"Adventures in Soapland"

Life Can Be Crazy

2008-08-21T08:49:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. Life has been absolute craziness around here. At first, it was getting used to a new job. Than it was a ten day vacation. After our vacation our son (who was born prematurely) got sick. St. Francis hospital to the rescue!

Life is now returning to normal. I was able to go back to work. It's the perfect job for me because I can take my son to it. I work for my sister-in-law who has a big house. Anthony has adapted well. Oh, and on vacation my mom bought all of my soap stock! Now I have profit to buy more lovely soap supplies! My etsy store currently has nothing in it. Oh, I have great plans for it.
Later on this week I will post soap pics from recent soaping adventures on this blog.

New loaf mold

2008-07-02T21:07:00.003-05:00

New loaf mold from eBay seller, jazzyfrump. The wood is so smooth I can rub my cheek against it. It hold two pounds of soap. I just can't wait to use it! At the side are his wooden soap dishes. The ridges prevent soap from getting mushy. Wonderful craftmanship.

The Smell of Success is Sweet

2008-06-30T20:25:00.003-05:00

I am excited to say that I just made the creamiest bar soap today that I have ever lathered in my hands. I am in love with this soap's lather. I have had lather issues in the past so it's good to know this simple recipe. The soap is Sweet Pea enriched with Shea Butter. The moisturizing shea butter gives the layered soap the creamy lather. The coconut oil base aids in soap bubbles too.
Did I mention the soap is pretty too? The flower shaped bars are two shades of light pink. Here are some pictures I took tonight. The pictures don't do justice to the soap or lather!

Experiments with Peppermint Soap

2008-06-26T23:27:00.006-05:00

The soap on the left was swirled with two different hues of blue. This was my first time swirling.
The second soap I intended only to layer but decided to put soap chunks in it instead.

This is a crystal lite container. I wanted to see if the plastic would hold up to the hot soaps heat.
It sure did. I'm now excited because it can work as a round loaf mold.
I added dark blue chunks to this one and slowly poured in a light blue base.

Soap is now done. The small hearts at the side are my leftover soap. Great for samples or for me to test out the soap.

2008-06-26T16:33:00.003-05:00

Here is my Lavender soap that I made yesterday. This soap is not worthy of selling but I believe it's worthy of giving. At least to my mother and I. :)

the making of Lavender Soap Balls

2008-06-25T22:22:00.003-05:00

I have been looking forward to making lavender soap balls. Old-fashioned looking soap balls with ground oatmeal and lavender buds. I made the small hand-milled batch this afternoon. Other soap making adventures have gone better. I put the grated (store-bought) bars into my Pyrex in the boiling water on the stove. I wasn't feeling so hot so I had to turn off the heat and lay down for a bit. Grr. I did not want to stop what I just begun. The soap was already melting. I tried to start again after about an hour. Now I had to stop again to feed Anthony. This time I left the burner on low. I was not sure what way would be the best way to hand-mold the hot soap. The soap was goopy. I spooned some of it in my silicone heart mold. I made 2 hearts. I proceeded to make one big ball with my hands and a ice cream scoop. My, was that soap warm. It was setting up quick so I couldn't wait for it to cool down. With the leftover soap I made a small soap ball.
The white soap is unbelievably hard to color. I ended up with a light grey-purple color. It doesn't look too bad though. The commercial bar soap scent is also incredibly hard to cover up. I knew this from the past. I still added lavender essential oil to lightly scent it. Oh, instead of adding a half cup of water, I added milk. Milk is skin-tightening.

This was my second time attempting soap balls. I never intend to make them again. Such a gooey mess. I will do hand-milled again, however; I will always pack it into the molds.

Good way to use up old soap or soap that's too bland.

I'll post pictures and a review later.

Graphic Design majors rule

2008-06-21T19:59:00.002-05:00

Not many times in my life I wished I went to school for graphic design. Yesterday was one of those days. I worked for hours yesterday to make my Etsy shop look appealing. First, I needed an avatar, a small profile picture. Now that doesn't sound hard does it? I wanted it to be a nice, simple picture of my soaps. All my pictures were to large. I find out I just needed to crop it. I played around, picked one, and cropped it. I uploaded it and realized the website also crops it after it's uploaded. Well! You can tell it was soap. sigh. Eventually I got a picture that "will do".
Now the hard part - the banner. (It's like a storefront for an online store.) I won't go into all the petty details. I'll just say this, I am not a computer geek but I wished I was yesterday!

So, up above is my current banner. I typed "Krimshas' Soaps" in the middle in white and it looked just right. However, the format wasn't just right. Only the picture itself would upload.

I guess it's better than nothing. It'll have to do.

New scents

2008-06-19T20:26:00.003-05:00

Yay! I got my Brambleberry package yesterday. You know what that means? New soap ideas! Let's see...a cherry-almond soap with exfoliating apricot seeds, a toasted coconut soap, and somehow a earth bar. I ordered seaweed extract and got a free sample of Brambleberry's fresh zucchini flower fragrance. It smells just as you would think a zucchini flower would smell like. It even has the dirty undertones. I'm going to have to order more glycerin soon! I want to make a goat's milk soap. Seems like a very popular natural soap.

All these soap ideas, so little time.

On the Road with Etsy

2008-06-19T17:39:00.004-05:00

Whew! After some time and thinking power I got my Etsy store up. Granted, it only has two items on it for the time being. If Anthony's good tonight maybe I'll be able to post more. (Anthony is my seven month old baby boy for those of you who don't know.)
The only problem I ran across was the pricing issue. I don't want to charge too little or too much. I also had to figure out shipping costs. Fortunately, Etsy allows you to edit your listing whenever you need too. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to change your username. That means, I'm stuck with "krimshas". So, my store name is krimshas and will stay krimshas. Unique, right?

A very cool aspect of Etsy is that you can display a "mini-store" of your store on your blog. I have done so on the left side on this page. It's like visiting two websites at once! So cool.

tonight Etsy here I come!

2008-06-18T18:01:00.003-05:00

It dawned on me today, "hey why don't I go on Etsy"? Etsy.com is the ebay for crafters. You can buy or sell handmade or vintage items. In my humble opinion, Etsy is far better than eBay.
So, tonight I will make my etsy store. It will be small at first but, I will be proud of it. :)

2008-06-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

I've been working hard lately to make great soaps. Not just a mediocre bar of smelly good soap. No. I want the user to look forward to taking their daily bath or shower. I want the bar to relax them. I also want the soap to look so good and interesting it basically sells itself!

My favorite batch of soap I made recently is my Spiced Soap. It's a double-layered soap made from a few natural ingredients found right in the kitchen! Made from a coconut oil base with softening honey and moisturizing Shea butter it i great for your skin. I also added allspice, cinnamon, and cocoa. Cinnamon is known for it's antiseptic properties. A touch of fragrance has been added.

This soap makes a lovely creamy lather and is "easy on the nose".

I also have oval shaped bars too.

These bars cost $2.50-$3.00, depending on size. Email me or leave a comment.

2008-06-14T22:38:00.001-05:00

Handmade, all-natural soaps make great gifts! Especially if the receiver is you! ;)

Learning the Hard Way

2008-06-14T21:41:00.000-05:00

You may have heard melt and pour soap described as the "easy" way to make soap. It is.

However, there are tips and techniques that need to be learned that aren't described on the glycerin package. It seems like every new batch of soap I make I learn something new. Most times, I learn through trial and error. sigh. A good example would be soap I gave out a couple Christmas's back. It hardly lathered and was only somewhat pretty.
I now know what I've been doing wrong!

I was adding too much additives. That is, oils and such. I was messing up the soap's lathering capabilities. Worst of all, I was buying the wrong soap base. I am still in the process of finding great soap bases at decent prices. I have just recently found a couple that I am satisfied with.

If you have tried my soap in the past, I urge you to give it a worthy try again.
You shall be pleased!

Soapmaking is an Adventure, Really!

2008-06-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

Most of you do not know I make soap. Yeah, I am not a "pro" at it but I call myself a hobbyist.
You have to start somewhere right? Hubby and I were trying to figure out why I stumbled upon soap making. All I can remember was fiddling around with making cosmetics in Florida 2006. For instance, I would add petroleum jelly to powdered eye shadow to make a sheer, creamy eye shadow. I still have all that eye shadow. Obviously, making cosmetics just didn't do it for me.
Perhaps it was one night surfing the web when the inspiration to make natural soap hit me. I don't remember when I thought of making soap. I just did it. I was thrilled with my success, as small as it was. I am grateful that I have a supportive husband that doesn't think I'm crazy for making my own soap. :)

This blog will let you go on the adventure with me. My future goal, is to own a Soap store at Etsy.com. But don't worry I presently sell my soap creations! Pictures and descriptions will come soon, hopefully not at a snail pace!