Just new items recently made

I am so trying to keep up with my blog, things have been somewhat hectic for me.  Just lots to do and no time to do it.  But I have been busy making soap.  I just thought for today I would share some of the soap that has been made over the past week.  I wanted to have more items in my artfire shop to carry over for Christmas. 

Many soapers are doing their Christmas themes and I have yet to find a christmas scent that I really believe in and like.  I just haven't found the one that I feel I would want to soap.  I did use a few last year but I would not use them again.  There are so many fragrances, and I feel I don't want to get caught up in buying brand new oils right now just for this one Holiday.  Plus after the holiday, one scrambles to try and discount and sell off the holiday soaps.  Losing time, and money and I just don't want to fall down that path. 

I guess I can let the cat out of the bag but in April 2013, I will open my brand new website.  I have thought long and hard and will keep my artfire shop so that I can move items as I see fit.  So if I have items that aren't moving fast enough then I can discount the price and sell it lower on my artfire shop, this way I can get exposure from both sites. 
We will still have the Three Sisters Soap name, but we are going to have all new products and packaging. 

Our packaging will be greener on some items (bottles and jars are the exception).  Reuseable packaging, for most soap bars.  That is all I can say.  My love of the girly girl colors or Shabby Chic theme is my main goal.  Not only will I be bringing in my love of soaping and bath and body products, but I will also be making items to sell from my years of sewing.  I am all about making items people can use on a daily basis, such a market bags made of fabric and beautiful pillows, just various items that will be made with 100 % quality quilters cotton and fully washable.   That is all I want to say on this since I have so much to do before the shop opens.  I am building my website right now, and with all the products I need to get established, time will be here before you know it. 

I try to offer soap loaves when I have the time to make them.  They are priced according to their weight.  These happen to be huge, weighing in at 1 lb 10 +oz.  So these will be higher in price than my 1 lb soap loaves.  I didn't intend to add so much topping on top, but I had to use up my soap batch, and kind of over estimated the size of the batch I needed for this.  I feel they turned out beautiful.  And once cut these bars will be much bigger than the normal soap loaf, due to all the topping. 

This is called: Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie and smells amazing so scroll down and look at the photos I've posted.  I took these photos during late afternoon so you will see shadows in the photos. 

 The bottom "crust" is a scent that marries beautifully with the Apple  Butter Pumpkin Pie scent, which it is called Got Milk.  And this is also the scent I put of top.  It is followed up with Gold Glitter.  Simple but effective.



I bought a new soap mold recently.  I had to order it from Japan.  I love the fact that I can make single slices and all uniform.  The old method of making soap cakes it was a tedious task.  I love making these from scratch and building the cakes layers and the soap icing.  It is so time comsuming usually done in steps and takes 2 days to complete.  And when the cake is ready to cut sometimes the layers would split apart.  This became a nightmare so for many reasons I don't do this method anymore.   So with that said, I plan to offer an easier soap cake slice, and have various sizes to chose from.  As far as soap slices go, this mold is really the way to go.

I do have the opportunity to make cake slices or pie slices and can so anywhere in between on size. 

Buttery Pumpkin Pie Cake Slice:

topped with the whipped cream dollops of Got Milk. 

Take a look:

As you can see these are really thick.  They are over a 7+ oz bar.  I would suggest that with any soap if it is hard to hold then lay it on it side like in the photo above and just simply cut the soap in half horizontally. This is what I would do if it was my bar of soap.  This way you can use one piece and then have another spare piece.   

I also made some over pour soaps.  Which means I had enough of the soap batch to make extra bars.   These are scented in Apple Cider and it smells wonderful. 

Here is a Men's soap I made in Aquolina's Blue Sugar.  I love this scent.  You see the top of a few bars.  I used Gold Glitter on the top, then realized that men may not like the glitter, but just so that you know if you are wondering, glitter will wash right off when the bar gets wet.   

Here is the soap bars I made.  They have cold process soap shavings to give the soap some color.  I used yellow coloring in my main soap batch but now wonder if I should have just left it white.  Maybe next time. 

Here is a few bars from my over pour I only got three out of the overage. 

This is a blend of Cranberry & Pineapple Orchid.  Again these two scents go so well together.  I only had enough for 2 bars on the overage.  But they smell amazing.  Scroll down to see the soap bars I made with the same scent.

The soap on the right is the bar soap I made with the Cranberry & Pineapple Orchid.  The bar on the left is the over pour.

Here is a top view with  the gold glitter.

                                


                                             More views of the soap bars.

         Do you see the face?  Totally unplanned but kind of funny too.

 

                                             Old Spice Scent

I just ordered this fragrance for a friend.  She wants some soap made.  I did my trial batch and found that the fragrance oil seized on me.  Which meant I had to go get my two crock pots and do a hot process soap batch.  I wasn't happy with the outcome at all.  And have to admit the soap

smells really good.  But I can't provide her any cold process soap.  I'll just have to speak with her on this and see what to do.  I personally don't like doing hot process soap.  I don't like the look of it or the texture when working and molding this type of soap.  But this was my only choice at the time.

  

 Lastly is the Serendipity Soap.  I had an over pour here too.  And got three extra bars of soap.  Most over pours are going on my artfire shop and will be included in the Black Friday soap sale. 
Glad to have the extra.

Well this is about it for now.  Just wanted to update this blog and keep the lines of communication open.  I have even more soap to show but don't really have the time right now.  So I will do another blog on the other soaps as soon as I get caught up.   Thanks to everyone who follows my blog and I plan to keep this going and do much better with postings.  Take Care hope you enjoyed my soap

ramblings.  Later......Debby

Sexy Mens Scented Wax Tarts

Wax tarts is just something I love to burn in my tart burner.  I've been making tarts for years, and just burning them here at home.  Then decided to make extra and put them on my artfire shop to sell.
http://www.threesisterssoap.artfire.com
The tarts are placed in 2 ounce containers and I recommend that they be divided up.  Some are pretty strong and won't need the whole tart in the burner.

I scent my tarts pretty heavy since I really like to make the most of the scent.  I have to say for those who do not know, some fragrances are just light in nature.  By saying this I mean, they are not the strong in your face scent.  Each fragrance is what it is, either strong or light.  And by adding more fragrance to the wax will do no good.  I experience this as well in soap.  You can only put so much fragrance in a soap batch, and you cannot overload it just because you feel like it.  It doesn't work this way.  A light fragrance will have it's own characteristics no matter what.  So when you order a scented wax product and it is not in your face strong you must consider why?

People on youtube will do a tart haul and smell their new tarts they ordered and they will give their impressions of how they like the scents.  Which is fine so do, a show and tell about something they just bought and want to give an opinion.
But as they say the proof is in the pudding and you really need to test out the tart to see how it throws.  There is really no way around it.  What it smells like in the container, may not do justice until it is burned. 

Women love the smell of a man with a nice cologne on.  It just screams sexy.  I've made some tarts to go along with that theme.  Mens scents to fragrance your home.  Let's face it in todays society we have so many various things going on, whether a woman is dating, not married, or married, husband is on deployment, or other issues like work that keep a couple apart.  Just having that nice scent to smell makes a big difference.  Makes it nice to have something comforting to smell.

I have 11 new scents and they are listed on my artfire with scent descriptions to tell you how each smells.  Please go have a look. 


I also have a video: Which I should add this is not for the faint of heart.  LOL!

It just shows the tarts up close and well a few other things up close.

Just wanted to share with you my thoughts and my new tarts.  I think it should
be a great concept to the way of thinking about tarts.  I am just not so thrilled about all the same old same old scents.  I mean how many times can you burn a fruity scent, a clean scent, a bakery scent.  Which are all great in their own right, but lets face it nothing is nicer than the smell of a man.

So with that I will end my rant.  I hope I've given you something to think about and thanks for watching/reading. 
I will continue to grow my tart selections and fragrances.  I hope this gives you something new to think about, as it did me.

Take care and many thanks to my subscribers.  I certainly appreciate that you subscribed.  God Bless You All  until next time

Debby
Three Sisters Soap

New Soaps to Chat About

Hello Everyone!!  It is late evening and I am reflecting over the past few days.  I get to share with you my latest achievements in soap making.  I ordered some new scents to try and, see how they do.  I have suppliers I am grounded to and feel that the company truly is all that it can be, at least for me.  I am speaking of Aroma Haven or http://www.rusticescentuals.com.  I love this company and I won't sway too far from them. 

I also have been looking around at some new companies to try.  Maybe not so new in the fact that they just started up, but my meaning is that they are new to me.  I have been pleased with some new fragrances I bought and tried.  I also love Natures Garden, I buy some things from them that I cannot get at Aroma Haven.  I also buy from Brambleberry too so it really depends on what I need.  Again the majority of my scents do come from Aroma Haven.  I have 3 new suppliers to place on my list.  These companies have fragrances that are not offered on the bigger suppliers websites.  So I am happy to support some new compaines. 

I made 10 soap loaves. And I will be listing them soon on my artfire shop:
http://www.threesisterssoap.artfire.com   I will let them cure for about 2 weeks and the buyer will have to let them finish curing after purchase. I will put a ready to use "by" date on the package.
And I only had trouble with one fragrance oil, which I will explain later on as I talk about the various scents/soaps I made. 
 
I am more into the girly girl scents and for one reason only.  WE all know how expensive colognes, perfumes, and body sprays can be on the market.  Yes I understand if you want to smell pretty with designer scents you will pay a hefty price for them.  Which that is to everyones descretion.  So the designer dupes really appeal to me.  And I usually go for the tried and true scents and ones that have been out there for a very long time.  Plus I love the pretty sexy scents that just make you feel good to use in the shower.  I have been fortunate with the scents I currently have and feel that they are all worth a try.  I never ever soap a scent I do not like.  I just won't do it.  So I have reason to believe that if I think they are special then most other women will too. 

I have these small molds that I use when I do a trial on new fragrances.  If all goes well, I can move on to either making a larger batch by ordering more fragrance to work with.  When I am not sure about a scent I may order only a one ounce size and work with this to see how it turns out.  If I really like the scent I may go back and order a larger bottle. 

On the subject of the smaller molds I use.  I actually have 2 varieties to choose from.  The reason I really like using the smaller molds is:  I can make a bar of soap that is not too wide, that fits right into your hand without cutting the soap in half to use.  I have no problem with larger soap size, but I really don't like to cut them down to fit in my hand to use.  That is just me.  So I am trying to work with a size of soap that does not have to be cut to fit.  And also needs mentioning is that the soap is still at a good 5++ ounce size.    

So with all that in mind and thinking about the whole process I must say I was really lucky that all worked out.  Of course I mentioned the one fragrance that gave me some trouble, but it did work out and turned out to be a really nice soap.  Funny how things go like that when your not sure?  My daughter who is 28 years old, told me that she liked the one called Water the best, and this is the one that gave me the fits.  It wanted to rice on me and I just kept mixing it with the stick blender and it finally came around.  I used two colors medium blue and a lighter blue.  It was at a real thick trace and I was glopping it in the mold.  I kept thinking please turn out.  I am only going to say that the soap looked beautiful at the finished stage.  Unmolding will be tomorrow....I hope all goes well.  Lets just say more than not, I get into soaping, I get lost in what I am doing, and I just can't seem to stop.  Besides my sewing these two crafts: sewing & soaping seems to put me at ease, relax me, and frankly makes me happy.  And they have to be the two crafts that take on the most concentration.

So here is the final soaps I made and I don't profess to be a great photographer by any means, I hope the photo's I have chosen gives my work the justice it deserves.  Another note I had just cut them and posted the photo's so the soap has not been cleaned up yet.  Please keep this in mind as you view the photo's.


The soap below is called Black Vanilla.  I wanted to try this scent since I was curious as to what it smell like?  Beautiful and perfect for a Unisex scent.  I did add some vanilla seeds in the soap.  Which does nothing as far as exfoliating but it does give it more vanilla scent to the soap.  Plus it just felt right adding it. Here is a description of Black Vanilla:

Dark Madagascar Vanilla Beans enhanced with hints of Tonka beans and a touch of East India Patchouli. If you're looking for a vanilla with exotic appeal, this is the one for you.

The next soap I did is called Vanilla Bean.  This is a another wonderful scent.  If you have not tried this one you really need to!  Scent description:

The yummiest vanilla fragrance oil you can imagine. Very popular fragrance! Rich and smooth, very warm.

I ordered a scent that I really love I call this one Woodstock 1969.  I was only 8 years old during that time of Woodstock.  Scent description:

The ultimate hippie fragrance blend! A rich, beautiful blend, with an earthy hint of patchouli and sweet smell of nag champa. Very popular for those who love a earth scent!  This is not a over powering in your face kind of scent.  It is a perfect blend and also considered Unisex.

The next soap I made is called Got Milk?  Now this is a sweet scent and described as:

Just love at first sniff; this fragrance can be easily one the best comforting fragrances in the market. This sophisticated milky fragrance is a wonderful combination of sweet and creamy fresh milk notes, wrapped in fluffy clouds of delicate powdery notes with a warm soft background of pristine florals and sweet buttery musks, just heavenly!  All the nice sweet cream notes of the fragrance stay in the soap perfectly and discolors only to a creamy light tan.  So I expect this soap to darken just a little.  I did swirl in some white in the natural soap base to try and give it a creamy color.  So hopefully this will work?

This next soap is one of my best sellers.  I cannot keep this in stock!!  I've ordered other Oatmeal Milk & Honey scents and they sit in my fragrance cabinet because they just don't live up to the perfect fragrance I have found and exclusively use. 

Blended with utmost care, this is the perfect melding of three fabulous scents. Sweet and toasty, this is one soap that you'll want to take a bite out of! Discolors to light tan.  And yes this scent has a sweetness to it.  In just the right amount.  I used some cocoa to make the dark line across the soap.  And I added a cinnamon stick for contrast. 

This next soap is called Fresh Cut Grass.  And OMG is it wonderful!!  I doubt I ever let my stock on this fragrance run low.  I am that serious about this scent! 

Fresh, green, and summery. The scent of a newly mown lawn.  A very Unisex scent!!  I used some dried dandelion leaves (yes it is perfectly fine to do)!!  So these little green specks just make the soap pop even more.  This is just a nice perfect blend of scent. 

I am pretty sure I will be harvesting more dandelion leaves from my yard while they are here.  I don't want to change the look of this soap in anyway and feel that everything that is green will go into this soap. 

So at this point we got through the Got Milk? soap, and the Fresh Green Grass soap, I now want to introduce the Water soap:

The clean, fresh scent of a cool mountain stream. A rich clean scent. I am so glad I took a chance on this fragrance. Well worth it.    I used two different blues and wanted to display a look of water in a deep blue kind of way.  Another Unisex scent that anyone would enjoy.

Here is Mambo for Men:

An up-tempo twist of Bergamot and zesty lime, Mediterranean herbs and spices that raises the pulse and turns up the heat! A festive tandem of French Clary sage and thyme is embraced by exotic masculine florals and an ultra-sensual fusion of cinnamon leaf, cumin and heart of Cedarwood. The soul of the fragrance is a rhythmic blend of lusty patchouli, addictive musks, irresistible Sandalwood and spirited Fir Balsam.

THIS IS A OMG SCENT IF I EVER SMELLED ONE (for men).  This is a Liz Claiborne designer fragrance dupe, what can I say but SEXY!!!

Lemon Sugar & Candied Violets-Amazing! This scent is gorgeous! It is true to it’s name! Hint of lemon sugar with sweet, sticky notes of candied violets. This scent has just a touch of perfume to give it an added “upscale” note. Beautiful for the summer months.                
                                          ~Discontinued~

I had heard of other soapers using this scent and highly recommended it.

Unfortunately the supplier has decided to discontinue this fragrance for some reason and I grabbed a 16 oz bottle of it while I could.  I have to say this is a refreshing scent and so beautiful for summer.  I will continue to make this soap and offer this.  If you have not tried this, you won't be disappointed at all!!

I used a light blue color to swirl in the yellow base of the soap and made some lemon imbeds to put on top.  Not every piece will have that lemon slice showing but still it is unique and sweet.  I sprinkled on the top some Sparkling Sugar and Micro Mixed Sprinkles and cosmetic glitter. I love this scent!!  And the way the soap turned out.  Just a fun soap. 





Too bad I won't be able to offer this once the fragrance oil is all gone!

Twilight Dream

A wonderfully fresh aromatic blend of lavender, spruce and cedar enhanced by a citrus bouquet of lemon lime with a dry down of patchouli, sandalwood and oakmoss.

"Lavender shadows creep across the sky, a touch of woody smoke hanging in the air. The last rays of the sun fade into dusk as you breathe deeply the sultry scent that is...TWILIGHT DREAM".

This was the last soap I made and I had all these left over colors that I mixed up so I used them all and this is my idea of Twilight:  A Unisex Soap

Comments are always welcome and I hope you enjoyed this blog on my recent soaps. 
Take care and God Bless

Debby 
Three Sisters Soap