Saturday, December 15, 2012

Christmas Cheer Soap

Whew, the past couple of weeks have been so hectic! I've been out of town a lot lately and trying to get ready for the holidays. Over the last few days, I've been making my list and checking it twice ... to make sure that I get everything on it done before Christmas!

Every year, it seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just flies right by despite my efforts to slow it down. Sometimes I can almost hear a swooshing sound as the time rushes past me. The holidays really snuck up on me this year, though. I usually like to start shopping in October or November, and then have all of my presents wrapped as soon after Thanksgiving as I can. I put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving while my husband washes and waxes our cars (it's our goofy little tradition), and I enjoy seeing it decked out with gifts for as long as possible.

Our little Christmas tree
That didn't happen this year. The part about getting the gifts wrapped and under the tree early, I mean.

I just got most of the presents wrapped a couple of days ago, and I've still got all of my soapy gift bags to put together. I haven't even labeled the soaps yet, and you all know how long that can take. The best thing about being able to make my own soaps, though, is that it makes gifting easy. Soap for everybody, yay!

And I think everybody on my list will like this soap. I call it "Christmas Cheer," and it is scented with Rocky Mountain Christmas fragrance oil, which smells like a freshly-cut tree.

I started out by adding my fragrance oil to my cooled oils and then stickblending in the lye solution. Once I reached a light trace, I portioned off one cup of soap into three plastic measuring cups, which I had prepped by mixing my colorants with a bit of liquid glycerin. To my main batch, I added some titanium dioxide to whiten the soap. The fragrance oil has a bit of a yellowish tinge, so my soap turned out more of a creamy white than a bright white. For my other colorants, I used Bramble Berry's Gold Sparkle mica, Brick Red oxide, and Green Chrome oxide.

I poured my main white batch into my mold and then added the gold, red, and green soap. To get the teardrop effect, I poured the colored soap from high up, which allows the soap to sink well into the main base. I started by pouring some of the gold, and then the green, and then the red. Then I repeated the pattern again, alternating the colors. For the tops, I scooped out the remaining soap in alternating colors.

Here is a video showing how I made my Christmas Cheer soap:


My soap got a bit thicker than I would have liked, but it seems that the design did not suffer for it. My pours penetrated the surface of the soap nicely, and the thickness of the soap allowed me to play with texturizing the tops (which is not my strong suit). I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I cut into the soap, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful it was inside! I am very proud of this soap and thrilled with how it turned out.

The only thing I was worried about was that maybe I had used a bit too much red oxide. When I cut into the loaf, the red dragged through the bars a bit. I cut the soap on its side to minimize the drag, but it made me think that I had overdone it with the red. After a few weeks of curing time, I tried a bar. The lather has a slightly pink tinge to it, but nothing major. I'll just have to warn everyone not to use their Dolce & Gabbana washcloths with this soap.



I'm looking forward to heading home next week and relaxing a bit before Christmas. What are you all doing for the holidays? Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you have a wonderful time with family and friends. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!

(Oh, and remember my posts about Bramble Berry's "Givember" event thoroughout November? Well, Bramble Berry has announced the winners of the gift certificates! Congratulations to the winners!)

18 comments:

  1. That is a very beautiful soap! So xmasy colors and the scent is perfect for it.

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    1. Thank you, Marika! I love the Christmas Tree scent, too.

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  2. What beautiful, Jenny! The colours are so Xmasy! This is one of the most beautiful soap for Xmas I have ever seen! Wish you happy holidays , Jenny!

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    1. Thank you so much, Natalia! I appreciate your kind words. Happy holidays to you, too!

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  3. I just love this soap, it's sooooooo beautiful!I would be proud of myself ,too, if it were mine!
    I wish I was your cousin to get this soap from you,ha,ha!
    Wishing you nice pre-Christmas time with your loved ones and happy holiday season!

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    1. Thanks for the compliments, Maja! I hope the folks on my gift list will like this soap. You have a very happy holiday season as well!

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  4. Jer, this is your prettiest soap yet! (And appropriately named!) Merry Christmas!

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    1. Thanks, Mom! I am very happy with how this one turned out. Merry Christmas to you, too!

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  5. Wow, that is one of the prettiest droplet swirls I have ever seen! It suits this Christmas soap perfectly Jenny! Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas holiday!

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    1. Thank you, Cee Gee! I think I have found a new favorite technique - the droplets turned out so nice! Wishing you a merry Christmas and happy holidays as well!

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  6. this is such a pretty soap, Jenny, and such wonderful christmassy colours. I've not made a soap in a while, as you know, but I plan to this week, but mines will just be plain, I can;t do fancy patterns.

    We're off to the in-laws on Christmas day and we're looking forward to it. I hope you and your husband have a lovely Christmas too, and I look forward to more blogs post from you in the New Year xxx

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    1. Hi, Polly, and thanks for the compliments! I'm so glad to hear that you will be making soap for the first time in a while this week - I can't wait to see what you come up with! It sounds like you have a nice holiday planned. I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

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  7. Simply sad: this is a perfect soap! I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and wonderful holiday.

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    1. Thank you, Gordana! I am very proud of this soap. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your family as well!

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  8. WOW Jenny, gorgeous soap. I love the colors they are so autumn like. Love it...!
    xoxoxo,
    Adina

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    1. Thank you, Adina Soaps! I am very happy with how this soap turned out.

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  9. I love how this soap turned out, the color and the design are just fabulous! Thanks for announcing the winners link, we are just so excited for them. :)

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    1. Thanks, Anne-Marie! And thanks for selecting my "Christmas Cheer" soap as a winner in the "Make It Monday: Christmas Schwag" contest! I was thrilled to have my soap featured in your blog post with so many other gorgeous soaps. BB's "Givember" event was also great fun, and I had a blast participating in it!

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