37 posts tagged “batch notes”

Today I'm batching Spiced Orange Tea soap.  It's an organic green tea based soap, infused with 5 fold California orange essential oil, Egyptian clove oil, and a generous addition of ground fresh spices for exfoliation.  This is one of my fave soaps to make.  (And use.  There's always a bar of this in my shower.) It's one of the soaps that I let cure in the public areas because it makes the place smell so amazingly good.  

In other news, I had to take our puppy back to the pound to be spayed.  I don't know why they won't let me use my vet, but they won't.  You have to take adopted animals back there.  Poor Bugaboo did not want to get out of the truck.  She kept giving me this look like "I'm sorry I chewed your bed, sat on your cat and pooped on the carpet!  I'll be good, please don't leave me here!"  Heartbreaking.  But then, I'm a big ol softy.  I can go get her after I pick up Boy from school.  It was insane getting there this morning.  There was some accident that shut down all 6 lanes of the main road through town. There were helicopters, 3 fire trucks, a gross of cop cars...it was crazy.  I really hope that whomever was involved is ok.  

So anyway, back to the soap pot.  I hope everyone's day goes smoothly!

Today I'm batching Tea Hee.  It's a green tea based soap with the essential oils of Bulgarian wild harvest Lavender, American organic Patchouli, and Egyptian organic Geranium. It's a surprisingly great smell, even for people that run and hide from patchouli normally.

If there's time, I'm going to try and batch some Pirate Bay into traditional soap.  It's wildly popular in glycerin, but I've had a lot of requests for a traditional version.  

Speaking of wildly popular; Christmas soaps are now on sale for a huge discount.  Get your Frankincense and Myrrh (Boswellia carterii and Commiphora myrrh)  and Galilee (Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrrh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood and Styrax)  while supplies last. Help me make room for Spring soaps.  ;)

This week, I'm mostly working on product development.  I'm trying to perfect a liquid soap that is both natural and pretty...harder than one might think.  Hence the reason all commercial liquid "soaps" aren't really soaps, they're detergent based on sodium laurel sulfates.  As to getting a transparent liquid...there I've had no luck at all.  But still, the research continues.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a Body Caviar, which I'll probably have to rename, to keep people from trying to eat it.  The original formula is an anhydrous formulation with DC® 5562 Carbinol Fluid, but I've been trying to find a natural oil that I can use instead.  Primarily to match the rest of the product line, although, carbinol is a great product for bath and skin applications.  It's a functional silicone fluid (Bis-Hydroxyethoxypropyl Dimethicone) that's unique due to its polar organic substituents. The silicone and organic combination does really neat things on the skin, and it makes an outstanding suspension aid for pigments, salts, and sunscreens.

The "beads" that I'm using are spherical particles of trimethylated silica (Silica Silylate) that provide a vehicle for the absorption and delivery of lipophilic materials .  I'm really happy with the performance of these small (1000 μm) ones. I use a larger bead with a much stronger shell for non body applications, such as certain aromatherapy modalities, but these smaller beads are performing very well in initial tests.  

And I was just reminded by a phone call that I need to work on some formulations for a friend's baby.  Bless her heart, the poor little thing is just itchy all the time, so I'm working on some evening primrose oil based solutions that I hope will bring her some comfort.  I'm going to finish up the carbinol experiments for the day, and get to work on excema solutions.  

(You know, if I'm going to play Mad Scientist, I really need one of those machines that goes zzzzzzzpth!, and an Igor.  Ooooh, and a basement with a platform that raises to the sky, so during lightning storms I can stand on it and curse the elements.  Mwhahahahahaha! Erm.  Sorry.  I think perhaps the fumes in here are stronger than expected...)

Lotion. Shea butter, first press cherry oil and evening primrose are the big players in this blend. Yum! Making lotion is so much easier with a planetary mixer. How I survived without one for the soap studio is a mystery. I have a pro level KitchenAid for the kitchen, but there was zero chance I was going to put that one to work in the studio. But last year one of my friends donated an extra KitchenAid for the studio...and my goodness it's made things so much easier when I'm doing lotions and frozen soap.

Which reminds me, must find the cake decorating tools and do some frozen soap, I see a soap "gingerbread house" in my future.

Today, I'm batching a ton of Honeysuckle Bears.  (I'll have to get a picture, they're adorable!) They're going in the Promo kits that are being sent out at the end of the month.  For the promo I'm doing a 1.5" cube of Pumpkin soap, wrapped like a candy in green tissue, a honeysuckle bear, a small spritzer of Babylonia, a description card, a business card, and a discount card.  All of it will be wrapped in a champagne fabric bag with green shred, and tied with ribbons and a hand cast ceramic flower.  I think they'll make a really great impression.  It's going out to a bunch of decision makers in the cosmetics industry, so I've got my fingers crossed that it could lead to some new big accounts. (hope, hope, hope)

In other news, Boy started his dance classes yesterday, and he LOVED it. Loved it. It's sort of a combo class, they do some ballet, some tap, some jazz and some tumbling. He excelled at the tumbling, and did his best to follow along with the choreography that the other kids already knew. Bless his heart. He picked out some really cute jazz shoes that he'll be wearing in lieu of ballet slippers, and we still need to get him some tap shoes. (A thing which I and my hardwood floors are dreading. Heh.) I was pretty surprised that he picked dance out of all the options I offered him for activities, but who knows...he could be the next Baryshnikov.

Today I'm making Galilee for the xmas season.  It's a really gentle olive oil based soap scented with Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrhh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood, and Styrax.  It's amazing.  One of my faves.  Because organic full body olive oil is green in cast, I enhanced the natural olive shade with a bit of blue and a bit of dark green, and it came out the grooviest color.  I hope it cures as cool as it looked going into the log molds. 
  

I've tweaked my frankincense and myrrh blend. I've added a hint of vanilla and a touch of sweet orange. It's amazingly good. Whee!

So, that's what I'm making today. Since the resins tend to make the soap turn anywhere from tan to dark brown, and vanilla always makes things turn brown, I've decided to try something a little different. Rather than adding scent to the entire batch, I'm going to wait until I get light trace, then pull out about 1/4 of the batch. To that batch, I'm going to add the gold mica. Then, depending on consistency, I'll either swirl that back into the main batch, or I may pour it as a layered soap, and just layer the gold on top of the F&M. Either way will look really pretty I think, and I just want to make sure that the gold shows. Whee!

This week I've made more Lemongrass Sage (on sale, btw, at Soapyhollow.com), Fig, and Pearberry.  I've just now put a big batch of Sandalwood Vanilla into the molds.  I need to gear up for Xmas shopping, so sometime in the next week I'll probably do Three Kings soap (Frankincense, Myrrh and gold mica) and Babylonia (Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrhh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood, and Styrax).  Although perhaps I'll drop the Three Kings and just do Babylonia.  I dunno.  I'm not a huge fan of just Frankincense and Myrrh by themselves.  The blend just seems too harsh.  Not enough mellow notes.  I think maybe I'll use the Babylonia EO blend and call it Wise Men or something. 

There are a ton of people who are imitating my Three Kings soap, except they're doing it with cheap fragrance oils, rather than using the actual essential oils and resins...and it seems to be cheapening the brand.  Since I'm one of the only people in the industry who's got the middle eastern connections for the oils I use in Babylonia, I'm tempted to just do that, since it can't be imitated.  At least, it can't be done cheaply.  There are no synthetic versions of a lot of those resins. 

I dunno.  Three Kings does sell well.  I can't decide if I want to do both or not.  The problem with doing Three Kings by itself is that if it doesn't sell out by January, I'm kinda stuck with it.  I'm sure the shelter would love to get it, as they seem to love when I give them boxes of soap, but my goodness, it's such an expensive soap to make that I hate to have to remainder any.  Whereas Babylonia I can sell after the holidays.  And I'm really starting to run out of space, so I may have to eliminate some product lines, just so I've got enough storage for everything. I just can't make up my mind...    

Today's batch list:

Orange Brulee - a cocoa butter/olive oil soap scented with Madagascar vanilla and sweet Seville orange essential oil and laced with orange jojoba microspheres. 

Organic Lemongrass and Sage (with poppy seeds?  I dunno about the seeds).  I'm doing this one with organic palm, coconut and olive oils, and fair trade organic essential oils of Lemongrass and Clary Sage, in an infusion of lemongrass tea.  This will be a new product for the line, but it's something I've been making for spa clients for a while.

Blue Banana is taking longer to cure than expected.  Probably one more week before they're ready to be wrapped and shipped. 

Also currently steeping in the studio are AromaBeads...which are these little silicate spheres that can absorb up to 300% of their own weight in oils. I've got one set steeping in a Spiced Pomegranate, and one batch steeping in Ginger Peach. I got some of the most gorgeous oval glass bowls today that would look magnificent with these beads in them. Once the batches are done, I still need to test scent throw and longevity's. I mean, I can read the MDS, I know how long it *should* last, but I still want some empirical data. But, if it works, I'm thinking about doing a couple of aromatherapy blends; one to relax, one to energize, one for restful dreams, that sort of thing. And, what's really groovy is that the beads can be "refreshed" by just adding a little essential oil...so, yay!  I love when customers can recycle something over and over without the product losing any of the appeal.

New blends I think I'll be adding to the soap, salts and lotion lines in the next few months...note that all names are subject to change...as are the blends. Totally brainstorming here.

Pirate Bay: Pimenta Racemosa (West Indies Bay), orange, clove, nutmeg, lemon, lavender, patchouli.

Make a Ring Around the Rosie traditional soap. It's going to be a tricky one, 2 of the oils are really difficult to work with, but I think if I use the frozen methodology, it should flow really well.

Bergamot and Chamomile - for delicate and sensitive skins.

Lavender and Rosemary - I make this one for myself, but I think lots of people would like it.

Ginger Peach - this really is an incredibly soft, yet sireny scent. I find myself going back to it over and over just to sniff.

Hee! Yesterday I made Blue Banana Soap. It's still in the log mold, so no pics yet, but I think it's going to be fabulous. Gorgeous creamy yellow, sprinkled with blue scrubby micro spheres. (I originally had 'microdots', but I so didn't want the DEA confiscating my soap thinking I was shipping drugs across state lines. Heh.)

Blue Banana: Top notes of fresh bananas and juicy grapefruit, middle notes of kiwi and strawberries with a vanilla base note. Yum! The soap itself is a cocoa butter laden blend made with all organic, renewable resource oils. The microspheres are the same ingredients used in cosmetic scrubs.

All in all, this one is a treat for body and planet...plus it smells like a fruit salad. Yay, Summer!