Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Villainess Soaps in the House - Soap Review Coming Soon

Bounty of Soaps and Swag from Villainess! 
Last week I ordered a couple bars of soap from a company called Villainess Soaps. The package arrived today and I eagerly opened it to check out the goodies. So what came in the package besides the two bars of soap I ordered? Samples and swag!

package contents..
  • Dulces en Fuego (soap bar)
  • Pyromania (soap bar)
  • Silk and Cyanide (free soap sample)
  • Embargo (free soap sample)
  • Mini Villainess Button (swag)
  • 2 Classic Candies (yum!) 
I am really looking forward to trying these soaps - Check back soon for my review of both Dulces en Fuego and Pyromania by Villainess.

Monday, March 14, 2011

First Batch of Unscented Soap - Success! (Mostly)

SOAP!
Check out this awesome unscented soap I made this weekend! What an incredible learning experience; I'm already planning on what I will do differently for the next batch.

This soap is made with Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, and Palm Oil. The recipe was for a small batch, very small, and it yielded 3 bars of soap approximately 5 ounces each.

I had decided that for my first batch I would re-use a large shampoo bottle as the mold, so I painstakingly cut the top off of the shampoo bottle so I could achieve these lovely round bars. The only problem with this idea was I didn't plan ahead on how I would extract the soap from the mold when I was finished!



Shampoo Bottle Mold
The only way to rescue my soap was to cut the shampoo bottle away one piece at a time.  Big mistake not to line the bottle with anything; I'm not sure why I thought the soap would just glide out of the mold.

After battling with the shampoo bottle I decided it would be a good idea to invest in a durable wooden soap mold. I ordered this 2lb wooden mold from Bramble Berry and I can't wait for it to arrive!

The Verdict on Batch 1
Overall I'm happy with the way the soap is looking so far, being my first batch and all, and I'm going to have to be patient for the next 4 weeks while these bars cure. Until then, I'm going to keep at it and make some more soap as soon as my new mold gets here. After this first batch I have a list of things I want to improve on - back to the soap lab!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Welcome to Black Pepper Soaps, the Blog!

I'm Lindsay, and this is my soap blog. My experience in soap making up to this point is minimal, but I'm about to change all that. I've done months of research on cold process soap-making and now it is time to put my research into action!

Please join me here as I document my soap-making adventures. I'm starting tonight, with my very first batch of cold process soap. I'm going for something simple, unscented, and 100% natural.

Images will follow soon - Wish me luck!