Moving the blog!!!!

The new url for the blog is

http://tranquilelements.blogspot.com/

Please make a note of it if you have this page bookmarked. I'll leave this one active for a bit to make sure everyone makes the change but I won't be updating it anymore, all updates will be on the tranquilelements page.

Thanks!

It's always a learning experience

So, the reason I haven't posted any new soap pictures lately is because my last 2 batches had some big issues!

The first one separated after I added the fragrance oil and ended up being this oily goopy mess.. it smelled great but there seemed to be no saving it so I ended up throwing it away.

This last batch ended up being way too soft. I let it sit in the mold for about a week and it still wouldn't harden up enough to come out. Maybe I should have waited to see if hardened up a bit but of course, I'm impatient and I ended up digging it out with a spoon, lol. It's not all lost though! I was able to get a couple bars out of it and the rest I'm going to let cure and I'll re-batch it at some point in the future.

I'm starting to wonder if the bottle of lye I'm using maybe got some condensation into it and that's what's affecting my soap. The next batch I make I'm going to try a different bottle and see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm going to a bbq at a friends and she has awesomely offered to let me set my stuff up there for people to check out! It'll be great to get my name out there and hopefully sell a thing or two! That reminds me, I need to print up some more business cards :)

Hope all is well with everyone, I hope to have some new soaps soon!

Chocolate Mint Soap

These turned out better looking than I thought they were going to!

The green really isn't that bad. Kinda funky in a good way actually! It's interesting how the green actually looks like two different greens.. with the darker on the top. I'm thinkin it must be the way it went through gel phase. Whatever it may be, I like it! ... and that brown! I love the brown, it's the perfect color of chocolate! I will definitely have to find more uses for it! It'll be interesting to see if or how the color changes as the bars cure.

These were made with Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Cocoa Butter and will be available approximately November 20th

Just 4 more days...

and the Salt Bars will be up for sale! I'm really looking forward to hearing feedback from everyone who tries one of these.

I made a new batch of soap last night (not salt bars), it's chocolate mint scented and the colors are brown & Green. The green didn't turn out exactly the color I wanted it to, it's more of an army green where I want a light "minty" green, lol... I guess it's gonna be a work in progress. The soap is being stubborn though and doesn't want to come out of the mold yet... I figure I'll let it stay in there one more day then throw it in the fridge for 10 or so minutes if it's still being stubborn tomorrow. I'll be sure & post pics when I get the bars cut :)

Salt Bar Success!

It's been a couple weeks since I made the Salt Bars so I had to try them out and I love them!

I've been using them on my face and body and my skin feels fantastic. It feels smooth and the color is really even on my face. No redness or irritation or dry spots... just really healthy looking skin. I must note that I always use a facial moisturizer after washing my face.

I really can't wait to let people try these to hear back the responses I get!

Product Debut!

I had people over for a combo birthday/product debut party last night and I think it went pretty good!

People were able to test the lotions, lip balms & salt scrub and smell all the different scents I have so far. I sold a decent amount of product and overall I'd call it a success. It also let me gauge how comfortable I am with telling people about the different products I have to offer and what specifics I need to memorize to fully explain the benefits of certain ingredients to people.

I've also decided that I'm going to have my candles as a "made to order" product. Since I have so may different sizes of candles (6" pillars, 3" pillars, 6oz tins, 4oz tins, votives & tea lights) and so may different scents (vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, wildberry, gingerbread, pumpkin pie, lavender, white tea & ginger, pear, mulberry, red currant). I'll make sure I have something made up of each scent for people to smell and to buy I'll take an order and have them done within 3 days. That way they're fresh and I don't have an abundance of stock sitting around that may not get purchased.

I figure I'll try it this way for a bit and see how it goes. Can't hurt, right?

I'm going to be adding the bath salts, salt scrub, glitter gel, solid lotion bars and more lip balm flavors to ETSY very soon so keep an eye out!

More Salt Bars

I loved the way the first batch of Salt Bars came out so much that I had to make another batch!

For these, I used Orange, Lemon and Clove Bud Essential Oils and they smell heavenly. I've read that citrus doesn't hold up well long term in cold process soap so it'll be interesting to see (smell?) what happens. Hopefully the clove but will anchor the other two smells.

As you can see with this batch and the first batch, I'm trying to get a little more creative in the look of the bars. My SO says it kinda looks like whip cream. I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks!