Category: Soap making

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When you need True Red Mad Micas has the answer!

*Affiliate links may be contained within this post. These links will take you to the products I am describing in this article. You are not required to click the links or even purchase anything I review, but your purchase of these products using the link may result in a small commission being paid to me for my review. I purchased the products listed in these posts and only get paid if purchases are made directly from this post. Your trust is of the utmost importance to me and I would never recommend products that I do not believe to be the best quality for your use and I consider safe in my products*

 

True Red is the ever elusive color every soapmaker seeks. So many of us have blended micas, prayed for luck only to find we have too much orange or the base has weakened it to a pink but not a red. Until Mad Micas put their heads together and created The True Red Set

 

Yes it really can be that red! They found a blend of 3 of their top micas that when mixed evenly together gave them a glorious red that we all have sought to find in a mica for soap. When you choose this set you will get 3 containers of mica and you simply blend them equally making sure to mix totally. What I chose to do since I wanted this set solely for the red was found a large container and put each mica into the larger container as one. I did alternate the colors as I poured them into the container and used a whisk and a pestle to ensure they were blended well throughout. Once they were all in one I then put on the lid and shook the container for about 5 minutes, making sure it blended completely.

Then the fun began!! I decided to test it in my soap Call Me Sir and it would be tested in a black base HP soap. Man did it ever pass that test!!

No bleeding into either the black or the white, no fade, no morphing!! If you are looking for a true red look no further!!

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Glitter glitter everywhere!! Not anymore say hello to Fairy Dusters

*This post contains links to products discussed on this post. I am an affiliate for these companies and do earn a small revenue when and if you were to click on these links and purchase from them. However, I will never give reviews that are not totally honest nor for products that I would not use myself in my products. If I post a product here it is one I trust and employ in my own product making ingredients list*

OH, Mad Micas how you make a soaper’s heart aflutter when you give us products we adore. We all love our glitter, the sparkle, the glitz the little something extra they provide to that soap, bath bomb, lotion. What we don’t like is the tendency for Body safe glitter to spread like herpes and wind up making us look like we just left the stage on amateur night at the local club. Then you swoop in with your brilliance and give us Fairy Dusters!!

Click here


These beautiful containers of glitter are delivered with the smallest puff of air directly into or onto the product where we want it and only where we want! No more strobe light effects in the air of the room from trying to gently tap the glitter off of the small spoon to see if fly randomly like fireflies through the air only a small amount going where we wish. Want just a hint on the peak of a frosting spot, not a problem, turn the directional nozzle, squeeze and poof perfect application! Even better you can refill these bottles so no need to toss and start over unless of course, you want. Save money by buying the complete collection and never having to choose just one or two options again.

If you have never tried Mad Micas they are definitely on the top of the places I trust list for my bath and body products.

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Color Color everywhere!

Spring has sprung! Finally, and with it, all the breathtaking colors of the rainbow have sprouted from their winter hibernation to dot landscapes and front yards with all of their glorious hues! My favorite time of year to make soap because bright colors are the driving force behind spring/summer purchases, the brighter the better it seems. For coloring my products I have tried a ton of places but Mad Micas has never failed to make my soaps or bath bombs gorgeous!

Whether I am swirling in the pot, doing a staggered pour, or simply in the mold design, they come through with their shades that go from the deepest rose pink to the brightest sunshine yellow and make my soaps eye-catching in any setting. If you are looking for a few bright colors their collections get you a bright array of choices in various container sizes for you to try out or put to long term staples in your colorant shelf.

The Brilliant Micas Collection features 7 of their most beautiful pops of color and comes from sample bags to 4-ounce containers for that hardcore soaper who is all about attention-grabbing design and color.

  1. Bright Yellow Raincoat
  2. Peacock
  3. Pow! Pow! Purple
  4. The Maniacal Pea
  5. Tangerine Dream
  6. Twilight
  7. Voodoo

Each color has been tested in CP soaps to be stable for use. Keep in mind oil color will affect the color of your micas so if you have a greener olive oil in your mix the color may shift slightly to a darker tone.

Even better is they offer so much more than simply micas. They carry everything you need for resin molding, glitters, lake dyes, pigments, liquid colors and too much more to list!

 

*I am an affiliate of MadMicas and do make money off of the purchase through my links as such. My reviews are always honest and I would never promote a product I personally did not use in my products or did not trust to use in my products*

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Cutting your soap.. the easy way or the hard way

While making soap can be fun, figuring out what way is best for you to cut it, and when to cut it can be something that takes some trial and error. While you can buy prescored slab molds that have lines to show where to cut the bars apart, getting those to cut on that line means you have to get it to unmold while still semi soft, and in that type of mold that is not an easy feat. Depending on the hard oils you have in your soap it can get really hard really fast. Which means when you unmold it you may need to cut immediately to prevent it crumbling and chipping away.

For the first few years I cut mine one slice at a time using a hand held soap knife on a mold I put together that had pre-cut gaps specifically for cutting soap. Each bar was about 3/4 inch thick. Then I got blessed with a wire cutter that cut 12 bars from a loaf at once. Now my average mold gives me 18 bars so I would cut the first 12, move them to curing rack then slid rest of loaf in to cut the rest of the slices. Let me tell you the ease at which cutting became. But I also learned used the wire cutters meant you have to be really certain to cut within the first 24 hours for me. Go farther than that and it can put too much stress on the wires and stretch them and harder to get the wires through.

Thank God Nurture has options for one slice at a time wire cutters or this beautiful 18 bar cutter that makes short work of soap cutting!!

 

 

This beauty can be yours and change how you cut your loaf molds instantly. Even better they sell replacement wires, trust me you will use those until you figure out the perfect cut time for your soaps!!

 

But go check out their pages, you can find anything you need to make soap at home for fun or for business!!

  • this post contains links to websites that I am affiliated with. If you use this link to purchase products I will make a small commission from the sale*
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Finding the best fragrances for your soap

**This post will contain links to products I use or have used. I do have affiliation links with the products and I will receive a small compensation if you purchase from these links using my link. However, all opinions are mine and I do not recommend products that I personally do not trust or believe to be amazing for body products*

 

As a current fragrance hoarder let me say that finding a small amount of fragrances you like and sticking only with them will become, well impossible. But with so many places to purchase fragrances that are safe for use on skin, sometimes the process becomes a bit overwhelming! You will find that things you think won’t smell great actually are pretty amazing when you smell them for the first time. Let’s be honest, I am not a fan of lavender. It just isn’t my thing by itself. Truth is there are several types of lavender and their aromas range from soft and light to overpowering and heavy. Each person’s scent triggers are different, what I like can be totally different from the next person and because all fragrance oils have layers of scent the ones I notice may be different from the first one you notice. It is the layers you need to understand. Top notes in scent are the ones you tend to smell immediately, they tend to be stronger and catch your attention, Middle notes are the balancing players. They help pull back on that ever present top note and bring it into a more scent friendly area. The bottom notes are the notes that linger after the others have faded. They are the finale in a scent pyramid if you will. They hold the others together in a harmony of fragrance and are the ones that often stick with you after the scent is gone. While blending fragrances together is a science above my learning I do love the gifts of the people who are in that line of work, they do their jobs extremely well.

Next you want to learn about what your fragrance oil is made of, for me phthalates free are my line. Phthalates have been found to be linked to some diseases with long term exposure and I would rather not use any product that has that kind of track record. Even if the odds are slim, I prefer to not have them present in my products. We also only use fragrances that were not tested on animals, as an animal lover and fur mom using a product that required them to be subjected to sometimes painful tests is not anything I want to use.

Lastly, don’t limit yourself to fragrances that only you would use. Your customer base will be wide and varied as should your scent selections. Narrowing it to only fruits or florals will cause you to limit your customer base. Find a company, or several of them, with high standards, top quality fragrances that appreciates your business to purchase your fragrance products from to use in your products.

Nurture Soap is one of my favorite companies to use for my fragrance purchases. Easy labeling, highly informative on every fragrance you see on their site and amazing customer service are just a few of the many reasons I love purchasing products from them. I have listed a few of my favorites!

Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Always a top seller for its sweet softness in fragrance you cannot go wrong with this one as a base scent you carry all year

Black Raspberry Vanilla  Another top seller for us and many other soapers. It appeals to all ages with just enough raspberry vanilla blend to be beautiful in soap!

Having a hard time deciding? They have prepared for that as well and have created 3 fragrance samplers containing different top selling scents in different category bases that appeal to everyone! Now go out and find your favorite and get to soaping!!

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Coloring your soap

There are many ways to color soaps from liquids to gels, micas to herb based. Everyone has their way to color their products. The best part about it is when making loaf soap, like shown above you will not get the same pattern every single time. That is the beauty of it for me. Each piece is different from the next regardless of how you colored it, or which technique used. Each piece is its own work of art if you will. But the important thing is using colorants that are designed to be used in soaps and other cosmetics. FOOD COLOR IS NOT A COLORANT, NOR IS MELTING CRAYONS. I cannot stress those 2 things enough. While our colorants must be FDC compliant they are not the same as things you would use to color food items. Also glitters must be body safe and not the glitter you would use for a picture or an art project. When choosing colorants always make sure they are approved for use in the country you are selling your product. You will find colorants approved for use here may not be approved for use in other countries and vice versa.

Colorants can be found in many online co-op groups, purchased at many hobby stores when wanting small quantities, but be sure they are approved for use in HP or CP soap and not just designed to be used in Melt and Pour soap bases, there is a difference!

I have a couple of places I purchase my colorants from that I trust:

Mad Micas

Offering everything from colorants for all types of soap to body safe micro glitters, molds, resin supplies to cast your own molds. Mad micas is a great place to start finding what you want to use in the coloring of your products. Great customer service, quick turnaround and I love the fact that they send treats to every customer,

Nurture Soap  

Another top rated colorant company with every color of the rainbow and in between. Quality is excellent, easy to blend and use in any soap product. But they also carry so many other things to make your journey into soap making a fun one.

So whether you want to do one color or 20 you can find them if you know where to look. Watch YouTube for great ideas and inspirations on ways to get unique color shifts and swirls in your soaps. Soon you will be coloring like it is second nature and trying to come up with your own unique technique that everyone will want to learn.

Have fun, be safe, make soap!!

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How can I make money soaping?

Oh if only it were as easy as A, B, C. Unfortunately, it is not. In many areas today soaping has turned into a hot commodity, one that people jump into thinking it is easy and profitable. It is anything but easy and it isn’t profitable unless you spend time working at it and formulating the right soaps for your customer base. Keeping in mind that potential customers may already have a favorite person they buy from breaking their loyalty is not a task easily achieved, add in the guilt for attempting to do that is even worse.

There are several soapers in my area I have several friends who soap and we have done shows together with no issues, why? Because we refuse to be competition to each other. We do different formulas, different scents and we often talk before events to figure out who will bring what to the show. This enables us to also help our fellow soap family out when customers are looking for specific items. If only one of us brings that item we can send them to the right person. So before you decide you want to turn this into a business check the local market and see how many people are already in the business. Also understand there will be ones who only use essential oils, dried herbs and flowers and natural additives in their soap, some will only carry melt and pour, some will only do a certain size, some will only carry goat’s milk, some will only do vegan. The market can be big enough for all of us if we all work together and promote one another. In my area I cover vegan, lard based, as well as goat’s milk soaps. I do essential and fragrance oils in all the recipes. I also offer wholesale, private label and custom orders.

Next you will have to learn how to use Soap Calc or another reputable site to come up with recipes to make your soap. Know if you have mainly soft oils like sunflower, olive, etc it will take longer for your soap to be hard and long lasting. You cannot make your first loaf and decide you are now a professional, it doesn’t work that way. Play around with different recipes on those sites, learn what the readings mean for each category like bubbles, moisturizing , etc.

Then you are going to need to locate the oils. Many people start making with what they call grocery store recipes. These are the soaps that can be made with oils that are easily accessible at most major grocery stores, like lard, olive, sunflower and others. When you first start you want to get smaller amounts of these products, because trust me soap making is something you love or you hate and you will know real quick which way you lean. Keep in mind you will need safety gear, bowls, mixers, measuring cups all designed to be used for soaping only. Lye can be purchased at any Ace Hardware in 2 lb containers. Start with 1 or 2 lb mixes, it is easier to control smaller batches when you are just learning. Read everything you can about the processes, the science, the different oils and their usefulness. Then have fun with your first few batches.

They won’t be pretty trust me. I look back on the batches I made in the beginning thinking I was doing all of these great colors and designs and nearly 6 years later I look at them and cringe. Even now there are still batches that give me a run for my money and go totally South of what I had in mind. That is the joy of soaping. It is like life. You can plan all day what you have in mind but until you do it you won’t know how it is going to turn out. You just jump in, cross your fingers and hope for the best.