My Journey Through S.O.A.P. Part 5

I am now in the home stretch testing Bramble Berry's S.O.A.P. fragrances in Cold Process soaps! I unmolded Scent #4 and was very pleased indeed! The yellow was a tad heavy and I was worried about discolored bubbles, but everything turned out fine and it kept the nice pinks and purples. Nice dark fall colors! The scent held up nicely, still smells like a nice floral baby lotion to me, especially now :) I really, really like the scent, and all things baby :)

Part 5: Scent 5

Scent Description: a deep berry scent with a touch of zap that I can't put my finger on. This one reminds me of the County Fair and all the jellies and jams :) REALLY hope that this one holds up well! This is a keeper!

Method Used: I am soaping the same way as the others and using a low temp CP, insulated for a Gel Phase. 1 batch only. I did not particularly like the texture of the no Gel soaps.

Recipe Used: Same again. This recipe has been a tried and true one for me for many years.

Performance: Since I tend to soap at low temps, add color, THEN add the scents, it is behaving fine. I did not notice any acceleration that I might have at higher temps. I pour at a light medium trace and put to bed :) Although I must note: As I am writing this, I have the bottle beside me so that I can sniff it and I got a tiny drop on my finger and didn't notice. It is presently eating away at the "y", "h", "b", "m" and "n" on the laptop. got it wiped off but BEWARE and try not to store in anything but glass bottles :)

Color Notes: For this one, I decided to color only 1.5 cups of the raw soap. I mixed in 1/4 tsp Bramble Berry Brick Red Oxide and added back to the main soap with an In The Pot Swirl. I DID NOT take pictures for this on purpose.... I want it to be a surprise :) I am hoping that the nice, deep reds and the natural color of the soap comes through!

I will be back tomorrow with the reveal! Please take a minute to visit the other soaper's blogs about their experiences as well! I know that we ALL are having a blast!

Blessings,

Amanda

My Journey Through S.O.A.P. Part 4

I must say that I am absolutely having a BLAST doing testing for Bramble Berry! I have even managed to get my 14 year old daughter in on the designs and such. She has been a huge help with colors and helping do the funnel pours. In a word, AwEsOmE!

Upon cutting of Scent 7 that I covered yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised! The color rings held nicely and the scent did not diminish at all. The top did go a bit wonky, but my esteemed peers think that would have been caused by the layer of plastic wrap that I covered it with during insulation. I planed off the top and it turned out really nice and held the tiny swirls. Even though I was not a fan straight out of the bottle, I am beginning to rethink that.

Part 4: Scent 4

Scent Description: This one is very hard for me to pin down. It is delicate, yet strong. It has floral notes and something akin to baby lotion.

Method Used: Cold Process, Gel Phase, 1 batch, 3 Color Funnel Pour soaped at room temps

Recipe Used: I used the same recipe for this batch that I have used in the others and have found that it is a good recipe and size for testing. You can view it here.

Performance:  After a very light trace, I divided the batch into 3 parts and added my colors. When the colors were totally mixed I added the scent to the 3 parts. It did accelerate a little, but as I am used to working fast, this was not that big of a deal. I did stir it in by hand. I am sure that if I would have used the stick blender it would have been scoopable and not pourable :)

Color Notes: 1 Part was heavy on Yellow Oxide (I went a little overboard), 1 part Pink Ultramarine and 1 part Lavender Ultramarine. When the scent was added it looked like it would alter the colors a tiny bit, but once thoroughly mixed in it looked fine. I poured into the mold at a medium trace.

I am hoping that when I cut this one that the pinks will come through. Tomorrow I will have the pics of the cuts and maybe my take on another of the amazing scents I am testing!

Blessings,

Amanda

My Journey Through S.O.A.P. Part 1

The Arrival

Today my Bramble Berry box arrived containing my S.O.A.P. scents. The moment that I opened it, a medley of scents filled the air! It smelled
heavenly and I could not wait to start. In fact, in preparation of the arrival today, I went ahead and measured out my lye water and oils and left them to cool to room temps so I could begin just as soon as the box came in! I just had to smell them all, but for purposes of testing, I am doing this in stages. I will be testing 2 scents at a time with notes and pics in CP soap. After the soaps are all tested, I will be testing other mediums (maybe scrubs and bath fizzies). Let the fun begin!

Part 1 : Scents #1 & #2
Scent 1 Description: Smells like a fruity bubblegum with light cinnamon notes. It is fresh and friendly. Smells like candy and I see kid's soaps with this one :)
Scent 2 Description: WONDERFUL! Smells like a really deep, clean water scent similar to Salty Mariner in a way, but with less of the salty scent, if that makes sense... a really nice men's scent. 
Method Used: Cold Process Soap, 26 oz batch, 1/2 batch Gel Phase, 1/2 batch, no Gel Phase
Recipe Used: 10.4 oz Olive Oil, 7.8 oz Coconut Oil, 6.5 oz Palm Oil, 1.3 oz Shea Butter, 3.6 oz Lye, 8 Fl oz Distilled Water and 1/2 oz Scent
All mixed and soaped at room temperature. Molded in re-usable containers from Mainstays (Wal-Mart).
Performance: I didn't notice any misbehavior in either of these scents. They blended nicely and did not accelerate trace for me. 
Color Notes Scent 1: For this scent, I decided to add Ultramarine Pink to 3/4 of the batch and Brick Red Oxide to the remaining 1/4. The pink turned out very light while the red was dark and beautiful. Scent did not seem to affect the coloring. After pouring the pink, I spooned the red and stirred and swirled with the spoon. 
Color Notes Scent 2: This being the one that reminded me of water, I used Ultramarine Blue on 1/4 batch and left the rest uncolored. The blue was nice and dark and the uncolored part was a nice egg cream color upon pouring. Same technique as above with the spoon.











To the right is  on half of the 26 oz batch of Scent #1 & #2 in my little mini fridge so there is no Gel Phase.
To the left is the other half getting ready to be nestled in to a nice comfy Gel with old towels that I use to insulate. I will unmold and cut tomorrow and post pics and my final notes on each of these two great scents.
Stay tuned for Part 2: Scents #3 & #4! 


Blessings,
Amanda