap.

 Super smooth plastic sides and dividers...absolutely superb craftsmanship and the best thing about it, is that I can configure it a zillion different ways!  Okay, well not technically a zillion, but I can use it as a slab mold with or without dividers, as one two or three log molds, smaller slabs, pour individual bars or a really small test batch etc.  It all fits together tightly in puzzle pieces -I think they're really called slats and sides, but I liken it to a puzzle as it was admittedly a tad tricky to figure out the more interesting configurations, lol. Rich Bartko, the creator of these molds says to call him with any questions so I know he's there if I ever have a problem, but I did want to figure it out on my own, as it's my favorite new toy er... I mean professional tool.

Mine was custom made to be able to pour up to three bars deep as a slab, so basically I can make as little as one bar,  pour one to three 3 lb logs, or as much as 21 lbs as (divided) slabs of soap in this mold, as well as other smaller combinations of logs or slabs as needed.
A thousand thanks to Tammy Tivis of Elements Bath And Body!

Also like to say thanks to soapmakers Sindy Anderson of Sinfully Sweet Soap and Lori Curry of Magellan's Gift for referring me to Rich in the first place.
I'm definitely going to be buying a couple more of these and I'd recommend them to anyone and everyone who makes soap. My only regret is that these weren't around when I first started making soap or I doubt I'd have ever used anything else. I'll be shouting about these from the rooftops to anyone who'll listen.
WHOO  HOOOOO!

I've just finished master batching for my next week or so, so as soon as I am able to unmold the first slabs I certainly will be back here with photos for you to ogle.
For now, you'll have to content yourselves with eyeballing the photos of just the mold alone.

Happy New Year 2011! The holidays are finally over (Whew!) and I can finish my Valentine soaps and move on to the Mother's Day projects so I don't get behind again.  I sold more gift basket sets than I ever anticipated I would, so going forward I'll definitely be making up more set each holiday to make sure I don't get caught with too few and have to scramble to make them up. It felt like every day was spent making up those baskets and little else for a few weeks!! I'm definitely not complaining though, but I do want to make sure that going forward, the local store I'm in locally (The Chandellier) stays fully stocked up with a nice assortment of products. 
Next week I plan on doing large numbers of dipped silk rose petal soaps all prettied up in fancy acetate boxes for Valentines, as well as the Soap Bon Bons that I did last year which were a big hit.

Cream filled Soap Bon Bons from 2010

Then it's on to the Liquid Soap Class we'll be holding for Soap_Makers Classes group, as well as more fragrance testing and more Valentines and Mother's Day brainstorming ideas for fresh new soapy ideas!!

News on the home front - the year is starting off great for us and it was nice to have John home for so many days in a row (for those who don't know, he's an over-the-road flatbed driver).  I'm also very excited and eagerly anticipating the arrival of our new sectional sofa which will be coming from the factory soon! Is new sofa smell as good as "new car smell"? I think probably a resounding YES!