Teach Soap

Did you use a liquid colorant or food coloring? I've never used color other than what comes as a result of using herbs ... BUT, my son asked for one of the kid molds so I ordered a blue and pink mica. Then I read somewhere that you can use food coloring and I thought I could try that for more colors.

I didn't get any lemon fo and I'm still really unsure about actually using fo, but Lemon ... yum! I might need to use some lemon peel in a batch and see how that turns out!

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Amy in Soapland

Food coloring will bleed and could also stain. I would use soap approved micas instead.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Ah, thanks soapbuddy. I'd wondered about that,but saw that there were some sites that said you could. I think I'll try some herbs and see how that does. Though, I do have two micas coming in the mail.

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Amy in Soapland

Great feedback everyone - I second and third the recommendation of the rice cooker thingy. We use that for our classes as well as a food-warmer (sort of like you see out at buffets) so we can have multiple types of soap melting at once.

You can use food coloring in a pinch but SoapBuddy is right, be sure not to use too much of else you could get some stained little hands. =)))

One thing I notice when teaching children's parties is that the kids often let their soap cool while they are mixing in their color and fragrance, so be sure you pour into cups that can go into the microwave. Also, kids like to overscent and over color so clear, clear, clear instructions really help with that. We've had some doozies of overcoloring happen at our retail store and it's awfully funny when it happens (but I'm betting the parents aren't fans when they get the soap home and see what it does to their towels!).

=) Have fun!

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

I did learn a few things this week-

1. It is hard to do ANYTHING with a kitten in the house
2. If you are working in a cold room you must work quickly! Even though the soap was melted in the microwave the room was cool or coldish...so it had to be remelted
3. I don't know what I was doing wrong with the imbedded bar but I got 2 nice thin slices when it came out of the mold...lol
4. Tax season is NOT the time for me to get interested in a brand new project---
5. Every plastic container I see gets analyzed-would that make a cool bar of soap? LOL
6. I am impatient -after looking at all the wonderful things others make I want to be able to do that too!!


I have been using my lemon bar that I made but I am dry and scaly in the winter...lol I think I need something with a little more moisture for myself. These will be fine for the girls to make as they are.

If I want to make something that has more moisturizing what type base would I use?

Uh Oh! You do realise you're becoming addicted, don't you? The plastic container comment gives you away every time.

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Suzanne
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... 1135479737
http://stuffandnonsense-essebee.blogspot.com/

LOL @ addicted comment

yeah when I was looking at the avon book they have a cute silicone mold with butterflies and everyone at the office was saying it would make cute cupcakes, or chocolate...I was saying just right for guest soaps!! LOL

I made a bar of tuti-frutti scented to mail to the administrator at the school to show her what the girls will be making-one of her daughters will be in the class.

I'll refrain from commenting on my look-for-molds-in-everything status!!

Teach, looks like you're having a lot of fun! In my experience, when the teacher is enjoying her subject, so shall the students! Sounds like a fun summer planned!

I had a moment last night when I was tempted to reach for food coloring. Fortunately, I don't use it much in baking, so I only had neon colors LOL That kept the temptation at bay and I should have mica's here next week.

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Amy in Soapland

Update: School was suffering from economy so merged with another school...they had to offer my primo summer job to their staff first....it was nabbed
Long story short no job and I have lots of soap stuff to play with. I am now in the process of making melt and pour bars with the samples kits I had ordered. I am going to have a jewelry booth for our local craft show/sale to benefit school baseball team. I am sharing the booth with a friend who makes cold process lavendar soaps. She's all 'nastural' and is going to grin an bear it and share booth space with my fruity sparkly soapsl.
I also made a boo-boo and obviously did not tighten one of the bottles of fragrance oil...and it ate...seriously ate up the back of the package and the puffy tops of all the dispenser tops because they got knocked over in the box. Ugh it was like melted marshmallow everywhere!! Two of the bottles were so 'topless' they were empty...Only I could do something so... messed up as this.

I'm so sorry to hear about your job! Maybe the craft fair you are doing with your friend will be a nice distraction, and even a great opportunity! To get ideas for how to display merchandise at shows, I suggest this great Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/soapbooths/
and for soap packaging ideas, check out http://www.flickr.com/groups/soappackaging/

This might be your next calling! Good luck!

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Debbie Chialtas

- [i]

I'm sorry to hear about your job. I wish you the best on craft show!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Soapylove- Thanks for the link!! I swear all the 'others' that go into setting up a booth are overwhelming. I already had a list of things to remember and had not thought of half of what I needed. The good part is that the booth is only $50 dollars and the festival/ craft show are all in our town square and probably draws 5,000 people on that day. Most are lookie loos but the paper always runs articles suggesting people look for unique or handmade Christmas gifts to help keep dollars in our town....so small things like earrings and soap will be great stocking stuffers!

I still follow your posts on facebook and etsy! My mom saw one of the postings on facebook and made a comment about how did I still have friends in San Diego when I had not lived there since the middle of the fifth grade. (I'm from Escondido) LOL I had to explain how the internet made the world a lot smaller...

Soapbuddy-Thanks for the kind thoughts! There aren't any jobs to be found around here at the moment so at least using up my supplies is one way to stay busy!