1morebite's Blog

This months challenge was location theme. Somewhere that you have lived or has special meaning to you. I chose the Carolina. While Most of my family and I have spent a good deal of time in NC, I live in South Caroline just 15 minutes south of the Border and not at all far from Charlotte. Because of this I thought I would try one of South Carolina and one for North.

For my South Carolina soap I attempted to make a state flag soap. I used a star mold for the embed of the palm tree and round mold for the moon. I poured a small amount in a retangular individual mold to attempt the tree trunk and base that the tree stands on. This was a crazy disaster as I had at the last minute poured water into my round mold and then out again to measure how much I would need extra for batter for my NORTH Carolina embed. When I finally went to pour my soap into my SOUTH carolina I realised my soap was not coming to trace. Of course I only added water. 6 oz extra of water to my lye mixture that was only 4 ish oz of water and lye. UNfortunately while I was able to pour and slice. It never really got thick like I wanted and the pieces all shifted during transport and setting. It smells lovely but likely will be a covered soap. I do think I will end up trying this one again though.

My 2nd and last attempt was for North Carolina. This was based on the state flower the Dogwood, Or would this be the state tree? Since most are in bloom right now I thought if I could execute it well this could be a really good thing. This was also my 1st attempt at embroidery of soap. Yes there is a reason I only did one..well, 2 but the 1st was scary. I want to try this technique again and I thought it was really pretty but I think I was just not as prepared as i would have liked and the batter was setting up way too fast. So here is essentially a before and after of the soap. I had different reasons for liking each soap. I really like the embroidery as it showed so much detail. BUT I really like the shape of the dogwood and that I was able to get the little red tips from the molds that didn’t have the extra step.  SO my final extry this month is my Dogwood Soap that has been scented with Brambleberrys new spring FO Blooms and Berries. So soft and pretty I will use this FO again as well. If you havent had the chance to smell it yet, Make sure that you do.

I almost didn’t even enter this month. I was still waiting on everything to set enough to slice and dice when everyone started putting up thier photos. All I can say Is wow. There is some truely amazing talent out there. Everyone did wonderful worl. Good luck to everyone and cant wait to see the winners.

It has been since November since my last Challenge. It has also been about that long since I have made my last soap. So jumping back in at this time with this particular design was probably not the smartest idea on my part. This Challenge was to make a rimmed soap. It looks so much easier than it actually is. It took me 5 batches before I finally got something that was remotely presentable. I dont even have photos of them.

My 1st attempt i tried to do just one thin layer. I followed my directions but my batter started to get super thick before I was finished with my pouring that i wasnt able to really get my design in. when it was done it released easily and the proceeded to crack upon attempt to roll it.  crumbled it up added water and then threw it into one of my kids easter eggs for easter colored soap for thier basket.

Attempt 2, 3, and 4. I tried several tries at once this time in hopes that one of them would be able to pour correctly. I followed the same instructions. This time I was able to get several beautiful swirls in. #3 was my favorites. So very lovely but all of these ones desicided they were not going to be set enough. No mater how long i left 3 and four it was like playdough. I even tried to just mash them into my molds but they didint work SO balled up up and made more easter eggs. The 4th one set up nicely but when i started to put it into my pringles mold it started to crack off in pieces like semi soft clay. These ones got lined into easter egg soap or silicone mold so that I was still adding rim to the soap. just in the shape of half an easter egg., It allowed me to still keep some of the design of the soap. and then filled them alittle later.  Picture will have to come later as I had some issues with my camera.

My last attempt was the only one that at least tried to do what it was supposed to. I made a slightly bigger batch, and then I used my daughters guitar strings to attempt to slice. I broke both her strings I used but was able to get them cut. It was pliable but when i tried to put them into the mold aparently i wasnt able to either get the right curve, OR i had just mismeasured somewhere. It was starting to come apart in soft chunks. to save it i layed the pieces together perfectly, i covered with wax paper and rolled with a rolling pen. Then I threw it into my dehydrator for about 20 minutes at a higher temp to get it soft enough to work with. I was able to succeed because of this. 5 attempts and this was the only one I could even get pics of. Things I did differently. Since I dont care for unscented soap, with as many batches as I have made that failed, i didnt want more unscented soap. So I added fragrance to my rim. My rim is scented in Salty Mariner from Bescented and the colors are Micas from NutureSoap. the fragrance inside is Brambleberry’s Hungarian Lavander. It smells awesome. I am calling it Oceanside Wildflowers. This by far has been the hardest soap I have had to attempt using the tutorial. Would I ever make this soap again? possible, not probable.

Wow. It is hard to believe this is my 5th entry in a Challenge. I am so grateful I have had the opportunity to learn everything that I have so far. I don’t think I would have ever thought about your figured out how to do some of the challenges that I have so far.

This months Challenge. The Tall and Skinny Shimmy. This was much harder than it looked watching the video. I did however get some beautiful results. My very first one I think was my favorite and I indent to do a few more with this swirl. It was using the same technique, however it did not produce the results that were required. The were my favorite results though. I did not have a pencil on me when I started the process and did not realize that till the last second so I ended up grabbing a piece or thick dowel I had scrap of from replacing my towel holder this made my angle very sharp and as a result I ended up with very fluid swirls from moving my mold from side to side. Scent was Spanish Fly from Mad oils, color scheme i picked because of searching bright colored scarabs on google. Honestly I love the way they came out. But unfortunately it was not quite a shimmy. So of to 2nd attempt.

My second attempt was scented in Mad oils, Saucy Santa. A rich scent of chocolate and Peppermint, cinnamon and clove. Devine! This attempt actually stayed fluid enough and worked the best for me out of all of them. The batter behaved nicely. It made a tall bar so i finally did a correctly shaped mold. My measuring is horrible. I chose a color scheme of blues and green it made me think of winter. I used a thicker pencil than normal but still a pencil.

My 3rd attempt I scented with Deviant. I used all colors from Nurture soap in their neon carnival. This started to thicken up on me much faster than the first soaps. I worked frantically trying to stir and pour before it set up. I used a thin pencil. I made a mistake on my mold and it was a tiny bit wider that the first one I made so it ended up being a short and chunky shimmy instead. I love the colors though and the smell of this soap will have me making another batch very very soon.

Fourth and Final attempt. I used Orange Cranberry Marmalade. The smell is FANTASTIC and i cant stop picking it up to smell. The colors I chose were a mix of bescented and nurture soap. I picked 3 shades of red and 3 shades of orange. and pink vibrance to represent the colors of orange and cranberries. This one unfortunately was my most horribly behaved scent. Not only was it starting to thicken uncontrollably, but it also starting to separate. This made for a mad stirring and pouring to stop mid way to stir and pour. it also made it take much longer to set up. Overall it still came out beautiful and it smells FANTASTIC. I am glad that I was only make the small 1 pound soaps with these fragrances because I would have cried if they would have failed on me in a larger batch. I am also thankful that All of theses soaps are specifically made not only for this challenge, but for a felting job I have been comissioned for. So for any of them I just did not think were perfect they get a nice warm coat for the fall and winter 🙂 I had a great time making each and every one of these soaps.

I think it was very obvious the one that was made in the blues and greens with the Saucy Santa came out the most like the skinny shimmy was supposed to come out. However I think hands down my favorite was the Spanish Fly and the deep shimmy. Which is what I plan to call that. Deep Shimmy. Nice right? I was really really torn. The orange one came out really pretty but I think the becasue it was so thick it wasn’t the soft peaks. I loved the way each and every one of these came out. This is the batch that ended up being my chosen for this month.

Saucy Santa

Have fun everyone and good Luck!!!!

This is my 4th Challenge and was alot of fun, I just wish I would have had more time with it.
I had intended on making a few soaps and Even have the prep work done but this month has been crazy. Between Dr appts the illness and flying out of state with my 3 year old for surgery which is this weekend I am lucky I was able to make this one soap. It is funny that it turned out the way it did for me. One mold I was able to create 2 different looks because of how insanely fast it set up on me.

My alternative liquid I chose to use was Coconut Water Kefir. I have a thing for brewing my own concotions at home. I have milk Kefir, water Kefir and Kombucha which are prolific in this house. I had a few extra containers of coconut water and thought my grains would love a nice boost so I added them to the coconut water and let it ferment for a few days and then froze them into cubes since I was not sure how much sugar would be left in the coconut water after the kefir grains went to town on them. I searched for a while on seeing what the benefits were on using coconut water kefir but all I could seem to find was info on coconut milk. I also think the they temperature that it heats up to would kill off all of the bacteria in it making it just a fancy thing to add to the label rather than any benefits.
This was also my first time making 100% coconut oil soap AND my first time using natural colorants AND my 1st time using essential oils.
I should have just picked one 1st. I superfatted at 20%, I split off into 3 different colors and then split all 3 into 2 for a total of 6 colors. Ambitious right?

My colorants. I infused 1lb of coconut oil for each color. One used about 2 oz of shredded fresh red turmeric with 10 grams of saffron, the 2nd one had 2oz of ground up hibiscus and the 3rd had 1 oz of spirulina. I covered my jars and gave them a nice warm bath in my crockpot for about 6 hours because I forgot about them. Then turned it off and proceeded to forget about them being in my crock pot for another week. Now to attempt to figure out what I wanted to scent them with. I looked at the Eo’s I had which honestly wasn’t very much. I decided on Lemongrass for the turmeric since it give a yellow tint anyway, Peppermint for the spirulina since it doesn’t discolor at all and Rosemary for the hibiscus since all the photos I have seen give a slightest tint of pink. I thought it would only help since it didn’t look like my hibiscus colored my oil at all. Then I chose my colors for in case the oils didn’t want to give a nice color. I added 1 Tb of clay to each of my seperated colors. half of my green got French green clay, half of my hibiscus got Morrocan red clay and half of my turmeric got white Kaolin clay. They yellow and the green colors I thought came out beautiful. My hibiscus was more of a greyish color.
Now for the fun part. I had planned on pouring in my new mold that had 14 dividers. kinda like slices of bread from a bread mold. I wanted to do a swirl going across the entire length similar to a peacock swirl. I only got maybe 5 colors poured across before it became so thick that I couldnt shove the soap into the slots fast enough. I started panicking and removed the slots I had not poured yet and tried to do a drop swirl but it was so thick like soft playdough and the red was thick like clay. I tried my best to get all the air bubbles out and cram everything in the mold. Then I tried to remove the dividers from the other half that had the linear design. Honestly I dont know how i even got the dividers out, lets just say there was soap everywhere because I could not remove them. I banged it a few times to try to make it at least even on top. and because I am a glutton for misery I still attempted to run my comb through it. HA, so after I pulled up the center of that portion of soap from attempting to run the comb through it, I smushed it all down with my hands. I am sorry I didnt get any pictures. Lets just say the mess and war zone was so bad that I didnt even clean up afterward. I just immediatly attempted to strip and jumped in the shower to stop the itching from everywhere soap had touched.
Like “Jake from Statefarm” My soap looked HIDEOUS! I let it set overnight and I was surprised that even though it was coconut oils soap I had been told it sets up super fast and is hard like a rock. It was still soft. And alittle oily. My lard soap is harder. It smelled amazing. When I finally was able to cut it I had two completely differnt looks from one loaf of soap. I kind of wish I could have gotten the linear swirl a little farther so I could have side cut a bar that had both designs in one bar in retrospect. The linear swirl design that I had no expectation to turn out actually didnt look that bad, they werent super straight due to the squishing and the skewers did not go all the way down so it is not swirl on one bar the part that was closest to the bottom didnt get swirl, but the center cuts did and that was awesome. Because I did not get that far into the soap I was unable to see the clay swirls and what colors they turned into since everything was squished into the other side of the mold. Slicing that portion though I though it came out like beautiful granite. The smell is intoxicating. I was able to make a few soap stones from what I shaved off the ends and the tops that looked like oatmeal from being so discusting so technically I got 3 different looks from one loaf and that was cool. speaking of cool, with the rosemary and peppermint I have just the slightest hint of minty coolness on my skin from washing. I am wondering if even at 20% superfat if it is possible for me to use this bar as a shampoo bar. I love the minty feeling.
I was unable to get my buttermilk soap made with cocoa and make my salted caramel soap but since my frozen buttermilk cubes are indeed frozen I have all intentions of still making it. and my Passion tea that I intended for soap is made, but I will just not have the time so we shall see what happens/ I look forward to seeing how everyone elses soap came out. I had alot of fun making this one and want to try other water substitutes. Hopefully some with some benefit. Good luck to everyone!

This is my 3rd time entering the Soapworks Challenge. I am always get excited to try something new and this was no exception. I actually started attempting this swirl back with my 1st entry. My very 1st batch I LOVED. Unfortunately upon slicing and curing I realized that I got the perfect swirl I was after however I added way to many dark colors, so when the soap discolored more anyway, It was just way too dark. This was scented in Apple Jack and Peel from bescented. Still the fall colors came out pretty and I can’t stop selling the soap so it will be a great addition to my fall line.

my inspiration was a painting we got in mexico

2nd attempt. Another fall scented soap. I used Brambleberry’s Pumpkin and Brown sugar. I tried to work with the discolor and used a lot less dark colors, I picked brown orange a hint of green and even less brown. I think it would have been perfect however my batter I think was too cold or I just blended it too long because It was thick when I added my fragrance. It was more plop than anything. I tried stirring in a circle toward the center in hopes maybe I would get lucky and have the feather swirls, however that did not work at all. Soap came out beautiful but not a clyde swirl. I truly can’t tell which scent I liked more this one or the applejack.

3rd attempt. I am writing this in anticipation that this 3rd entry is my final attempt. I used Berrylicious from Bescented and I used a blend of oranges, purple, and a blend of greens and it stayed so nice and fluid and poured beautiful. I am hoping that I had the balance well of all the colors. I also used a separate pouring container for more white to put in between the purple and green and then the orange was poured on top of the green and then throughout the pot. I am crossing my fingers with this on as I loved the top and the colors that were pouring into the pot. I have a feeling even if this does come out ok I plan to try just one more before the night is up mainly because I am having so much fun with this swirl and I am dying to try one more with a scent I already love. 🙂

4th and 5th attempt. While 3rd attempt was waiting to be unmolded I decided to make 2 more just in case since i had not made the cut yet. Both of these were inspired by birds. I think they both came out really pretty . I love the color combination and plan to do them both again, however I think next time I am likely to do them in a drop swirl or even a taiwan swirl so that you can see the contrast clearly against the colors.

inspiration

my inspiration

my inspiration

So now for the big decisions. I already discarded the pumpkin since I didn’t think it looked like a clyde swirl. I also ditched the lime white and black because i think my feathers were too thin and looked muddy. My contenders were the Bird Blues, Slushious, and My Apple Jack and Peel. Ask 3 people and get 3 different answers..lol. That is exactly what happened. I really liked them all and the best feeling is trying to figure out which one you like best and sitting on it for days trying to figure out which one is your favorite. I honestly was so torn that it took me a couple of days to decide and it really still ended up a coin toss. I really really liked the colors of the blue. but after much deliberation I think the colors were a little too dark. The final two…

My favorite is the apple jack and peel. It is soo autumn, the colors soo rich, the swirl is everything I was hoping for. If I could have brightened up the soap with a little but more contrast it would have been perfect.

Then the next favorite was the Slushious. The swirls,the rainbowing of colors, the feathering the designs were awesome. I thought the contrast was really pretty and I liked that the colors were an accent to the base. I just really wish i would have had i guess wider wisps of color.

The decision.
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And the Winner is Slushious! It was only winner due to a literal coin toss. I could not choose for the life of me. I really liked them both. Heads got me the amazing grape Hubbabubba smelling Swirl-A-Riffic soap that I chose to enter this month.

I had a great time using this swirl again and look forward to the next contest. Good luck to everyone out there and I look forward to seeing everyone’s entry!

This is my 2nd time entering the Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge. This month the Challenge was Mantra Marble. I have never tried this swirl before so it was fun to try something new. I wanted something fall with it coming right around the corner. This time around I made 4 different entries before choosing which one I was going to go with.

My 1st attempt. One of my favorite color combinations are that of a peacock. Plus the deep rich colors remind me of fall anyway. I scented with Passionate Kisses and colored with colors from Bescented. Turquoise green, copper pennies, dark chocolate mica, groovy green, and pretty purple and blue jean. I used a small 6 inch slab mold from Brambleberry. I used lines going vertically and then I used a comb going horizontally rather than the other way around. I was attempting to get a modified peacock mantra marble if that makes any sense. Maybe if I had a bigger mold. Trying to get the figure 8 was a bit more difficult than I anticipated for my 1st one and I had to stop a few times in order to get it right. I even went over one area 2x in order to get back in the groove of a pattern.

The cut. I love this pattern. This the 1st time i attempted spraying with alcohol to keep from ashing and it worked. The colors stayed I think as vibrant as when I first made the soap. Being this was my 1st attempt I wanted to try again. I believed I was going to use the same colors and maybe a different scent.

My 2nd attempt. This time I used the same colors but in a loaf mold. I used blueberry festival scent from Soapalooza and the same colors as the 1st soap. My colors morphed because my soap batter turned bright yellow making all of the soap look bright green. and my scent turned to the scent of playdough. I had no idea how to save it as much as I tried. It dried blue but the shades looked very similar. I made wide cuts and then sliced horizontally. Then when I was rereading directions and comments I realized I was not allowed to use a loaf mold. so I knew I needed to try again.

My 3rd attempt. The more I thought about it, the more I was on the fence about keeping the same colors. This time for my inspiration I went with the colors of a coleus. Scent was Home Sweet Home From WSP  and colors and scent were also from Bescented. Pretty Purple, Groovy green, true red blended with a bit of activated charcoal. and chromiated green. I again attempted to use vertical lines and the comb in going horizonally. I think my colors were too wide for what I wanted it to do so this one wasn’t my favorite. The colors I think were pretty but I immediatly knew I wanted to try again.

My 4th and final attempt. I still wanted something fall. I was very happy that my Bescented fall fragrances had just come in. The scent I used was Marshmallow Fireside. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this scent. For the solid side I added TD expecting it to slightly discolor. The red I used was really really red and sunshine yellow from Nurture soaps, and dark chocolate and activated charcoal from Bescented. This came out so pretty and better than I expected it to. This is just the striped mantra marble. I love how much color was pulled from the sides. I got the effect I was looking for. The flame toasting Marshmallows. It smells like warm vanilla mixed with bonfire. Now it was asking all of my husband and all my family which they liked better.

It was a tough call. It was between the very first attempt and the last attempt. I love the vibrant colors of the 1st one. I love the swirl and I cant stop looking at it. It also was driving me crazy on the fact that last challenge I also made 4 loaves and ended up with the 1st one. This time however my last attempt captured all of fall for me. I loved the pattern of the swirl and how I somehow got it evenly spaced. I thought it looked more like how the pictures I had seen were of this swirl supposed to look. I think it is going to boil down to how the final photos come out for both the 1st and the last bars of soap. For me it is a tight race of trying to pick only one photo.

Drum Roll for the entry I chose.
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I am not sure what it was that made me choose this one over the 1st attempt. I am so glad that I made this one. I did not care for the scent at first. Now I cant stop picking it up and smelling. I think it really is the fact that The white has discolored to a nice creamy color of marshmallows, the fire slowly toasting it and being able to smell the smokey woodsy vanilla cream scent. I see it and I smell it and it smells like fall. I think I am going to have to turn the ac down low tonight curl up in a sweater and roast marshmallows over my stove today. While smelling my soap that way I can pretend it is over a campfire. I hope you all enjoyed making your soaps this month as much as I did. Good Luck to everyone!