Cold pressing involves pressing and filtering. As the name implies, no heat is used to extract the oil from the seed. The oil that is produced afterwards is called virgin oil and it’s of the best quality and pricier but quantity is minimum compared to the other processes. Such examples are virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil.

Heat process involves pressing and filtering of the vegetable/fruit with of course the aid of heat. Results of this process produce oils with a slight variation in color, taste or composition.

Solvent process will produce the highest amount of oil extracted. A solvent is mixed in with the solvent and once the solvent has evaporated the batch will produce oils. Although the quantity of oil produced is greater however, actives such antioxidants or extracts are removed in this process. Actives are key ingredients to have in leave-in body products as the skin can greatly benefit from them.

Refining process alters the composition of the oil by means of bleaching, deodorizing. This process removes properties such as color and odor from the oil.

A great example of oil that goes through the process mentioned above is coconut oil.

This is a pre-made soap base made with vegetables oils and solvents. The solvents allow the soap to be re-heated many times. Some bases might contain surfactants which help the soap to lift off dirt from the skin and also increases lather. Melt and Pour soapmaking expands the soapmaker’s creativity to create visually striking effects.  A multitude of transparent to opaque finishes and sometimes both can be created with melt and pour soaps. Another great thing about melt and pour soaps is that they can be used right away.

Why melt and pour soapmaking?

Melt and pour soapmaking is great for the new soapmaker in training. There is no handling of sodium hydroxide (safety is very important when handling this) or calculating percentages of oils, butters, etc. Melt and pour soapmaking is very basic and easy to understand. The real challenge is deciding what colorants and fragrance or essential oils to choose!
SoapQueen.Tv has dedicated a series of videos of melt and pour soapmaking tutorials for easy learning.

A glycerin soap handcrafter can create detailed soaps using molds or creating his/her own. Great glycerin handcrafters such as Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove has created a niche in the soapmaking industry with her amazing creative and talented skills.

Melt & Pour soaps make great gifts as custom soaps. Instead of making a big batch you can make a custom soap using an individual mold. You can select the color and the fragrance and it’s ready to be used the same day.

How to Make Cold Process Soap : Lye Safety & Ingredients, Episode 1 from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

There are generally 4 ways to make soap.

• Melt & Pour: a pre-made glycerin base and the easiest to make. The name itself implies the process. You “melt” the base and “pour” into a mold. Additives such as oils/butters, colorants, fragrances, etc may be added to your soap base.  Once the soap has cooled in its mold you can unmold and use right away.  This method creates visually striking soaps for the handcrafter.
• Cold Process:  Mixing vegetable/animal oils and butters with a saponifying agent such as sodium hydroxide, poured into a mold.  The soap “cooks” itself.  The drying time generally takes 6 weeks. This method of soapmaking allows the soapmaker to be in the “Director’s Chair”.  A soapmaker has control of what ingredients go in a batch of cold-process soap. The soapmaker can omit ingredients such as fragrances or any other allergens for those with sensitive skin.
• Hot Process: This method has the same foundation as cold process soap except that soap is “cooked” before pouring into a mold.
• Rebatching (Handmilling): Is a pre-made cold process soap that allows the soapmaker to handcraft beautiful soaps without having to touch caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). Choice of fragrance and additives can be added to the soaps.

In the next post I will share the first installment of a video series from Anne-Marie Faiola of SoapQueen.Tv on the process of making Cold Process Soap.

Hot process soap involves “cooking” the soap before it is placed in a mold. You can “cook” your soap in the oven (OHP), in a crockpot (CPHP), double-boiler (DBHP) and other various ways. I used a crockpot to make my soap.

CrockPot Hot Process

The drying of hot process soaps takes relatively a shorter time; about 2-4 weeks. Letting the soap dry out beyond the 4 weeks makes the soap even milder. Hot process soaps tend to have a textured look and feel, but expert soapmakers have mastered techniques to make their soaps look almost like cold process soaps.

As with scent, fragrance is retained more with this process.

Cold process soap is “cooked” after it is placed in molds. The drying process takes at least 6 weeks and the look and feel of this soap is much more smoother and creamier.

HotProcess Soap

I scented this batch of hot process soap with Bedtime Bath from Nature’s Garden. I also added ground oatmeal for mild exfoliation.

Beer Soap with Heineken

This wonderful soap was created with natural vegetable and plant oils such as olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil and castor oil.  The great thing about making soap is the control you have in your ingredients.  One of the ingredients I was able to incorporate in my recipe was Heineken beer at 50% of my water content.

It’s not intoxicating as you may think! The only benefits from using beer in your soap is that you get more bubbles in your lather as well as the faint aroma of hops.

Nonetheless, isn’t it a novelty to know that you can take a shower with Beer Soap and brag about it?

Cold-process is the saponification of vegetable oils or animal fats with lye and water. The process has a cure time of about 4- 6 weeks and the end result of this process is a pure-made soap with glycerin (humectant) as its by-product.  Glycerin helps to attract moisture and helps the skin retain it.

I was very excited to experiment with my first batch as I my skin truly understands what a difference using handcrafted soap is versus a commercial bar of soap.  Nothing is better than rewarding one of the most vital parts of your body.  Soapmakers take a considerable amount of time and effort to create handcrafted soaps.  Their love for this craft is clearly shown in the outcome of the beautifully created handcrafted soaps produced and its homely goodness only one can experience with them.

My first batch took a couple of hours to make since I wanted to make sure I took my time and fully comprehend my instructions.  I prepared myself prior to making this batch by pouring over reference materials (see below for links) on the soap-making process.  Taking a course in Handcrafting Soaps & Lotion Making with La Shonda Tyree – The Handmade Soap Coach helped me a lot (I’m a visual-learner).

I took full precautions when handling Lye by using safety gloves, goggles and a face mask and I still kept my gloves on throughout the whole process. I used a combination of palm oil, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil to make my soap.

I finished my soap with using an Iced Pineapple fragrance oil (an essential oil can also be substituted for anyone allergic to fragrance oils).  I also incorporated a swirl pattern on my soap to give it an appealing visual effect.

Overall, I was very pleased with my first batch and can’t wait to make future batches in time for the Holidays!

References:

www.teachsoap.com

My new laptop is a Dell 15.6 inches, and it’s wider than the average 15″ notebook sleeves you can purchase at any retail store.  Any sleeve that I did find was just over my budget.

So I decided to get crafty and become my own designer!

With pen and paper handy to write my measurements down, I measured the area of my laptop and added a 1″ allowance.  Not only this enabled me to pull my laptop out of the sleeve but it allowed me to insert it back with ease.

I picked the fabric I wanted and according to my measurements cut two panels.  I cheated a little and used the padding from my old laptop sleeve since I couldn’t use it anymore (My old sleeve was made for 13 inch laptops).  I sewed the padding onto the inside of my panels and completed the project by adding the velcro band.

I love the way my new laptop sleeve came out!

The Reveal

You can visit eHow website for detailed instructions at

http://www.ehow.com/how_4965527_design-own-laptop-sleeve.html

Home Made Carpet Powder

What to do when company is arriving in less than half hour and you have no carpet powder to freshen up the living room carpet?

If you have these two household products sitting in your pantry closet then you’re in luck! You can whip up some homemade carpet powder in less than 5 minutes and makes a great conversation piece!

Recipe – Homemade Carpet Powder

• Large mixing container
• Baking soda
• Borax
• Choice of fragrance oil or essential oil
  
• Aluminum foil and tape
  

Using foil and a toothpick makes magic!

In a large mixing container combine equal parts baking soda and borax (We only needed enough for our living room and foyer so we just used one cup of baking soda and one cup borax). Mix well.

You can add your preference of scent (In our case we added 3-4 drops of lavender fragrance oil).

Time was of the essence so we just covered the container with aluminum foil and taped around the container. We poked various small holes into the foil and voila! you now have our own makeshift powder shaker.