Up and Etsy time!

Seeing as how the craft fair season is far in the future, I decided to check off business resolution #1 for 2011: Open my Etsy Shop. Yes, I have a web site that does very well. The thing is, you can never have too much exposure. The competition among Etsians is fierce, the the rewards are priceless.
Rewards come at a price though. It takes a lot of work and dedication to set up a shop and manage products. For instance, my main web site provides one catalog photo. Take a few photos. Pick the best and post it. Simple. Etsy provides up to 5 views of each listing. Soap isn't always the easiest thing to make appear artful, but I think I have found "my look". I chose 4 "views" of the same stack of soap. Choosing the best four bars from a batch is harder than you think. "Dressing" those bars to photo well is an art form unto itself

Choosing the bars: I looked at all angles of each bar to find one that cut smoothly and looks creamy. Those with minor imperfections can often be buffed out with a little 91% alcohol and a piece of organza cloth. I looked for bars with "frosting", or decorative tops. My regular customers demand frosting, so I give them frosting. Who am I to argue?

Perspectives: Each listing has a "front" perspective of a bar face beside a stack of 3 soap tops.
I liked the glass marbles because they add a bit of shimmer and reflected light onto the subject soap.
Pose 2, closeup of the frosting.
You can imagine how important it is to choose bars with little to no ash. I discovered the 91% alcohol spritz trick on the Dish Forum. I use it with great success on each and every batch to ensure a shiny top.

Pose 3: Front angle:
Placing 4 bars at a slight angle like good little soldiers made me smile. Each face profile peeking out from behind the next shows a hint of the creaminess hidden within.

Pose 4: The top angle:
I liked the birds eye view of the same bars.

Now repeat that for each and every soap bar listed on the site and you have yourself several days of photo taking and editing. At least I did. Time well spent, don't you think?

My Etsy Store is here: Sweet Teagan's At Etsy
Stop in for a visit. Show me some love when you get there by making my shop a favorite.

Testing, Testing. A Bunch of FO's in CP Soap.

I have been collecting a lot of little fragrance testers lately. When I see a sale for a company that I like to order from, my credit card shudders a little. I decided that before I buy any more fragrances, I need to try those I already have. Here are just a few of the things I needed to test. In reality, there are waaaaaaay more than this.
Key Questions:
1: Does the FO accelerate, rice or seize?
2: Does the FO discolor?
3: Does it morph?
4: Does it fade?

This is where silicone molds come in very handy. I have 2 round "puck", 4 heart, and a few other shapes just taking up space. I decided that 2 oz tester bars would answer the key questions without sacrificing too much soap batter.

I also wanted to test out the new Vanilla Stabilizer from Nature's Garden Candle Supply on a couple of FO's that I know for a fact discolor DARK: The Scent Works' Pink Sugar and The Scent Works Vaniglia de Madagascar and a new FO that I'm sure WILL discolor, Nature's Garden Vanilla Extract. The Vanilla White Stabilizer usage rate is .3% of the total batch (water, lye and oils).

Here's the math:
40 fragrances
2 oz testers, (approx 56-60 grams each)
80 total oz of soap (lye + water+oils)
Vanilla Stabilizer = .003 * 2 oz or .003 * 60 grams = .18 grams VS (thank goodness I have the tiny gram scale from TKB-Trading!)

I figured a 60 oz batch using a 33% lye solution would do the trick. Rather than waste precious cocoa and shea, I stuck to the trinity: Coconut, palm and Olive. SF was 5%.
FO at approximately 1 oz PPO = 2.5 grams per 2 oz tester.

I used the thermal transfer method to help ensure a long working time. No colors to worry about, but lots of FO's to measure.

Here's a photo of the aftermath:

The process:
LABEL YOUR TRAYS!!!
I used letters in the top left corner to orient myself in case the tray got turned. Good thing too, because they DID get turned.
Pour the 6 cavities in the first mold with approximately 2 oz of batter. The first 3 FO's were to try the vanilla white, so I pre mixed the VW with the FO's then one by one poured the FO mixture into the mold stirring briskly with a chopstick until it looked blended. Rinse, repeat for each one. I kept the bottles of FO lined up in order of where they were poured so that I could take notes later.

Repeat for tray #2. Instead of pre-weighing the partial grams of FO, I used a graduated pipette to dispense the fragrance into the muffin cups.

Lecithin Test:

One FO started to rice. I stirred as best I could then reached for the lecithin. I used a 400 IU caplet for the FO in a mixing cup. It was probably too much lecithin, but I was in a hurry. The second pour of the FO was much smoother. Mental note.

Repeat for trays 3, 4, and 5. By this time the soap batter was getting thick. I added some water to the batter to thin it a bit but I couldn't expect miracles! Tray #6 was a tiny muffin tray, so 1 oz testers...

I remembered to write down the FO's in each tray by the positions and have to make little tags to keep with the soaps once they come out of the molds.

4 trays are sitting on the pellet stove in hopes of coming to gel. The rest will have to sit for a few days before they can come out of the molds. I suppose I could stick them all in a low oven to gel, but that requires me to trek up/down stairs several times.


I will post after photos of them so you can see if the VW does its job or not. I'm a little hopeful, but at the same time worried that it will morph the scent.

Fragrances Tested:

1. TSW Pink Sugar with VS
2. TSW Vaniglia de Madagascar with VS
3. NG Vanilla Extract with VS
4. Peaks Frankincense & Myrrh
5. AH Vetiver
6. NG Cucumber Melon
7. Pear Pleasure
8. Peak Bartlet Pear
9. NG Nag Champa
10. NG Sweet Pea
11. AH Mint Julep
12. AH Gap Heaven
13. NG Cucumber Melon
14. Amber Musk
15. AH Gap Earth
16. AH White Tea
17. AH Cotton Blossom
18. AH Amber Romance
19. AH Almost Paradise
20. AH Amazing Grace
21. AH Dreamcatcher
22. CC Victorian Rose
23. AH Childs Room
24. AH Barbershop 1920s
25. NG French lavender
26. AH Aqua
27. AH Pineapple
28. AH White Tea & Ginger
29. NG Fresh Raspberry
30. NG Rice Petals and Shea
31. NG Bamboo Hemp (with and without Lecithin)
32. NG Mango Papaya
33. AH Neroli
34. AH Pomegranate & Oak
35. AH Lemon Verbena
36. AH Japanese Pear & Ginseng
37. AH Falling Leaves
38. AH Black Linen & Amber
39. AH Blackberry Sage
40. AH Interlude
41. AH Oak Barrel Cider
42. AH Badedas
43. AH Black Raspberry Vanilla
44. AH Celtic Moonspice
45. TSW Creamy Coconut
46. TSW Ginger Souffle
    

Open up and say Aaaaawwww!

When a gift holiday would roll around, I would ask my daughter, Teagan, what she wanted most. Her answer never varied. She wanted a kitten of her very own. This went on for more than 2 years. Finally, the right kitten came along. thanks to my volunteer position at Animal Control I was able to preview kittens to find the right one for our family.

On Christmas morning 2010 the very last gift Teagan opened was her kitten. It was love at first sight for both of them. Here she they are giving hugs:

As kittens often do, she finds the coziest places to snooze. Here is Holly on a stack of blankets.


To show me just how exhausted she was from being so cute, she gave a big kitty yawn.

Winter Products Swap-Part 2

Delivery of my Winter Products Swap box was delayed by the Great Blizzard of 2011. We ended up getting about 2 feet of snow, but that's another story that I'll save for later.Back to your regularly scheduled post...

My box arrived a couple of days later than everyone else's, but it sure was worth the wait. I'm posting the spoiler photos taken by the swap hostess. I received back 24 new items to try. Man were they awesome. Here are 2 photos of the loot:

Notice the lovely lot of lotions, balms, butters,soaps, body oils, and more? Awesome, huh?
This second photo shows the hand knitted neck warmer. Mine is actually a lovely blue. It comes in very handy with the sub zero weather in Chicagoland! See my con"dish"ioner and poo? They;re in good company.


The hard part now it trying it all out. I chose a different lotion/butter for each leg and arm. Then the cuticle jellies and footie stuff. I smell wonderful and am soft as buttah! I used another swapper's Intensive Hair Conditioner and my hair looks fab. It will take me until spring to work through all of this awesomeness.

Winter Products Swap

I've been busy signing up for, and making products for, swaps at the Dish Forum. The most recent swap is the Winter Products Swap. The premise of the swap is to make something that people need during the harsh and gray winter months. I chose to make a solid hair conditioner with a little travel shampoo.

The first hurdle was done: what to make. The0 next, more difficult challenge was to decide upon a fragrance. What would I like in February? Where would I like to be? Easy: Enjoying citrus in Florida. Beaches and fresh juice, preferably on South Beach with a beachy drink in hand while watching the waves.

With a goal in mind, I set sail for my Fragrance cabinet. Fresh Squeezed Oranges, Lime Cilantro, Ruby Red Grapefruit and Mojito fragrances found their way to me. I started at a ratio of 1:1:1:1 and worked in more of one or another until I smelled "The" scent. Citrus Mojito. Bliss.

I then gathered all of my solid conditioner ingredients and molds and made 25 of the little darlings. 24 2.5 oz Solid Conditioners colored with Tangerine Pop! mica.



... and don't forget the 25 1 oz solid shampoos with the same color and fragrance.

Next challenge: Packaging. I made cute round labels with the ingredients on the back and the major info on the front. They were shrink wrapped to the bottom of each conditioner.
Here's a close up of the label:


The little shampoos got a custom product information card and were stapled into a treat bag.


Got them all shipped off to the swap hostess and began waiting ever so (im)patiently for the return box. I love swaps! They're like Christmas all year long!

"Dish" Home Cleaning Swap 2011

As some of you already know, I am a member of "The Dish Forum", which is made up of a very talented and generous group of formulators and business owners. Each year I participate in several "Swaps", where different people make products to share with one another. The next swap that is due for my products is the Home Cleaning Swap.

The Home Cleaning Swap came about after a discussion about using natural ingredients to clean the home. Several people in the discussion make specialty products such as degreasers, dryer sachets and such. We each signed up for a cleaning item with the stipulation that only essential oils could be used for fragrance.

My choice was carpet freshener, or as I have labeled my items, "Carpet Re-Freshener". I don't have many carpets left since working for the past 3 years to remove the wall to wall in favor of hardwood with a few area rugs. Even so, those area rugs do get a little 'not-so-fresh' in the winter time, so I went about researching and testing until I cam up with something that worked very well in my house.

The ingredients are simple: Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), Borax and non-Iodized Salt. For fragrance I chose Lavender, Lemon and Litsea Cubeba. For a little fun, I added dried lavender buds.

The next issue I had was to choose packaging. Glass Mason style Jars would have worked, but mailing them to the hostess of the swap, then mailing them again could prove disastrous. Instead, I broke out the trusty Singer and made shaker pouches. Basically I made drawstring bags out of muslin with a piece of nylon netting inside the opening to control the flow of powder out of the bag and provide a bit of 'sprinkling' action. It worked great, but took for EVER to make all 10 of them.

I added an iron on transfer to the front of the bag to identify the contents as mine and make the plain bag a little more dressy. When full to the maximum capacity these bags will probably hold 3-4 lbs of carpet refresher.

Here they all are waiting for wrapping:


I sealed them in shrink wrap for their journey, but decided not to shrink them because they looked better 'unshrunk'.


I included the 'recipe' and directions in the shrink packaging so the swappers would be able to make it again if they chose to. If you would like the recipe, or would like to know how I made the shaker pouches just drop a comment below.

DIY Reusable Liner Soap Molds

A good friend of mine used this phrase "DIY til we DIE" in a recent email to me. I had to laugh because that totally describes us. Why pay huge $ for something made by someone else that I can make myself for next to nothing and performs every bit as good as the pricey purchased one (often better).

As a member of TheDishForum, I like to participate in several research swaps each year. Fragrance swaps are one of my favorites because we get to sample 50+ scents in one go. Making small test batches for these swaps requires small-ish molds. I generally like to make 16 oz batches so that a 1 oz bottle is used up in. a single batch. Here are the steps I used to make a triple log mold made totally to my bar specs for about $5.00. these little molds are absolute workhorses and paid for themselves after the first use.

Custom Triple Log Soap Mold for $5.00:
Materials:
- 6mm (1/4 inch) Craft foam (found at craft supply houses like Hobby Lobby)
- 1 sheet of Foam Board (the kind used for presentations that stands up on its own)
- Duct Tape (I personally use Nashua Brand)

Tools:

- Exacto Knife or razor knife or box cutter
- Ruler
- Self Healing mat (Didn't want to cut the table!)

Steps:



I wanted 6.25 x 3.25 x 2.5 inch logs for this swap, so I started cutting the foam into:

- one bottom piece (6.25 long x 3.25 wide)
- two long sides (3 tall x 6.25 long)
- two end pieces (3 tall x 3.5 long)


NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU USE THE 6mm craft foam. The 3mm and 2mm will not work for this application. They are simply too thin and tear very easily. I found bigger sheets of the 6mm on Ebay to make larger block molds.

Note2: Don't use the cheapo Dollar Store craft foam. The sheets are too thin and the color may leach onto your soap. these things will last you a very long time. Invest in the $1 sheets for the better closed cell foam.


I duct taped one side at a time to the bottom piece and then ran extra duct tape all around the outside to ensure it would all hold together. The little mold/liner ended up being waterproof and only bowed slightly when filled to the top with soap without any other support. I made 3 of these and they all worked out the same. They're not going to win any beauty prizes, but I like the colored duct tape .



Wanting a little more support on the sides I made a frame for all 3 liners out of ½ inch rigid foam board (used for presentations). $5.99 for a poster board on sale 50% off for $2.98). I used half of the sheet for this project. I cut out a base, 2 long sides, 2 short sides and 2 internal spacers and duct taped it all together. Sweet success.The liners fit snugly and pop out easily to unmold the soap.



The photos of the whole setup were taken after the maiden batches. I didn't clean them so you could see how cleanly the soap unmolds. The soap unmolded perfectly after 12 hrs. It literally popped right out of the liners. The formula I used was high in castor (10%) and usually sticks a bit even to the mylar liners I have made before. (I did let it fully gel) Photo below is of log on its side to show bottom corner. Check out the sharp corners and smooth sides. (No wasted end cuts!)



Costs for this triple log set up:
- 3 pieces of 6 mm craft foam (.99 each x 3 = $3)
- ½ sheet of foam core board ($1.50)
- Duct Tape (2.99 for the whole roll" let’s be generous and call it $.50 for this project)
- Total: $5.00 for 3 custom molds.
- Time: 10 minutes per liner. 10 minutes for the holder: 40 minutes including interruptions.



Note: The 6.25 inch logs I chose to make can be cut into 6 one inch bars (4.5+ oz) or 5 1.25 (5.5+ oz) inch thick bars with no wasted ends. I plan to reuse these for many, many, many small test batches. I would not go much larger with this foam-only system simply because the foam board and craft foam are not nearly as strong as wood.

I have also made large block molds and log molds using this foam liner method. They work brilliantly and last for countless batches. Occasionally a batch gets very hot in the mold and makes little moon craters on the outermost sides of the log/block. These scrape off effortlessly with a plastic scraper. In all honesty, once cut and packaged nobody ever notices the edges so I don't worry about it at all.

Fragrance does not stick in the foam since it's a closed cell material. If I get really messy and the liners seem dingy, I can just scrape them with a wooden spatula. They can be washed, just be aware that duct tape isn't friendly with water and your seams may begin to leak. Slap on a new piece of duct tape and you'll be back in business.

I hope someone finds this useful!