Soaping tools

Although making handmade soaps can be a relatively cheap hobby if you buy the bare necessities and/or make your own molds, that has not been the case for me. :P So far I have been sticking to one adjustable wooden mold and a flat blade soap cutter. I'm really glad I started with an adjustable mold (purchased off of Etsy!), because I can make batches varying from one to five pounds with the same mold, and it's easy to take the soap loaves out. However, the only downside to the mold I got is that it is somewhat short--the inner height is only 2.25'', which doesn't leave me a whole lot of room for fancy tops. Meanwhile, the blade that I use was definitely the most cost beneficial option for a beginner, but more often than not, my designs end up getting smeared and I have trouble cutting straight.

Therefore, even though I haven't sold a ton of soaps yet, I decided to make the investment in new molds and a wire cutter. I bought a small silicone loaf mold off of Etsy and tried it out the other day. I don't know if it was the sodium lactate, the fragrance oil, or the mold, but my soap ended up cracked, soft, and crumbly when I tried to unmold it 24 hours later. It was a bit difficult to pop the soap out of the mold, and I messed up some of the sides in the process. Plus, the sides weren't rigid enough so it kind of bulged out as I poured the soap in. Granted, the mold came from China and probably isn't made from the best of materials. I'm not sure if I'll use it again, but if I do, I will plan on lining it with freezer paper so that it's easier to unmold. I bought another silicone mold that makes 6 round bars--I am hoping this mold will work better.

Today I went ahead and ordered another wooden mold off of Etsy. Although I'm sure my husband could build me a mold, I don't think he has all the tools to do so. It'd probably be more trouble than it's worth, so I figured it'd be better to just order one online. After shopping around, I found the Etsy prices to be the most reasonable. Plus, I was looking for a particular part of mold with tall sides. After seeing some of Emily Shieh's beautiful soaps (see her blog here), I have been wanting to make tall soaps. I could make ombre soaps with more layers and do delicate tops, the new possibilities are endless.

I also got a mandolin off of Etsy too. Although I wish I had the money to buy one of those super fancy wire cutters that cut your entire loaf of soap in one second, I just don't think it's worth the investment right now. The mandolin I got cuts one 1'' bar at a time, but at least it cuts with a wire. Hopefully it works well, cuts evenly, and reduces the amount of smearing. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Assuming you could make wooden molds yourself, the other ingredients for basic soap making really aren't that hard to get and aren't terribly expensive. If you used natural scents, natural colorants, and a few basic oils, you wouldn't need to order anything online. You could even buy lye from the hardware store (I have yet to do this because I don't trust that those products are 100% lye. I always buy my lye off of Brambleberry.). However, if you want to add fragrances and other colorants, you pretty much have to order products online. That is the part that kind of bums me out. I love experimenting with fragrances and designs, but it can be really expensive ordering that stuff online. Nature's Garden Candles fragrance oils are pretty cheap (about $2.60 for 1 oz bottles), but shipping always costs a ton. Boo. If only there were a way that I could produce fragrance oils and micas myself, hah. Wishful thinking, I know.

Anyway, here are some of my more recent soaping updates:

The rose soap I posted about previously is now ready on Etsy! I'm so glad the dried rose petals kept their color and shape.

I made this black raspberry vanilla scented soap with the spoon swirl method and M&P embeds. I used the colors black, white, burgundy, and rose. I'm afraid the black color is kind of dominating, so maybe next time I'll use a dark purple or something? I was also worried about the M&P embeds. I found this cute silicone raspberry shaped mold at Target (only $1!!) and thought it'd be perfect for the scent. However, since the embeds are offset for cutting purposes, I really was not sure how cutting the soaps would be. It turned out ok for the most part, but one or two of the raspberry soaps broke. :( I tried melting some more clear M&P soap to act as "glue," so we'll see how that holds up. Here's what the top looked like prior to cutting:

I also made this boba/pearl milk tea soap recently in that silicone loaf mold I mentioned above. It did not turn out the way I wanted, but at least I didn't waste too many materials. =/ I made the "boba" by pouring M&P soap into actual boba straw so that I ended up with these long black cylinders. The soap is scented with a green tea fragrance oil. I thought it was a cool idea, but if I made it again, I'll be sure to use my wooden tall soap mold. =P