Happy Birthday, With Soap!

We had SO much fun this afternoon with some soaperstars celebrating their friend's 11th birthday at Otion (birthday girl in the center!). While the bars hardened in the freezer, they had time for cake and presents. These are their favorite soaps they made, and later we cut into the glittery party loaf. Mom was super excited to not have any mess at her house, and it was our pleasure hosting such a well-behaved group. Thanks for coming and Happy Birthday!!

Coffee Break

I think most female Pacific Northwest residents will agree with me when I say we love coffee, but we love coffee and chocolate even more. I happen to love it in soap, and so should you! (This is Kat posting by the way, in case you might have had a moment of confusion over Soap King).

We carry a fragrance called Chocolate Espresso, which I admit makes me want to eat a bar of soap scented with it, or drink it straight out of the bottle (don't do that). Thank goodness I haven't gone that far. I made some lovely soap with it today, and I think bathing with it is even better yet.

I started with some white melt-and-pour base and added fragrance and ground coffee beans. This is the soap for my embeds, which you can do any design you want. I made stars.


For the background, I used a clear base colored with cappuccino mica.


Pour a layer of brown and let it set up a bit to hold the embed. Spray both the embed and the layer with rubbing alcohol so everything sticks together nicely. Then fill in the rest with more brown.


Pop them out and try not to take a bite. Enjoy!

Glitter, Neons and Swirling, Oh My!

This afternoon we had a special guest Bramble Berry shopper who is in town visiting from Wisconsin. While her husband went golfing (thanks to course tips from Erik), Susie stayed with me and made soap! She loves cold process and fully took advantage of our huge fragrance selection. Bramble Berry shoppers LOVE coming into Otion because they can sniff as much as their noses can take. All those curiosities (like Ginger Fish... what the heck? It's actually amazing) are resolved.

We made a fun swirly melt-and-pour loaf at the Soap Bar using two pounds of Aloe MP and one pound of Goat Milk MP. She ingeniously blended Spellbound Woods and Lavender Chamomile Huggies Type for this batch, and of course we used glittery stars.



The final result is spectacular! I see a sunset over the beach in these bars. Talk about a great vacation!

Blissful Bath Salts

I'm not exaggerating when I say bath salts and scrubs are the easiest bath product you can make (besides just pouring oil on yourself). In about fifteen minutes, I had three different scrubs with three different healing purposes: Energize, Refresh, and Sleepy Time.

In each scrub I used about 8 ounces of fine dead sea salt, one teaspoon additive (lavender buds, orange peel powder, shredded loofah), two tablespoons of liquid glycerin, and up to 2 ml essential oil blend for a heavy scent.

In my refresher scrub, I used lavender buds as colorful interest and fresh scent, and a blend of peppermint and lavender essential oils. This scrub feels amazing on tired feet and the essential oils have great antiseptic and cleansing properties.




In my Energize scrub, I used orange peel powder and a blend of Orange Valencia and Grapefruit essential oils. Citrus blends are known for their "wake-up!" qualities. This is my favorite combination and smells incredibly juicy and delicious.



In my Sleepy Time scrub, I used shredded blue loofah, Eucalyptus essential oil, and the Sleepy Time essential oil blend. The main fragrance components of this blend are Ylang Ylang, which relaxes and brings feelings of joy, Tangerine, which alleviates stress and anxiety, orange, which refreshes, and lavender, which is soothing and calming, and I added the Eucalyptus to soothe any aching muscles before bed time.


Packaging scrubs is as simple as making them. Use a clear plastic bag and tie off with a delicate ribbon or some rustic twine. They make fantastic customized gifts, but make sure to save some for yourself!

Private Class Soap Gallery

Take a break from your busy work day to rest your eyes on some artsy soap creations made in private classes with Kat this month.

Peggy's projects: First up is a Jelly Roll embed melt-and-pour project scented with the popular Summer Melon Spritzer. We also made a three color swirl (plus neutral) in cold process using lemongrass essential oil. We talked a lot about color and design and how to customize recipes.



Kellie's creations: This advanced cold process class was also a blast! We made soap for four hours and did three different swirl projects. Below is an advanced linear swirl in CP with Eucalyptus essential oil. We colored the majority of the batch with a light blue/green sage color and poured white and black lines into it.


We also made a bright neon in-the-pot swirl with Energy fragrance, just like the soap from this year's Soaping Intensive Weekend demo.


Last but not least, we made a swirled layer loaf with a charcoal vein. Each layer is neutral swirled with color (cappuccino mica on top, merlot and coral mica blend on bottom), paired with Black Raspberry Vanilla fragrance oil. Yum!!