Spunky Violet Spring Soap

Ever since I was a young girl my most favorite color combo has been Green and Purple.  I even had matching green and purple riding gear for my horse!  To this day it continues to be a favorite combination of mine.  I have many different items in my home that combine this amazing color combination.  

I was inspired by spring (yes I am ready for spring already) and my love for all things purple and green.  I have had this soap project in my mind using this color combo for a while now...and I finally found the perfect fragrance to go with this project.

This fragrance is beautiful and is described as:  The sensual and luxurious aroma of violet blends with crisp, clean lime to produce this sophisticated fragrance.   I think the blend makes is feminine yet spunky!

Spunky Violet should be ready February 1st 2012.  It is also available in our Everyday Elegance Soy Candle. 

SOAP testing fragrance #7...Winter in the Pacific Northwest

And Another one Down...Mystery Fragrance # 7 was one of my absolute favorites.  My first impression out of the bottle was crisp, clean, and earthy.  Like fresh snow, mountain air, and pine trees after a hard rain.  Exactly like winter in the Pacific Northwest.  

I had some curls from a previous soap project that had a similar smell to it, and decided to put them to use.  I wanted to go with a more contemporary blue color scheme (Ultramarine Blue from Bramble Berry.com), think fresh, clean, and wintry; a refreshing blue color scheme that doesn't exactly scream holiday.  In my area we love our pine tree smells, so this one may work as a year round soap.  (plus I am not a huge fan of the traditional holiday colors anyway) I also wanted to do another layered soap...loved the layered soap (see SOAP frag #8) from a few posts ago. 

I went with a basic recipe again, but with the addition of yummy Mango Butter that I got on sale a while back from Bramble Berry Recipe is:  30% Olive Oil, 30% Coconut oil, 20% Palm oil, 10% Safflower oil, 5% Castor oil, and 5% Mango Butter.  I am loving mango butter!

This fragrance stayed true to it's scent in the soap and did not morph into anything unexpected.  I pine notes came through more predominately, but did not overshadow any of the 'brighter' notes that I detected OOB.  This fragrance did discolor the base into a yellowish tone, and therefore the non-colored portion ended up a bit on the green side (with the addition of the U.blue).  I also indicated a slight acceleration, which of course made layering a breeze as long as your prepared for the acceleration.  It probably would have gotten to thick for a good swirl, or something that requires more time for play. 

 I thought the colors would come out a bit muddy, but I was pleasantly surprised to note that they did not. As for the curls, that part was pure fun;  after I poured the last layer, I let it set up slightly and slowly pushed in the swirls at different places and various depths.  This one took 48 hrs to harden up before I could cut it, maybe from the mango butter..not sure.  I usually am able to cut within 24 hrs, it was so hard to wait!

Overall I LOVED this fragrance and it would be on my list of fragrances to buy more of if Bramble Berry decides to keep it.  (which I hope they do..please..please)  While it moved fast, it didn't move so fast that it was unbearable to work with.  The scent is strong and true in soap at a 3% usage rate, and the bars turned out Beautiful. 

This one goes to me!

Monica :  5  Mystery fragrances:  2

 Stay tuned for the next installment of the SOAP testing saga, Fragrance #6, the last fragrance to test.

The SOAP testing continues...

My adventure continues with mystery fragrances #4 & #8, I skipped to number 8 because frankly it was not my favorite scent of them all, and I just wanted to get it done.  

First I worked on Mystery Fragrance #4

 The fragrance: #4-First impressions right out of the bottle was of something sweet, yet tart like orange or cranberry; mixed with something earthy and crisp like balsam. Sort of like the holiday potpourri they have this time of year.  The idea:  Another swirl to help me practice my swirling abilities, I marvel at some of the beautiful swirls I see from fellow soapers, plus I just love the creative part of swirling soap!  The Colors: Think Holidays, so I went with Green, Red and Black.  Would have liked to add white, but realized I am completely out of titanium dioxide (now how did that happen).

The Recipe:  A slight variation on my basic recipe from prev posts, but with more olive oil.  Since batch #2 accelerated so fast I thought I would tweak the recipe just a little to give me time to swirl. 







The Results:  A very beautiful swirl with crisp lines and an amazing scent.  The fragrance did have some discoloration, it turned the soap base yellow, thus resulting in muddier colors than expected; and the fragrance had a little bit of acceleration.  The green color however, ended up much brighter than it normally is.  Is this green morph from the fragrance or the oils?  I do not know the answer, but I am going to find out.  Will the green settle down into the more deep green that it's supposed to be?  Maybe, we will see as the soap cures.  If it doesn't, that's still OK, I like how it turned out anyway.  Even thought the base was a bit thicker when poured the swirls still came out fantastic.  I am very happy with this one!

So success #3 in my SOAP testing adventure. 

Monica: 3  SOAP Fragrances: 1

The second Batch I did was Mystery Fragrance #8

The Fragrance:  #8-Not my favorite, I usually love earthy fragrances, but this one was a little too earthy even for me.  It's a very smoky type of fragrance that reminds me of Frankincense or Myrrh, similar to Witches Brew without any note of sweetness.  I wasn't going to put this in soap, because lets face it, I'm not sure anyone would want to smell like that; but I could not think of anything else to use it in, so into soap it went.  The Idea:  In my effort to try and make something fun out of a fragrance I didn't like (which is harder than you would think), I immediately thought I could pass this fragrance off as a Halloween fragrance like Witchy something or Fright Night.  3 different Halloween themed layers was the idea that came to mind first.

 The Colors:  What immediately comes to mind when you think of Halloween; why Orange, Black, and Purple of course!  I would have liked to add a little glitter to give it some fun pizazz, but I didn't have any skin safe glitter in my cupboards.  (Don't worry I put it on my wish list for my next Bramble Berry order)  The Recipe:  Again went basic with Olive, Coconut, Palm, Shea Butter, Castor oil, and Sweet Almond Oil.  With this one it was OK if it traced quickly; when it comes to layers the thicker the better.  This one had no acceleration whatsoever, in fact, I had to wait a little bit before pouring each layer. 

The Result:  The layers turned out fantastic, and the colors are awesome.  I still don't like the scent any better than I did before, but the colors and the look have given it a bit more appeal.  This fragrance would have been great to use as a column pour because I actually had to wait a bit for it to get to a thick enough trace in between layers.  Overall I like it, but would not make it a part of my soap line, it may have appealed to the guys if I would have left it uncolored.  But that is not quite as much fun, is it?

The layers are great and the colors came out super pretty.  I have noticed no discoloration from the fragrance, and overall it performed well for me.

So overall another success, I plan to get some input on the fragrance from some of my trusty tester people and see what they think, because while I may not like it someone else may LOVE it!

Monica : 4 SOAP Fragrances: 1

Stayed tuned for the next batch of SOAP testing fun!  I'm thinking Mini Cupcakes with Fragrance #5 (Have been dying to try those cute cupcakes that people make), and some embeds with Fragrance # 7

Mystery SOAP Fragrance #1

Hurray for the Fall S.O.A.P Testing Panel!!  I am having so much fun coming up with ideas, and playing with these fantastic fragrances from Bramble Berry.  I am so honored to be a part of this panel, and I can hardly believe they chose me out of all the applicants, it's like winning the lottery!

***Warning:  If you are a fellow SOAP panel member and have NOT received your fragrances yet...DO NOT read any further as it will spoil all of your fun!***

The Idea:  I've been wanting to try the thin black line in between layers that I found here.  I think the line in the middle of the layers gives such definition and interest to a technique (layers) that can sometimes be a little boring.  I decided to do the same color on each layer, making the bottom layer on the dark side and the top layer on the lighter side.

The Fragrance:  Mystery Fragrance #1 smells delicious.  To me it smells like grape with a green note that I can't quite place.  In my opinion it doesn't smell like a Fall fragrance exactly, more like a nice fruity smell that would be great year round.  It reminds me of wine and vineyards, with the green note giving it a nice briskness.

The Color:  Since wine and vineyards come to mind I decided to try the Burgundy Oxide Pigment I just got from Bramble Berry.  For the line I will use Black Oxide.

The Recipe:  I kept it simple, since this is a testing fragrance that I was not sure would behave well.  I used a recipe of mine that has a high percentage of olive oil.  Olive oil is my favorite oil in soap, it's so gentle and fantastic for your skin.

Olive Oil: 35%

Coconut Oil: 30%

Palm Oil: 25%

Grape seed Oil: 5%

Castor Oil: 3%

Avocado Oil: 2%

Since I used EVOO instead of Pomace the burgundy turned a bit muddy, this was from the oils not the fragrance.  I split my 2lb batch in half and did one pound at a time so each layer would set up nice and firm and give me a clean line.  This is the darker bottom layer. 

The Results:  This fragrance oil was FANTASTIC to work with.  It behaved beautifully, no acceleration what so ever, and so far no discoloration to speak of.  The scent remained true and did not loose any of it's notes and I'm happy that it retained that Green note (which I still can't place).  I don't know if I Love the line in between, I like the look just not sure about the loose pigment.  I guess we will see once it's cured and ready to use, who knows, maybe it will grow on me.  As they cure I will keep my eye out for any discoloration and fragrance staying power. 

So Success #1 for my first SOAP testing.  Monica: 1 Soap: 0  I look forward to the next project.

Stay tuned for mystery fragrance project #2...I think I'm going to do a 6 color column pour because I just Love that technique, it's beautiful and it's fun to do!!

Hope everyone has a fantastic day, I'm off to go work on sugar scrubs.  On a side note I am thinking about those of you who are on the East Coast and are dealing with Hurricane Irene.. Be Safe.