Adventures With The Sage

Once these mishaps have occurred, there is very little we can do to fix the soaps unless we decide that these soaps are not mishaps, but soaps with artistic license. Look at these soaps and decide for yourself. Are these soap mishaps or soaps with artistic license?

You will need:

Curls and Cutouts
Translucent Melt and Pour Soap, Scented
Soap Molds
Alcohol Spray (70% or 91% Rubbing Alcohol)

Place your mold on a flat surface. Fill your mold with your curls and cutouts. Arrange them until you are satisfied. Remember, you are looking at your soap from the bottem. Spray your curls and cutouts with alcohol so bubbles do not form on them inside your soap.

Slowly pour your cooled melt and pour soap into the mold. You will want to do it gently otherwise your carefully arranged pattern will move and you may not like the result.  Once you have filled the mold, allow the soap to cool. Now you have an incredibly classy soap. You can use it for everything from bridal showers to birthday parties!

Note: You will want to be cautious because if your melt and pour soap is too hot it will melt your curls and cutouts and make them swirl. It is an interesting effect but one you may not want.

Don’t miss Melt and Pour Mishaps, Pouring Techniques and Scientific Analysis next week!

You will need:

Melt and Pour Soap of your choice (Transparent, White and Olive)
A Baking pan or Flat Mold
Parchment, Waxed Paper or Silicon Spray
Miniature Cookie Cutters
Knife
Container for melting soap
Lavender Fields Color
Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
Tooth Pick

Line your baking sheet or mold with parchment, waxed paper, or a silicon spray for easy removal. Melt the soap designated for your cutouts. Color and scent as desired. Remember, do not use a dye as it will bleed through your finished bar of soap. In this example, I used the fragrance Cinnamon Bear and the pigment Lavender Fields. Pour the soap on your baking sheet and allow to cool. Pour in enough soap to create the thickness you want your cutouts to be. Once cool and firm, you can use miniature cookie cutters, a knife, or a toothpick to create and cutout your designs. It is recommended that you cut your designs when your soap is firm.

If your soap cutouts are extremely thin, they will curl. Should you desire that effect, pour your soap so you have a small thin sheet. If you do not want it to curl, pour your soap sheet so it is thicker.

If you don’t want the trouble of trying to keep to two cookie cutter sets separate, you can trace your design on paper or directly on the surface of your soap with a knife or toothpick. Then you can cut it out. TADA! Now you are already to put your cutouts in a bar of soap.

Don’t miss the blog tomorrow for how to place curls and cutouts in soap.

Soap Curls. Wow! Where should I begin? Soap curls are fun, elegant and most of all, simple! They are used as adornments in bars of soap. They can also be used as quick one time-use soap like the soap petals made yesterday. They are adorable!

You will need:

Vegetable peeler
Pre-poured bar of melt and pour soap

Make your soap. You will need to select a mold that will give you a bar the height of your desired curls. Color and fragrance soap as desired. Allow to firm completely. Look at your beautiful soap! Now we are ready to make our curls.

Hold your bar of soap in one hand. Run the vegetable peeler along a flat side of your bar of soap. The soap will begin to curl. The thinner you peel your soap, the more it will curl. Do not put excessive pressure on the peeler. You do not want to injure yourself.

If you want to show more color, you can stripe or swirl your soap curls bar of soap. You can make event specific curls by the colors you use. You can make orange curls for Halloween, green for Saint Patricks, or blue for the Fourth of July. Just make sure you use a pigment for coloring your soap. Dyes will migrate through your finished soap. Have fun! Your imagination is the limit!

Don’t miss making soap cutouts tomorrow and how to place curls and cutouts on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Collect needed supplies for making soap petals.

Supplies for both methods:
Silk Flower Petals
Transparent Melt & Pour Soap
Spoon
Transfer Pipette
Container for melting soap and dipping petals (It is okay to have more than one container)
Fragrance Oil of your choice (I will be using Wedding Blossoms Fragrance Oil.)
Old newspaper, parchment or waxed paper to collect any possible drips of soap.

Supplies for the first method:
Tweezers
Metal Cooling Racks or Baking Sheets lined with parchment

Supplies for the second method:
Needle
Thread
Tray for dipping petals
Place to hang cooling petals

Melt the desired amount of soap and then add fragrance oil. I am going to melt one pound of Transparent Melt & Pour Soap and for a moderate scent level, I will add 7 mL of Wedding Blossoms Fragrance Oil.

First Method:
Drop several silk petals into the melted soap and stir until the petals are completely coated with the soap. Using the tweezers pull the petals out of the soap and gently shake them to allow excess soap to fall off your soap petal. Place on the cooling rack or baking sheet and allow to cool. Repeat until all petals have been removed from the melted soap. Add more petals to the soap and repeat until the melted soap is gone or you need to reheat the soap again.

Second Method:
Thread the needle with doubled thread for strength and stability while dipping the silk petals. Thread the petals onto the needle and thread. Leave adequate spacing for the petals to cool without sticking to each other. Once the petals have been threaded onto the thread, remove the needle from the thread. Make sure you have left enough room on the thread to hang the thread on place you have designated for hanging the threaded petals.

Once the petals have been threaded, dip the petals into the melted soap in the tray. If your tray is not big enough for you to dip all of the petals at once, dip all sections of petals until all petals are coated. Hang the thread horizontally to allow the petals to cool. Repeat with other strings. Once the petals have cooled, remove them from the thread.

It doesn’t matter what method of dipping petals you used, you have now reached the same point. The soap petals are completely cooled and ready to be packaged. How would you package them? There are so many different options, so here are just a few.

1) Package in a clear gusseted bag and tie with ribbon or raffia.
2) Place in a small shallow glass dish or basket and shrink film the basket.
3) Fill a small jar with petals for traveling.

Another way you can jazz up your soap petals is to add some Silver Mica or Ultrafine Iridescent Glitter to the soap before you dip your petals!

Note:
We also decided to make red petals and we scented one pound of Transparent Melt & Pour Soap and for a moderate scent level, we added 7 mL of Endless Love Fragrance Oil. However, the red petals would bleed excess dye every time we dipped them.

Have fun!

Collect needed supplies
Transparent Melt and Pour Soap
White Melt and Pour Soap
Plastic Pirate Coins
Fragrance Oil of your choice (I’m using the Sunflower Fragrance Oil)
Mold of your choice (I’m using the Wave Mold)
Transfer Pipettes
Brown Oxide
Yellow Oxide
Microwave safe containers
Isopropyl Alcohol in a spray bottle
Plastic Wrap
Scale (optional)

The mold that I’m using needs about 14 ounces of soap and since I’m using two types, I need to calculate how much soap I need per type. I need 2/3 Transparent Soap (9.5 ounces) and 1/3 White Soap (4.75 ounces). After weighing the soap into separate microwave safe containers, microwave until melted. Once the soap is melted, add fragrance oil. I’m fragrancing the soap at a 1.5% rate. The White soap needs 2.2 mL of Sunflower Fragrance Oil and the Transparent soap needs 4.4 mL of Sunflower Fragrance Oil. Pour the Transparent soap into the molds dividing evenly between the four cavities. Allow the transparent soap to cool a little until a skin forms on top of the soap.

While the transparent soap is cooling, add 1/8 teaspoon of the Brown Oxide and 1/4 teaspoon of the Yellow Oxide to the white soap to make it look a sandy color. Stir and make sure the color is blended well.

Return your attention back to the transparent soap that now has a skin on top. Spray the coins with alcohol and gently stick into the transparent soap at angles that you desire. After you have inserted the coins, allow to cool a little longer. Spray the coins and soap with alcohol and then pour the colored soap over the coins and fill the mold.

Allow the soap to cool completely and then pop the soap out of the mold! Enjoy!

P.S. Remember, you may have pirates raiding your house in search of your treasure stash!

Notes:
When I sprayed my coins with the alcohol, the some of the color came off the coin as I poured soap over it. One way you can prevent this is to dip the coins in transparent soap and allow the dipped coins to cool.

Submit your photos and text for the guest written Hot Process Soap Week! Submissions will be accepted through May 18th at blog@thesage.com. Hot Process Soap Week will be May 25th through May 29th.

Today I’m going to show snakes and frogs in melt and pour soap for all those that love these cool creepy crawly critters!

Collect needed supplies
Transparent Melt and Pour Soap
Snakes and Frogs or other critters
Fragrance Oil of your choice (I’m going to use Earth Fragrance Oil)
Mold of your choice
Transfer Pipettes
Microwave safe container
Isopropyl Alcohol in a spray bottle
Plastic Wrap
Scale (optional)

I need approximately 15 ounces of soap to fill these molds. After you have weighed the soap into the microwave safe container and melted the soap, you can add 5 mL of Earth Fragrance Oil to scent the soap with a subtle scent. Pour a thin layer of melted soap into the mold and allow the soap to cool.

Now the soap is cool, we can place the critters on top of the soap in the mold. Hold on for a minute! The snake is 6 long ,but I only have space for a snake 4 inches long. How do I make the snake fit in the mold? It is actually a very simple problem to solve. Fold the snake to fit in the mold and then use a few drops of the melted soap to glue the snake into the shape you want.

Spray the layer of cooled soap and the critter you want to embed with the alcohol to prevent bubbles from forming between the layers or on the critter. Those bubbles are rarely desired on embedded objects. (Unless you are wanting to portray under water objects.)

Once you have sprayed the critters with the alcohol, gently pour more melted soap over the critters and fill the mold. Be careful! If the melted soap is too hot, it will cause problems with critters or snakes floating to the top of your second layer. If you are concerned about this, you can pour multiple thin layers until the critter is firmly anchored in your soap. Just don’t forget to use the alcohol. After the mold has been filled, cover the molds with the plastic wrap to make a smooth bottom of the soap. Allow soap to cool completely.

Remove the soap from the molds and give to the biggest creepy crawly critter fanatic you know!

Submit your photos and text for the guest written Hot Process Soap Week! Submissions will be accepted through May 18th at blog@thesage.com. Hot Process Soap Week will be May 25th through May 29th.

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!

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.