Iced Cranberry Citrus

This soap is a bit "if-y"... I love how the colors turned out and the scent is to die for, but.... right now the soap is a little oily feeling to me.  It's almost like maybe I used a little too much fragrance oil (but I only used the recommended amount).   I have the loaf cut into slices and have the A/C on and the fan blowing on it to try to dry it out a little bit.  So, we'll just wait and see what happens.  I've had this happen one other time before and I believe it's just the fragrance oil.  The last soap loaf that this happened to me on cured out and was fine.  So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one because it's really pretty and smells so good! 

How about some pics?  This is a 1/2 orange, 1/2 cranberry color mantra swirl with a vanilla cream poured down the middle.  And the top of the loaf is cool diamond glitter for some added sparkle.

This soap has my entire house smelling like cranberry!  I absolutely love the scent! 

Christmas Sugar Cookie

Oh I love this scent so much!  It's the Yankee Candle dup with the same name.  It smells good enough to eat LOL  And the soap is really pretty too!

The base is a creamy white with red and blue swirls.  The loaf is topped with white "icing" soap that is sprinkled with diamond glitter and lots of sprinkles (you can't have sugar cookies without sprinkles!)   Here's some pics:

And now, TA DA... how about pics of the bars?  These are so cool!!!

I had a little extra soap left over so I decided to make some cupcakes too!  They are really pretty - they look good enough to eat (and smell good enough to eat too!). 

These will be ready to use on Nov/28th so I'll be listing them in my Etsy store on Nov/14 (always at least 2 weeks prior to the ready to use date).   I want to offer them in time for Christmas gift giving.  Wouldn't it be so cool to give soap like this for a Christmas present? 

Love & Peace

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to post a few updates....

The first thing - I don't like M&P mixed with CP soap as "embeds".  Well, maybe I don't like it because I like to have my CP go through the "gel stage" where it heats up and saponification occurs.  This is when the lye is reacting with the oils to make soap and heat is generated.  Well, for M&P soap embeds in the middle of the soap loaf, they ....melt.... right?  LOL  So, while I love love love the look of this soap as a loaf, I do not like the inside that much so I'll be making some changes to it when I make the next batch.

But, here's some pics of the outside of the soap (don't you just LOVE the colors?):

The only think I would change with the top of the loaf is to add yellow as the embeds in the "frosting" instead of red.  I think a bright yellow would really show up good.... maybe even yellow, green and purple embeds that are small flowers?

Now, do realize that the pics didn't turn out very well on the slices (which didn't help them and they needed all the help they could get LOL).  The red turned out kind of orange in the 2nd pic:

But the scent in this soap is really really good.... so I'm going to list it in my Etsy shop even though it's not that pretty LOL  I'll put a good price on it and customers can get a really good deal on a very large bar of soap :-)

My Etsy Store is OPEN!

Yeah, it's open!  I've been listing some of my first soaps - but I still have quite a few more to list this afternoon.  It's taking me a little while because I've never sold on Etsy before.  I purchased items on Etsy and I've always been very happy with the quality of the items that I've purchased.

It's a little different than listing on ebay so it's taking me a little while to get the hang of it. I've already gotten 2 convo's from people wishing me luck with the new store and saying how much they like look of my soaps.  So, I hope that is a good sign :-)

I have some pics to update (the cut Christmas Sugar Cookies and Ice Cranberry Citrus) to post and show you plus I have a couple of batches of soap that I need to make this evening too :-)   Oh, one of my orders (for micas) arrived in the mail today.  I'll have 2 more orders arrive tomorrow - one is for tools and the other is for lots of fragrance oils that I want to trial batch :-)  That should be fun and keep me really busy!

Iced Cranberry Citrus

I also soaped this yesterday afternoon.  It went into a great gel (which I like to see happen) and after heating up and then cooling off overnight, the soap loaf was ready to remove from the mold this morning!  This is another wonderful scent!  It is making the entire house smell so good!  I removed the loaf from the mold this morning and then took the freezer paper off.  I'm letting the loaf "air" for a little while before I slice it.  It's still a little soft too.  I am anxious to see what it looks like sliced into bars.

The top and outside of the soap loaf look really nice.... the top is a swirled cranberry, orange and "vanilla" and dusted with some iridescent glitter.  Then, below that, one side is cranberry and the other side is orange.  I think this is really going to be a pretty sliced soap! 

Christmas Sugar Cookie

Yesterday I soaped "Christmas Sugar Cookie" -- this is a dup of the Yankee Candle scent and I absolutely love it!  I had fun with this soap because I was able to use real sugar cookie sprinkles on it LOL 

I got up this morning and checked the loaf and it had finished gelling overnight and was cooled down so I was able to remove the loaf from the mold.  I have the freezer paper peeled off and I'm letting the sides "air" a little bit before I slice the loaf.  Oh my goodness, it smells so good already!  If it were real sugar cookies to eat, I'd be having one right now with my cup of coffee.

The "Christmas Sugar Cookie" soap has swirls of red and blue with a white icing topper that is sprinkled with lots of "sprinkles" and also some glitter.  The soap loaf turned out very pretty!  I'm very happy with the results.  I might go ahead and make another loaf and use red and green swirls too....

I'll take some pics of the soap loaf and get them uploaded on this post a little bit later!

Today Is THE DAY! My Etsy Soap Store Opens @ 10 AM!!!!

And I'm up bright and early this morning getting everything ready to post on Etsy.  I am working on my soap descriptions and I'll probably be taking a few photos of soaps as well.  I'm excited and I hope that I do everything correctly LOL!  I don't want to mess up my business right off jump street.... I am going back and double checking the shipping prices, etc.  Also, on the descriptions of each soap, I am including all the ingredients, etc... that is VERY important.  I have the detailed information written down on each batch of soap.  I did this so I could also judge the finished product and know where I need to make adjustments for the next batch.

So, wish me luck.... and let's hope that people do like my soaps :-)