Hello!

[Summerblue]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Anne and I'm new to soap making. I have 2 cats and a boyfriend and I work during the day as a veterinarian. I find soap making a perfect compliment to my vet career as it helps me to relax, unwind and think about something else. It's also a real pleasure to create something that looks and smells beautiful with your own hands. My hope is that someday I'll be able to make soaps that are just as beautiful as some of the ones that I see here and on Etsy.

So far I've made 5 batches of soap over the last month, it's been great fun and the learning curve has been steep! There have not been any disasters so far but I would like to improve the look and design and smell of my soaps and I will be calling on everyone for input.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and say "hi, nice to meet you all"!

Cheers and Happy New Year to you all!
Anne

 

[soapbuddy]

Welcome Anne! Happy New Year!

 

[Hazel]

Hi Anne,

Welcome to the forum!

That's wonderful that you're a veterinarian although that must be really rough at times. We have 3 dogs and 2 cats now and keep swearing that we're not going to get anymore. (Of course, we've been saying this for quite awhile and just took in the third dog back in September.)

What were the batches you made? I'd love to see pics.

Happy New Year to you!

 

[Acme]

Welcome to the forum Anne.

 

[Summerblue]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

I am trying to figure out how to post pictures and as soon as I do I'll post pictures of my first soap batches.


Happy New Year everyone!

 

[Summerblue]

Here is a picture of my last batch of soap, it was the first time I tried whipping soap. I like the way it turned out except for the dark grey smudges in it. This was supposed to be a green color and I used stevia mixed with titanium dioxide but it came out greyish instead. It's not horrible but it wasn't what I intended.

 

[Hazel]

I think it looks great and I love the colors. Instead of greyish, you can describe the color as pewter. It sounds more elegant. :wink: Did you scent it? Why did you use stevia?

 

[Summerblue]

Here is my last batch of whipped soap!





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[Summerblue]

Thanks Hazel!

I used stevia because that's the only thing I had on hand to make a green color with. I didn't know how it would turn out since I'd never tried it before. I also wanted to try using a natural colorant. At this point everything I'm doing is still an experiment but I'm getting there!

The pink turned out nicely, it was a mixture of iron oxide and titanium dioxide and it actually stayed pink!

I am going to purchase more colorants and I think I may buy some micas and oxides.

The scents I used for this soap were lavender, peppermint and anise EO's.
1 oz lavender, 1/4 oz anise and 1/4 oz peppermint. It smells strongly of peppermint and not so much of lavender or anise. Next time I'll use less peppermint for sure! The smell is very nice though and my house smells lovely because of it!

 

[soapbuddy]

Stevia will not stay green. For a natural green, I would try green clay.

 

[Hazel]

Thanks Hazel!

I used stevia because that's the only thing I had on hand to make a green color with. I didn't know how it would turn out since I'd never tried it before. I also wanted to try using a natural colorant. At this point everything I'm doing is still an experiment but I'm getting there!

The pink turned out nicely, it was a mixture of iron oxide and titanium dioxide and it actually stayed pink!

I am going to purchase more colorants and I think I may buy some micas and oxides.

The scents I used for this soap were lavender, peppermint and anise EO's.
1 oz lavender, 1/4 oz anise and 1/4 oz peppermint. It smells strongly of peppermint and not so much of lavender or anise. Next time I'll use less peppermint for sure! The smell is very nice though and my house smells lovely because of it!

I bet it does smell great. How long has this batch been curing? I've noticed that scents change a bit over a couple of weeks. I had done a batch where I used lavender, clary sage and geranium. At first, the geranium was all I could smell and I had used less of it. After awhile (not sure how long - a week or slightly longer?), the EOs melded together and became a very nice herbal scent.

 

[Summerblue]

This batch has only been curing for about 10 days so far, I'm hoping the smell will mellow and change a little and the lavender will come through more.
Thanks for the advice about the green clay, I will buy some and try it!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[punkflash54]

hi and welcome to the forum. i like the colors in your soap. and i love anything peppermint so im sure it smells awesome but i know it can be frustrating when you try to blend oils and not all the scents come through. maybe after more cure time the peppermint will lighten up a little bit

 

[agriffin]

Hi and welcome! Your soaps are really pretty!