10th ave. soapworks

Years ago   I tried a lemon poppyseed fragrance oil.  It was dead-on--sweet vanilla cake mixed with tart lemon.   However, I was stumped when my beautiful yellow soap with black poppyseeds went dark brown in a day or two, until I realized that, of course, it was the vanilla.  It was my first time using a fragrance that contained vanilla--I hadn't even thought to check. The color was such a turn-off I never tried it again. I've since fallen in love with a vanilla lavender fragrance that's become a longstanding favorite in my shop, never mind that it turns a deep brown.  Here are a few pictures of my last batch. It started out so creamy and the loveliest shade of ivory. The next day it was a light caramel color.  If I could just hold it at this color! And before a few days had gone by it was its usual color.  I tried to color it a deep purple once, but the result was still plain ol' brown.  It's f...

Ah, my soap studio.  It should be a haven of creativity, but for the last few months it's been a center of farmer's market chaos and the everlasting soap scraps.  Y'know, the little ends and bits that I want to test but I can only test so many at a time so they're all lined up.  I decided to do a mini-makeover--painting.  Sometimes just a little thing like that can make a load of difference. Here is the before picture. (I purposely left a mess for a more dramatic contrast!)  The picture doesn't show it well, but the walls were a pinkish-peach color with metallic gold stencil trim.  Not bad, but it was old and needed a new look--one that was more "me." And ta-da!  The after picture.  No shock to anyone who knows me that it's green.  And I sorted through every little thing, got rid of what I didn't use, and streamlined my supplies and equipment so I'm more efficient and s...

I knew that finishing Amy Warden's soap challenge this time of year would be difficult, but I didn't realize that the pace of my life would speed up to the point of it being impossible.  But it has, although I will be finishing the challenge soaps on my own time. I've noticed that in the middle of all the glitter and faux funneling the soap itself often gets lost somewhere.  Every time I get into a foo-foo soap phase I end up balancing myself by swinging to the other side of the pendulum with simple, naturally colored soaps.  And then I wonder why in the world I ever bought that jar of glitter in the first place.... I had some oils measured and ready to be soaped about a week ago but I just couldn't decide what to make since I'm caught up on my staple soaps.  As I write, I'm pretty sure that I overlooked something, but I'll pretend for now....   I saw a mention of banana soap on Facebook (thanks Amy!) and that was just the inspi...

I've recently added some new soaps to my zibbet shop : Raspberry porter , made with beer (of course) brewed here in Monroe... sweet pea , as you remember, one of my challenge soaps... And anise .  I've never really had a strong opinion about anise one way or another, but this simple anise essential oil soap won me over.  It's so spicy and refreshing! And a funny thing happened recently.  A super fun lady named Ann taught my sisters and me how to applique.  That's not exactly the funny thing, but it was a good time... I fell in love with the technique and made myself this messenger bag which I now use all the time.  Someone happened to be passing by as I was showing my bag to a friend and this complete stranger asked me to design one for her.  So I made one.  And then another.  And then a couple more (because I have nothing else to do, you understand...snicker...)  I've put a couple of...

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver," reads the Proverb.  I love words that are spot-on and well-written.  On the contrary, a poorly spoken word is like the proverbial fingernail on a chalkboard or a fork scraping across a dinner plate.  If you've made soap for any period of time, you've stumbled across the term "soap porn" to describe pictures of soap.  How icky is that?  It makes me cringe every time.  To compare a beautiful, pure bar of soap to that visual filth is in the poorest taste and  just not classy , folks.... OK, now that I feel better with my little rant out there, I'll move on to last week's soap challenge .  Yes, last week's.  I was determined to get this one done, even if the next challenge assignment is already posted.  I've done gradient soaps before so I wanted a different twist to this batch.  It just so happene...

I've been hoarding a little bottle of one of the most delish scents ever, Ginger Lime.  This week seemed the perfect time to break it out.  And yay, my faux funnel swirl did justice to it! I used turmeric for the yellow, cocoa for the brown, and chromium oxide for the green swirls.  These earth tones are so "me" and I am one happy girl.  Beg and plead all you want, but I won't be parting with several bars of this batch... Want to see some more awesome faux funnel swirls?  Take a peek here .

Well, I'm ahead of the game this week.  My soap challenge soap is made, cut, and looking good!  Pictures to come on Saturday. Anyway, I made this particular batch with yogurt.  If you like the qualities that yogurt gives to soap, you soapmakers can add a bit of wow to your next batch by making your very own yogurt.  (I'm all about the DIY projects!) It is Super Easy, too!  For years I've used my $1 garage sale yogurt maker but it breathed its last a couple of months ago.  (It had lived a good long life....I saw the same yogurt maker on an episode of the Bob Newhart Show , so that puts it at about 40 years old in people years--I don't know the equivalent in electric kitchen gizmo years....)  OK, no more relying on a gadget, I had to learn how to do it myself.  Have you ever searched "making homemade yogurt" on the internet?  There are 2,260,000 results on Google and I would reckon that every one is different.  So that means that ...