Camouflaging the Bump with Cupcakes?

 

We shot a couple of more episodes of Soap Queen TV this weekend. We're trying to store a few up so I can take some time off when the baby makes his appearance.  That black apron + table does a pretty job of hiding my bump. But, believe me, it's there. 

To dress the set we use cute soap from recent projects, like these from last weeks CP gradation tutorial

I really wanted to wear this adorable cupcake apron but Amber (I like to call her the 'SQTV producer' though during the regular week she's our Marketing Guru) said it would be too busy and detract from the soap projects. 

We did two really fun melt and pour projects. Here's the sneak peak of both of them:

Bringing Soap Ropes back in a big way!

Loofah Fun!

Soapylove Technique Post - 3 Color Fade

Rainbows and hearts... I can't seem to get enough!  One of my favorite looks lately is graduated color.  Several years ago I taught at Otion's Soap Weekend Intensive and was thrilled to attend a class by Paula of PJ Soaps (she'll be teaching again this summer!).  She showed how to make her beautiful moon soap (click here for tutorial), where she tilts the mold to get a lovely fade between the moon and midnight sky. 

I have used this several times with a single tilted color, but realized if you use one on each side and then fill the center, that you can get a 3 color fade!

Here's what you'll need:
Coral Mica
Yellow Mica
Liquid Blue
Striped Heart Mold
Clear M&P soap base
White M&P soap base

Or click here and get everything you need all at once.


Here's how to do it:

Prop your mold up on one side or corner.  I used the Soapylove Striped Heart Mold.  Next, melt and color a small amount of clear soap using non-bleeding red or coral mica.  Spray your mold with alcohol, then pour a small amount of soap into one side, allowing it to only cover 1/3 of your mold surface. 

It's okay if your color doesn't line up perfectly with the stripes.  Allow to harden.  Now turn around your mold so the opposite side is propped up.  Melt and pour some blue soap into the opposite side, again only covering 1/3 of the mold face.  Allow to harden.

Move your mold to be flat on the table.  Color your third batch of soap yellow, spray mold with alcohol, and pour in soap so it fills the center area and covers a bit of each side color.  Allow to harden.  Spray with alcohol and top off with fragranced white soap.  Voila!

Here's a tip: color your soap with a light hand - if your colors are too dark then the background color won't show through.  When I do this project again, I'll use a little less blue so the green tone will be more noticeable.

Enjoy!
-Debbie
Soapylove

Let it Bleed: Cold Process Soap Color Gradation Tutorial

I've long been fascinated with how to make Labcolor's inherent bleeding qualities work in a bar of soap. It does a great tie-dye look and the swirls are romantic and ephemeral. But, the idea of a sunset or a rainbow really drew me in. I started with a simple but sophisticated color graduation. It's a very easy concept in theory but in practice, takes precision and weighing ... and patience.

My husband and I are using this bar in our shower at home right now at home and it has fantastic lather and a great balance of bubbles with moisture and creaminess. Coupled with the absolutely exquisite scent and sophisticated color, it's one of my favorite recipes I've made in a while. Read through all the instructions; it requires prep and precision.

Ingredients

29.6 oz. Olive Oil

14.8 oz. Coconut Oil

8.89 oz. Palm Oil

5.92 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

2.96 Almond Oil (Sweet)

2.96 oz. Mango Butter

9.34 oz. Lye

21.5 oz. Water

4 oz. Fresh Snow (the star of the show!)

Magenta Labcolor (20 ml diluted in 8 oz. of distilled hot water, Germaben II preservative added at 1%)

Fine Iridescent Glitter

5 containers that will hold 18 ounces each 

5 pound wood log mold

Get everything you need with the click of a button.

(Note: If you're looking at this recipe and thinking "Why, oh why, are you weighing to .96 on any of these? Anne-Marie, you are on crack!" It's okay to round up to whole numbers on the Palm Oil, Sweet Almond Oil and Mango Butter and not change the lye. You'll end up with slightly more superfat but not enough to change your recipe. So not to worry you don't need to buy a brand new scale!)

Step One: Stop. Check. Do you have all of your safety gear on hand? Are kids out of the house? Animals locked outside? Do you have an hour to focus? Do you need to review the Lye Safety Video? How about scaring yourself half to death with this scary blog post I did on lye? Done? Check? Great. Eye protection ON!

Step Two: Weigh out all of your oils. Melt the Palm, Coconut and Palm Kernel Oil. Add the Mango Butter to the warm oils and stick blend the Mango Butter in. Add the Sweet Almond Oil and Olive Oil to this mixture. Set this aside.

Step Three: Weigh out your water (I don't do volume because I like the precision factor of weighing it). Weigh out your lye in a separate container. Add the lye slowly, slowly, slowly to the water, stirring the entire time, taking pains NOT to breathe in the fumes. Work only in a well-ventilated area. If you are ultra sensitive, wear a mask. 

Step Four: We're working with a hotter mixture this time so check the temps of your oils. If they're not up to 140, heat them up until they are. Check the temp of your lye; has it dropped to 140-150? Is it clear? If so, it's  ready to add into the oils, slowly. Careful! No splashes.

Step Five: Use your stick blender to achieve light trace. 

Step Six: Separate out the soap into 5 containers. WEIGH the soap out into containers. Weigh out 18 ounces of soap per container. There is no fragrance added yet.

Step Seven: We are working from lightest to darkest. For each layer, you will add fragrance and color and *then* stick blend to a very thick trace. 

Layer 1: No color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.

Layer 2: 7 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.

Layer 3: 14 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.

Layer 4: 28 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.

Layer 5: 43 drops of color, Fragrance suggested usage rate: .8 oz.

For each layer, you'll strive to achieve a THICK trace. Then, pour carefully over a low-placed spatula. This helps the soap not break through to the next layer. You're looking for very straight lines. Do not hurry the pour. You have time.

I did a light dusting of fine glitter over the top just for a little Fairy Queen look.

This soap does best with a warm gel phase; the colors pop! more with a strong gel phase.  

Man, You're Soaping Me Blue!

Guest post by Kat from Otion

What better way to celebrate the end of the week than to see some of our newest fragrances arrive at Otion!

Blue Man is Bramble Berry's strongly inspired version of of the popular men’s cologne, Aquolina Blue Sugar. The base note of Black Patchouli blends perfectly with Orange Peel, Sparkling Mandarin, Coriander Leaves, Star Anise and Venezuela Tonka. It’s surprisingly sweet and majorly masculine. Discolors to a light brown and does great in cold process.

I made a little melt-and-pour project for our display at Otion by cutting out little guys out of opaque soap with an exacto knife and embedding them in clear base with brilliant blue labcolor. The man in the middle sitting down worked the best because he's actually blue from pouring a blue layer down first before setting him in there.

When the heat from the clear base hit the man cut-out, it created this really whimsical swirl in the soap while it set up!

Below are the little guys waiting to get blue. Even after chopping a bit off his legs, I still couldn't get the little hat on the third one to fit in my mold. 

This was really fun and opens the door to all sorts of cut-out ideas. Have fun and remember that you can easily cut any design you'd like with an exacto knife, a thin layer of soap and some patience. Oh, and some cardboard underneath to protect your table.

How to Deal with Haters

photo by Michael Lorenzo

Bramble Berry is growing (rapidly!). We've hired six people in the last two weeks. One of those people was an assistant to our Chief Marketing Officer (though for a small business, having the title 'Chief Marketing Officer' might be reaching but hey, aspirational titles are good too, right?). We put the ad out on Craigslist for $9.75/hour. Since the job was for an assistant who would help with graphic design, we proudly gave the URL of our website so applicants could see the quality of work we currently put out and would expect of them. Within 4 hours, the first tweet came: "$9.75/hour? Doesn't that seem low to you?"

Minimum wage in Washington state is $8.57/hour. Federally, it's $7.25/hour. Paying $2.50 over federal minimum wage for an entry level, part-time position doesn't seem low to me. That's the going rate for an assistant. So, I tweeted back and said something to the effect of "No, it doesn't seem low. And everyone at BB, even our COO starts low." That's true. We don't hire people who have money as their number one motivation. For one thing, we'll never be able to keep them. Our company, though profitable and growing, does put the "Small" in "Small Business." Unless you advance in the company with responsibilities and job title, your position pays the going market rate. And advancement does happen - our Chief Operating Officer started at $7/hour pulling orders and our Chief Marketing Officer started as my part-time assistant and took a $5/hour pay cut to come work for us.

The Tweets got progressively meaner:

And, as local Tweeple started RT'ing (re-tweeting) our job (because yes, yes we are a rockin' place to work with very low turnover for our core team), one person on Twitter started harrassing the people who RT'ed the job:

 

Even as I look at the Tweet screenshots above, I can feel my blood pressure start to rise and my heart start to beat quickly.  I want to get snotty and ask what sort of business degrees that person has, what sort of small business they've run and how in the world they think they know what our company makes. But, this type of thing happens when you start to have a higher profile and start to be more successful. So, coming up with a better coping mechanism than defensive sarcasm is a more mature response.

How to Deal With Haters (or, in texting lingo: "H8trs")

Step One: Examine the premise. Is the criticism true? Is it valid? How much of it is valid? What could you do differently in the future? What should you have done differently? In this case, I'm happy with my actions and my company's actions. 

Step Two: Examine the source. Who is delivering the message? What medium are they delivering it to you in? For example, in person delivery is significantly more valid than anonymous sniping on Twitter by someone with 22 followers. If you do know the person, what kind of person are they? Do they consistently tear people down or do you find them to be a thoughtful, rational person? Are they speaking from experience? 

Step Three: Identify your feelings. How are you feeling? No matter how you're feeling (sad, wounded, defensive, angry), your feelings are valid. The hater's perceived reality  may or may not be valid. Whatever you're feeling is okay. Extra credit: Journal about the situation for 20 minutes, writing without stopping.

Step Four: Step 4: Recognize that to 'Assume' makes an 'A$$' out of U and Me. What assumptions are being made by you here? What assumptions are being made by the hater? In this case, the assumption that Bramble Berry is 'raking it in' and is deliberately undercutting the market were being made. However, judging from the flood of resumes that came in, that market rate was appropriate for the job. 

Step Five: Circle the Wagons. Let the healing begin by reaching out to those who love, admire and respect you. In this case, my husband who spent a good 30 minutes calming me down and my CMO and COO all got text messages at 10 p.m. at night. Every single one of them responded quickly and reassuringly. I went out to lunch with my friend @BobPritchett who is a CEO I greatly admire and an awesome VC fund guru Robin Halliday and told them the story to get their take on it. I told another CEO, @PCValentine the situation. I got their feedback. And they all gave me the same response: "You're employing people and creating jobs. Don't apologize for creating a job that wasn't there to begin with, even if it's lower than you wish you could pay." It was nice to be validated and feel supported.

Step Six: Respond with kindness and positivity. Do not respond with anger or hurt. Remember, the origianl message speaks more about the messenger than it does you. It costs you nothing to be kind. It costs you nothing to be gracious. How do you want to look back on this situation in 5 years? In 10 years? Always do the classy thing, even if you're the only one watching. 

Hearts, Flowers and...Gnomes?

Hot off the presses (or mold machine in this case)! New goodies at Bramble Berry!

Retro Squares, Break Away Hearts, Radiant Heart

Guest Medieval Fleur de Lis Tray Mold, Mod Flower Soap, Gnome

Large Hibiscus, Modern Circles, Olive Oil Tray Mold

New Cold Process Ezine!

Lovin' Soap Ezine, Vol. 1

Just a reminder - we are still at an extended processing time (and working hard to catch up!). Current order turnaround times are listed on our home page at www.BrambleBerry.com  Thank you for all of your exciting and overwhelming amount of business this January. We've been hiring like crazy, working overtime and are making progress to get back to the speedy processing time you expect. =)

I'm New! Now What?!

Recent my friend Debbie wrote me on Twitter and told me she loved the handmade (cold process) soap I had given her for Christmas and wanted to learn how to make her own. She asked, "How do I start?" Since that's probably a longer answer than 140 characters on Twitter will give me, Debbie, this blog post is for you!

1. Read this article on the types of soapmaking. The type of soap you want to make is 'Cold Process Soapmaking.

Rebatch Soap                       Cold Process Soap          Melt and Pour Soap

2. Watch the 4 *free* videos at SoapQueen.TV on Cold Process Soapmaking.

Lye Safety
Basic Terms
Using Fragrances & Essential Oils
Using Colorants

After learning more about the process, are you still interested in moving ahead?

If yes, keep going.

If not, soapmaking is super fun! Consider a slightly less labor intense method of soapmaking - Melt and Pour soap or Rebatching soap. Kits for Melt and Pour and Rebatching are here.

3. Keep educating yourself. TeachSoap.com is a great resource. The TeachSoap forum is helpful. All of the posts here tagged with "Cold Process" add to your knowledge base and the SoapDishForum is a fantastic learning opprtounity.

4. Order a beginner kit. It has everything you need to make your first batch of soap except the Lye. Order the lye along with the beginner kit. Beginner kit is here; Lye is here.

5. Fax in your lye waiver to us at 360.752.0992

6. Get yourself to Goodwill to get a stainless steel bowl or glass bowl, a couple spatulas, spoons and invest $20 in a good Stick Blender.

7. Wait for your kit. Keep reading. Let your excitement build.

8. When the kit arrives, safety up! Goggles on! Gloves on! Cover those counters with newspaper. Lock pets outside. Children under 14 should be away from your soaping area. Find one hour of uninterupted time.

Now, get ready? Set? Soap! 

3D Goggles Not Required (tutorial)

Ingredients

4 oz. Clear Melt & Pour soap base

3 oz.  White Melt & Pour soap base

Heavy Metal Gold Mica

Liquid Black colorant 

Sheer Freesia fragrance

Victorian Blossom 3D mold 

Recipe Yields 1 Soap

Get everything you need to make 4 bars of stunning 

3D soap with the click of a button!

ONE: Melt one ounce of the clear soap base and add four to five drops liquid black colorant. Pour the black soap into the design of the front side of the mold. Allow to set-up completely and clean-up any drips using a clean up tool. Spritz the soap with rubbing alcohol then assemble the 3D soap mold.

Tip: Make sure that the holes on each side of the mold are matched up (it's easy to put one hole on the top and one on the bottom - whoops) and secure the top and the bottom of the mold with the thick rubber band.

TWO: Melt the rest of the clear soap and mix in Heavy Metal Gold mica and Sheer Freesia fragrance oil (.1 oz per bar or .5 - .7 oz. for the full two pounds). In a separate container, melt the white soap base and mix in the fragrance oil.

THREE: Alternate pouring the two colors and poking the soap skin with a skewer to swirl the soap. For a full tutorial on how to swirl melt and pour, see the video on SoapQueen.TV.

FOUR: Once the soap is completely set up (4-6 hours), remove from the mold and trim the edges using a clean up tool or a non-serrated knife. 

FIVE: Highlight the design by dry brushing the Heavy Metal Gold mica over the raised areas of the design. See this tutorial on the Soap Queen Blog for how to dry brush your soap.

Energy Blends

photo by Michael Lorenzo

Energy is a fabulous fragrance that we designed ten years ago because we were inspired by an energetic scent we smelled in a well-known bath and body line. It's comprised heavily of citrus notes with some fun notes like Blackberry, Pineapple and Champagne thrown in to sweeten it up. Energy provides a great blending palette as well. I hope you like the blends we came up with below. If you like the fragrance as-is, you're in good company. I just ran the fragrance numbers for last year and Energy was our #2 best seller. 

Click here to buy all the fragrances in one easy swoop for the blends (remember, you can delete any individual items from your cart even when using this handy "Buy It Now" button). It's enough to make full blends of everything so long as your "part" is 1/2 ounce. Not sure what a part is? Jump to the bottom of the post & I'll explain.

Sweet 'n' Citrus

2 parts Energy

2 parts Hello Sweet Thang

1 part Vanilla Select


Tart Fruity Delight

2 parts Energy

2 parts Moonlight Pomegrante

1 part Cream Cheese Frosting


Blended Big Red

2 parts Energy

2 parts Red Apple

1 part Cranberry Sweet


Tropical Beach Party

2.5 parts Energy

2.5 parts Coconut Cybilla


The Big Purple

2 parts Energy

2 parts Blackberry Cybilla

1 part Sugar Plum Fairy


Green Mean Machine

3 parts Energy

1 part Green Garden

1 part Cucumber Melon Cybilla


PS - We also sell straight Energy as a pre-made CP loaf or individual bar. Click here to check them out.

PPS - Are you wondering what a 'part' is? A 'part' is simply a unit of measure - any unit of measure, a drop, an ounce, a cup. So 3 parts of Energy and 1 part Lemon could be 3 drops Energy and 1 drop Lemon or 3 ounces Energy and 1 ounce Lemon or even 6 ounces Energy and 2 ounces Lemon. Get it? I knew you would!

It's a Tea Time Kind of Day

I had the best time last week buying presents for two special friends of mine. I decided to build the gifts around one present: hand blended Tea from Bellingham that sells at our Farmer's Market (Sip-T's site here) With that tea as an anchor theme, I headed over to Etsy to keep with the theme. It wasn't hard to find a billion tea-inspired gifts there. The most difficult part was picking out the perfect teatime assortment. 

Tea for Two Noteset

 

Poka Dot Tea Cup Noteset

Ceramic Handmade Travel Mug

Earl Grey Lip Balm

6 1/2 Month Bump

That photo was taken in the morning. It's subtle, but I do grow a little bit during the day, every day (water retention, food etc...). I tried to do a photo that showed the growth but it's not as impressive to look at as it feels.

According to my multiple baby sites, apps and books - the baby is anywhere between 13 1/2 ounces to 1.7 pounds and is either the size of a 12" ear of corn to a 15" giant squash.

Thank goodness I can still fit into my winter jacket!

My stomach, at its widest widest point is 35 1/2" wide. I'm too scared to measure my rear or hips. I'm in a good mood and don't feel like taking the time for the crying jag that would ensue after that little experiment.

Overall, pregnancy has been good. But, I'm pregnant. So I don't feel all "top of the morning to ya'!" every morning. I feel more like 1/2 of my normal self with energy level and mood. That probably has a lot to do with the pregnancy insomnia that seems to have moved into our home. I still work out 5-6 times per week but have changed my work out substantially. I've added Prenatal Pilates, Prenatal Yoga, walking, elliptical trainer, and light weights. This week, I might make it to water aerobics since jogging and jazzercise bit the dust around month 5. My feet hurt too much with both of those. Probably the extra weight? Or maybe my spreading feet size?

This week, I'm going to be focusing on moving my office into the new baby-centric office, complete with a rocking chair, a new desk and Moses basket (or pack'n'play - I'm not sure yet). We can't wait to meet this little one.
 

Buy One, Get One Free (E-Zine Special)

We're absolutely a'twitter with our hearts a'flutter over these super cute soaps made by Amanda from Lovin' Soap. What's even cooler about these soaps is that she shares her technique to make them (and more!) in her brand new E-Zine, Lovin' Soap.

Filled with cold process soap tutorials on utilizing color for some delightful projects, this E-Zine is professionally laid out and features an interview with a professional soaper as well as (eyes downcast modestly) moi. 

Want to learn more or buy the E-Zine? Click here to check it out. It's attractively priced at $8.99 for 27 pages of projects, definitions (emulsion versus trace), interviews and adorable downloadable labels for your own soapy projects. 

But WAIT, there's MORE! Anyone that buys this E-Zine by the end of January will receive the Soap Queen  Melt and Pour (2008-2009) Compilation for free! It's a two-fer! Or, a freebie that we can all get in a lather about. 

This is an electronic file in PDF format - once your payment is processed (usually within 24 hours during the week, a bit longer on the weekends) you will be able to download a copy from your account at brambleberry.com so keep your log-in information handy.