Fathers Day Gift

Here's a great Fathers Day gift & packaging idea. Soap isn't generally thought of as the most masculine of gifts, but hey, guys gotta wash too, right? These soaps are made in the Milky Way Stones 2 mold. I melted about 10 ounces of goat milk soap ( it was 15 of the squares and filled the 3 cavities perfectly) and coloured with a bit of black oxide and white mica. I put the black oxide in a small container and sprayed with rubbing alcohol to get a black liquid. This was added to the melted soap and then I stirred in the white mica. Spray the melted soap with alcohol and stir gently to make sure you don't have any lumpy bits. Lasty, the fragrance was added. This soap is scented with Drakkar Noir Type fragrance. They are displayed in a 6.5 X 8.5 inch cigar box. How manly is that? :)

Playing around with packaging ideas for the June newsletter. These boxes have 200 grams of bath salts in each one.

Ribbon Frugality

Have you ever gotten near the end of one of your favorite rolls of ribbon and then wondered why you've been using it with such wild abandon? The flowered ribbon on these soaps is/was not only my favorite, but also kind of a splurge- a little more pricey than what I usually use. So when I was nearing the end of these rolls I decided to do what I should have done in the first place and be a little more frugal. An all around wrap with a plain ribbon and then a tie on with some of the fancy is "almost" as nice. Its also a great way to incorporate a two colour theme for a wedding or shower etc. That way you can justify your (or in this case my) stingyness with the fancy stuff.

I really do heart the way these Blackberry Sage soaps look with the purple ribbon wrapped all the way around. Can you see I was using the ribbon with wild abandon? To make this soap I placed the Mold Market loaf mold on my cutting board and propped one side up with a few slabs of soap. My first pour was 20 ounces of glycerin melt & pour with some lime green colourant and a handfull of goat milk melt and pour that I had cut into little curls plus 2 tsp of blackberry sage fragrance. Since this is a fair amount of soap you have to patiently let it set up until it has a very thick skin on it. Then you can put the cutting board flat and do the second pour, which in my case was the same as the first only with purple colour instead of green. Don't forget to generously spray the soap in the mold with rubbing alcohol before doing the second pour. If you want to add little soap curls to your melt and pour, be aware that they my clump up a little. Use a chopstick or toothpick to break them up if they do.

Shimmering Massage Bars

Here's a June Newsletter sneak peak. The pink hearts are a Pink Grapefruit Massage (moisture) Bar with pink mica and grapefruit essential oil. The white ones are Lavender Massage Bars with lavender essential oil and white mica - the shimmer in these ones doesn't show as well in the picture. They are quite shimmery.

Recipe for 2 bars:

3 oz Cocoa Butter

1 tsp Sweet Almond Oil

1 tsp Essential Oil

1 pinch of mica (about 1/4 tsp)

You can add more mica if you like, most of the mica will sink into the mold.

Melt your Coco Butter. I melted mine in the microwave in a pyrex measuring cup. In my microwave 2 minutes plus 1 minute, with a few minutes rest in between, was perfect. The few minutes rest was to cool the measuring cup, you don't want it to overheat and explode.

Stir in the Almond Oil, Essential Oil and mica. Let this cool. I like to wait until it starts to look slightly opaque. Stir one more time before pouring into your mold. This recipe filled two of the Mold Market Guest Heart molds. Since this is a four cavity mold, you can double the recipe and make four of one kind at a time.

A little note: I like to put my bars in the fridge to harden. I find they come out of the molds nicely that way but they will be a little slippery. Just leave them out for a day or so before you package them. They'll be easier to handle that way.

This is the Wilton Heart Combo Cutter I used to cut the soaps with for the Heart Bouquet.