More Soap Porn and Musings

I have been posting my soaps up on Facebook for quite a while. It was only recent that I pulled a Facebook page together for the business side of things. I never believed (after other business pages of mine have never sold a thing) that I would start selling soapy goodies almost straight away. Three gift baskets later and a custom order for lemon myrtle and goats milk. Wow, hopefully I am on the right path and I can leave this soul destroying job.

Also, I have made so much soap, I am quickly running out of base ingredients!

Soapy hugs
Kayla xx

...And It Just Keeps Coming...

I feel blessed over the last month or so to have friends who are happy and willing to support my business. In the last month I have been offered 3 opportunites to sell my soaps as well as friends who would like some themselves or for their friends. I only hope that the markets I have been invited to will get some sales!

On anothr note, the ugly brown duckling from last week has set and finally cut. Below is the magnificent purple that the Brazillian purple clay gave and there is a little boost from some purple mica also swirled in,

Next in the mould is an all natural soap with essential oils, I have bath truffles of the same Goddess scent and will also have bath salts with hibiscus and rose petals.

Soapy hugs
Kayla xx
  

Ugly duckling now beautiful lilac scented soap

Goddess blend with Australian pink clay and hibiscus petals

 

So many soaps wrapped and more to come!

 

Bath truffles all wrapped, awaiting swing tags 

2kg Mould Soap Cut

These are finally cut and now curing.

Himalayan black tea will now be called High Tea, as for black raspberry sugar... Still out for debate...

Also, since I am running low on base oils and butters, I am scraping together a couple of simpler recipes. The most recent is lilac scented with Brazillian purple clay (ouch, went brown because of the olive oil but will hopefully come good) with a little purple mica swirl and pink Himalayan rock salt. This one will be cut on the weekend.

Soapy hugs
Kayla xx

Soaping & Mini Haul

Below are my four most recent creations. Alas, I keep forgetting the camera to video how I made them and give a running commentary on how the recipe is and how the scents are reacting.  It certainly doesn't help when I have half of my stuff in one house and half in another. Hopefully this will be rectified soon enough.

Lastly is of a mini haul from China with 4 silicone moulds that I am going to use for bath melts.just need more money and hours in they day to pay for everything so I can get up and running! Anyone know the winning lotto numbers?

Green Man

Ice Man Cometh

Lemon Goat

Girly Girl

Early August Super Mini Haul

Not much to report, but I did manage to find some cheap colloidal oatmeal on Ebay. I have been skeptical about buying this kind of stuff from Ebay as there are so many dodgy sellers out there. The sellers feedback wasn't too back, a couple of reports of non delivery but nothing about the quality.

Would love to hear from everyone with their favourite trustworthy Ebay seller for soapy goodness!

Soapy hugs
Kayla

Soapmaking Standstill

Alas, my soap making for the moment has ground to a halt.

Still moving from one home to another to keep my final moving cost as low as possible. But I am also slowly running out of space to store my freshly made soaps whilst they cure. I have yet to clear out the back sheds to make way for the new venture and when that is done, find the money to get the two tables that I am after from Bunnings along with drying racks and a few other storage things from Ikea, plus the sink... Oh to win the lottery, sod off this daily crap job and to soap, sew and dance all day!

Soapy hugs
Kayla

The Perfect Man Soap Video - Hello YouTube!

I really hate having my photo taken and even more being on video but I am braving my fears and putting myself out there. So, albeit a little late thanks to the slow upload speed to YouTube, I present my first ever YouTube video for soapmaking... Black Peacock Soaps - Making of "The Perfect Man".

Soapy hugs

Kayla

First Soaping Video!

Made you look!

Seriously, I have just filmed my first video. I won't post yet as I need to edit and add the finished product photos. Please excuse the arm in the way, first video, full of mistakes and can only get better from there! 

Excited and scared!

Hopefully will post it up on Sunday night my time if I have enough time get it up there.

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

Soap Swap: Anything Goes - Fail No. 2

Oh dear, where do I start... The colours after gelling are a little better but the soap is SOFT. I am going to have to leave it in the mould a bit longer. Made on Wednesday, unmould attempt No. 1 on the following Sunday, unmould attempt No. 2 on the following Wednesday, unmould attempt No. 3 coming up the following Sunday. The top is hard but the sides... Still quite mushy. I'll be bringing this one home to put in the freezer and see how I go...

Oils:  olive oil, macadamia oil and coconut oil (ran out at this stage). I ran what I had left through the soap calc and it seemed to work... Ummmmm...
Fragrance: Nature's Blush - it accelerated, not madly but pouring an ITP swirl became difficult in the end and I think it began to rice as well. It looked fine but started to get thick and looked not as it should...
Colour: TD and blue oxide. I was going for an ITP swirl... I'll try again on another recipe and in a loaf mould rather than cubes.

Soapy hugs
Kayla

No More Sneaky Soaping

So, most of my soaping stuff has moved to the other house. In between cleaning up and stripping walls of 50 year old undercoat, I am now allowed to soap.

No more hiding that I have been making soap from the other half. He is currently chunking through the first batch of soap I made, scented with Love Spell and since then I have bought him his own scent and about to make up something just for him, with something purple... I am thinking a purple ITP. I need any excuse to start working on my techniques.

So yay for being allowed to soap, but still have a while until we move. I am moving in more bags every time we go over and hopefully will have everything moved over soon enough that I can tell the estate agent where they can shove themselves for all the years of NOT repairing this place and have a home that is all my own, with my soaping shed and hopefully see the beginnings of getting away from working in a job that I loathe and into making soapy goodness.

Soapy hugs
Kayla

Soap Haul: Week of 15 June 2014

Nothing spectacular this week other than 5L of coconut oil, some colurants, glycerine, bees wax and a desperately needed cheese cutter since other cutting methods were leaving me with 'door step' soap bars that are just horrid! Next pay day will be more macadamia oil as I am now starting to run through that quickly too. On another note, when the EVOO is finished, I will be getting light EVOO as I am not liking the darker oil colour and really don't want to be using TD. 

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

 

Soap Swap: Anything Goes - Fail No. 1

Scent: Pink Jasmine FO
Oils: EVOO, macadamia & coconut
Colour: black oxide
Embeds: clear M & P with opal white glitter

Well, the soaping gremlins have hit me. Whilst the soap itself turned out fine, my design didn't. What I had in my head and saw in a photo, did not translate into reality. A black mess with barely noticeable embeds. Yep, one for the use at home and never try again file...

In the words of many a fail meme...NAILED IT!

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

This is how I wanted the soap to look! Ahhh, yup...nailed it!

Mini Haul: Week of 1 June 2014

Nothing major. Just a mini haul from Big Tree Supplies on fragrant oils. I am very happy with the pricing, speed of delivery and the beautiful smells that are probably going to suffocate me! I will be starting to build back up my aromatherapy/essential oil collection as money allows. They are so much more expensive!

Soapy hugs

Kayla

Soap Haul: Week of 19 May 2014 - part 2

Part two of my soaping haul for this week...

I have had a field day getting supplies ready and I am itching more and more to make soap and create something that has some substance and life, not just plain old boring, cream!

4 new silicone moulds have arrived from China. These are fairly small but I happy with the size, they are the same size as the other mould in the bamboo 'holder' that I won a few weeks ago in an auction package. By the way, I AM STILL SEEKING OLD LEGO, DUPLO OR THE LIKE...hint, hint!

I have also had a great colour haul  from Kinibug with glitter, micas and oxides. I do love it when I can get sample packs, especially as a newbie to the field so I can work out what I like and what I don't. I just wish I could get more fragrance sample packs like that. I can only find one supplier so far here in Australia.a

Also, I grabbed a tea strainer for my micas as I would love to make a soap that looks like lapis lazuli with beautiful gold pencil lines.

Last but not least, I learnt a good lesson... I have been searching in various major chain stores for small glass measuring cups, the one that are about the size of a shot glass. Nada, nothing, just the big stuff. Not what I wanted for FO's and EO's. So I went to a specialty homeware store and found them there for around $7. I really should have gone to the $2 store a few shops down (same place I got a HEAP of batter bowls with handles that are of a descent size - 3L). They had those little buggers for $1.50 each! Yep, grabbed some more. They are glass and you never know when you may drop one, or two...

Soapy hugs

Kayla

Soap Haul: Week of 19 May 2014 - part 1

First haul for the week with another to come! A huge Thanks to Kerry from Heirloom Bodycare for allowing me to slip in some last minute oils!

This haul contains some lovely mica samples along with the glitter I have been trying to locate in trustworthy format. Lilac and Dragons Blood FO's.  I really want to. Old ur my soaps with natural colors so I grabbed some alkanet root powder and FINALLY ordered charcoal! My last minute adds were macadamia oil (so hard to find in stores) and coconut oil as I didn't realize how much I would go through. I hope the other half doesn't kill me for using the good stuff? Oh well, he didn't like food cooked in it anyway!

Soapy hugs
Kayla

Love Spell All Cut!

They are all cut and I certainly I need to get the hang of the cutter! Sheesh, so many different sizes! These are all sitting on my kitchen window in the other house happily awaiting their first use.

Still searching for a name, may just stick with Love Spell. 

Hopefully the next batch will be a little more fancy!

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

Sneaky Soaping

As some of you may (or may not) know, I have been banned from making soap until we move. I have been trying to be good, even moved my soaping gear out of the current den of falling everything to the other home. I was good for about a week after moving my stuff over, but...

Let's interject with the graduate soap making course and the amazing scent of freshly made and cut soap sitting around airing itself until the day it can be used. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing by moving over my soaping gear from the current home to my new (old home) to remove the temptation to soap. Well, I could take no more and soaped today all by myself!  No watchful eyes, just me, the Lye and the oils. I know, I should have waited, but I couldn't. 

I currently have cooking, a simple batch of EVOO, coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter with the smallest amount of tussah silk, fragranced with Brambleberry's Love Spell (I had two x 10ml bottles). I have two brand new soap moulds being broken in and my new loaf cutter will get a workout tomorrow.

I did work out a few things for myself - need glass measuring jiggers, need a metal spoon to get out the harder butters/oils, I need to break down my cocoa butter as the chunks are still too large to melt easily, move the microwave to somewhere accessible and safe!

But, when all was said and done, I am pretty chuffed that I managed a new recipe all by myself, with no help, no assistance or me cracking wise ass comments...

So, what should I call this soap?

Soapy hugs

Kayla

For those wondering why I am using palm oil... It came as park of an auction that I won on Ebay a while ago. Rather than throwing out good ingredients, I would rather use it until it is gone.

Soap Stamp

Yep, there it is, the results of my new soap stamp from Etsy. It is a brass peacock. Down the track I would to be able to have this as a side business so my partner and I can start a family and at least have anther source of income if possible.

The name of my business is Black Peacock, not sure yet if soapery, soaps or beauty. The logo is yet to be designed but the thought is out there. It will also translate over into my Peacock Noir Bellydance so definitely will be getting a double use of that logo!

The soap was from my last soap course and not a full size so the stamp J U S T fits on the bar. It is a funnel swirl of the natural creamy colour of the batter and a very subtle lilac. I don't like over the top colours especially when it comes to naturally fragranced soap. This has EO's of ylang ylang, bergamot and grapefruit. It smells divine but still has another 3 weeks of curing time. I am intending on having my EO soaps coloured with natural colourants, FO soaps will be in stronger colours and the EO/FO blends...you get the picture.

Soap hugs

Kayla 

The Proof is in the.....Soap!

After our gallant efforts yesterday, as usual, I am itching to unmould and cut the soapy goodness from yesterday...and here they be! Not shown are my little grey salty lumps of surfacting exfoliation and the shaving soap which is under strict instruction to NEVER be cut and his lordship will use ALL of it straight out of the mould (aka plastic take away container).

Gelato

Funnel Swirl

Soapy hugs

Kayla

Graduate Soap Making Course & May the 4th Be With You...

Today was the graduate soap making course with Remington and Emmett. I love learning with these ladies, it is so much fun and they are an amazing wealth of knowledge. Theses ladies are my kind of crazy!

Back to the familiar workroom...

Batches already put to bed and what the heck are we making in those moulds?

Funnel swirl and colour choices...

Before mess...

During mess...

We've been playing with white powdery substances...

Funnel swirl, can't wait to see it after it has gelled and has been cut...

After mess...

Oooooh, little salty bars of goodness...

Post mess...

Nicki and Cheryl cleaning up our mess. There was a LOT of washing up.

Again, a huge thanks to Nicki and Cherly for a great day spent soaping, talking and laughing. Bring on August!

Soapy hugs

Kayla