Friday, January 18, 2013

Coffee Crazy

I purchased a pound of coffee butter a few months ago and have been wanting to give it a try ever since. It smells WONDERFUL, and I finally put it to good use yesterday by adding it to a soap recipe. I decided to keep things simple and used distilled water for the entire liquid portion of the batch. I may try using brewed coffee another time, but for now I wanted to keep the variables to a minimum with a new recipe and new (to me) fragrance oil.


I added coffee grounds to the main part of the soap, as well as the topping, and also created a coffee ground 'line' between the topping and the base. I didn't add fragrance to the upper portion in order to keep a nice contrast between the top and bottom layers. Even without fragrance oil added, the coffee butter alone will keep the top layer from being white.  It's more likely to cure out to a creamy tan color which is just fine! This soap smells incredible, and I have a feeling this won't be the last batch of coffee bars coming out of my soap kitchen.  Warning! Coffee craze in progress!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Pretty in...Peach?

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and presents one of the first holiday soap-gifting opportunities of the year. In thinking about a Valentine's Day soap, images of pink, red, and chocolate brown typically come to mind. Perfect colors for a holiday best known for gifts of pink candy hearts and chocolate.

I decided to go for a light to medium shade of pink with dark brown swirls. In the end, the 'pink' ended up being more 'peach', and the brown (cocoa powder) ended up not being a problem. Whew! At least that worked out!  The "berry" fragrance oil, even with titanium dioxide added, did affect the pink.  So, I'll continue to be challenged by trying to achieve perfect colors! Isn't that what soapmakers do? Always learning, refining, perfecting? I love the challenge!

Berries and Chocolate...