Little Trees

When I conduct my children's workshops I dare not let them make soap from scratch. We have fun crafting with melt & pour. These are some of the soaps I had them create in a recent workshop. We added tree embeds to clear soap. Aren't they cute?

Calendula Soap

Calendula often called pot Marigold makes a beautiful soap. I love the way the petals turn the soap a beautiful golden color. I also like the way it makes my skin feel. I make my soap after soaking the petals in the olive oil portion of my formula. I also used Calendula Essential Oil from Essential Wholesale. Since Calendula has such a pungent spicy aroma I masked it with Orange from Sweetcakes.

Let Them Bathe In Cake?

Okay. You know I must have much to much time on my hands when I start making soap that looks like cake but I don't and I have, so here it is. As a matter of fact, I kind of borrowed the idea from a few friends that make all sorts of delicious looking soap cakes, cupcakes and pies. Why do we do this?...because it's cute, a novelty and believe it or not, people ask for these things for showers, parties, anniversaries, etc. They put them on the tables as center pieces and use as party favors and the guests seem to love them.

I used cold processed soap, of course, iced with m&p and candy sprinkles from the craft store. It is scented with almond fragrance which makes it really smell like cake.

This Time, Lotion

A few weeks ago I took a lotion making class at The NY Open Center with La Shonda Tyree from Homemadesoapcoach.com It was a fabulous class and her instructions were so thorough that I was able to go home and make lotion right away. Of course I had bought most of the ingredients before hand but just didn't know how to start nor did I have any idea about preservatives.

I whipped up a 32 oz batch for my own personal use. I used sweet almond oil, Shea butter, hemp seed oil, castor oil and Optiphen as a preservative. Lime essential oil from Brambleberry and coconut fragrance oil to scent. It turned out thick, rich and creamy. I tell you it is out of this world, but before I market it for public use I will first have it tested at a lab.

Salt Soap Bars

One again those crazy soapmaker friends of mine from Brooklyn CP Soapmakers got together for the salt soap bar class. We had loads of fun in addition to coming up with these beautiful spa bars.

The soap was made using Lime Essential Oil from Brambleberry and a smidgen of green chrome oxide to give it that sea foam green look.

Rose Petal Soap

There is no better time to blog about rose soap than now, New Year's Day, when the Rose Bowl Parade is on TV and roses are fresh in our minds.

A definite bouquet of roses comes to mind when using this soap. A layer of baby rose petals have been infused in the top layer. The aroma is derived from a combination of two different rose fragrances.