Thought After Charity Event Sale

The charity sale turned out better than I thought, I sold about 16 of them, but what I really care is what the customers think, but I'm happy knowing that someone appreciate the value of the handmade soap and willing to try it out. Thanks to a nice coworker of mine, she gave me some of her left over decoration so my table look a lot more nicer now :)

In my first handmade soap sale, one big mistake I made was everyone who stops by my booth immediately bring the soap up to their nose and tried to smell it, but I wrapped all the soap, so I had to poke some holes in the bag to let customers smell.

I also learn a lot on what people's reaction to handmade soap:

1. For those who prefer using shower gel, their reason is because the soap dry their skin out. What I really want to say is, have they try "handmade" soap? shower gel is actually worse for you because of other chemical stuff they put in it to make your skin feel extra smooth and smell nice. Many case studies showed similar chemical (Paraben) they used in shower gel can be also found inside breast cancer patient. While this is an ongoing study and may not be true, why risk it? if you use shower gel, make sure to use water that is hot enough to clean off everything off your body.

2. Handmade soap is expensive and I heard you all, I was once thinking just the same when I started using one, I thought to myself, why so expensive? but after learning how to make one myself, I finally understand why, and totally willing to pay for the price, especially to those who make soap locally or as their hobby. Most important question you should ask yourself is, would you be willing to rub chemical or natural oil on your body?

3. Smell isn't strong enough? The one they sell at the store has strong and nice fragrance, notice I used the word fragrance? fragrance is like perfume, a form of chemical as well, it's like rubbing perfume all over your body, I only believe in using 100% essential oil, while it may not smell as strong, it preserve the soap naturally and more gentle to your skin.

I'd like to THANK YOU ALL who came by and support handmade soap, that really made my day and gave me encouragement to work harder on making more soap :), hope you all like it. Not only you spend a little extra to pamper your skin, better for the environment, part of the proceed also goes to helping hand. ^_^

Natural Color is the BEST!

I soaked the gromwell root my friend gave me into the olive oil for nearly a month now, and WOW, I've never seen such beautiful purple color in my life. Gromwell root is a type of herbal plant that's been used for skin treatment, such as eczema, promote coagulation, anti-baterial, anti-inflammatory. The purple pigmentation is so strong the whole time I thought I was making dark chocolate. I hope it won't turn my skin to purple when it's ready to use :) This time I also use Japanese green tea as soap base instead of water, green tea will add anti-oxidant property into the soap itself.

Name:

Gromwell Rosemary Shea Butter Soap

乳油木紫草根迷迭香手工皂

Ingredients:

Gromwell root soak in Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea Butter

NaOH

Green Tea

Essential Oil:

100% Rosemary essential oil

＊For information on Gromwell root, please see below website

http://www.mdidea.com/products/proper/proper094.html

Company Charity Event Sales

I saw a flyer at my company advertising that next month, there will be a "handmade craft charity event sales", all company employees get to sell stuff that they made or wish to sell, 15% will be donated to the charity. I tried my luck and asked my company if selling handmade soap is acceptable and I got approved, for past 2 weeks I made additional 20 bars of soap to get ready for this, I'm super excited, this will be my first time selling my own soap to the customer face to face. I can't wait to tell people all the benefits about using handmade soap. This time I made my most popular grapeseed eucalyptus soap since I heard complimentary on that particular soap from two of my friends already(my favorite so far too), I also made another one where I mix coffee ground into the soap and add peppermint essential oil in to simulate "peppermint coffee".

Name:

Eucalyptus Grapeseed Mung-Bean Soap

藍膠尤佳利葡萄籽綠豆粉手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Grapeseed oil

Castor oil

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Eucalyptus essential oil

Other:

Mung-Bean Powder

Milk

Name:

Shea Butter Avocado Peppermint Coffee Soap

乳油木酪梨薄荷咖啡手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

NaOH

Milk

Essential Oil:

100% Peppermint essential oil

Other:

Blue natural mineral clay

Coffee Ground

Preparing for the Winter

Yay, my foam insulation box has arrived....keeping the soap warm or in room temperature is very important after you finishing making the soap, so it will keep hardening itself. The drastic change in temperature will worsen the quality of the oil, or if the humidity is too high, it will change the texture of the soap. Of course, I don't just order the foam insulation box, it comes with my favorite Omaha steak(which I only get when I have a gift card from Discover :p) I was worried the box might not be big enough since I didn't order a lot, but wow, my soap mold fit in it perfectly even with my soap cutter sitting on top :) now I have a peace in mind for upcoming winter now.

Just Keep Trying....Just Keep Trying.....

I learned that the less amount of kinds of oil I use, the more the nutritious value becomes effective in soap using, therefore, I reduced down to only 5 oil this time. I tried the swirling technique again and I think I got it this time, but still not pretty enough >< Here's what I got:

Name:

Shea Butter Avocado Lemongrass Soap

乳油木酪梨香茅手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Lemongrass essential oil

Other:

Red natural mineral clay

New Oils, New Adventure!

I'm going to keep trying the swirling technique till I get it right, this time I tried with two new oil, Avocado oil and sweet almond oil. I didn't know avocado oil is consider higher grade than olive oil, however it is a bit more pricy than olive oil, that is why using olive oil is more common in soap making while give good amount of nutrient that you need. There are two type of avocado oil, refined and unrefined, unrefined is cheaper but MORE nutritious, the natural green color will also give soap light green color. The one I got seem to be refined as my soap didn't turn out green like I wanted, and I really want to get unrefined avocado oil if I can because of it high nutritious value. I was able to mix the color in this time, but the swirl didn't turn out good because I swirl it too many time. My friend was able to show me a couple of video how to make the color propertly, I was grateful for my friend's constant support and encouragement.

Name:

Shea Butter Sweet Almond Rosemary Soap

乳油木酪梨甜杏仁迷迭香手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

Sweet almond oil

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Rosemary essential oil

Other:

Red natural mineral clay

Care Package

I received a care package today from my friend in Taiwan. The box is packed full of soap materials and ingredients that I can't easily get here in US, there are two natural mineral powder for coloring, two essential oils, a lot of design stickers, some flowers and herbal plant for soap making, it is so sweet of her. Inside the card she wrote: "Although these aren't very valuable as individual, but hopefully you can use your creativity and turn it into something even more valuable" I can't thank my friends enough for their constant support and encouragement, thank you!

She also bought bunch of soap stamps for me since there's a big sale going on, she paid everything up front, I really feel bad, I wish there's a good and efficient way of getting the money to her. (picture courtesy by 想想魚) however, I told her feel free to use my stamp before I go back to Taiwan and get it, I think it's a fair trade for now :)

My First Soap Impression

Since the mistake last time, I've been thinking to avoid using castor oil and use other type of oil instead, not because I'm afraid of it but because I want to make s solid color soap since depending on the ratio of caster oil will determine how transparent the soap be. I got myself some shea butter and jojoba oil this time, both are very good oil for coating the skin with oil during winter. I whisk the soap a lot longer this time for some reason even though the hardness ratio is higher due to shea butter. Instead of using water, I used the brown rice water by soaking for a period of time, brown rice is good source of vitamin B and will add extra nutrient to the soap. I also tried using spirulina powder for more defined coloring and I also wanted to try out swirling technique by pouring color on different spot, then slowly draws the pattern along the coloring spot using a wooden stick. however, the solution turned out to be too thick for color to get in, so I learned that I'm suppose to do the coloring part when the solution is still runny and just starting to get trace.


Big news for me, I was also able to put stamp on my soap successfully this time, stamp sure give the soap extra personality.

Name:

Shea Butter Jojoba Lavender Brown Rice Soap

乳油木荷荷芭薰衣胚芽米手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Palm oil

Coconut oil

Jojoba oil

Shea butter

Brown Rice Water

NaOH

Essential Oil:

100% Lavender Vanilla essential oil

Other:

Sea-derived spirulina powder

Un-Stamp-able (Layering Part II)

Soap making just keeps getting more fun each time, I look forward to making soap each week to try out all these different techniques. This time I tried another type of layering soap by mixing half of the solution with mung-bean powder to give it darker color, I also tried goat milk this time instead of milk/water. After several good luck of making soap successfully, bad luck finally got to me, I was trying to put stamp on the goat milk soap, for some reason, I cannot get the imprint to look right in the center because it's still very soft. Later on I found out from my friend that it could be caused by several reason:

1. Using castor oil will make the soap more sticky and harder to manage when it comes to stamping the soap
2. Too many powder material(such as mung-bean powder) will actually obsorb more moisture from air and soap itself therefore make it difficult to stamp in the center.

I learned from this mistake and will keep trying next time!

Name:

Grapeseed Eucalyptus Goat Milk Soap

葡萄籽藍膠由加利羊奶手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Grapeseed oil

Castor oil

NaOH

Goat Milk

Essential Oil:

100% Lavender Vanilla essential oil

Other:

Flaxseed

Mung-bean powder

My Birthday Surprise!

I received a surprise birthday present from my friend in Taiwan. I always wanted a stamp for my soap but finding one here in US isn't easy, my friend heard my dilemma and bought it for me from this Taiwanese soap crafter website and shipped all the way here for me. I was so happy and can't wait to make more soap.

Layering Soap Part I

Another technique in soap making is layering soap, there are two types of layering techniques, you can create layers by using powder-like materials so you see a thin line/divider after you cut the soap. Another type of layering soap is by mixing other half of the soap solution with powder material to create different color and pour it on top of rest of the soap solution. I don't really have any powder material that gives pretty color so I use mung-bean powder since I already had it. Here's what it looks like after I cut it :) My friend also suggested me to be careful when sprinkle powder on the soap, if you sprinkle too much, the soap run into risk of breaking in half as it becomes dry. If you sprinkle it too less, you won't 'be able to see the line clearly.

Name:

Grapeseed Eucalyptus Mung-Bean Soap

藍膠尤佳利葡萄籽綠豆粉手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Grapeseed oil

Castor oil

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Eucalyptus essential oil

Other:

Mung-bean powder

Soap Within Soap

Soap making leaves plenty of room for creativity. This time I tried "Soap within a soap" meaning after pouring the soap into the mold, I throw in few pieces of other type of soap in so when you cut it, you will see pattern within the soap, think of it like a sushi roll, the pattern will be different depending on the type of ingredients you put in. Not only it's fun to do this, it puts the left over soap to use rather than going wasted. I used the same type of ingredients again with milk base, and I throw in left over soap from the Eucalyptus Milk Soap. Another good news to share, my soap mold works well, I can now have full length rectangular bar soap now :)

Name:

Rosemary Ginger Milk Soap

迷迭薑鮮奶手工皂

Ingredients:

Rosemary soak in Olive oil

Shea butter

Palm oil

Grapeseed oil

Castor oil

Coconut oil

Organic Milk

NaOH

Essential Oil:

100% pure Ginger essential oil

Other:

Mung-Bean Powder

Handmade Soap Mold and Cutter

After a long time looking for a reasonable price soap mold and soap cutter online, I decided to make one myself. I learned this in my character animation class that good planning will save you a lot of headache later on. So I made sure I design and plan my soap mold layout well. Originally I was going to have a separate lid for the soap mold, then I thought, why not just use the base of the soap cutter as the soap mold lid to save extra piece of wood and cost? here's what I had:

I then went to both Home Depot and Lowe's comparing the price and quality of the wood, one thing I noticed is the dimension at Lowe's seems to be off a bit, instead of 3.75", they just labeled it as 4", so not a good idea if you are going to precision. I picked my wood and had them cut for me in pieces, and took it home, then the fun began.....

I was pretty excited when I was done, it always feels good to design and make something yourself, my soap cutter and soap mold combo idea works and I couldn't be any more proud :) I can now make 10" x 2.5" x 1" bar, with the flexibility to do 10" x 3.25" x 1" or 10" x 4" x 1" with additional piece of wood.

Milk Soap

This time, my goal is to make a milk soap. Milk has tons of nutrient in it and is too good to go to waste. In order to do that, I have to freeze the milk first, so the temperature will be kept under control when interact with NaOH, I really want to do all my soap in cold process just because I hate wasting good nutritious value that I spent so much time and money on :) Again, the ideal temperature should be kept under 104 F or 45 C, I used the same ingredient like my last soap except that I used organic whole milk instead of water. Many people might think using milk will produce white-ish color soap, but in contrast, the chemical reaction between milk and NaOH will give brown color intead. After one month of curing the soap, I now realize what my friend meant by milk soap is more hydrating, because even after one month of curing, I can still feel moisture when I touch the soap. The regular water base soap will still hydrate your skin, it's just not as powerful as the milk soap.

Name:

Grapeseed Eucalyptus Milk Soap

尤加利葡萄籽鮮奶手工皂

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Palm oil

Grapeseed oil

Caster oil

Coconut oil

Organic Milk

NaOH

Essential Oil:

100% pure Eucalyptus essential oil

My First Soap!

I didn't have any soap mold to start out with, my friend suggested me to use milk carton as a starter mold. I am a huge fan of "Horizon Organic Milk", so I can finally put those milk carton to use. I start out making only 500g of soap so in case I mess it up there are still some oil left for me :) I hate making mistake, so I review my soap formula over and over and make sure everything's in correct percentage. Time to stir away!! As I was mixing all the oil together and stir them, I constantly measure the temperature to make sure they don't go too high, anything that is above 104 F degree the oil will slowly lose it's nutritious value, and I sure don't want that, if I'm working hard on something, might as well make it the best :)

I was surprised the soap actually come out nicely. Here's my first soap made by myself "Grapeseed Eucalyptus Soap". I'm counting down the days till I can use the soap, can't wait :)

Name:

Grapeseed Eucalyptus Soap

尤加利葡萄亞麻籽手工皂

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Palm oil

Grapeseed oil

Caster oil

Coconut oil

H2O

NaOH

Essential Oil:

100% pure Eucalyptus essential oil

Others:

Flaxseed

Getting Everything Together~

Getting everything together was quite a headache since there wasn't really any local soap store around that sells everything you needed. I bought the oil online, the basic unit price wasn't bad, but I was shocked by the shipping, but the damage was done, gotta get it or else I won't have anything to start with. Next was getting all the tools together such as bartender's spoon, scale, mixing bowls.....etc. I spent a looooong time looking for these tools because I don't know what are some of the tools called in English, and I did a lot of comparing on which shop has the best price with good quality product that I can use for a long time; Bed Bath and Beyond was my best friends to find most of the tools, then I get the rest in Home Depot. So here we go~ there goes all my utility bills this month~~~

Here's how it began.....

The first time I used handmade soap was all the way back when I was a college student. I bought a goat milk soap for myself but didn't care for it at that time because I didn't see any immediate result, it was expensive, and of course, it didn't help much on my eczema in which I had it for a while. It wasn't until 2009 my friend in Taiwan gave me a set of handmade soap as a gift made by her sister.


It took me forever to use it because I was so stingy to use such good stuff, needless to say, my eczema problem still persist, but I did like the idea behind it how it uses only natural ingredients in it. My friend's sister eventually open her own soap business later on and I started browsing through her website, what really impressed me were how she put so much thought and creativity into making soap, not only she made different soap for all kind of skin type, she presented her soap in nice and creative packaging that I can't stop looking at it. I started asking her about my skin condition and she said it's important to use soap for a period of time to really see the result, I listened to her and started using it again continuously, I can see my skin condition gets better and better, I have no more eczema on my arm and leg now. In 2011 when I went back to Taiwan, I asked my friend to teach me how to make soap, I was amazed to see she did everything from scratch and by her own hand, there's so much hard work and thought into it, now I know why handmade soap cost so much, it's worth every penny, I really enjoyed it and here's how it all began :)