Basti's Adventures in Soap (2023)

[Mobjack Bay]

Me too! I’m in love with your soaps, especially the black and white one and please don’t tell me there is something wrong with it.

 

[dmcgee5034]

I love the bubble tea soaps, @basti - amazing as always!

 

[Blufuz]

Part two of my adventures in using the FOs I got from DOOP (their store is open again, finally), this time in MP. This month I decided to do Boba/Bubble Tea inspired soaps.

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FO: Brown Sugar by WSP
This was a remake of an old soap and unfortunately I liked the old one better haha. When you want MP to swirl, it doesn't. When you don't want MP to swirl, it does. Such is life

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FO: Ube Cake by DOOP
Used vanilla stabilizer juuuuust in case since my CP soap tester has turned medium brown.

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FO: Matcha Latte by DOOP

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FO: Peach Milk Tea by DOOP

How do you make the bubbles? These are amazing!

 

[Zing]

What the heck is wrong with it? I love the black and white stripey one, actually all of them. Great work there both with design and color. Wish I could smell 'em.

 

[Emulsion]

you are an artist

 

[basti]

Thank you everyone!

Me too! I’m in love with your soaps, especially the black and white one and please don’t tell me there is something wrong with it.

What the heck is wrong with it? I love the black and white stripey one, actually all of them. Great work there both with design and color. Wish I could smell 'em.

Aw, don't worry! Not matching my vision doesn't mean it's bad The soap might not be the swirly milk tea I wanted, but she's the best smelling zebra at the watering hole instead

How do you make the bubbles? These are amazing!

I used a circular column mold/soap cane mold. Specifically I used the mini circle column mold and the small circle column mold from Wholesale Supplies Plus. I cut them up into smaller canes so there'd be more variance in the bubble placement between the different bars and placed them in there while pouring my gradient.

 

[CLMP]

New year, new thread
I dropped the CP in the title as I think I'd like to share my soapy creations beyond just my mad science adventures. I do primarily work with MP after all. So, I hope you don't mind seeing some MP as well. Not to worry, I'll try to make it a lovely experience.
Kicking off the thread with the MP soaps I made in the last week or so!

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FO: Butterfly Garden by Nurture Soap

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FO: Mystical Woods by Wholesale Supplies Plus

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FO: Dragon Moon by Nurture Soap

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FO: Black Raspberry Vanilla by Nurture Soap

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FO: Sea Kelp & Agave by Wholesale Supplies Plus + Plumeria by Nurture Soap

Ohhh wow those are so wonderful I love them.

 

[basti]

It's been a hot second! I went on a vacation this month, so I didn't have time to make a bunch of soap

Batch #24 - 7 Oil Blend with Jeju Green Tea

My entrant for the March 2023 challenge.

Batch #25 - 6 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

Ciaglia time! I decided I wanted to make soap but didn't have any burning ideas (all my ideas are tied up in FOs yet to arrive ) so I gave my friend a list of the random FOs I had and had her choose one that sounded good and I'd come up with an idea from there. She picked Sunkissed Beach Grass by WSP (not available anymore ) and I decided to make a green soap based on the scent vibes. I still had a bunch of green scraps from a failed batch so I decided to make a ciaglia out of it and now I'm FREE from my green scrap collection. (I say, beveling this bars and adding those peels to a new green scrap collection... )
I'm affectionately nicknaming this one Shrek based on the neon green and the way the top of the soap looked marvelously swampy when I popped it in my toaster oven.

Batch #26 - 6 Oil Blend with Coffee

Oops, how did this picture of marble coffee cake get here?
Ciaglia number 2! After making Shrek, I was inspired to use up the beveled and planed scraps from my FO tester batch last month in another Ciaglia batch. I brewed some coffee to use as the water replacement (something I have never done before... I'm still not sure if I did it correctly but it's not like it really mattered LOL) and then used a tsp of the used coffee grounds. My FO was Sweet Vanilla Chai by WSP mixed with a bit of Ube Cake by DOOP after I realized I had way less SVC than I originally thought. I only added it to the brown/black, since both FOs discolor.

Finally, a MP soap!

FO is Avalon by Nurture Soap.
This is my signature soap
Avalon was the first FO I ever purchased and this was the first design I ever came up with back in 2018. I got into making MP after seeing my friend make sugar scrubs with MP as Christmas presents and decided I wanted to make soapy Christmas gifts too. My first batch fell apart because I didn't use enough rubbing alcohol. I melted the bits that had fallen apart back down and made these:

And here I am still making this exact soap with the same micas and the same FO, albeit a little prettier

 

[dibbles]

@basti, Avalon is one of my very favorite FOs. I, too, will always have it available. These are all beautiful soapies!

 

[basti]

@basti, Avalon is one of my very favorite FOs. I, too, will always have it available. These are all beautiful soapies!

Yes! It's such a wonderful FO Still a favorite five years later and everyone who has gotten a bar from me has complimented it.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Amazing soaps @basti! All terrific and I am always wow’d by your M&P soaps.

Glad I added Avalon to my last NS order now that I read your post.

 

[basti]

Quieter month for CP soap as I had quite a few MP projects to finish. Layers are so clean in MP but boy, do they take a long time to get perfect

Batch #27 - 6 Oil Blend with Apple Cider

Something a little more subtle and muted this time around. I made this batch using homemade Avocado Oil and dried & powdered avocado seed, both from our tree! I also used some leftover Apple Cider I had frozen and a splash of Awaken by Nurture Soap to use up the last of my bottle. Mostly a test of the powdered avocado seed to see how to exfoliation is. I have a lot of it so hopefully it's nice!

Batch #28 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

This batch is for a friend! They requested a specific fragrance that they once had as a lotion and missed dearly. I offered to make a new lotion for 'em and also a batch of soap. Other than that, I had free reign for the design and colors. I decided to do an abstract landscape with a dawn sky It's actually SO annoying how easy it is to make those textured mountains in CP compared to MP

My MP soaps for the month:

FO - Rain Barrel by Nature's Garden

FO - Hot Baked Apple Pie by Nature's Garden

FO - Green Tea by Nature's Garden

FO - Mt. Dew Type by Nature's Garden

 

[Zing]

I really don't have any words. That dawn sky is incredible.

 

[basti]

Soaps for this month. Most batches I've made are 400g, but I made four 900g batches this month.

Batch #29 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

FO - Red Currant by Candle Science
Neon OPW

Batch #30 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

FO - Golden Santal by Candle Science
Textured layers + gold splatter top

Batch #31 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

FO - Moonflower Nectar by Candle Science
The problem child of the month. Discoloration, acceleration, glycerin rivers. Sigh. Really pretty fragrance but I'll use it in MP if I ever choose to pick it up again.

Batch #32 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

FO - Spiced Honey & Tonka by Candle Science
Simple three color stripe with cocoa I remember this color scheme being really popular when I was in junior high lol

Batch #33 - 7 Oil Blend with Distilled Water

FO - Stargazing by Nature's Garden
My entry for the May 23 challenge.

Finally, a MP soap.

It was time to make more of my signature rainbow soap. I always like the blend effect on this design.

 

[BWt]

@basti every single one of your soaps is fabulous. Your May 23 challenge soap is especially fabulous. Whenever I see your posts I know that beautiful colorful artwork will be there. Thank you for sharing.

 

[basti]

@basti every single one of your soaps is fabulous. Your May 23 challenge soap is especially fabulous. Whenever I see your posts I know that beautiful colorful artwork will be there. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much! You're too kind

 

[dmcgee5034]

Each one is fannnnnn-tastic!!! I love 29, those lines and color transitions . Great work, as always @basti

 

[Tammyfarms]

@basti your soaps are amazing!

 

[Zing]

Wow wow wow. A. Ma. Zing.

 

[Shelley D]

Time for some Cold Process!

Batch #19 - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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My entrant for the January Soap Challenge. Just sharing it here for continuity sake.


Batch #22 - 6 Oil Blend with Fermented Rice Water
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This batch is for a friend! They requested a specific scent and wanted a soap inspired by a fictional character. Said character has a white/black/red color scheme. I decided to try splitting my oils and lye and start with a textured AC layer and then do a OPW on top. I did add in a tiny gold mica line to represent the gold detailing on his clothing, but it wasn't enough to show up except in a few places haha. Now I know I need WAY more mica. My white got glycerin rivers and I DON'T CARE because it adds to the aesthetic. I love these so much. And the black is so luscious. I'm obsessed.
FO is Fastlane by Nature's Garden. Fingers crossing it doesn't fade on me.

Batch #23 - 7 Oil Blend with Apple Cider
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Decided to do a bit of a Zero Waste batch. I had a random assortment of stuff that needed to get used up. I did a full water replacement with some apple cider that I was... not impressed with the flavor of, so I froze it and decided to make soap with it. I also had a few bottles of FO that had very little product left inside of them, so I opted to mix them. Finally, I tossed in some of my scraps to make it ciaglia style. I think I overswirled a little, which is fine. I do like how nice and simple they are.
FOs are White Tea & Pear by NS and Fresh Picked Apple by WSP.

Test Batch - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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I'm not counting this in my batch count purely on a technicality I decided to do something I probably should've done before... which is do some FO testing. Until now, I've just trusted the soap notes provided by the FO company and used well behaved FOs. But I got three FOs from a company that doesn't have testing notes.
I plan to use them in MP where that stuff doesn't matter, but I still wanted to get a frame of reference for vanillin discoloration. I know I'll use stabilizer for that middle right one now
FOs Used:
Peach Milk Tea by DOOP - Matcha Latte by DOOP
Sweet Vanilla Chai by WSP* - Ube Cake by DOOP
Control - Sunkissed Beach Grass by WSP**
(+A tiny mica drizzle just so I could tell the difference at a quick glance)

* Used as a "vanillin control" as I knew the vanillin percentage and knew that FO discolored the MP soap I used it in.
** Threw this one in as it's described as a moderate accelerator by WSP and I wanted to see that first hand. It's a discontinued FO now...

I really love the 3 FOs I picked up from DOOP.
The Peach Milk Tea smells EXACTLY like the peach iced tea I used to drink when I lived in Korea and it makes me super nostalgic.
Matcha Latte smells like a can of INOTEA Matcha Bubble Tea, which is a rather floral matcha smell with the soft creaminess of a little milk. I will say it didn't smell good in the bottle though LOL
Ube Cake is a nice balance of vanilla and sweet notes as well as the nutty depth of the ube.
Their shop is closed right now... presumably for a restock... but I'll likely pick more from them in the future.

Do you do videos?! I would love to watch you work! I get a sort of mad scientist vibe reading your posts!