Just a quick post to let you know that I am now making soap making videos! I am so excited about posting my first one! :) Check out my youtube page...https://youtu.be/zeOaBYKB5Po
Ok! so much to blog and so little time! This will be a short-ish post but will have a lot of pictures. I have made a few batches and they are all curing and getting ready to go for farmers market season! Since this is my first time venturing into selling my soaps, I am nervous and excited all at once. For the past few weeks I have been applying and contacting local farmers markets up and down 575. I thought it would be pretty easy to be a vendor and just show up to sell my soap and candles. Boy! I was wrong! I was being denied by so many farmers markets! I don't think I realized that other people make soap and beauty products too...and they are already nice and cozy existing vendors at many farmers markets. haha!
I was also accepted to the Waleska Farmers Market (Thursday Nights) and the Jasper Farmers Market. I will probably vend at both of these, but the Canton Farmers Market is going to be my regular place! :) I had planned on making a few blog posts for each of batch of soap but I have not been keeping up with it! Here are a few photos of my most recent batches! Each new batch has taught me something different about soaping and I am so excited to keep gaining knowledge! I may not be perfect at my new hobby but I think that is what makes it fun! Happy Soaping Y'all!
-Rachel This will be a short post, but I am very excited so I want to post today! When I was driving home from work yesterday, I passed by a little shop advertising homemade candles and soaps. I thought... OMG. This is my kind of place! I decided to check out the store on my lunch break today and was very pleased that I did! I met a woman named Henri (Love her name so much and might name one of my children that! It's such a sweet little girl name!) Henri's shop is called Natural Candle Lights and she makes soap and candles! She was very welcoming when I came into her store and she asked me if I was looking for anything specific. I had actually looked at her website before I went to the store, so I had come to her shop with a purpose! She hosts candle and soap making classes. I have already dipped my toes into cold process soap making, so I was interested in her candle making class! She makes soy candles and the ones that I smelled (and purchased two) were amazing. I had planned on just dropping in for a few seconds to inquire about the class but ended up spending about 20-30 minutes in her shop! We talked about her soap making, then mine, then about candles, and much more! I always talk to my sister, Mary or my husband, Chase about my new found hobby and I am sure they are tired of hearing how excited I am for my shipments to come in or the new things that I am going to try. Talking with Henri was great because she shares the same passion as me! We talked about soaping techniques, natural coloring/scenting soap, and even talked about our favorite YouTube soap tutorials! I purchased two of her candles and I love the way they smell! Henri also gave me one of her sample pieces of soap to try out! I really enjoyed myself talking with Henri and I am so excited to sign up for her candle making class! I will keep y'all posted about this new adventure into soy candle making! Happy Soaping! ... and I guess candle making too! -Rachel This yummy vanilla latte coffee soap was my first try at in the pot swirling (ITP). It is a pretty simple way to get a beautiful mix of two soap colors or mixtures. It is hard to tell on these, because my colors were pretty close in color, but I think they still came out great! Coffee Soap is a great deodorizer, so this soap would be awesome to have by your kitchen sink to get rid of those pesky lasting smells. It helps to absorb odors, is naturally exfoliating with the coffee grounds, and the caffeine is said to help fight cellulite. So, lets be real, coffee is just awesome, why not put it in soap! I will start by giving you the recipe I used and then show my step-by-step photos with descriptions. I made a very large batch of this soap and would probably cut my recipe in half next time I make this soap. 50 oz. Olive Oil 27 oz. Coconut Oil 10 oz. Sunflower Oil 12 oz. Lye (NaOH) 28.7 oz. Water/Coffee 7 oz. Goat Milk (evaporated) .33 oz. of Vanilla Essential Oil 2 tbsp of White Kaolin Clay 2 tbsp of coffee grounds (optional-for exfoliation and color) Because I wanted to try the ITP technique, I decided to split the batch in half and start one batch with a coffee/lye solution and one with a water/lye solution. In all of the tutorials and blogs I have read or seen (so many I can't even count), they all make it seem like the time it takes for the reaction of the lye and water is so quick. I have learned otherwise. When I make soap, I spend the majority of my time waiting for the lye water to cool down to around 115° before adding it to my oils. The time it takes depends on how much lye and water you are using... for a bigger batch, it will take a hot min. While I wait on the lye/water to cool down, I heat up my oils and mix them together. Once my oils are melted and my lye/water is around 115°, I pour the lye/water into the oils. I separated my oils into two separate batches, one for my coffee/lye solution and one for my water/lye solution. I mix these both up until I reached a very light trace. Trace is a point during the soap making process when the oils and lye water have emulsified. To know when you reach trace... you can lift the stick blender and if you get small lines where the drippings land back into the batch, you've got it! Once you get to a very light trace, it's time to add our goat milk, kaolin clay and essential oil. I also added coffee grounds to part of the soap. SIDE NOTES: -Goat Milk is wonderful for people with dry or sensitive skin, or conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It is also great to keep healthy skin, healthy. It delays signs of skin aging, has anti-bacterial properties, there is no chemical counterfeit, it has anti-inflammatory properties, is loaded with essential nutrients and vitamins like vitamin D, C, B1, B6, B12, and E, that feed the skin and are absorbed into the body. -Kaolin Clay is a naturally occurring clay substance mostly found in soils that have developed from the chemical weathering of rocks in hot, moist climates. It helps in detoxifying the skin and can treat various skin conditions The coffee lye solution made the soap turn a very pretty brown, but adding the clay and goat milk lightened it up a bit. After adding in all the extra "enhancers" and making sure they are mixed well and at trace, its time to do some "in the pot" (ITP) swirling! I took the light, coffee ground filled soap and poured it in three spots into the darker brown soap bucket. I did it in the shape of a triangle and basically just poured at each of the imaginary points. I poured it with a little bit of height, so the soap would reach the bottom of the bucket. Then I moved it closer, so the soap would be on the top as well. After pouring all of the coffee ground soap into the bucket, I took a spoon and gave it one swirl around and that is it! You wouldn't want to mix it very much because when you pour your soap into the molds, it continues to mix and swirl itself! I did not get any pictures of me pouring the soap into the molds! Playing photographer and soap maker at the same time can be tricky! Pouring the soap into the molds is relatively easy though... using two hands! Once the mold is full, gently tap the mold up and down on a hard surface to release any trapped bubbles inside. You want to make sure this is done pretty fast after your soap comes to trace. Your soap is still going through a chemical reaction and well...its still becoming soap. Once you get the solutions into the molds and have given them a few taps, place card board on top, place towels over them, and then a nice big blanket! This step is a personal choice of each soap maker. By putting the solutions under blankets you are helping your soap go into "gel phase", where it creates heat and the blankets help to keep the heat in. Some soap makers do not want the soap in gel phase and they immediately place their molds into the fridge or freezer. This is a personal choice and your soap will come out great either way! After letting the soap sit for 24-48 hours, it can be un-molded and set out to cure.
I can not wait to try these out! One of the hardest parts about soap making is having to wait weeks to try out your work! I will be working on making a little bit of a soap inventory and then will be heading to farmers markets to sell them! I am so glad I found this hobby! I love knowing exactly what I am putting on my skin, and learning so much about skin care! If you have any questions, or would like to purchase soap, please contact me!
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