August Soap Challenge: Color Challenge

Good Afternoon, Rose Garden.

I have been absolutely terrible about blogging this year!! I am so sorry. Moving forward I will post at a minimum of twice a month. That being said let me give you some background on how these challenges came about. I was feeling uninspired when it came to soaping or fragrance creation. A few of my other colleagues were feeling the same way. We were feeling stuck, drained and a little lost. So I came up with a monthly challenge going into 2019.

August - Color Challenge - Using 3 shades of one color create either a landscape or horizon picture.

September - Kiddie Kolor Challenge - Without using any food scents create a colorful or whimsical soap for children or inspired by a children's show or game.

October - Welcome To Autumn Challenge - Make a soap that is representative of what Autumn looks and smells like in your area.

November - Winter Has Come Challenge - Make a soap representative of what Winter looks like in your area.

December - Favorite Christmas Movie Challenge - Create a soap that typifies or is a snapshot of your favorite Christmas movie. You may NOT use any shade red or green as your primary color.

January - New Year's Wish Challenge - Create a soap that embraces the spirit of what you want for yourself (not family or business but for YOU) for the new year.

If you want to participate please feel free to leave pictures in the comments as well as a summary of your process and fragrance used.

Alright so here we go. This is my color challenge. My inspiration is the sky after a heavy rainfall here in South Carolina.

My bestie in New Orleans sent me the Iron Oxide Yellow from Maple Street Supplies because she wants me to branch out with my suppliers. It gives a mustard yellow to any of the soaps that I make. I didn't expect that so since the day I made this soap I have made sure to account for that. The Chemistry Store and Rustic Escentuals are my go-to places for colorants. Thankfully, I binge order from The Chemistry Store when it comes to their mini bottles. LOL I used Lemon Gel Lab color for my sun and Caribbean Yellow Gel Lab color to create the streaks in the sky.

I FINALLY get a chance to use Rustic Escentuals Lime Spritzer (now discontinued, so sad). It smells just like the taste of Lime Skittles. It is amazhing!!!

I wanted to show you the different colors once they had been mixed into the soap batter. They pretty much stayed the same.

As I was pouring this I realized that the batter was too liquid to sustain the layers that I really wanted. I had to take a 10 minute break to allow the batter to thicken up. As you can see in the picture below there is a distinct line between where I first poured and my second pour.

It didn't turn out quite like I wanted but it still captures the essence of what I wanted.

So, in review, the challenge was definitely a challenge. I would do it again but probably a landscape scene with green.

Lime Spritzer from Rustic Escentuals was a great FO to work with. It didn't accelerate trace at all. It didn't discolor. The scent is really subtle until you wash with it then it comes out strong. I love it. You can see the inspiration photo on my IG account: the_chandlers_rose. I took it with my phone and not my Canon.

Thank you so much for reading. You can always watch my making or cutting videos in YouTube at The Chandlers Rose. Be sure to leave a comment below.

Soap Challenge, Continued: Soda Soap

Good Afternoon, Rose Garden.

It has been a long 4 months!! High school graduation, college tours, packing, etc. I have not been soaping like I normally would. To be honest, I have Soaper's Block. It is a real thing. I have the time but not the inclination. I do however have pictures from the last two months of what I have been up to. I am just going to post for your perusal. I have to admit that I am a night time soaper. I usually get the motivation at 9 or 10 o'clock PM. But the natural light is normally gone by then. I have pictures that show you how I went about making my soda soap.

I normally weigh my containers just in case the scale times out on me while I am working.

I boiled the soda for a little over an hour. I wasn't worried about the syrup aspect because I knew that I was going to be using canned coconut milk to help with any possible Acceleration issues.

Much like with the Rosemary Tea the lye turned the liquid a rusty brown. 

Once the oils were added the batter turned a beautiful orange color. I wish that it could have stayed this way.

Barbershop 1920 is a masculine FO from Rustic Escentuals. It didn't Accelerate at all. The fragrance is strong but not overpowering. It is more like a clean light aftershave.

Fresh Bamboo from Nature's Garden is a definite keeper. It is a clean green scent that could be considered Unisex. 

I didn't take any pictures of the 2 pound loaf that I used Cypress Bamboo as the fragrance. Pure oversight on my part. It smells like the blue hair pomade that men use(d). Hopefully, the scent will mellow out and return to the OOB fragrance. If not, then that one will just have to go on the Do Not Purchase list.

Be sure to leave me comments below if you have a particular fragrance or method you want me to try out.

30 Soap Challenge Continued

Hello, Rose Garden.

I allowed February to get away from me. I am behind on posting more soaps. I do apologize. I have more to post.

I used Bora Bora from Rustic Escentuals. OOB it smells like a very strong exotic floral. In the soap it smells like Fruit Punch Bubbalicious. I love it better in soap than OOB. I doesn't Accelerate too much. Definitely doesn't discolor.

Normally I would blend another oil with it but to be perfectly honest with you it smells beautiful on its own. It doesn't need anything else to go with it. 

This would be perfect as a soap, shower gel, lotion and perfume. The staying power of it is amazing. Smelling this one actually makes me think of Hawai'i landscapes even though the scent reminds me of fruit punch. This is definitely one that I would add to the line up if I still had my business up and running.

30 Day Soap Challenge

Good Afternoon , Rose Garden!!

Last year I set myself upon a soap challenge where I forced myself to soap using all of the 1 - 2 ounce oils that have been collecting on my shelves since 2016, use oils that I have never tried before, and colorants that I have been collecting since 2013. This has truly been (well, duh!) a challenge!! So over the next 30 posts I will share the names of the FOs, where I got them from, scent descriptions, what the reviews stated on behavior and what I have noticed. At NO time will I bash the suppliers. If I disagree with a scent description I will post what I smell. Let's get started.

The first soap is from my Pirate's Cove line, First Mate. The Top Note is Ozone. The Middle or Heart Note is slightly peppery. The Base Note is Peppermint. This is of my own creation. Doesn't A or D. The sea shells are real and not soap. I have had them since 2015 and I was looking to do something else with them that fell through.

I used a Wilton tip to get the seaweed effect with the piped soap. The colors are Green mica (turns gold, tan, khaki and back to green), Emerald Gel lab color and Titanium Dioxide. The fragrance is still strong 3 months after cure. I love the Pirate's line because I get to try many nautical scents.

I actually filmed me making this and posted it to my channel on YouTube. I overfilled the piping bag and some raw soap splattered into my mouth while I was talking. I can laugh about it now but at the time it was burning and tasted awful!! LOL The results were worth it though. So far all of the testers for this have loved it. I love it. The smell of the soap when dry is very faint but once it is wet it is very strong and sticks to the skin.

Fragrance Review: 

Overall this scent is a keeper. I love the fact that I had a whole 10 minutes to play with the top. No Acceleration, Discoloration and the fragrance didn't morph.

If you are enjoying The Chandler's Rose blog please comment and let me know if you are satisfied with the content. If not, please advise me as to what I can do to make this blog an informative tool for you.

Coconut Cream Fragrance Review

Good Evening,

Tonight's fragrance review is from an oldie but goodie. I have soaped with Coconut Cream since 2012. It is not phthalate free. The description on the site reads "A milky sweet coconut type with top notes of coconut milk, middle notes of peach, and cocoa, with tonka bean, sweet sugary vanilla and caramel base note." To me there isn't an overwhelming Coconut fragrance, more like a creamy Vanilla. It does discolor to a medium tan depending on which types of hard fats and butters you use. Unfortunately, I haven't soaped this fragrance oil on it's own since 2013.

This was my poor attempt at making a brown sugar scrub CP soap with Coconut Cream. Super crumbly as you can see but it smelled really nice. I would recommend this FO if you are looking for a good Vanilla FO but not if you are looking for a good Coconut FO.

Peach Gardenia Fragrance Review

Good Evening,

Tonight's review is for The Chemistry's Store fragrance oil Peach Gardenia (not phthalate free). The description on the site reads "An exquisite blending of fruit and floral. Top notes of bergamot, muguet, jasmine and grape. Floral mid notes of rose, gardenia, lilac, ylang, peach, balsam and nuances of cinnamon. Base notes of woody musk, vanilla, powder and violet."

Out of bottle the Gardenia is a top note that is a bit sharp. There is an underlying sweetness to it. The Peach is a heart note and is really mellow. Think juicy Georgia Peach fruit and not saccharine candy Peach. A lovely fragrance through and through. No acceleration or discoloration. I had plenty of time to play with it but did notice that after 15 minutes in the cupcake mold it was starting to go through gel phase. For this tester soap I used 3 mL to 5 ounces of soap batter. I would recommend this for a year 'round line.

Japanese Honey and Tea Fragrance Review

Good Afternoon, Rose Garden.

December is normally crunch time for businesses: going over inventory, last minute gift requests, markets, shows and the family holiday hoopla. Thankfully for me this time of year is just a quiet time to reflect on the past year's endeavors, look at all of the beautiful holiday soaps and catch year end sales. For the rest of the month I am going to blog about fragrance oils that I have been using for the past few years as well as new ones. Today's entry is Japanese Honey and Tea from The Chemistry Store, now discounted on the site by 40%

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Japanese Tea and Honey

The description reads as follows:

Velvet rose, golden honey, and hearty cinnamon blend perfectly with nutty top notes to bring you this wonderful and exotic scent

OOB I notice a decidedly Play Doh(TM) smell which I can only guess is the honey mentioned in the description. In actual soap the "golden honey" scent is more distinctive. The "rose" and "nutty top notes" are very elusive. It does handle very well in soap with a  50% or higher hard oils and butters soap formulation. No Acceleration or discoloration. At 4 months out the scent is just as strong as the first day it was soaped.

Pairs well with Lemon EO, Litsea Cubea (May Chang) EO, Green Tea FO and White Tea and Ginger FO.