Collect needed supplies:
Liquid Soap of your choice Shower Gel & Liquid Hand Soap in One, Extra Thick Shower Gel, Bubble Bath, or Paraben Free Body Wash (I’m using the Shower Gel & Liquid Hand Soap in One)
Premixed colors from January 12, 2009
Fragrance Oil of your choice (I am using Blowing Bubbles Fragrance Oil)
Scale
Small Transfer Pipette
Mixing Bowls
Spoons
Containers for storing finished colors (I’m sending out samples in the 10 mL Lip Balm Jars)

Recipe in ounces:
6 ounces Shower Gel & Liquid Hand Soap in One
0.01 ounces Blowing Bubbles Fragrance Oil
3 to 12 drops of Premixed Colors

Mix the Shower Gel & Liquid Hand Soap in One and Blowing Bubbles Fragrance Oil together. Once mixed, divided into 6 smaller mixing containers for adding the color. This will give you red, yellow, blue, green, purple, and orange bathtub paints.

Red:
3 drops of Purple Raspberry Premixed Color

Blue:
3 drops of Grape Premixed Color

Yellow (if you desire, but I wouldn’t recommend it):
3 drops of Lemon Yellow Premixed Color

Green:
1 drop Grape Premixed Color
2 drops Lemon Yellow Premixed Color

Orange:
1 drop Purple Raspberry Premixed Color
2 drops Lemon Yellow Premixed Color

Purple:
10 drops Purple Raspberry Premixed Color
1 drop Grape Premixed Color

Add color and mix thoroughly. Pour into final containers for use. A great gift to any splashing bather.

Submit your photos and text for the guest written Embedded Melt & Pour Soap Challenge! Submissions will be accepted through October 18th at blog@thesage.com. The submissions will be released October 19th through October 23rd. Each guest writer will receive a $25 gift certificate. I have already received one entry! Don’t miss out on your chance!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Wow!

Adding the fragrance oil to the shower gel.

Stirring the shower gel.

Dividing the scented shower gel into 6 parts.

Finished colors in 10 mL jars.

Labeled finished jars. Click on photo to enlarge for more detail.

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Collect needed supplies:
Salt of your choice (I used Fine Dead Sea Salt)
Orange Color Spray Bottle (Made on September 18th)
Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil
Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
Small Clear Gusseted Bags
Small Transfer Pipettes
Scale
Heavy Duty Plastic Zip Bags
Ribbon (I used yarn)
Black Permanent Marker

Fragrance Blend:
1 part Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
3 parts Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil

Recipe in ounces:
24 ounces Fine Dead Sea Salt
0.03 ounces Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
0.09 ounces Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil

Weigh the salt into the heavy duty plastic zip bag. Add the fragrance oil and then knead until there are no more clumps. Gently spray the salt two to six times with the color and mix. Repeat until the salt is the color you desire. I used about 50 sprays of color. Fill the gusseted bags and tie closed.

Enjoy!

Submit your photos and text for the guest written Embedded Melt & Pour Soap Challenge! Submissions will be accepted through October 18th at blog@thesage.com. The submissions will be released October 19th through October 23rd. Each guest writer will receive a $25 gift certificate.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Wow!

Adding fragrance oil to the salt.

Kneading the salt.

Spraying the salt with orange color.

Finished color.

Finished bath salt pumpkins.

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Collect needed supplies:
Baking Soda
Citric Acid
Cornstarch
Lemon Yellow Dry Color
Purple Raspberry Dry Color
Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil
Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
Small spray bottle
.15 cc scoops
Small Clear Gusseted Bags
Small Transfer Pipettes
Scale
Mixing Bowl or heavy duty plastic zip bags
Ribbon (I used yarn)
Black Permanent Marker
Water

Fragrance Blend:
1 part Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
3 parts Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil

Recipe in ounces:
12 ounces Baking Soda
6 ounces Citric Acid
2 ounces Cornstarch
0.03 ounces Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
0.09 ounces Lemon Sugar type Fragrance Oil

Recipe in grams:
320 grams Baking Soda
170 grams Citric Acid
57 grams Cornstarch
0.8 grams Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
2.5 grams Lemon Sugar Fragrance Oil

Color Spray:
0.15 cc Purple Raspberry Dry Color
0.15 cc Lemon Yellow Dry Color
Water to top off the spray bottle

Weigh the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl or bag and mix gently. Add the fragrance oils and mix well to break up all the clumps. Set aside while mixing color spray. Add dry color to the empty spray bottle and top off with water. Cap the bottle and shake until mixed. Don’t worry that the bottle looks like it is filled with a red color. It will be orange when you spray.

Gently spray the dry ingredients with the color spray about two to four times and then mix. Repeat until the dry ingredients all have a light orange color. I used 45 sprays of color. Set the mixture aside while you prepare the gusseted bags.

Draw a face for your pumpkin on the lower third of the bag. Triangle eyes, crooked teeth, big smiles, crazy eyes, small noses, you name it. Fill your bag with the bath fizzies and tie closed with a ribbon. These adorable bags of bath fizzies are now ready to give away! Can’t you just see a cute little stack of bath fizzy pumpkins sitting on the bathroom counter that are ready to be used?

Notes:
This fragrance blend has some spice notes with sweetness. As one of the guys on staff described this blend, “It has a tad bit of chocolate and caramel swirl with Atomic Fireballs and Jolly Ranchers!” Whatever they say, this fragrance blend is delicious, since everyone agreed that it smelled like candy. Just what I was aiming for!

If you want a darker orange color, double or triple the dry colors when adding to the bottle and then top off with water. This will make the color stronger.

Change to color to green and you could have Frankenstein. You can also make the Magic Color Bath Fizzies and make ghosts! Let your imagination run wild and play with various Halloween creatures!

Submit your photos and text for the guest written Embedded Melt & Pour Soap Challenge! Submissions will be accepted through October 18th at blog@thesage.com. The submissions will be released October 19th through October 23rd. Each guest writer will receive a $25 gift certificate.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Wow!

Dry ingredients weighed into a zip bag.

After the fragrances were added.

Kneading the bath fizzies.

Spraying the bath fizzies.

Finished bath fizzies color.

Drawing the faces on the bags.

Filled pumpkin bags!

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My patriotic soaps!

I’m a patriotic girl, and I’m proud of the flag that flies for our country. For me, that flag represents the freedom I have and so much more. Every time Independence Day rolls around, I want to make a layered soap with red, white and blue stripes. The only problem I have is that we don’t have a color that creates a true red without bleeding or fading! Let me show you a soap I made with Melt & Pour Soap that contains Purple Raspberry Dye. I’ll set one bar of this soap in the direct sunlight for the next couple of weeks, another bar will sit in indirect sunlight and the last bar will sit in an office with fluorescent lights. Every Friday, I will show you new pictures of the soaps as they age.

Enjoy!

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I’m once of those M&P soapers that gets jealous over the swirled soaps we made for the Cold Process Soap Week. I couldn’t stay jealous, so I decided to resolve the issue and make a swirled soap for M&P soap.

Collect needed items:
White Melt and Pour Soap
Transparent Melt and Pour Soap
Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil
Brick Red Color
Big Bar Soap Mold
2 Containers for melting soap
Transfer Pipette
Straw or chopstick for stirring
Mixing Spoon
Measuring Spoon

In one container, measure a small amount of White Melt and Pour Soap (approximately 3 oz). Melt this soap. In the other container, melt the Transparent Melt and Pour Soap (approximately 13 oz). Once the soap is melted in both containers, add 1 mL of Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil to the White Melt and Pour Soap, and add 4 mL of Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil to the Transparent Melt and Pour Soap. Pour the large amount of Transparent Melt and Pour Soap into the mold, leaving some space left for the colored soap. Stir the soap while it is in the mold, so it can be cooler for the colored soap. If it is too hot, the soap will not swirl correctly. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Brick Red Color to the White Melt and Pour Soap. Stir in the color. Once the color is completely mixed into the soap, pour half into each bar mold and swirl the color with the straw. Allow to cool and then remove from the mold and cut.

Notes:
If the soap is too hot, it will mix together and you won’t have defined swirls.

Next week is all about fun with Lotion! Head to toe moisturizing and enjoying it!

Adding Brick Red color to white soap.

Stirring in the Brick Red color.

Pouring the Tranparent M&P soap into the mold.

Mold filled with Transparent M&P. Adding our colored soap. Side view of the swirled soap. Preparing to cut the soap.

Stirring soap with the straw. Using the straw to make swirls. Swirled soap out of the mold. Cut bars of our swirled soap.

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Soap #1
Eucalyptus Spearmint Light Luffa Soap

Transparent Melt and Pour Soap
Eucalyptus Spearmint Fragrance Oil
Ground Luffa Fiber
Blue and Yellow Colors from January 12 2009
Oval Soap Mold
Container for melting soap
Transfer Pipette
Mixing Spoon
Measuring Spoon

Melt the Transparent Melt and Pour soap. I usually take about 2 ½ minutes in the microwave for the or 1 pound of soap I’m melting. Once the soap is mostly melted, stir the soap to melt the small chunks still in the soap. This is done to prevent the soap from getting too hot and making it so you possibly burn yourself. Once the soap is melted, add 3 drops of Blue color and 2 drops of Yellow color. Stir in color and mix until soap is colored. Add 4 mL of Eucalyptus Spearmint Fragrance Oil. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the ground luffa and stir in to the soap. Pour into the Oval Soap Mold. I had 1 ounce left after filling the molds, so I filled a small heart from the Bath Fizzy Hearts post on April 1st. Allow the soap to cool and then pop the soap out of the molds. Tada! The soap is now ready to use.

Stirring solid soap in the melted soap.

Adding blue color to soap.

Blue color stirred in.

Adding yellow color.

Stirring in yellow color. Luffa on the soap. Soap in the mold.

Adding the ground Luffa. Stirring in the Luffa. Finished soap.

Soap #2 Blackberry Sage Piped Ribbon Dream Soap Transparent Melt and Pour Soap White Melt and Pour Soap Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil Ultrafine Iridescent Glitter Red Color from January 12 2009 Silicone Heart Mold for baking 2 containers for melting soap 2 Transfer Pipettes Mixing Spoon Measuring Spoon In one container, measure a small amount of Transparent Melt and Pour Soap (approximately 2 oz) with a small chunk of White Melt and Pour Soap (about the size of a grape). Melt this soap. In the other container, melt White Melt and Pour Soap (approximately 15 oz). Once both containers of soap are melted add 1/2 mL of Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil to the Transparent Melt and Pour Soap and add 4 mL of Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil to the White Melt and Pour Soap. Add 3 drops of Red color and about 1/16 of a teaspoon of glitter to the Transparent Melt and Pour Soap. Once the glitter is mixed into the small amount of soap, use a transfer pipette and fill the piped ribbon section around the edge. Once the soap has cooled and is solid, pour the White Melt and Pour Soap into the mold. This soap must be cool, because if it is too hot, it will melt the pink ribbon design. Allow soap to cool. Now it is ready for giving away!

Heart silicone mold. Adding red color to transparent soap. Stirring in the chunk of white soap.

The chunk of soap isn't quite melted yet. Mold filled with white soap.

Filling the edging with the pipette. Finished soap.

Notes: I’ve had several people ask me how to get the soap out of the buckets we offer it in. I have a process that is 5 steps and really easy to follow. 1) Remove the lid from the bucket. 2) Hug the top of the bucket to allow air to get in down the sides of soap. 3) Replace the lid on the bucket and turn the bucket over on the floor. 4) Press on the bottom of the bucket. The soap will fall onto the lid. 5) Turn the bucket back over and remove lid again. Your soap can now be removed from the bucket and cut. After you have cut off what you need, you can then place the excess back into the bucket. I also like to cut up all the soap and just put it back into the bucket and then I don’t have to cut it again next time I make soap. Next week is all about fun with Lotion! Head to toe moisturizing and enjoying it!

Pre cut transparent soap. Pre cut white soap.

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Collect your needed items:
Scale
Citric Acid
Baking Soda
Cornstarch
Fragrance Oil (I’m going to use Strawberries & Champagne.)
Purple Raspberry Spray Color made on January 19 2009.
Plain water spray
Silicone heart mold
Metal mixing bowl and metal spoon
4 x6 flat bags
ribbon

First things first.  We need to WEIGH these ingredients.  In the past we have used recipes that were done by volume, but this recipe is different.  Use your scale. If you are struggling with getting a scale, then email us for some hints.  Choosing a good scale isn’t hard, once you know what to look for.

I have now weighed the citric acid, baking soda, and cornstarch.  Mix gently with the metal spoon.

Add the fragrance oil and mix to break up all clumps.  This mixture must be a free-flowing powder before we start adding color and water.

Mist lightly with the plain water bottle.  Two to four sprays should be plenty.  We are trying to add enough water to the dry chemicals so we can compress them into the mold, we don’t want to start the fizzing reaction just yet.  Stir, or fold over, the powder to mix thoroughly and not create a dust cloud in your kitchen.

Let’s spray again.  Stir gently.

This time we will spray color.  Two to four sprays are plenty.  Mix again.  We will continue in this process of adding color or plain water to the mixture just until the whole mixture is slightly damp.  The mixture should hold together when tightly compressed.  (See the clod in my hand?)

Let’s press into the mold.  Use the back of a spoon or a tamper to compress this powder completely.  Each mold was filled with 2 tablespoons of dry/damp mixture before tamping begins.

We are using a silicone mold so removal is easy as pie.  Leave the tamped hearts to dry overnight.

In the morning we remove the mold and…. Viola!  Our hearts are ready for packaging.

I have used the 4*6 flat bags for packaging these hearts.  I have now tied with a ribbon yarn.

Now wasn’t that easy?

Notes:
If you don’t want to press the mixture into molds, you can press the mixture into a tablespoon and then lightly tap the tablespoon into your hand to release it. You can make multiple half ball fizzies and set them aside to dry where they won’t be bothered.

Next week is all about fun with Melt & Pour soap! Swirls, toys, shapes and curls! Great fun for an afternoon with the kids or for some peaceful time by yourself.

Weighed ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Waiting to add fragrance oil.

Fragrance oil on the powder.

Rubbing the fragrance oil clumps out of the mixture.

Spraying the bath fizzy powder with water.

Stirring the bath fizzies. The bath fizzies aren't damp enough yet. A pressed clump of bath fizzies. Filling the top of the mold. Finished bath fizzies waiting for the bag.

Spraying the color on the bath fizzies. Ready for me to test the clumping of the fizzies. Pressing the bath fizzies into the mold. Filled mold.

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Collect needed items:
1- gallon Bubble Bath Base
1- fl oz Tahitian Vanilla Fragrance Oil
1- 38 mm pump for gallon jug
Bottle of Yellow color from January 12 2009
Containers of your choice (I’m using the 2 oz MDPE Bottles size 20 with Black Disk Top Caps in Size 20)

Remove the foil liner on the Bubble Bath Base. Empty 1 fl oz bottle of Tahitian Vanilla Fragrance Oil into base and add 3 drops of color. Cap the gallon jug and shake. Once the fragrance and color have been thoroughly mixed into the base, we are now ready to fill our containers. Fill the containers and cap.

Now that your bubble bath is finished, fill the tub with water and have a grand time!

Next week is all about fun with Melt & Pour soap! Swirls, toys, shapes and curls! Great fun for an afternoon with the kids or for some peaceful time by yourself.

Collect needed items.

Remove foil liner.

Adding Tahitian Vanilla Fragrance Oil. Capped bottles of bubble bath waiting for labels.

Filled bottles of bubble bath.

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Collect needed items:

Beeswax
Refined Shea Butter
White Cooca Butter
Avocado Oil
Peppermint Essential Oil
Spearmint Essential Oil
Blue Oil Soluble Lip Color
Yellow Oil Soluble Lip Color
Scale
Measuring Bucket or beaker
Microwave
Containers (I’m using white lip balm tubes with white caps.)

Recipe
60 grams of Beeswax
75 grams Refined Shea Butter
45 grams White Cocoa Butter
120 grams Avocado Oil
0.5 grams Peppermint Essential Oil
0.5 grams Spearmint Essential Oil
Touch of Blue Oil Soluble Lip Color
Touch of Yellow Oil Soluble Lip Color

Makes 200 grams and approximately 60 tubes.

Weigh all ingredients except the essential oils and colors into a microwave safe container. After all the ingredients are in the microwave safe container, melt ingredients using short time bursts in the microwave. The beeswax will be the last item to melt, but you can stir the lip balm to help the beeswax melt. Add the essential oils and colors. Once the lip balm has been flavored and colored, you can fill the lip balm tubes.

Aren’t these cute? I love the labels the Graphics Department designed for this lip balm.

Next week is our Cold Process Soap Follow Up Week! We are going to cover botanicals, milk soaps, curing, saving a batch, Lye Heavy Soap and Using the Lye Calculator.

Weigh out oils.

Almost melted except for the beeswax!

Completely melted and ready for flavor and color.

Added color and there wasn't enough blue.

Finished with the color. All my tubes are completely filled.

Starting to fill the tubes. The cute label design that graphics made for this lip balm.

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When swirling soaps think CAKE. If you were never taught to do chocolate swirls in a cake, now is the time to learn. Cakes are a much thicker batter than our soap when it goes into a mold, but the concept is the same: primary color (flavor) in the pan, then place spots of color (flavor) in random positions across the top, swirl with the long handle of a round handled spoon. I use a highly technical piece of laboratory equipment called a drinking straw.

Here is today’s recipe:

White Soap
30 ounces weight Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
25 ounces weight Coconut Oil
20 ounces weight Olive Oil
5 ounces weight Mango Butter

30 fluid ounces water
11 ounces weight sodium hydroxide

Blue Soap
6 ounces weight Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
5 ounces weight Coconut Oil
4 ounces weight Olive Oil
1 ounce weight Mango Butter

6 fluid ounces water
2.2 ounces weight sodium hydroxide

1 teaspoon Ultramarine Blue Color

Mix the lye solutions as set aside. Heat the large batch of soap. This took about 8 minutes in the microwave. Heat the oils for the small batch while you are mixing the large batch of soap. I am using a 2 gallon pail to mix the large batch of soap.

Once the white soap is at a light trace I set aside and then begin mixing the blue batch. When the blue soap is a bit thicker than a plain colored soap batch I rinse my blender and go back to blending my white batch. It only took about 10 seconds more of blending and I poured the white batch into my card board box lined with a plastic bag.

Once all the white soap is in the mold, I added the blue soap pouring in random areas. I then used a straw and not only swirled through the mold but also swirled up and down. The up and down action has the straw mixing across the top and dipping down to the bottom in a circular motion like whipping pancake batter with a balloon whisk in the kitchen.

The soap should appear somewhat colored on the top. Allow to rest. You can see this great picture of the soap going through gel phase. Try very hard not to move the soap while it is gel phase, you may lose all of your beautiful swirls.

Let’s fast forward to the time when the soaps are ready to cut. You can see the soaps from all week. These soaps are our shea butter basic soap, then neem oil, then lanolin and finally our peppermint leaves and blue colored swirl soaps. The only soap that we poured this week that was as viscous as heavy cream (in an unwhipped state) was the colored batch we did today. All others were poured at a water-thin viscosity. All had reached trace and none were over mixed.

The soap today was 5 parts of white plus 1 part color soap. Look at the finished soap. Can you see why we chose the ratio of 5 plus 1? Beautiful!

So, let’s recap today:
1) swirling soap includes mixing in an up and down fashion
2) the best ratios of white background to colored soap is a 5 to 1.
3) anything can be used as a mold, including a cardboard box

Happy soaping! Send pictures of your new batches. We’ll share here in the blog. Everyone should try a new batch of soap with this week’s lessons at hand.

Next week is all about having luscious lips! Join in for the kissable fun!

Blending the large batch of lye solution and melted oils.

Adding color to the small batch of soap.

Starting to mix the color into the soap.

Almost completely mixed soap.

Completely mixed soap.

Pouring plain soap into box.

Plain soap completely in box. Adding more colored soap. Starting to swirl the soap with the straw. Finished soap. Our swirled soap in the gelled phase. Unwrapping Monday's soap. Cutting Monday's soap. Close up of Monday's soap. Cutting Tuesday's soap. Cutting Wednesday's soap. Thursday's soap. Close up of Thursday's soap after a few hours. My cutter is too small for this large block of soap. Cutting the manageable bars of swirled soap.

Starting to add colored soap. Emptying the colored soap bucket. Swirling the soap more. Soap right after the swirling was done. Pulling Monday's soap out of the mold. Pulling the plastic wrap off Monday's soap. Monday's soap spaced to dry. Tuesday's soap. Close up of Tuesday's soap. Close up of Wednesday's soap. Close up of Thursday's soap, freshly cut. Unwrapping the swirled soap. Using a cake spatula to cut the soap into manageable bars. Finished cutting the swirled soap.

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