Tuesday, December 20, 2011

DTC Molds...for soap making?!?! YES!

Disclaimer...I am somewhat of a new soap maker. My friends and neighbors are clean due to the amount of "mistakes" I have given away. But I am getting better at this crazy hobby and I am ready to try something new.

Glenda sent me several sea urchin molds, aren't they cute?


First step is to fill them with water to get an idea of how much soap they will hold (soap and water weigh approximately the same). The three molds contained about 2.55 oz which I will round up to 3 oz when I make my batter.

I opted for something colorful for my first attempt, thus a lemony floral with lemongrass was chosen. My cold process soap recipe contained olive, palm, coconut, and castor bean oils were all melted together and added to the lye water.

Cold process was used rather than hot process soap, because I wanted to make sure and get all the fine details from my molds. That requires having a thinner soap batter when pouring into the mold...which you can see here. Pretty!


Now...I let it sit. At least 24 hours, maybe longer (depending on the weather...humidity can cause issues). I hate waiting. Oh by the way, while I do not personally make melt-n-pour (MP) soaps, the thinness of the MP batter would work quite well in these molds too. MP is a tad safer for older children to use; I think they might have a lot of fun. But I digress...


Unmolding was a snap...but why no pictures of the beautiful lemon? Some child of mine who will go unnamed TOOK one into his shower. You don't want to see it now. BUT I will show you my next couple of examples: a fun oatmeal stout soap with gorgeous color and just look at the detail from the mold along with the rosemary and calendula flowers in my "woodsy" soap. Just beautiful! And yes, I do need to do a final "clean up" step and trim the bottom, but I wanted to show how they look fresh from the mold.


...and of course clean up is a snap! I have since acquired several more sea-creature molds from DTC and have had a ball with them. Customers of mine with beach themed bathrooms have had me make specific scents or colors, they love the detail of the molds. I love the ease of use!


FUN! Now...off to make more.... :) THANK YOU GLENDA!

April MacKinnon, crazy soap maker at April's Soaps (aprils.soaps@gmail.com)

Products Used:
Sea Urchin Single
Sea Urchin Set of 2

April's Soaps Facebook Page

1 comment:

  1. Wow! These turned out so beautiful - I love the bottom soaps. They look so wonderful.

    ReplyDelete