Soapy Friday: Goals for 2019

Happy New Year everyone! I'm SOOOO glad the holidays are over, although I always get the "post holiday blues"...I'm glad to be rid of the mess, but I do miss all the fun and cheer. Now it's on to 2019!

This year will be very, very interesting. I'm not going to set any uber lofty goals other than officially launching an online and vendor-based business, which to be honest is a lot! We are on the fence on what to do with our current renting/living situation and may be moving again by April...and it might be out-of-state!

We shall see...

In the meantime, I am on revision cycle #3 for my soap box templates with my graphic artist. This does take a while, but it's worth it and we're close to finalizing something.

So close and yet so far

I haven't made any soap lately, as I don't want to waste ingredients if I'm producing and not selling, AND those ingredients are expensive to purchase and have expiration dates. Also, I don't want to make a lot of soap that may or may not fit in my future soap boxes.

So...I experiment with formulas. Here I've made 3 different shampoo bar samples using 3 different formulas, I'm close to getting what I want, but need to order more ingredients.

Shampoo Bar Formula Experiments

I've FINALLY found the holy grail of rock hard bath bombs that float and fizz...except now they are FLAT! Grrrr....back to the mixing bowl.

I like flat butts...said no one EVER!

Although the funny thing is I don't think I will sell them as part of my product line...they're too mainstream now and you can buy bath bombs at the Dollar General Store. I just prefer to solve the mystery and move on....I don't like to leave problems unsolved.

Soapy Friday: Bath Bomb Success!

Whenever I share or mention to someone that I now make high-quality, handcrafted body and skin care products, I’m almost always asked, “Do you have a website? Do you sell? How can I get some?”

Finally....bath bomb success!

You would think that with this foresight, I would immediately run home, build a website, put my stuff up on Etsy, and start selling, but no.

When I first started this journey, I remember reading somewhere that a person doesn’t just decide one day they are going to make and sell bath and body products and start doing it. It takes lots, and lots, and lots of time, practice, experimentation, persistence, mini-wins along the way, and failure.

Naming a dream is easy. What’s far less popular is the disciplined practice of a craft – the thousands of thankless hours it takes to become good – even great – at something before sharing it with the world.

I believe there’s no such thing as talent, only practice.

So, after almost 2 years of making bath bombs – at some point every single day – I’ve finally gotten a particular part of my bath bomb recipe down pat and they do exactly what I want them to do every time. This goes back to asking yourself, "What do I want my bath bomb to do?" If I just wanted a rock hard bath bomb that fizzed like mad, but sunk like a rock, I would have been done a long time ago.

But no, I also wanted the "fun stuff," and that meant my bath bombs had to align with what I call "The Four Fs for Bath Bomb Success":

• Form - They dry rock hard, are not crumbly, soft, or fall apart
• Fizz - They fizz and spin without "marshmallowing" out 
• Float - They float!
• Foam - They provide "bath art" with a surfactant

At some point in the future, I'll make a video of one of these in action!

Soapy Friday - Messing-Up and Oddities

Boy, things have been laugh-out-loud funny around here lately. For example, check out my broken heart bath bomb:

My heart is broken!

I was playing around with my recipe and felt my mixture was a "tad" too moist. This is what I had the next morning. LOL!

This morning, I went to unmold and cut my "Honey Soap" (version #10) and realized that I accidentally did not put the bubble wrap on with the bubble part facing DOWN!

LOL...insert sad trombone sound. The bubble wrap gives my honey soap that cool, honeycomb look, but it doesn't work if I put it on my raw soap the wrong way!!!

#sadtrombone

What's wrong with this picture?

The gel ring from my "Ravishing Citrus" soap mysteriously disappeared. I don't know why, but I'll take it!

Where did that gel ring go?

My "Rosemary Mint" soap smells AMAZING, but the minute you take it in the shower, the smell goes away. I don't know why this is either. Even my husband commented on this...hmmm.

Disappearing scent...why?

BUT, on a good note, I was experimenting with a tropical-beachy-type scent and made these cutie patootie Sea Shell Soaps. Love. The only thing I would differently next time is to have the bottom part blue instead of white in order to make it look more like water.

She sells sea shell soaps by the seashore...

Take me to the beach!

Beachy beauties

Soapy Friday: Back at Bath Bombs

While I am waiting for my new formula cold-processed soap to cure for testing, I've gone back to tweaking my bath bomb recipe.

Every day I'm hustlin'...

I've mostly liked what I've been doing for the past year with them, but they still needed some more attention to get to that "Perfect Bath Bomb". Like that "Perfect Bar of Soap," it takes time with many, many, many experiments and testing in between. I'm SO close.

Anyway, I'm also SUPER excited to use my new biodegradable shrink wrap system I got for Christmas.

Upping my shrink wrap game from 10-to-1 million

I was able to wrap 100 bars of soap in less than an hour with this baby! In the past, this would have taken me hours...like an hour just to wrap 15 bars of soap! It's especially great for bath bombs which are notoriously a pain in the arse.

100 bars of soap in 15 minutes....DONE!

On top of all that, the shrink wrap I'm using is BIODEGRADABLE! How awesome, right? I always hated the thought of making such an amazing, natural product only to package it in environment-harming PVC. Ultimately, I will be putting my soaps in boxes and this will be primarily used for bath bombs and tamper-sealing lotions, body butters, etc.

Soaping responsively for the environment

Speaking of body butters. I made a Valentine's inspired citrus soap to go with my Bombalicious Body Butter. It smells out of this world!  I made it in the same pink grapefruit, tangerine, and lemon fragrance blend.

But a funny thing called a "gel ring" happened when it was setting up. You can see where the color morphed from the right-to-the-left . It went from grapefruit pink to a natural soap/yellow color. It's all good...it actually kind of looks cool!

Gel ring from right-to-left

What it's supposed to look like...oh well

Soapy Friday - Foxes, Fireworks, and Coffins

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

But first, a continuation of last week's groundhog saga...

Earlier this week, about 4 days ago, we spotted a very large, adult fox trotting across our front lawn and into the woods. This is very exciting! I think foxes are so beautiful.

Mr. or Mrs. Fox is welcome!

We have also NOT seen John G. Kennedy groundhog since last week. Coincidence? Maybe. Mr. or Mrs. fox is welcome to stay and keep the critters away, but I worry about our neighbor's cat that is let outside and wanders over here from time-to-time. :-(

Next, since it is a holiday weekend, how about some fireworks from Mother Nature? Say hello to "Ruby Spider" daylily ....isn't she gorgeous?

"Ruby Spider"

I'm ready for my close-up! 

There is a man at one of our local farmer's markets that sells the most amazeballs plants. It's hard for me to not buy from him...I've already purchased 5 daylilies (4 last year), an echinacea, and a coneflower. I'd buy more, but I need to do some garden-bed prepping first.

"Lavender Stardust"

On to soap, shall we?

This week, I received some wonderful goodies in the mail. There is a lady at my UPS store who has been begging for me to make some coffin shaped bath bombs (she likes things "goth/emo") that look like this:

Photo courtesy from The Madbombers

So, I bought this cake mold and will play around with it this week. I also bought the pink "faux bois" wood grain silicone mat to line the bottom of my soap mold for some future sandlewood-type soap.

Coffin bombs coming soon!

Wholesalesupplies.com had a sale on their large 6.5 lb. silicone soap molds, so I bought 2 for future loaves when I am comfortable with my recipe and process. Messing up a small 3 lb. loaf of soap (on left) is MUCH cheaper and less painful than it would be if it were almost 7 lbs.!

3 lb. mold on left (it's dirty in this pic) and 6.5 lb. mold on right

For example, I made a "White Tea and Ginger" soap that at 24-hours was still a little too soft to take out of the mold and it tore in the corners. I had a hunch that I needed to do a water discount, so I made another similar batch with a FO blend the next day, but with a 15% water discount.

Looks like something took a bite out of my soap!

The 2nd soap was the perfect consistency at 24 hours, BUT when I made the soap, one of the FOs that I used caused my batter to "rice" and so, the soap wasn't perfect.

Better consistency, but a naughty Fragrance Oil

I'm aiming for consistency and I'm close, but when dealing with unknown fragrance oils (FOs), always, always, ALWAYS do your research to see how it will perform. This is why I am working my craft every week.

All of these "imperfect" but perfectly usable and wonderful soaps will be shared among friends, coworkers, family, and anyone who takes a bath!

Soapy Friday - Pickles and Gardner's Soap

The soaping and bath product experimenting continues, but first there are pickles to be made...

The first of this year's pickles have been canned and I'm pretty confident about my recipe and method, which I plan to share in another post.

The heat and humidity have started to pick up for the summer, although it's been MUCH cooler and wetter than what we've had for the past 2 years, for which I am thankful. However, my bath bombs have certainly NOT liked it, as they will absorb moisture from the air if left unprotected in some way. I prefer to shrink-wrap mine, but even that is not 100% fool-proof.

As a hunch, I made 2, sample Lavender bath bombs and set them out to dry over night. Yep, the next day, they started to have what's called "warting" where little wart-like bumps appear on the surface of the bath bomb as particles within the bomb react to the humidity.

You can't see it in this pic, but they were there on the bottom. Those are organic lavender flower buds on the top...

So, I dragged out this beastly relic from Florida days gone by...

It's our dehumidifier, and since we've moved up here, we haven't had to use it. For years, I debated on selling it, but I'm damn glad I didn't now! I set it up to run continuous for 2 days, and now have it set to a happy 45% relative humidity for the basement. You can definitely tell a difference when you go downstairs now.

In other news, I made some Gardner's Scrub Soap a few weeks ago. It has ground walnut shells, ground loofah, dried orange peels, poppy seeds, and is scented with orange/lemongrass/citrus essential oils. Those are dried calendula flower petals on top...

I've been having an issue with soda ash (harmless) residue on top of my soaps, which is why the top is whiter than the bottom and sides. Soda ash is basically what happens when unsaponified lye is exposed to air during initial soapmaking.

It's harmless, but an aesthetic irritant to me. I've been getting around it by steaming my bars for a nice, saturated, lacquered look, but I need to keep experimenting to see if there is a better way to prevent it.

Soapy Friday - Bubblescoop Sundaes

I've been working on making "Bubblescoop Sundaes," which are a bath bomb and bubble bar combo that look like ice cream sundaes. Aren't they AH-DORABLE?...

They really are big, and heavy. In fact, I need to make them smaller so they will fit inside their "sundae cups" without denting the tops.

Definitely a bath time treat that have taken me a while to get right. These particular sundaes are made with a tropical-fruity-type fragrance oil, which have more of a peachy scent. The "chocolate sauce" is peach-scented melt-and-pour soap. Fun, huh?

I'm not sure if they will become part of my repertoire, as I'm trying to figure out who my audience/customer focus will be, but they would be something fun to offer to kids.

I made another batch of my Honey soap, which I am still tweaking. I've decided that LOVE the fragrance mixture I've come up with so much I wanted to make some hand and body lotion to go with the soap. SO NICE! The lotion is made with aloe vera butter, avocado oil, and vitamin-e oil...super silky.

I did a 20% water discount in this batch of soap as well as adding a little pink Himalayan sea salt to the lye water to help give me a harder, quicker-curing bar. If that doesn't work, then I will start playing with the oil percentages in the recipe to see if that helps.

An old stand-by trick in the soaping world is to use bubble wrap in your mold to give you that "honey comb" look. When I take the soap out and cut it, it will look like the bars standing up behind the mold. Cute, huh?

Fragrance oils behaving badly...

I was playing around last week with an unknown "Cucumber Melon" FO that smelled suspiciously similar to a truck stop urinal puck. I really wanted to try again at a gold mica line in a soap, so I thought this FO would make a good sacrifice if it didn't turn out right. I normally don't like the FOs from the company I bought this from, so no biggie.

I modified the FO a bit with some peach and it actually came out quite nice in the end...AT FIRST. That is until after a few days of curing when that white creamy top started to turn beige with blotches of brown in it.

Oh well, the FO must have had some vanilla in it, which wasn't pointed out in the product description (another thing I don't like about that company). Anyway, I think this whole loaf might get shredded down and "re-batched" into something else.

The irony is the FO blend that I did actually smelled nice and the mica line was perfect!

Soapy Friday - Rose Clay and Charcoal Soap

Yesterday, I unmolded and cut some Rose Clay and Charcoal soap that turned out gorgeously!

In fact, this is probably the very first soap that I've made where I haven't had some sort of unexpected result or hiccup. I even planned for the fragrance oil to accelerate, but it behaved beautifully. I'm so proud! I think it looks exactly like the beautiful examples from Soapqueen, which  is where the inspiration came from.

Photo from Soapqueen.com

I tweaked their recipe to account my own "Old Faithful" recipe, as well as using a FO blend that matches my Rose Bombs. They smell OUTTA THIS WORLD!

I've found that it has taken me about 10 batches of soap (at least for me) under my wing to get my "groove on," but even still, things like additives, temperatures, and fragrance and essential oils can make soap behave badly. You just never know until you try it and keep notes on what worked and what didn't.

In the other corner, I made a batch of Orange Patchouli Castille Olive Oil soap where I was pouring the batter into the molds and realized that I had forgot to add the essential oils! ACK! What to do? Well, I then just portioned out the EO into each of the molds and stirred each cavity until incorporated and hoped for the best.

They actually turned out fine! And they smell soooooooo good! I tried to do a mica swirl, but think they would have been fine without it. Oh well, it gives them that "handmade, rustic quality". :-)

In other good news, I bought my first soap drying rack from Cosco...it won't be long till I fill it up with curing soap!

Valentine's Inspired Bath Products

I promise I am not going to turn this blog into a bath and body product blog, but this is what I’ve been up to lately! The truth is, my long-term intention is to maybe take this somewhere. As in a small business perhaps. Gulp.

I’ve told my husband that I am going to experiment and get my recipes down, and if I am still as passionate about making bath and body products by this summer, I am going to pursue starting a side business to sell at next year’s farmer’s market.

My goal is to have 4-6 solid products ready to debut, so I’ve given myself a good year to get them right. This includes branding and marketing, but I need to have something. I also would actually need to HAVE a business and liability insurance if I want to do this in 2018, so that too!

Big goals…I haz them!

Anyway, I’ve been busy and my dining room table looks like I already have a business…LOL!

I experimented with these cutie patootie bath bombs for Valentine’s Day. I saw pictures online of these made with just one candy, so I made them with two, but I think I like them better with one.

As well as these bubble scoops that look like ice cream. I was mostly focused on getting the recipe right, so I didn’t want to bother rolling any dough out into bars.

I gave those bath truffles a try again (with success), as well as improving my shrink wrap skills. I bought an impluse heat sealer which made a huge difference!

I also tried my first body butter recipe, which IMO is more of a body salve, as it's more of a solid butter consistency than a whipped butter consistency. I was REALLY happy with this, as it's all yummy, skin-loving oils and self-preserving. That means there are no other fillers or water added to this recipe, just the good stuff!

I love it and it's not greasy. It's definitely heavy-duty for very dry areas like heels, elbows, and knees. I used "Lovespell" fragrance oil for it, which is kind of funny because I love it and have used it so much on other things that I'm kinda burnt out.  I need to make this again with something else. 

I've been giving all my samples to friends and family to try and give feedback. I've been using all of these products as well and I'm very happy with how things are coming along. I'm pretty solid on bath bombs, bubble bars, and butters/lotions seem easy enough, so that only means this is next to tackle:

I can't wait!!!

Bath Bombs: Why Do They Sink or Float? (Part 3)

For the third and last part of my topic on why bath bombs sink or or float, I am going to talk to molding, shape, and drying time.

If you're just stopping by, be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this discussion first!

As a final review, there are 5 factors that contribute to whether a bath bomb sinks or floats:

1. Ingredients
2. Ingredient Density
3. Molding
4. Shape
5. Drying Time

Molding

It is true that technique for molding/packing bath bomb dough contributes to “floatage” or “sinkage”. If you pack your dough into a mold as tight as you can and your bath bomb comes out and dries like a cannonball, then it probably won’t float!

A real cannonball, not a bath bomb!

Remember density! The denser your bath bomb materials are pressed together, the less air pockets there are in between their ingredient particles. You want to incorporate as much air into your dough and bath bombs as possible, so go gentle on molding. This can be done by lightly sprinkling your dough into each mold half and gently cupping the material with your hand to create a small mound and keep it in place. Do the same with the other mold half and then gently press them together.

• No packing
• No twisting the mold halves together
• No Pecs of Thunder…you shouldn’t have to press hard!

Photo courtesy Not Martha

Lastly, think about purpose and intention. If your bath bomb is not intended to entertain or float, feel free to pack tighter. A tighter packed bomb will be sturdier and has the potential to give your user more “bang for their buck”. 

Shape

The shape of your bath bomb plays another part in “floatage” due to water displacement. A round bath bomb will displace a smaller surface area in water compared to a flat bath bomb. The larger an object is, the more water it displaces. This also considers density, and takes into consideration the Archimedes principle of why things float or sink, but that is getting really deep. Water displacement principals along with density are why ships that weigh several tons are able to float and not sink.

A floating star bath bomb

Additionally, a round bath bomb has a smaller, compressed mass in which to support air pockets compared to a flat bath bomb. A flat bath bomb has more surface mass to distribute those air pockets. So, flat, boat-shaped bath bombs have a better chance at floating than round ones.

Drying Time

For some reason, there is the expectation that our bath bombs must dry rock-hard within 24-hours of being made and be able to float! I know there are some crafters out there who are able to do that, but the truth is, you will do yourself and your bath bombs a huge favor by letting them sit for a few days to dry.

Remember what I said in Part 2 about ingredient density? Oils, water, alcohol, etc. have close-to or the same density as water. When we make a bath bomb, we are trapping those liquids in between the grains/particles of our other ingredients. The bath bombs need time to dry those liquids in order to contribute to those wonderful air pockets. Air pockets gooood! Wet bath bombs baaaad! A wet bath bomb will weigh heavier than a dry one.

Photo courtesy Making

For example, as an experiment I made a bath bomb that weighed 7.2 oz. upon initial creation. At the end of 3-4 days drying time, the weight of that bomb decreased to 6.7 oz. That’s almost a HALF OUNCE LESS! I know that doesn’t sound like much, but for me and my recipes, I know that a couple tenths-of-an-ounce difference will make my bath bombs sink or float.

Another perspective: When Lush makes their bath bombs, they are left completely in their mold for 24-hours to dry before being removed. After that, who knows how long it takes for that bomb to be packed, shipped, stocked, purchased, and eventually used in someone’s bathtub? I’m betting that a Lush bath bomb at its EARLIEST doesn’t get used for at least 10 days to 2 weeks after creation. Some of the bath bombs stocked in Lush stores may have been sitting there for months before being purchased. Now THAT’S some drying time!

So do yourself and your bombs a favor by letting them sit to dry for a few days before using. 

Lush bombs...waiting to go home!

Well, that concludes my thoughts on bath bomb "floatage". I hope this has been helpful, and I couldn't have come to this point without the hard work and input from the talented bath and body community out there. Keep it up everyone!

Have a great weekend!