Soap favors for my son’s wedding - help me with planning?

[Mobjack Bay]

I need this little project to be a success

I boldly volunteered to make soap for the guests at my son and his fiancé’s wedding in June. As a first step, I’m starting to test colors. The Bride-to-Be is going with “bright” colors for her flowers. The bridesmaids will be wearing very pale pink dresses, the guys will be wearing navy and my son will be wearing light blue.

Based on photos she sent me (see below), I created a color palette using the color blender that was recently linked in another thread. I couldn’t bring myself to add orange shades... She just let me know that the light blue I added is probably too grey. Otherwise, I think I’m on the right track relative to what she envisions. The mica blends I tried in my first test run today look great in oil, but I think the pinkish purple shades are too rosy in the ungelled wet batter. The loaf is doing it’s thing now, so maybe gelling will shift the color. The rosy blend is mostly Nurture’s Queen of Hearts, with some Cheshire Cat mixed in. The yellow is Yellow Vibrance with a tad of Orange Vibrance and a tiny shot of Sahara Gold. Photos of everything, below

Any suggestions about ways to achieve the palette colors will be appreciated. Would blending fluorescent micas in with regular micas help with the brightness without going full fluorescent? If you have thoughts about orange added to this palette, I’m open to that as well. The designs I’m considering are hearts and possibly flowers in solids, layered (am I crazy???) and swirled soaps made in loaves with each full size bar cut in half. There will be 130 guests, so I’m thinking 150 soaps will do it.

 

[dibbles]

Does she definitely want bright colors? A more pastel palette might be easier. The neons can pump up a color, but experiment with them and take good notes if you decide to go that way. They can get to be too much (for my taste) very easily.

If you want to include hearts in the design, I'd go with an embed. To simplify things maybe a white with light blue and navy swirl and a light pink heart.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Does she definitely want bright colors? A more pastel palette might be easier. The neons can pump up a color, but experiment with them and take good notes if you decide to go that way. They can get to be too much (for my taste) very easily.

If you want to include hearts in the design, I'd go with an embed. To simplify things maybe a white with light blue and navy swirl and a light pink heart.

Pastels would definitely be easier, but I don’t mind experimenting a little to see what I can come up with. The heart embed soap sounds pretty!

 

[penelopejane]

Or you can buy heart shaped molds.
Are you making a grey/blue for guys and the pink colours for the women?
I prefer the really pale pink, don't really like the yellow, love the grey and grey/blue. I don't like the idea of orange but that is just me.
You can order a cheap custom stamp from aliexpress with their names and date to stamp the soaps as soon as they unmold.

 

[Relle]

I'd do a pale pink background, then drop in fuschia and either the navy or pale blue through it. I think too many colours are going to look messy. I wouldn't even go near the yellow. You only need to pick up a few colours to match in with the wedding, the people receiving them won't even notice.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@dibbles @penelopejane and @Relle - Thank you for freeing me from the idea of going past the pinks/fuschia and blues.

This fuschia mica from Nurture looks like a possibility:
https://nurturesoap.com/products/cabaret-mica

I might try this one for the pale pink. It would be nice if I didn’t need to use TD:
https://nurturesoap.com/collections/micas/products/oleander-mica

I can get a nice pastel blue with Nurture’s Klein blue and can probably get that all the way to navy by adding some AC and/or black mica. Has anyone tried Nurture’s Midnight Blue? Their Dark Navy can look muddied/grey, almost a little greenish, if I don’t use enough of it.

PJ - The stamp idea sounds good. I definitely want to have some soaps that are appealing to the guys. I thought a layered soap, for example with the pastel blue as the dominant color and accented with thin navy and white lines could work, or a simple Taiwan swirl. Or, maybe some of the guys will weigh in with ideas.

What about packaging ideas? The reception is going to be a strolling dinner, rather than a seated meal and the bride-to-be thinks it might be best to have the soaps in a big basket. Do they make biodegradable shrink wrap?

 

[BattleGnome]

If the soaps are in a basket without names expect that you’ll need more than expected. Innocent mistakes like a couple grabbing for the other and realizing at home they have 4 or that one person who likes free stuff pushing to see what they can get. At my wedding I had everything labeled and incorporated it into table assignments, that’s not going to work here. I’m sure a basket of soaps will be gorgeous but labeling might be something to think about so nobody gets offended (cuz there’s always that one person who’s having a bad day).

there have been other threads about biodegradable shrink wrap but I don’t think there is a forum consensus about any good brand. In one of the last threads someone mentioned a waxed craft paper (from Korea?), maybe a plainer soap in a vibrant packaging will help with design choices. Paper would give the bride a chance to pick out her perfect colors while being a bit forgiving if you don’t find the right shades.

I’m not much help on colors. All I can suggest is that when you do settle on a look 3 colors plus white should probably be the max. If nothing else it makes it easier for you to not worry about The Who/what/where while you’re making the soap.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

Check out tandb_soaphouse on Instagram. Their soap and packaging is on point for weddings! They show a great array of designs and color schemes that are divine!

 

[Relle]

My suggestion for wrapping - forget plastic, get fuschia and navy (or as close as) organza bags ( from China, they're cheap there) and then it's just a matter of popping them in, they can reuse the bag if they want that way. I think pale blue would look too much like baby colours.

I'd put one basket of the fuschia ones on a table with a sign - Ladies -TAKE ONE ONLY and another basket for the Men with the same - take one only in large writing so they can see it. They would look lovely on a small table with a linen cloth.

 

[dibbles]

@dibbles @penelopejane and @Relle - Thank you for freeing me from the idea of going past the pinks/fuschia and blues.

This fuschia mica from Nurture looks like a possibility:
https://nurturesoap.com/products/cabaret-mica

I might try this one for the pale pink. It would be nice if I didn’t need to use TD:
https://nurturesoap.com/collections/micas/products/oleander-mica

I can get a nice pastel blue with Nurture’s Klein blue and can probably get that all the way to navy by adding some AC and/or black mica. Has anyone tried Nurture’s Midnight Blue? Their Dark Navy can look muddied/grey, almost a little greenish, if I don’t use enough of it.

It just so happens that I made soap today with Cabaret. It is most likely my only shot at the challenge so if it turns out, I'll send you a picture. If it doesn't, I'll post it here. It is a very pretty fuschia, and I have made it both more pink and more purple by adding a bit of those colors to it.

I was going to suggest the Oleander since it looks like the perfect palest of pink. But I haven't used it and there are some mixed reviews on performance. I know that @SoapWitch recently used it in a stunning one color design. Maybe she can share the usage rate she used. As an alternative, I have used a smidge of Rose Pink to get a pretty pale pink - but my base is pretty white to begin with. White mica might be your friend in this project. It's easier to work with than TD and since you aren't going for a stark white, it can be used to lighten a color if you need to.

I have used Midnight Blue. It's not navy, but is a fairly dark blue. I'm sure you could get it to navy with a bit of black mica - in fact, I'm pretty sure I've done that. I'll look through my notes and see what I might have pictures of with that. Look at Kashmir mica as well. It is darker than Midnight or Klein Blue. I'm out most of the day tomorrow, but I'll look to see what I've used that one in and if I might have a picture.

Check the Color Blender on the Nurture site. It will give you a pretty good idea of what 2 colors at different ratios will produce.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

What a great bunch of ideas! I need to digest them, but just got home from work so I’m going to need to digest dinner first

 

[dibbles]

OK - my Ione Swirl attempt was definitely a fail. I decided to take pictures of the actual mica for you to compare rather than try to sift through all my notes and pictures. I am still very willing to do that, but for today this is faster. Let me know if you have any pink micas that I can use as a pink/fuschia comparison for you if I happen to have the same. Most of my micas are from Nurture. I hope this helps.


Let me know if there is something else I can do to help.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@BattleGnome good point about the attrition factor for soaps in a basket. I’m going to ponder @Relle ’s ideas about the organza bags and a table. @SideDoorSoaps if I could make soaps like tandb, I would quit my day job .

@dibbles what I can see of your soap looks so pretty. I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out as you planned. So, I went ahead and tried Nurture’s color blender. i think Caberet will get me started, but I might add a little pink. It looks like all of the Nurture test blocks are made with 2 tsp mica ppo. i think I’ve been using about 1 tsp. ppo so maybe that’s why I sometimes end up with grey. I found the Oleander soap on @SoapWitch website and it’s absolutely gorgeous, but it seems a tad too warm for the color scheme. I may order a sample size just to see it in person.

I should be sleeping, but instead I made myself dizzy putting this together.

 

[JakeBlanton]

I seem to remember reading a study once that said that the more money that is spent on a wedding, the more likely it was to end in divorce. Since my wife and I got married at a JP (many decades ago) and it probably only cost $20 + pizza with a couple of friends afterwards, I guess ours will last *forever*...

"They like to say 'half of all marriages end in divorce', but they don't realize that this also means that 'half of all marriages end in death'. And you are not really supposed to get to choose whose death."

"Marriage is finding someone you want to annoy for the rest of your life."

 

[SeaSuds]

You could go in the opposite direction and consider the purity of white? White represents purity (of love), goodness, beginnings, humility and protection. You could wrap them in colours pertinent to the wedding theme?

Kind of takes the creative fun out of it for you tho!!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

You could go in the opposite direction and consider the purity of white? White represents purity (of love), goodness, beginnings, humility and protection. You could wrap them in colours pertinent to the wedding theme?

Kind of takes the creative fun out of it for you tho!!

I like white accented with colors, so I’m planning to keep the soaps on the pale/light side, but with the the bride-to-be‘s brighter flower colors as the accent colors. My inspiration soap for a swirled soap is this one by @dibbles: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/media/7-2019-forget-me-not.2305/. For solid soaps, I’m thinking about little hearts and possibly flowers, maybe in trios, inspired by this set from ButterCup Goods on Etsy. I really like the way the white looks as part of the set below. I recently bought a sunflower soap mold to use for lotion bars that I think holds 1 or 2 oz per cavity. I think little soaps in trios would look nice in organza bags.

 

[Mississippi soapmaker]

I like the trio idea as well as the embedded heart idea. I frankly would not stress too much about getting the colors to match exactly. People are there for the wedding and, while they may notice if you had bright neon green, as long as they are in the right color family, are probably not going to notice how exactly you matched the bride's color scheme. Pleasing the bride may be the hardest, but, really, if you can get the blue right, I think your soaps are going to be perfect.

 

[GML]

I was going to suggest those flower molds as well, which are easy to wrap if you decide not to do the bags. So you would do 3 soaps per guest and there 130 guests, would be 390 soaps? That is a lot of soap.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I was going to suggest those flower molds as well, which are easy to wrap if you decide not to do the bags. So you would do 3 soaps per guest and there 130 guests, would be 390 soaps? That is a lot of soap.

Since I still make soap for fun, I’ve given myself a creative license to make an assortment of soaps . The hearts would be part of the mix.

I frankly would not stress too much about getting the colors to match exactly.

. Great advice! I agree.

They sent me a close up shot of some part of the actual suit, but it was taken inside at night so I’m not betting on the colors in the photo being true. It’s a linen with an obvious weave. I may need to take a second look at Kashmir and Blue Vibrance is probably off the list.

 

[dibbles]

Usually I find NS color blender to be pretty accurate, but in this case Cabaret is looking way more purple than it is.

The inspiration soap (thank you, I am honored) used Love Song for the pink. It's a super pretty soft pink that might be just what you are looking for.