Autumnal Deer Bar Soap

These handsome deer bars are great for the season, and they're scented with my favorite fall fragrance: Vanilla Oak. The scent is popular with both men and women and has notes of Light Camphor, Italian Bergamot, Cassia Root to provide flighty top notes, with strong middle and base notes of Sweet Heliotrope, Soft Amber, Warm Oak, Sandalwood, Patchouli and Creamy Vanilla.

Supplies:
Cappuccino Mica
Light gold mica
Green chrome oxide
Clear melt-and-pour base (1 pound yields three deer bars)
White Tailed Deer Flexible Mold
Vanilla Oak Fragrance Oil
Vanilla Color Stabilizer Use one tablespoon per pound of M&P soap.
Rubbing alcohol
Dropper
Clean Up Tool

Melt 1 pound of soap base and add 4 ml Vanilla Oak fragrance oil and one tablespoon Vanilla Color Stabilizer. Separate a small amount (about 1/4 cup) and color with Cappuccino Mica. Use a dropper to squeeze brown soap into the deer section. Use the clean up tool for areas that may have spilled over, particularly around the antlers.



Color 1 cup of soap with light gold mica. Remember, the soap base already has scent and VCS in it. You will have to keep melting it down as you work. Spray the hardened deer layer with rubbing alcohol and pour a layer of light gold soap over the deer detail. Tip: Putting a white or light colored layer behind the dark deer will create contrast and pop out the color in the deer. Don't pour dark behind dark or you won't see the detail.


For the final layer, color the rest of the soap base with one scoop light gold mica and one scoop chrome green oxide. Spray the light gold layer before you pour the green so the layers stick together, and make sure the layer you are pouring onto is hard.

Let harden and you're done! You can use other types of clear bases for different benefits, like Aloe Vera, Honey, or Shaving base for example. The Vanilla Color Stabilizer will keep the soap from going brown from the Vanilla Oak fragrance oil.

Patchouli Cranberry Luxury Bars

This is my favorite cold process recipe! I found it on From Nature With Love a while back when a customer requested a mild facial bar for acne prone skin. I tried out a bar for myself and it was a real treat for my skin, and the customer had great results as well. Now, I've decided to use the recipe again but with a few twists.

Recipe: Yields 2.75 pounds

6 oz distilled water
6 oz aloe vera liquid
2 oz castor oil
4 oz cocoa butter
4 oz coconut oil
12 oz olive oil
5 oz palm oil
5 oz palm kernal flakes
4.4 oz lye
1.5 oz Patchouli E.O.
0.5 oz cranberry seeds
1 teaspoon bamboo powder
Up to 1/4 teaspoon burgundy pigment

Make your lye solution, weigh out your melted oils and combine both when temperatures are at around 100 degrees F. Add the Patchouli to the entire batch at this point.


Separate about half of the batch into a smaller container for the bottom layer. Add cranberry seeds and bamboo powder for natural scrubbing power. Pour this layer at a very thick trace.


In another small container, separate out 1/4 of the rest of the batch. Add burgundy pigment and 0.5 oz Cranberry Fig fragrance oil if you want to try a fun scent blend. Pour this layer at a medium to thick trace.


Pour the rest of the uncolored soap on last. I swirled a little bit of pink on the surface by mixing together the scrapings from my burgundy layer with the scrapings of the neutral soap. It looks great and reduced waste! As the top layer sets up, use a whisk to sculpt peaks. The cuts bars are beautiful with a stamp and the soap is mild, healing and oh so luxurious.


(Doesn't the color scheme remind you of Christmas? It's not too early to start those holiday cold process projects!)

Honey and Milk Bee Bars

This fun melt-and-pour project is easy enough for beginners and hardly takes any time at all. You wouldn't know it by the highly detailed results! As the seasons change and the temperatures drop, I'm in the mood for comfort soap. Honey and goat milk are both super nourishing and moisturizing, and our best selling Oatmeal, Milk and Honey fragrance is sweet, warm, and toasty.

Supplies:
Beehive Tray Mold
One Bee Tray Mold
2 Pounds Honey Melt-and-Pour Base
1 Pound Goat Milk Melt-and-Pour Base
Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Fragrance Oil
Yellow Mica
Copper Sparkle Mica
Large knife
Rubbing alcohol
Dropper

Start by melting the goat milk soap base. Add 4 ml of scent per pound of soap. Use your dropper to fill the bee details on both trays. Set it aside to harden.

Melt one pound of honey base, add 4 ml scent, two mini scoops of yellow and two mini scoops of copper sparkle mica. Mix well, spray white details with rubbing alcohol and pour the honey soap over both trays.


Let harden, spray rubbing alcohol and pour another layer of goat milk soap. Melt the other pound of honey base and color with just the copper sparkle (2-4 mini scoops). Finish both trays with this copper/honey layer and let harden. Spraying rubbing alcohol ensures that your layers stick together.


Remove soap from tray molds and cut with kitchen knife. The One Bee mold has score marks to follow, and the other tray is one big piece that requires measuring or just eye-balling it. I love how easy it is to make multiple bars at once with tray molds. They came out bee-autiful!

Private Class Swirled Soap

Hey everyone, Kat here! Check out these fun, colorful bars made in a private class with Elaine. We covered the basics of making soap from scratch and then jumped right into some fancy swirl techniques. We had SO much fun and she was a total pro! I really enjoyed her enthusiasm for color and design.

If you would like to take a private class, please call us at (360) 676-1030 or sign up for one of our group classes online.

Felted Soap Bars

I LOVE felted soap! I love the way it feels, the way it looks and of course the huge lather. The idea of it does make me laugh a little because it's almost as if we crafters just don't know when to stop. We've already made the soap, but we have to cover it with more handmade goodness! Trust me, once you make one felted bar, you'll have to make more because it's just so much fun. Here's how:

1. First, gather materials: a bar of soap, carded wool, a towel and a dish of hot water.

2. Wrap wool around the bar of soap both length-wise and width-wise, so all surfaces are covered. Include additional bands of colored wool for decoration.

3. Wet the bar by dribbling hot water on it. Do not dunk soap or the wool will slide off. Make sure wool is wet all the way through and begin to squeeze the bar periodically. The bar will start to lather up at this point. Gently rub the bar in your hands to bind the fibers.


4. When the wool is snug, run it under cold water to shock and tighten the wool, then rinse out the bubbles. Squeeze out excess water and pat dry with towel. Now you're ready to start another! Enjoy :-)