FUN-tastic Fall Play Day - October 11, 2008

Woooooohooooo - a big THANK YOU to everyone to joined in the fun at Saturday's Fall Play Day! What fun we had chatting, chewing, sipping, sampling (a yummie thank you to Debbie for bringing the delicious dips and wicked dessert and to Tamara, Noelle and Pamela for supplying the other yummie treats too!), giggling, sharing, sniffing, laughing, stirring, whipping, melting, squeezing, smooshing, decorating, and the wonderful display of patience while waiting for the whipped soap to whip!!! We had a blast and still have a couple of projects that we can carry forward to our next Play Day too! Wooooohooo!!! Thank You for the generosity of everyone who helped make the Fall Play Day a day of fun!

AzSoapers spent the afternoon and evening making whipped soap (that refused to whip), Dead Sea Mud Soap (just take your favorite soap recipe and add up to 1 Tablespoon of Dead Sea Mud per pound of oils - Thank You to Tamara for donating the Dead Sea Mud), bath fizzies (Thank You Karlene for the citric acid), bees wax ornaments, lotion bars (we used Debbi's recipe from Therapy Garden and her deodorant tubes - we were impressed with the professional looking finish - they make a lovely dome top and were easy to fill from the bottom too!), Holiday bows, Noelle's felted soap, and looked at clever gift card/hang tags (compliments of Martha Stewart) all while chatting, giggling, eating, sipping and whipping the soap which finally did whip - thanks to Debbie and her workhorse of a Kitchen Aid! A special Thank You to Sandy Maxwell for taking our pictures during the day! (To see more of Sandy's pictures go to AzSoapers Yahoo Groups Photos) A BIG Thank You to Tamara and Kealy for opening their home and hostessing our Fall Play Day!

Thank you all for joining in the fun!
Rose
(Scroll down to see the recipes we used during the Fall Play Day.)

Felted Soap - Noelle White of Aromatic Botanicals

Take your favorite bar of soap (new bar) and wrap lengthwise with a strip of wool and then again widthwise with another strip of wool (completely cover the bar). Sprinkle the entire wool wrapped bar of soap with hot water and using your thumbs massage wool in circular motion to create a lather. Keep dribbling hot water onto the wool and continue to massage the wool until it starts to conform to the shape of your bar of soap. Rinse the lather off the wool and continue to massage/rub the wool in circles. Once the wool begins to shrink on to the bar of soap then use a washboard or sushi mat to rub the wool into a tight casing. The hot water will aid in "shrinking" the wool into the shape of your bar of soap. You can also add "pieces" and "strips" of contrasting colored wool to give your felted soap a unique design. Continue rubbing/massaging until the wool has stopped shrinking. Rinse off lather and let air dry.

TherapyGarden™ Lotion Bar

Lotion bars create a moisture barrier that helps heal dry, cracked skin and keep it soft and smooth. They're a big help where you need it most--elbows, knees, feet and hands. Keep one next to the kitchen sink--you'll be glad you did!

This is a versatile starter recipe that firms up nicely, making it ideal for pouring into a variety of containers. We like the deodorant/lotion bar tubes, but you can also form it into shapes by pouring into decorative soap molds, then packaging your lotion bars in metal tins for both storage and presentation.

Ingredients:
2 oz Beeswax Pastilles
1 oz Ultra Refined Shea Butter
1 oz Cocoa Butter
2 fl oz Grapeseed oil (or oil of your choice)
3 Lotion Bar/Deodorant Tube 1.8oz containers
30-60 drops Fragrance oil

Method: Place the shea butter and cocoa butter in a heat-safe, glass measuring cup (Pyrex type) with a good pouring spout. Microwave on 50% power for about one minute at a time until ingredients are melted. Be CAREFUL! The glass will be very hot!

Stir in the grapeseed oil, then the beeswax pastilles. Microwave at 50% power until the wax is completely melted. Combine the ingredients thoroughly as soon as they're all melted. If you're using fragrance oil, add a few drops at a time to the mixture, blending well until the intensity is to your liking. (***Play Day Note: we used a hot burner instead of the microwave to melt our ingredients.***)

Immediately pour the mixture into the bottom of your lotion bar containers. If it cools too quickly (i.e., before you're finished filling), gently reheat the remainder and continue. Allow containers to cool completely, then label.
Yields: three 1.8-ounce lotion bars

Dead Sea Mud Soap

Use your favorite cold process soap recipe and add up to 1 Tablespoon of Dead Sea Mud per pound of oils in your soap recipe. Add the Dead Sea Mud either before or after adding your lye water mixture to the oils. (I've used both methods and achieved great results). A Special THANK YOU to Tamara who gifted us all with a container of Dead Sea Mud to take home!

Whipped Soap - by David Fisher of About.com (http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/ss/whippedsoap.htm)

We changed David's recipe just a wee bit - we did not use lard but did follow his 80% hard oils suggestion. Here is the recipe that we used:
15 oz coconut oil (76*)
10 oz palm oil
9 oz palm kernel oil
6 oz olive oil
2 oz castor oil
6.3 oz lye
14 oz water
.5 oz rose geranium essential oil

I placed the hard oils (coconut, palm and palm kernel oil) in the refrigerator overnight so they would be "hard", but thought that they were too hard so upon arrival I placed the container that they were in in a sunny spot so they would "soften" (big mistake), they did soften but then took forever to whip - we should have left them in the solid state for faster whipping...good lesson learned.

Bath Fizzies

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup corn starch
2 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or other oil - we used safflower oil)
1 tablespoon purified water
1/4 teaspoon borax
1 teaspoon essential/fragrance oil (optional)
5-10 drops skin safe coloring (soap colors)
witch hazel in a spritzer bottle

In a large bowl sift together the baking soda, citric acid and corn starch – set aside.

In a small jar with a tight fitting lid combine the grapeseed oil, purified water, borax, fragrance oil and coloring. Cover tightly and shake vigorously to combine all ingredients well. Slowly drizzle the wet mixture into the dry mixture while blending thoroughly with a spoon (or your hand). Mix until you have a “wet sand” texture – spritz with witch hazel if necessary.

Tightly pack the “wet sand” mixture into your mold (we used the round ball molds from Therapy Garden) until you can not fit anymore “wet sand” into the mold. Press the “wet sand” down into the mold as hard as you can. Carefully remove your bath fizzie from the mold. After un-molding the bath fizzie, immediately spritz it with a light spray of witch hazel. (If the bath fizzie crumbles when un-molding, simply place back into the big bowl, spritz with witch hazel, mix thoroughly and pack the mold again. Do not create bath fizzies on humid days as they will absorb moisture and grow little bumps all over their surface – not a pretty sight.) Set your bath fizzie on a dry surface to dry overnight. A Special THANK YOU to Karlene of The Arizona Soap Factory for donating the citric Acid.