We've Moved!

Our New Blog!

http://www.otionsoap.com/blog/

 

Looking for great soap projects? We've moved our blog to Otion's home page. You can find us here!

Simple Soy Candles

If you are putting together handmade gift baskets for Christmas presents this year, consider adding handmade soy candles. They are beautiful in our glass candle containers, colored or left neutral, and soy wax burns cleaner than most other wax products. Plus, they are easy enough for absolute beginners to make!

What you need:

4 Glass Candle Containers
24 oz Advanced Eco Soya Wax
8 cup Pyrex dish
Candle Dye, color by preference
Candle Scent, by preference (I used Milk and Honey)
4 wicks WU 250
Knife
Plastic Dropper for liquid color


First, weigh out 16 ounces of soy wax in your Pyrex measuring cup and melt down in the microwave at 1 minute intervals until melted. We will melt down the rest later.

Next, add 1 full ounce of candle fragrance and stir in completely. Then add 8 drops of candle colorant (or shave off a small amount off dye block and stir in).

Tip! The color will appear much darker in the melted wax than when dried. Put a knife in the freezer when you get started and dip it into the colored wax to immediately see the final color. Add more color if desired.

To place the wicks, dip them in the melted wax and center them in each cup. When you pour the wax, make sure to balance the wick with pens or chopsticks so that they don't tip over.

Finally, melt down 8 more ounces of wax and top off each candle. You don't need to scent this small amount. This uncolored wax will dry white and makes a neat foggy swirl through the purple. Plus, it helps clean out any color left in your bowl. Wipe your Pyrex dish clean with a paper towel while it is still warm.

Let the candle harden and snip off the excess wick. You can print off cute labels to stick on the side or gift them with a ribbon. Enjoy!

Free Holiday Parking Downtown!

To encourage shoppers to visit downtown during the holidays, the City of Bellingham is launching the Holiday Parking Program, December 12-26. Downtown shoppers can enjoy free parking in metered spaces all day every day.
“We offered free two-hour lunch parking between Thanksgiving and Christmas in past years,” said Clark Williams, Transportation Superintendent with Public Works. “It was confusing for shoppers,” he added. The Downtown Bellingham Partnership proposed longer hours on fewer days.

Although parking is free all day, drivers are asked to park responsibly by observing the time limits posted on the meters.
Shoppers wishing to stay longer are encouraged to park on the ground floor of the Parkade.
For more information, contact the Transportation Superintendent at 778-7700, or click here.

Otion is downtown on the corner of Bay Street and Holly Street. Come see us!

Christmas Jelly Roll

Learn how to make these sweet Christmas Jelly Roll bars by following the Soap Queen video below and just change the colors and scent! For my red, I blended red labcolor, merlot mica and red glitter, used liquid white for the white, and green chrome oxide for the background, all with our bulk clear base. The fragrance blend is Christmas Tree Cybilla and Peppermint 2nd Distillation. Make sure to add liquid glycerin to the roll so it bends and spray rubbing alcohol so everything sticks together.

How to Make Embedded Jelly Roll Soap from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Soapy Celebration

Birthday parties are one of our favorite things we offer at Otion, and we had the pleasure of hosting a party for a great group of nine year-old girls last weekend. Most of them were already experienced soaperstars from using our walk-in Soap Bar before. Everyone made two bars of personalized soap!

There was plenty of time for cake and presents while the soap hardened in the freezer.

In addition to fun shapes, we made what's called a "party loaf." Everyone pours different colors and scents into one big soap and then it's cut up and shared at the end.

Thanks for a great time and enjoy the beautiful soap you made!