River County Soapworks produces high quality soap and toiletries that are both pleasing to the senses and terrific for your skin. I invite you to try our products.
Well, I’ve wanted to try some new design elements out and decided to do this by using my slab mold with dividers for handmade soap logs. Yesterday was spent designing and pouring soap. Last night was spent in anticipation of what today would bring when I unmolded the soap logs. I made four. They did not unmold well. The handmade soap would not release from the flippin hdpe plastic! No amount of pushing would do it! Nope! I ended up with smashed and smooched soap logs. Not fun! Hopefully, when the soap hardens a bit I be able to clean it up and get at least some of it cut into respectable looking handmade soap bars.
On the weekends I can usually be found selling my handmade soaps and body care products at the Portland Saturday Market. This has been a hard market to transition to as the booth space is only 8 x 8. Usually, fairs and markets allow a 10 x 10 space. Now, you wouldn’t think that it would make much difference but it does. Quite a bit. A lot of people travel to this market to buy handmade soap so this is a great market for me to be in but it has also left me scratching my head trying to figure out how to place tables, what table sizes to use and where to place all the handmade soaps I bring with me so that they are easy to see and reach. Seems like every week I’m trying a new setup. Haven’t quite found what I like yet but I am determined to work it all out. Right now I’m using two (2 x 4) tables but am thinking of switching to a six footer and one of the 2 x4’s. This would allow more product but might make things too tight. Anyhow, I will just have to set the tent up in the yard again and play around. The good news is we are in the process of designing a new display system that would hold all 24 different handmade soap bars that I usually bring to market. This display system would be stocked in the shop, would fold up and I could carry it to market already full. This would save so much time and effort. Don’t ask me how it would all work. I have no clue! That’s up to my other half who worked on the design last week end. A mock up will be done next weekend and maybe then I can wrap my brain around how this will all work. I’m visual ya know!
It’s common for me to get asked about making handmade soap when I’m out and about at markets and fairs selling the handmade soaps that we make. Sometimes it’s from people wanting to try their own hand at it. For those of you interested in making their own handmade soap bars or who have just made the grand leap into soap making and are overwhelmed by all the lingo, here are some of the more common handmade soap terms translated just for you!
CP = Cold Process
HP = Hot Process Soap
CPOP = Cold Process Oven Process
CPHP = Cold Process Hot Process
CS/CSDBHP = Closed System/Closed System Double Boiler Hot Process
Curing = Amount of time needed for batch to complete the saponification process and “dry” out.
DW/DWCP = Discounted Water Cold Process Soap
DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots (you don’t wanna go there)
DH = Direct Heat
DB = Double Boiler
EO/EO’s = Essential Oils
FO/FO’s = Fragrance Oils
FP = Flashpoint ( the lowest temperature a flammable liquid can form an ignitable mixture in air)
GM/GMS = Goat Milk Soap
OHP= Oven Hot Process
Sap Values = Saponification Values
Saponification = The chemical reaction between oils/butters and lye to make soap
INCI = International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients
KOH = Potassium Hydroxide (used to make Liquid Soap)
NaOH= Sodium Hydroxide (used to make Handmade Soap Bars)
MSDS = Material Safety Data Sheet
MP/M&P = Melt and Pour Soap
SUPERFAT = The amount of fat left over after saponification
SEIZE = When a fragrance oil OR essential oil speeds up the saponification process so fast that you have instant soap on a stick! This is NOT FUN!
TRACE = Point where you can dribble your batch onto it’s self and show a trace either lightly or heavily.
ROE = Rosemary Oleresin Extract (an antioxidant).
GSE = Grapefruit Seed Extract (an antioxidant).
REBATCHING = A method of turning imperfect and ugly batches of soap into new batches by shredding, melting and adding liquid/oils, and remolding. In a nutshell. A whole lot of work!
Well…yesterday, I opened up my laptop and could not get the darned thing to start up properly. Nothing, nada, zip! As I’m sitting there with the laptop on my lap trying to get the screen to come on, I’m thinking of about all the essential oil recipes for my handmade soaps, documents for my wholesale soap accounts, photos for the website, saponification tables for my workshop and just about all the pertinent information I need to function while making handmade soap! While this is all rapidly going through my mind, I remember the slip drives I purchased to back up all my information but those were still sitting on my desk. By now, I’m starting to sweat with anxiety! Yes, dripping! I get dressed and take a drive down to the computer shop I use to fix all my screw ups. I walk in and the nice young man asks me what the problem is. I proceed to tell him in a panic that the laptop won’t start up and I need it because I’ve got a lot of important information on it regarding my handmade soap company!!! He opens it, presses the start button and voila, the laptop miraculously turns on. I’m standing there dumbfounded. Apparently, the dork that I am did not press the start button hard enough. So today, I am backing up all my files and vowing to do this on a weekly basis. Yes I am!
It’s my belief that packaging and presentation is almost as important as the quality of the handmade soap being offered to our wholesale soap customers. That’s why I went to the expense of having custom made soap boxes made to fit our handmade soap bars. Not only do these boxes allow our wholesale soap orders to arrive in pristine condition at the retailers place of business but also prevents damage by all the handling the handmade soaps receive prior to purchase by individual customers. The soaps display neatly on the shelf and the boxes protect the handmade soap bars from from all the handling that they receive. No more dinged up and too loose cigar bands!
Over the winter I loss my beautiful mare Sasha in a tragic accident. It was heartbreaking for me and my husband in his infinite wisdom brought home a alpine goat named Emily to keep our little shetland pony Snuffy company not to mention give me something else to focus on. Now all my customers who know me first hand and have always looked at the goat milk soaps in my handmade soap collection and asked the question “Do you have your own goats?”, know that I never wanted goats. No way, no how! Absolutely not! Yes, I do make quite a bit of goat milk soap in addition to my shea butter handmade soap bars but goats are mischievous and gregarious creatures and I didn’t want the hassle. Boy has time changed my tune! Little Miss Emily dropped a baby one evening and my husband knew that anything that has fur on it and especially a baby fur animal just warms my heart. I wondered why he kept saying “You know, Emily sure is getting round.” He knew that goat was pregnant when he brought her home! I am now officially and happily attached to my little goat herd. They are so much fun and a delight to interact with. Snuffy is the big boss now and baby loves to jump on him and run circles around him. He has a lot of patience with her and everyone has settled right in. No, I still don’t have any intention of milking goats to make handmade bar soap with. I will still buy my goat milk in bulk. There isn’t enough hours in the day. After all, we are a “artisan” handmade soap company which basically means I do everything. LOL!
Emily & Baby
Our Baby a bit bigger. She grows really, really fast!
And..this is one of my favorites. Before I took this photo the baby was jumping on Snuffy. She got tired and layed down near him for a snooze!
I’ve always admired the “artsy” handmade soaps I’ve seen and finally decided to have some fun with crafting a bar when testing out another essential oil blend. To be honest, I did not start the the soap making process with this design in mind. I had poured layers again but when taking the handmade soap out of the small mold it! stuck and I had quite a mess. So what to do? I cut the soap up into small pieces and rolled handmade soap balls. After making another batch of soap, I split the handmade soap stock up into two batches and colored them white and a light green. I poured some white into the mold and sank the soap balls into the soap stock and then poured some green and layered white onto of the green. Voila! The next day I was able to cut these bars. I absolutely love the way these handmade soap bars turned out. However, this method is labor intensive and I’m not so sure a good method for bulk soap making. Maybe limited editions? It was lots of fun! Here again, these bars will also end up in the grab bag offered on the website when cured. By the way, they are scented with Patchouli and Spearmint. Mmmm!
One of the problems of having a handmade soap company is finding “fun time” for experimentation. I’m in the process of testing some essential oil blends in soap and decided to try my hand at some different handmade soap designs while testing these blends out for longevity and appeal. One of the blends is “Mojito” which has Lime, Bay, Spearmint, Litsea and Bergamont in it. I poured handmade soap layering three colors of white, green and gold one on top of the other in a small log mold. This test mold yields seven handmade soap bars so it is the perfect size for testing a scent or soap recipe in. After the anticipation of cutting into the handmade soap log, I was very pleased with how this soap looks. Reminds me of tie die and smells wonderful! If you like the look of this soap it will end up in the grab bag.
Well, after several requests from wholesale soap customers I broke down and purchased some molds that will support handmade bar soap for smaller guest size bars. These molds will produce 1oz handmade soaps in the size of 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/2 inches. This size is perfect for hotels, bed and breakfast inns and make nice wedding favors too.
