Soaps on the curing rack

Soaps on the curing rack:

Bora Bora - I still don't have a cut picture of it, only this wet pic. The bottom is a bright magenta/violet and the scent is a complex tropical fruit/sweet floral (smells somewhat like Victoria's Secret Love Spell).



Mendhi - bottom is deep blue and the scent is Nag Champa (earthy, sweet resin, spicy incense, and sandalwood). I was going for a henna-inspired look on the top. I need to get cut pics of this one too... I'm good at getting wet pics, but I drop the ball when it comes to getting cut pics (until it's time for Etsy photos).



We went to MOMA this weekend! Very very inspirational! Esp. when it came to colour. I hope that we can kind of incorporate some of that into our soaps. :)

Curing soaperoonies

Over the past few weeks, we went on a soaping frenzy to end all soaping frenzies. Okay, maybe not to end ALL soaping frenzies. I hope to beat this soaping frenzy with another one down the road. :P So these are the soaps that will be showing up in our Etsy shop over the next couple of weeks, starting this weekend.

(Sorry for the so-so photos, there will be better ones when they're up on Etsy!)

#1: Using a pinwheel design... "Flutter". Smells like a spring bouquet of flowers - very fresh and lady-like, but not old ladyish/perfumey at all! Jon likes the smell of this one and he's not usually the biggest floral fan in the house.




#2: "Stiletto"... so named for its amber spice scent. ME-OW!!! I had a lot of fun with this scent... it's right up my alley! ;)



#3: Not named yet, but inspired by Monet's Waterlilies... these will be guest soaps and sold in sets of 4. Smells like a fresh waterfall blended with a watery floral... this could be a winning floral for guys as well as gals!



#4: "Sonnet"... a blend of rose, amber, peony, and mandarin. Very very pretty scent. This is a redesign of a soap we did before with the same scent that sold out (it's basically the same pattern, but with a layer this time).



#5: Not named yet... smells like a foamy freshwater cascade... it reminds me of Buttermilk Falls, NJ (a trail we used to hike at with a GORGEOUS waterfall that you could climb right up against). I kept that falling water image in mind when I did the swirl.



#6: Not named yet... smells like cucumber and melon, blended with honeysuckle, cotton, and flowers and fresh air. Very complex scent - not a standard cucumber melon at all. But we went with the cucumber melon colours (peachy orange and mint green) for the swirl.





Maybe this weekend we'll go to the Met Museum or MOMA (and bring a camera) and pick up some inspiration for some more soaps. And of course... blog about it! :) I really need to get better about blogging!

- Mary

A path of blossoms... and Satsuma Orange

(Why do the pictures in Blogger look so dull when I post them? The pictures are vibrant until I upload them... I may start just giving links to my Photobucket instead - click on the links for better photos).


This is the reincarnated soap of one that died (Jon dropped the lid in it after I was all done - he was VERY upset and convinced me to try again immediately so I wouldn't have time to be afraid to do it). So this is the reincarnated one. It's supposed to look like leaves and cherry blossom-type blossoms. Today it looks about the same, but there are some raised-up lines in a couple of areas. The bottom layer is pink - approx. the same colour as the pink blossoms, maybe a little darker. You can see the "dead" soap in the background. I have to admit that after it was ruined, I said "screw it" and squirted the remainder of the swirl soap on top of it, to use it up. So that's why it's an explosion of white and pink

Full wet pic



This one we did tonight ... after a very long, bad day, I was happy to do a simple swirl. It is scented with SW Satsuma Guava and SW California Orange. It smells DELICIOUS and (like I expected) the fragrances reversed trace so I'm glad it wasn't a layer. It's a 20% SF recipe with coconut, mango, shea, and jojoba - just for fun. And Jon came up with the design for this one (I swirled it, but the design was totally his)... I really love the creative ideas he comes up with! :) Next time I might do the black a little thicker so that it isn't as wispy... one part was thicker and I really liked how that bit came out. I hope this one does well overnight - I'm not insulating it because I would be highly surprised if it tries to gel... I may have to bite my tongue though, you never know! I saw a few VERY tiny air bubbles on the top, but I actually didn't freak (big step for me, lol)... we did our best to shimmy them out, and I'll worry about them later.

Full wet pic
Detail

Couple new soaps

Back to basics tonight (after a string of failed batches): a tuxedo swirl. I haven't done one in ages so I was pretty nervous about how my line and swirl would come out. It's scented with a fruity upscale scent with definite apple in there - I'm naming it Soho... the bottom is white with gold mica, the top is turquoise and magenta with a black/gold stripe. I'm happy with how it turned out... the turquoise could have been darker (less aqua), but that's okay - it actually looks a bit darker IRL than in the photos. I'm having the worst time getting colours right when I take photos... I guess I'll start tinkering in Photoshop to try to match the real colours.

Let's see how it looks in the morning... crossing my fingers!
I hope you can see the gold in the bottom and the stripe tomorrow when it's dry.

(the pics look kind of odd in this format - please click to see them larger/clearer)




And also a soap inspired by Pollock (with very different colours). It's scented with Bay Rum. I'm pretty happy with this one too... the blue is a bit duller IRL (strange mix of TD + blue UM so I'm not sure I could duplicate that colour). I ensured gel it so... no partial gel! YAY! lol

Mondrian gone wrong.

What is up with soaps not working out lately? ARGHH.

So I looked at the Mondrian soap when it was done and I thought that it was just ash... wrong. It partial gelled... big-time. The FO was running really hot so I put it in the garage so that it wouldn't gel when I should have just left it inside and gone with the gel. The other problem was that the lines weren't quite right, the colours weren't in every bar, the bars were WAY too big (8 oz each - but I can trim them from the bottom, so no biggie), and I didn't do the best job shaving off the top (I really need a good planer). Oh and I don't like the scent combination!

I'm not happy at all with it. I'm just disappointed because I was so pleased with it when it was wet. I know I need to just chill and say, "Lessons learned" and go on, but it's really irking me. Why do I obsess so badly over these things? Oh well... at least I know that with a few modifications, it IS possible to translate the Mondrian aesthetic to soap. When I get up the nerve to do so, I'm going to try it again with these things in mind.

Anyway... here it is in all its partial gel-ness... it looks a bit better in person, but not much, lol.

Tonight's failure/lesson learned

Okay I can't call it an absolute failure. But what was in my head didn't come out properly. And that irks me to no end. Today's lessons:

1. If you have a hot FO (such as Green Irish Tweed), do not try to (A) swirl into it or (B) put very thin stripes in it... as those stripes will heat/thicken up and make you cry when it's time to swirl them.

2. If you drip a bit of soap outside your swirling area, do not attempt to make the rest of the batch match... cut out that piece and discard later. You know it's wrong to make more drips... so why are you doing it? STOP doing it... for the love of all things good - just STOP! Leave it alooone!

I'm going to try this one again as soon as I get some more Green Irish Tweed. And modify the design slightly (but still do spirals). I think it'll work... I hope it'll work.


Looks okay from a distance (I was going for a fade so I used 5 colours... 9 stripes in all... so no wonder everything set up - I was taking FOREVER!). The bottom is yellow/gold mica and is a lot more sparkly in the light.



But close-up, you can see where it got crappy... I maybe have 2 good spirals in the whole thing:




I'm kind of wincing at the fact that I'm posting these for the world to see, but I promised myself that I'd post the good, the mean, and the just plain fugly so that I can use this blog to remember what I've learned along the way. *sigh*

Recent soaps

Sorry for the crappy photos... they looked better on my computer and when I uploaded them, everything went crazy.





Film Noir:




Mondrian:












Some older soaps within the following album:
My Photobucket Soap Album