A (very late) S.O.A.P. Saga ending

It has been so busy in the GLC candle lab that I haven't had much time to check in with my favorite blogs, let alone keep up with mine.  So my sincerest apologies for this very late ending to my S.O.A.P'y Saga. 

We got the email a while back stating which fragrances that Brambleberry decided to keep as regularly stocked scents...but I of course wanted a little more.  So I shot them an email, and the responded immediately (as they always do) with the names of ALL of the fragrances...because I was dying to see how well my sniffer did. 

I am excited about the fragrances that they decided to keep, and a little sad that they did not choose to keep my ultimate favorite, guess I will have to go looking for that one somewhere. 

I'm sure I will be able to find it.

I am going to list the fragrance #, then my name for it, followed by the original name.

#1-Mulled Wine/Napa Valley - this one has been chosen as one of Brambleberry's fragrances to keep you can find it on the website, they call it Bordeaux Blend

#2-Autumn Harvest/Tea Party - this fragrance has also been chosen as a keeper fragrance, they call it Plum Tea

#3-Blackberry Marmalade/Pino Noir - I knew I smelled some sort of berry in that one

#4-Santa's Workshop/Pinot Grigio - I was way off on this one, it smelled way spicier to me

#5-my cupcake disaster so I never did name it/Red Apple Salsa - hmmmmm.

#6-Frosted Spruceberry/Aloe - this one is really fresh

#7-Winter in the Northwest/Hinoki - My Ultimate favorite of all the fragrances, and for me the best seller.  Was hoping to sell all of these in December and was super excited when they sold out at my first show!  Now I have to find this scent somewhere.

#8-Wicked Witch/Antique Treasure - way to musky for my tastes.

So I did fairly well for my first S.O.A.P panel.  I had a ton of fun and want to thank everyone over at Brambleberry for choosing me to be part of their amazing panel.  I would also like to thank all of the other panel members that gave amazing feedback and had some awesome ideas for soap!  There are some amazingly talented soapers out there!  Best of luck to each and every one of you this holiday season. 

To see the Soapy round up Blog post on SoapQueen you can click here

and then for the final pick blog post click here

I promise to try and keep up with updates this holiday season.  I have some amazing things I'm working on including cupcake soap...yes I am not going to let the cupcakes win.  I will conquer.

Happy Holidays to you all

S.O.A.P. testing: The Adventure Continues

And Last but certainly not least...Mystery S.O.A.P fragrance #6

My last mystery fragrance, a sad moment for me indeed as I have been having more fun than I ever thought possible!  A Gigantic thank you to everyone over at Bramble Berry for this amazing honor.

The Fragrance:  My initial thoughts on this one was earthy and sweet, but that's about as far as I could figure out right out of the bottle.  I really like this fragrance, it's sophisticated, moder, and yet you can still plainly tell that it's a holiday type of scent.  I'm just having a really hard time identifying all of the different notes, it's really quite a complex fragrance.

The Plan:  A Swirl, because well, I just love swirling.  For colors I thought I go with a more modern holiday color scheme.  I for one LOVE the rich purples, peacock blues, and lime greens that have been popular in recent years.  Yes, my yearly Christmas tree is decorated every year with bright purple bows, teal glass ornaments, lime green beads, and peacock themed ornaments.  Wouldn't it be awesome to decorate a tree with bars of soap!...hmmmm now I'm thinking.  Anyway I decided to use my Christmas tree colors as inspiration for this soap design. I went with Bramble Berry's Ultramarine Blue, Green Chrome Mica, and Ultramarine Violet. 

The Recipe: I used a recipe with Lard because I was trying to achieve a whiter base. 

The Results:  As you can see it ashed pretty bad on me (even after I spritzed with alcohol).  This fragrance behaved beautifully there was no acceleration or discoloration what so ever and I had a ton of time to play with it.  Note to self:  this one would be great for a column pour or funnel pour technique.  Once the fragrance was in the soap some of the fragrance notes where easier to pinpoint, although it still remains very complex.  To my nose it has sugar, some sort of plum/mulberry, and crisp blue spruce.  I'm naming this one Frosted Spruceberry, not the most original name, but I think it fits perfectly with the fragrance. 

It turned out fantastic, and I couldn't be more happy with the results.  This one goes on my re-order list,  if Bramble Berry decides to keep it. 

  So my last S.O.A.P fragrance goes to me, making the final tally:

Monica: 6 Mystery fragrances: 2

All of the S.O.A.P fragrances where fantastic, although I must say I am not surprised in the least because Bramble Berry is pretty awesome.

So there we have it for specific tests, I look forward to doing a Soapy round up with pics of all of the soaps now at least a week old to show any color changes as it aged.  Then we will look forward to Bramble Berry's announcement of the actual fragrance name (can't wait to see how close my nose was) and which fragrances they decide to add to their fragrance line.  

Thanks for keeping up with my first ever S.O.A.P testing, I hope at the very least, that you got some soapy inspiration!  Once you start making soap there is no going back, you will become an addict!

I look forward to more soapy fun, and someday becoming a part of this amazing team again. For Now Happy Soaping!

SOAP testing...cupcakes anyone?

Bramble Berry's Mystery fragrance #5 is next up; right out of the bottle my first impression of this fragrance was fruity, tart, and spicy, similar to Apple Jack & Peel.  A punchy apple cider with strong citrus and clove notes, with a pretty big bite to it.  It wasn't one of my favorites, but wasn't one that I disliked either. 

My Idea-I'm jumping on a soaping bandwagon a bit late in the game, but I've been dying to try those cute little soaps that look like cupcakes, so realistic that you want to just take a bite out of one.  You know the ones, you see them and you just can't resist them.  So you buy the cute little buggers knowing full well that you will probably never use them, and they will just sit and look cute.  It's one of those "I bought it cause it was adorable" types of purchase.  Don't lie...you've made those purchases too, I know you have!  Anyway, I am not a baker type of girl, I do not make cupcakes, nor do I bake anything that doesn't come out of a box or without complete instructions; and I am even known to get those wrong on occasion.  So here I am thinking OK, I can do this, it's soap right?  It's not like I have to bake it right?  I might as well live a little and give it a try.

The color-I was thinking fruity apple punch cider here so went with a no color base for the cake and Burgundy oxide for the frosting part, and I used a silicone mini muffin pan for the mold (which I scored at the used store for $1).  For the recipe I used my basic recipe with the addition of Lard.  

The Results: Once in the soap base this fragrance morphed almost instantly into a much more floral fragrance.  I immediately thought of changing the whole design idea because it became way to floral to work with a cupcake/dessert design, but I already had everything ready to go and had zero time to alter my design idea.  (I didn't have a loaf mold ready to go).  Note to self:  be better at having a backup plan if something doesn't work out.  This fragrance didn't accelerate trace, but did discolor my soap base to a bright yellow color.  As for the cupcakes themselves, well lets just say that for now I will leave those to my fellow soapers that have way more patience than I do.  Out of 2 dozen cupcakes, only 3 looked decent enough for a photo shoot.  As you can see I need a lot of practice.  

See the frosting, it looks brown right?  Nope that's ash.  Yep these little buggers ashed up on me like crazy, the color is more of a mauve (see below).  This was a great learning experience for me though, and I did have enough left overs to make some mini soaps, and some soap curls for a future project.  So not a total loss, and while the cupcakes are sure not perfect by my standards, everyone seems to love them anyway, and of course can not resist them because "they are so darling".  I am thinking that these are worth a little practice in the art of Frosting cupcakes. 

Overall, while I did not end up liking this fragrance, it performed well and was perfect to work with.  It is a very strong fragrance (3%), and has really stuck in the soap so far.   I am giving this one to the fragrance, since it changed so much for me once I stuck it in the soap. 

Monica:    4     Mystery fragrances:  2

So on to the next challenge, Fragrance # 7 which is one of my absolute favorites OOB!  Can't wait for this one.