Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Watermelon Slice Soaps!

Today, I show you how you can make your own Watermelon Slices! Yay!



I love these things.

You'll need a large (or small) rounded rectangle loaf mold, clear glycerin base, opaque glycerin base (find your choice of bases here), Watermelon Fragrance, I like to add just a touch of Strawberry Fragrance to my formula, your chosen colourants (I use FD & C colourants, however, there are large varieties of colourants available for you to use - some folks don't like the FD & C because they are messy, but I use pipettes that I wash out and reuse and have very little trouble), isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) in a small spray bottle (like this one), and some black sesame seeds.



Also, use some cheapie tupperware-type containers for mixing your scents, etc. You will need three for this project. They should be fairly decent size, you have some room to mix gently. Get a set of something like these in assorted sizes, and dedicate them ONLY for soapmaking. (If you try to use them for cooking after using them for soaping - BLECH! The voice of experience, people!) Alternately, old butter tubs, yogurt containers, etc, is a great way to reuse. Just be sure they are completely clean before starting your project.


First, let's start with the clear base glycerin. You'll need to melt ~1.75 - 2lbs of base to start. Melt it down in your preferred method - I have a soap pot, which I like because once it's melted down, I flick the switch to low and keep the cover on, and then I always have melted base, ready for use. Mine came with a ladle, so, bonus. However, if you're quite careful, you can melt your soap in a reusable tub in the microwave. The trick is not to overheat it - when it overheats, it stinks and doesn't seem to hold the scent as well. I go in short increments, like melting chocolate chips, if I need to use the microwave method.

When throughly melted (stir gently and ensure there are no solid chunks lurking in there), pour into a plastic tub, or, if it's already in a tub, add your colour and fragrance. I need about 2oz of FD & C Red 40 to get it the red I like - go by feel. As someone who does paint matches for a living, my recommendation is ALWAYS to start on the lighter end, then add colourant to the point you are happy with. You can always add colour, but you can't take it away! This, happily, isn't an exact science, and as long as you get it to look reasonably red, who's going to care? ;)

When adding fragrance, I use the same rule of thumb: start slowly, add to your preference. It's going to smell strong right out of the bottle; it will tone down as the soap sets. I like to add about three capfuls of watermelon and a half a cap of strawberry - your measurements will be different, depending on how you measure them out. Now, throw in a very scant handful of those black sesame seeds, and gently stir!




You'll notice at first that the seeds keep floating to the top. Be patient, let your mix cool a little tiny bit. Stir every now and then to keep a skin from forming. You don't want to throw it in the fridge to hurry it up - that skin will form and pull, adding weird chunks to your soap. You just want it to cool slightly - as the soap cools it will thicken up enough to suspend those sesame seeds a little better. Now, we're ready to pour a little into the mold.

A word to the wise: these molds often need some sort of support on either side to keep it from tipping. I tend to prop one end against my bread box and put something heavy, like my bottle of olive oil (though in this picture, I think I was using my cornstarch tin), on the other side to hold it steady as I pour and it sets.

Now, just pour a little in:



Spray that layer with some isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any bubbles or foaminess. Let that layer set up a little bit - it will set up faster than the stuff left in your tub because there's less of it. Keep gently stirring the stuff in your tub to keep a skin from forming. It shouldn't take longer than about five minutes or so, and then give the layer in the mold a spritz with the rubbing alcohol and pour the rest of your mixture in - or until the mold is a little over 3/4 full. What I'm doing with this is attempting to keep all those seeds from floating to the top, making it look more like a natural dispersion of seeds.

I'll grant you this batch, I hurried a bit, and so it didn't work perfectly. It still looked very nice!

If, after reaching the 3/4 mark on the mold, you still have some leftover mix, I like to use smaller molds, like my cute little maneki neko molds, to make guest-sized soaps. Yay, watermelon lucky kitty!



Now, unfortunately, my camera crapped out on me and as I was working fairly quickly with other soaps, I didn't get it back again until the finished product. Bear with me.

Once your red, seeded layer has set up (usually about an hour, hour and a half) - it won't be ready to unmold, and may still feel warm and a little soft to the touch - that's perfect. I like the layer to be not-quite set up when I add the next layer.

Melt about 1/4 pound of opaque base soap. Gently stir, check for lumps, let it cool off about five minutes, stirring occasionally, as always, to avoid it forming a skin. I don't add any colour or fragrance to this layer - there's really no need. Spritz your red layer with rubbing alcohol (this provides adhesion between the layers - don't be shy when using it! Spritz away!), then pour your white base on top of it. When I did this batch, I didn't allow the white base to cool quite enough, and it remelted a bit of the red base - and a few seeds released and made their way to the surface of the white base. Oops. See them here:



Now, your white layer won't take as long to set up as the red layer - there's less of it. About 1/2 hour, 45 minutes, touch it and see how it feels. If it does set up a little more, there's no need to panic. Your next layer should still attach just fine - I just like to have my lower layer a touch softer and springier, as I have less adhesion troubles this way. (If you've seen my neopolitan slices from the previous post, and take a close look at the pink and white layers, you'll see where I left the pink layer to set for too long, and had adhesion issues - the layers just break off.)

Melt a little bit more than 1/4 of CLEAR base now, or however much you think you need by eyeballing how much space you have left in your mold. Melt it, tint it green (I use ~1.5 oz FD & C Blue No. 1, and ~1 oz FD & C Yellow No. 5), add a little more fragrance (you don't need as much this time, as you have much less base to add to - I use about a capful of watermelon and forgo the strawberry altogether at this stage), stir gently to cool, spritz your white layer with rubbing alcohol, then pour on your green "rind" layer. Fill to the top of your mold, being careful not to spill over - no big deal if you do, but you'll have a little trimming to do later! Spritz out the bubbles or foam with your alcohol, and let the whole thing set, undisturbed, for about 24 hours. These are deeper molds, make large soaps, and so need a longer time to set.

Go torment your cats.



Maybe that's just me. Either way, go do something else. Or make more, smaller soaps!

Ah, finally, 24 hours later (my, but that was fast!) - turn your mold upside down and gently press it out to release. If you have trouble with the release, set the entire mold in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes, and it should release with no trouble.

Hooray! You should now have a lovely loaf of watermelon soap! Cut into slices about an inch thick, and enjoy!



With patience (read: the patience of a SAINT), you can use this layering technique to make Rainbow Soap, as well.



However, I won't promise that it won't kill you.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Selling on Etsy

Ah, Etsy! I could just spend hours and hours at Etsy. Heck, I have. All the handmade goods... so many amazing finds there.

The first thing you should know about selling anything - anything at all - is you might as well register for a business license and a federal tax ID number. It doesn't matter if you're a hobbyist, or hoping to sell huge volumes, just register. Look into your local state Department of Licensing to find out what you need to do. Be smart; keep it legal. Fees for licenses are usually small - if any at all. Etsy itself doesn't have a policy on having a business license to sell, but it's more of an honour-system: you do need to follow your state laws. Read into them. It's so much better for you in the long run if you just CYA!

When it comes to taxes, it's going to vary from state to state. I found several good wesbites that helped me out - I'm in one of the weird states for taxes, WA - but I'm going to make it a point to give the IRS a call at the beginning of my vacation next week to make sure I'm clear on some things. There is never any harm in doing this; they're very willing to help you out at the beginning of your venture - wouldn't you rather deal with them right now and have them answer those pressing questions than next year around this time? That's right. Give them a call if it all seems overwhelming.

For myself, from the way I understand it, as long as my stuff is going out of state, I'm good - but if anyone in my own state buys from me, I need to be sure it's being taxed properly. Here's a handy calculator link, for those of you living in WA state. As I said, I'll be calling for any clarification. It also never hurts to ask folks you know who are local business owners themselves - they will have a wealth of tax information!

Is that boring enough for you? Geeeeez, let's get to some fun stuff!

Hooray! You have items you can sell! What to do? Sign up for an account at Etsy! Make sure to get a lot of cool pictures of your merchandise - you'll need to show it off if you want people to buy it. I first started out with pictures that had bad lighting, poor quality shots... bleh.

Everything looked yellow. My soaps aren't yellow! Unless they are lemon... but I digress. I think I have improved since those first dark, yellowy pictures - I hope! The way I fancied up my listings was... well, pretty cheap. It was under $10, all said and done. I bought a couple of Reveal lightbulbs for my old, cheap, existing lamp. When I go to take a picture, I have the lamp - shade off - near my soap. This helped eliminate the yellow-y tone to my pictures that the "soft" kitchen lighting was casting on my soap.
Another concern for me was uneven or boring backgrounds. Yawn, soap on my kitchen counter. Yawn, soap on a piece of white paper. So, off I trudged back to JoAnn Fabrics, who, far as I can tell, doesn't even sell soap making supplies at any of my nearby stores (they do still sell some stuff online, though) to browse through their scrapbooking paper selection. They had individual 12" x 12" paper for 25-50 cents apiece. Sold! I bought a variety of designs, took my stack home, and started taking pictures of my soaps by setting them on the designed paper on top of my dryer, pointing the Reveal bulb at them, and snapping the pic:



No, they're not works of photographic genius, but they sure look a whole lot better than: Yay. Soap. On cardboard. YAWN.

Okay, so now you have your supercool, snazzy pictures. People will want to buy these babies! Sign up for Etsy, and start by adding an item. It will walk you through each and every step, no worries here. Make sure you can think of a brief description for each item. As an aspiring writer... I HAVE THE HARDEST TIME WITH THAT PART! I feel really funny trying to convince people to buy my stuff. Usually, I'm a much better writer when I want to explain things, or describe a feeling, a thought, an experience. But to sell things? I'm much better on my feet and in person. I can rocket a sales pitch that would rock your world! But to type it out? And leave out all the jargon and the back and forth and the talk about the weather and the how's your wife and kids? Sigh. But maybe that's just me. :D

So anyway, Etsy will walk you through the entire process, you'll come to a page where you can tag your item with keywords (so folks can find your cool stuff), upload your photos (make sure they're not too small - I tend not to resize mine at all, so people can get a good gander at the full size image, and they seem not to have a problem with too large - but too small means stretched and grainy and it just won't look good), set your prices, list how many you have in stock, all that good stuff.

Click Finish and - eep! - there it is! Your first item up for sale! Lather, rinse, repeat. You'll be an old pro in no time. Once you've got some items up for sale and a little backstock, purchase a showcase slot - that's at the very bottom, left hand corner under "Promote" when you're signed in - it's about $7 to book under your category, and it increases your visibility.

Etsy has an awesome community and forums where you can get help for just about anything you need. The people are quite friendly and helpful in my experiences thus far.

So get out there! It's not too difficult - it does take a bit of time to do it all legal and kosher - but it's so worth it.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Start off small.

I first began making soap on a whim, while perusing my local JoAnn Fabrics, I saw a chunk of soap base and some assorted soap scents in a display at the very back of the store. Already a fairly crafty person, I enjoyed knitting, sewing, painting, sculpting with clay... but had never quite found a medium that came out the way I really wanted it to. I can only knit in squares or rectangles, and still don't know how to purl properly. I make an awful lot of scarves and potholders, and the occasional simple hat. My sewing looks like something a kindergartener would bring home. I love to paint, but often felt I was the only one who liked my art. Sigh. And so I see this brick of soap base, and some scents, and think... well, for $15 I can try it, and it, too, will be exiled to the back of my crafting closet, or squirreled away amongst the beads and sequins in my drawer, tucked between the tigertail wire and my hot glue sticks. I bought a flimsy mold, a green apple scent, and a block of olive oil glycerin soap base and brought it home. I took out an old battered pot and began melting squares of base on the oven.

It was relaxing, watching the glycerin melt into a puddle on my stove as I stirred absent-mindedly. I kept a close eye on it, and when it was just melted, I pulled it off the burner and added some scent. Hmm. It smelled kind of nice. I realised then that I needed some colour. I grabbed my food colouring and added a couple of drops of green to it. Ooooh, it tinted up quickly! I poured it into the waiting molds with little trouble. I cleaned the pot and wandered into the living room to play on my computer for a while.

About an hour later, I peeked back into the kitchen. There they were, four soaps, setting up very nicely in the molds. So green! They smelled like apples. I got impatient. I tried to unmold them quickly. I had to see them! The first one came out okay; the next one had a funny dent on the top from where I had pushed it out too hard. But I had success! I was amazed! For the first time ever, something had come out exactly as I had envisioned it!

I carefully bagged them up and brought them in to show my then-manager at the store I worked at. I got many oooohs and ahhhs from my co-workers, and was allowed to set the soap at the sink in the bathroom. What an honour! I wondered what else I could do.

After exhausting all the scents I could find at JoAnn, and adding herbs to my mixes willy-nilly, all to great review from friends, family, and co-workers, I decided it might be time to look into a cheaper soap base; the stuff at JoAnn was only 2 pounds of base for nearly $10. I was addicted, and it was starting to eat into my pockets. I started looking online.

I found, possibly the very best place ever - Brambleberry! I could get much more soap base, many more varieties, in bulk for sooooo much less! Hooray! And they had amazing scents - these scents go much further than the little bottles from JoAnn. I began getting my molds, bases, scents, etc from them. And up, up, up went the quality of my soaps! And suddenly it was more than friends and family who were interested.

I lucked out in that I had VERY supportive friends - a guy who was in marketing before I met him and who LOVED my product (THANKS JULES!), and ANOTHER rockin' dude I worked with (and still do, currently) who is a graphic designer - and he made my logo for free. One day, John, I will pay you very handsomely for your work! I am working on putting together a contest to name the penguin - there will be a gift basket as the main prize, and runner-up prizes, too. :)

It's been two and a half years since that first bar of green apple soap - with base that hardened up and scent that fled after about a month - and I'm now licensed and a member of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild.

So welcome, one and all, to my humble blog! My name is Stasia, and I am the Sole Proprietor of Tubbles Bubbles Co, and I will show you how to make soaps and other fun bath and beauty items for yourself, with little tips and tricks that I've picked up along the way.

I LOOOOOOVE love love glycerin soap!

I love to be clean, I love new scents, and I love experimenting and combining things in unique and fun ways to create something new. I like to play with colours and textures, and adding new herbs or micas to see what will happen.

Soap! Welcome to all those who love soap, want to make soap, or those who would just like to be inspired!