Dandelion Swirl Challenge

I entered a soap challenge! (GreatCakesSoapWorks.com) I felt kind of silly entering, since I'm completely new at this, but it looked like fun, and I'm totally jumping into this adventure with both feet! I really like how my soap turned out, but I learned a LOT, and the next batch will be even better!

I used activated charcoal to color the black part of the soap, and it really dried out the black layer. You can see little cracks in the black part. Also, I should've mixed it with a small portion of soap before incorporating it into the batch, but overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

For the colors, I used Mica's from Brambleberry, and it's scented with Brambleberry's Coconut Citrus Sorbet. I think it looks (and smells!) like a Hawaiian volcano.

I used a flexible cutting mat that I cut to the size of my mold, but it was too flexible, and I had a hard time getting it to stay where it belonged, and not bend under the weight of the soap building up. After I was done, I went to my parents' house and cut a custom piece of sheet metal so that I can do this again with a better divider. The bar of soap at the top of the picture that has two swirls in it: that one was on one of the ends of the loaf, and as the divider slid back and I slid it forward again, this is what happened. I think it's pretty cool!

I really learned a lot from this challenge, and can't wait for the next one! Thanks GreatCakesSoapWorks for the awesome tutorial!

By the way, here's the picture of the original: this is what the challenge goal was. Such a fun project!

Yay! My new book came!

This is me the day my Soap Crafting book came in the mail! I know it's not a great picture, but I wanted you to see how excited I was! I've only made about 7-10 projects out of this book- being the Mom to 5 kids takes up a lot of my minutes, but I've learned a lot, and I'm excited to make everything! (By the way, my garage smells absolutely delicious! There is so much soap curing! The kids love to go shopping in the garage and pick out their own bar of soap for the tub. Bath time is exciting once again!)

This book is written by Anne-Marie Faiola. I couldn't go to her book signing because we had Middle School orientation, (super bummer!) But family comes first of course! I've done a ton of soapy research online, and the Soap Queen is the boss!

New Addiction

After being pregnant and nursing for 10 years, my skin was going through some hormonal chaos, and I was allergic to everything. Like... everything. Even sensitive skin stuff. My brother in law sent me some home made soap, and I loved it! It was the first time that my skin didn't hurt after using soap! My face didn't crack, and my eyelids didn't peel... I was in heaven. It was the beginning of a new adventure for me, and I'm loving every minute of it! Here are a few of my first creations:

I'm so glad that I have the internet! There is so much info out there. But my favorite website is soapqueen.com- thanks for all the free tutorials and recipes, here's a virtual high-five!