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puma52

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Posts posted by puma52

    Ice Cream You Scream

    in Fragrance Discussion

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Belinda said:

    Puma, you always come up with the BEST sounding blends! I have to defiantly try this! I love vanilla too and this sounds just too delicious to not try. Thank you my friend for always sharing with us!

    Morning Belinda and Happy New Year to ya! :hello:I hope you do try these blends....You just cannot go wrong w/vanillas and everyone who knows...KNOWS that Stacy from Daystar has some awesome and DIVINE ones! :) We appreciate Ms Stacy SO MUCH for offering us these wonderful scents! :) 

    • Like 1

    M&P Recipes

    in Melt & Pour

    Posted

    On 12/30/2016 at 2:09 PM, Terry said:

    Oh man, I don't know how I missed the last two posts on this thread from Puma and Candybee but glad I now found them!!!!!!!

    Thanks guys :)

     

    Yes...those last posts have to do w/regular soap recipes, but I wanted you to see and read about how wonderful milks are for your soaps whether they are M&P or CP or HP. 

    Since you are now making cold process soap, I sure do hope that you try these milks in them too! :)

    Do not be afraid to use milks in your soaps...they are just a lovely addition! 

    Gracious...typo on the update on fire in our area...this HAS been labeled a disaster now so our folks can now get FEMA help and low interest loans. :)

     

    • Like 1

    Ice Cream You Scream

    in Fragrance Discussion

    Posted

    On 12/29/2016 at 7:03 AM, jfear said:

    Hello Everyone!

     

    I am on the hunt for a really great ice cream FO and I would love your suggestions. Even if it's a good cream/vanilla/berries I'm all ears!

     

    I've tried "Summer Scoop" from Flaming Candle and although it smells uncannily like a Baskin Robbins (truly does), there's an odd and almost peppery note I can't get past.

     

    Has anyone tried Just Scent "Neapolitan Ice Cream"? There are no reviews and it's only available in 1lb; I hate to buy a whole lb and not like it. She also has an "Ice Cream Sandwich" I'm curious about.

     

    Thanks in advance!

    Hi jfear!

     

    I love the FB vanilla ice cream, but I am one who just loves vanilla scents and I love blending these together to create the most delicious vanilla ice cream scent - .50 FB Vanilla Ice Cream / .25 Daystar Vanilla Delicious / .25 CC Vanilla Voodoo. I also love Daystar's Buttercream Frosting, Daystar's Cake Batter, Daystar's Milk Sugar Kisses and ICS Vanilla Smoothie and I have made a blend using ALL of these scents before and it is divine delicious vanilla ice cream heaven! :) Customers have swooned over this scent blend.  I have found that the more vanilla type scents you blend together, the more awesome vanilla scents you can end up with. :)

    • Like 3

    M&P Recipes

    in Melt & Pour

    Posted

    On 12/16/2016 at 9:18 AM, Moonstar said:

    I know this is an old thread but are you referring to coconut milk powder or actual coconut milk. How much do you add + if its actual coconut milk won't it go rancid?

    Im trying to find the old archived recipes you guys are referring to + I can't seem to find them - any advise on how to pull those up ? Thanks Puma :) 

    Before I forget, any new updates on the aftermath of the fires ? 

    Hey Moonstar!

    I'm sorry I did not get back to you sooner. My sister did have to have the major scoliosis surgery and I have been staying with her in the hospital from Wed last week to yesterday when she went to rehab. As far as the Smoky Mtn.fire....the are still being tight lipped about the juveniles....strange indeed. I hope they are building a strong case. But Dolly did get over 9 Million dollars last week during her telethon...amazing! They have not labeled this a disaster and folks can now get FEMA and more help.

     

    I did use actual coconut milk....it is DIVINE! I used it in the melt and pour recipe below subbing it for the goats milk and I also use milks in all of my hot process soaps now...it makes for a very creamy and delicious soap. I have never had any spoilage...here is the Prairieannie recipe that I do believe that started it all. Candybee also throughout this thread has awesome recipes. These two be the bombdotcom of M&P I do believe. :)

     

    I am also going to post information that I found on using milks in soap recipes. This made me a lot braver about using these delicious milks in all soaps. :)

     

     

    My Basic MP Soap Recipe

    I will cut this down for the purpose of this thread because I tend to make BIG batches!

    (I use all of these ingredients in every bar of my soap)

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    2lb white soap base (I use EBC, but you can use what you have)

    1/2 cup fresh goat milk (you can use canned or powdered if you want)

    4T liquid soap (unscented, undyed)

    2T honey

    2T shea butter

    1T cocoa butter

    1T olive oil

    1 T jojoba oil

    Fragrance oil (add as much or as little as you would for 2lb soap recipe)

    I use a presto pot .. melt the base first and then add the other ingredients mixing well.

    Produces skin loving bubbly bars of soap with super creamy lather!

    Enjoy :cheesy2:

     

    Spotlight on Ingredients: Heavy Cream

    8
     
    Cream Drop

    Cream Drop by Kyle May

    Do you ever read over recipes or watch soaping videos and wonder why soapmakers use the ingredients they use? After all, the only essentials for a good bar of handmade soap are oils, water, and lye. However, certain additives do impart some nice qualities to your soap, and in a series of posts, I wanted to share some of the “extra” ingredients I use in soap and why I use them.

    Heavy cream has a lot of fat in it—36% fat or more. Goat milk typically has 4-5% fat. Cream is very rich and smooth. While the benefits of milks—especially goat milk—are widely known, not as many soapers use cream, possibly because of the expense. I wouldn’t try substituting all of the water in a recipe with cream, and not only because of the cost, but also because of the high fat content. The cream will likely congeal fairly quickly, even if you freeze it first, because the lye will react to the fat in the cream. If you have made milk soaps, you may have noticed that if you set the milk and lye mixture aside for a few moments, it does start to thicken as the lye reacts to the fats in the milk. Another reason you might not want to use cream as a total water replacement is that the high fat content might really throw off your superfat percentage.

    So how do I use cream in soap? I usually add about 4-5% of the amount of oils to a batch of soap. So, for example, if I make a batch of soap that is 500 grams (I always measure in grams; it’s more precise than ounces and easier to convert), then I would add about 22 grams of cream to the batch. I admit this is approximate because I usually add a round number of grams of cream to my soap. For example, my typical batch is about 2.5 pounds of oils, or 1120 grams, and I usually add about 50 grams of cream to a batch that size. I would recommend using heavy cream at a rate of about 3-5%. You really don’t need to use a lot. When I use cream in my soap, I remove the same amount of water from the recipe. For example, in my batch with 50 grams of cream, I remove 50 grams of distilled water from the recipe. If you use full water and cream, you might find your soap takes a little longer to harden. I have not experimented with using full water and cream.

    Before I add the cream to the oils, I warm it up a bit so that it is the same temperature as the oils (more or less). Then, I add my cream directly to my oils and stick blend it before adding the lye. I have noticed that it will not emulsify completely with the oils. Typically there are tiny white flecks of cream floating on the top of my oils. I usually give the oils one more quick stick blend before adding the lye water, but it probably isn’t necessary because once the lye water is added, it will all blend.

    I first noticed the benefits of using cream in soap by accident. I made a batch of Creamy Coconut soap with coconut milk and cream.

    Creamy Coconut

    I mainly added the cream because I felt it would be in keeping with the name of the soap to have both real coconut milk and real cream in it. When I used it in the shower, I noticed how smooth the bars felt. If you can believe it, I didn’t immediately realize this smoothness was because of the cream. I thought it might have been the coconut milk.

    I started noticing that other soapmakers used cream in their soaps, and when I ordered soaps from these soapmakers, I noticed how smooth their bars were. At first, I wasn’t sure why their soaps were so much smoother than mine either because there are so many variables—oil recipes, other additives, and the like. But eventually I realized it was the cream in the soap that added smoothness. I have used cream in almost all of the soaps I have made since that discovery (I typically do not use it in milk soaps, with the exception of Creamy Coconut).

    In addition to smoothness, cream adds some of the same benefits as other milks in soap—extra conditioning being the main benefit imparted by heavy cream. I mainly enjoy the feel of soap with cream in it. It is definitely smoother than soap made just with water. It feels silky on the skin. I typically do not have to use much lotion at all because of the conditioning oils and butters in my soap, but I have noticed even less of a need to use lotion in those soaps made with cream.

    Adding just a little bit of cream can add some great qualities to your soap. With my recipe of just 50 grams, I am adding 18 grams of fat, so my superfat percentage will not be drastically different from my calculation.

    As usual, David Fisher has experimented with cream and shared his results. You can see what will happen if you add lye to cream in his tutorial. I personally have not found it necessary to freeze the cream I use in my own recipes. In addition, I have never noticed any discoloration as can happen when you use goat milk in place of water. I actually haven’t tried using just a small amount of liquid goat milk and adding it directly to the oils as I do with heavy cream, so you might find that solution works just as well for you.

     

    How to Make Soap with Three Milks - Tres Leches

    Use arrow-keys.png to navigate.

     
     
     
    three milks for tres leches soap - David Fisher
    Three milks for tres leches soap. Photo Credit: David Fisher

    I've made soap with goat's milk for years. I love soap with coconut milk too - such super lather. Making soap with heavy whipping cream was interesting too - but a bit of a challenge due to the high fat content.

    So what was I thinking when I decided to make soap with not one, not two, but three milks? Well, I wasn't actually thinking about soap - I was thinking about a lovely dessert, tres leches cake and the three milks that go into it.

     
     

    About the same time, I saw a tutorial by my colleague Amanda Griffin on the "milk in oil method" for adding milk to a soap recipe. Naturally, one thing led to another…"I have three different milks that I can use in soap…why not use all three?"…and a recipe was born.

    Using milk in place of water for the lye solution is not difficult. Like Amanda's tutorial states, you can add the milk in a couple different ways - either as icy, slushy, frozen milk combined with the lye, or into the oils with a double strength lye solution. Since I was using three milks, not one, I opted for (and generally prefer) the second version.

    For this recipe (feel free to create your own soap recipe) which makes about 4.5 pounds of soap, I used:

    • Lard - 12.7 oz. - 26%
    • Palm Kernel - 13.7 oz. - 28%
    • Olive - 13.7 oz. - 28%
    • Castor - 2.4 oz. - 5%
    • Sunflower - 3.9 oz. - 8%
    • Cocoa Butter - 2.4 oz. - 5%
    • Lye - 6.7 oz.
    • Water - 6.7 oz.
    • Coconut milk - 2.5 oz.
    • Goat's milk - 2.5 oz. (or enough powder reconstituted into 2.5 ounces)
    • Half & Half - 2.5 oz.
    • 2.1 ounces of essential or fragrance oils
    • ½ cup of finely ground oatmeal
    • 1/8 tsp. of gold mica
    • 1/8 tsp. of cappuccino mica
    • Like 1

    Show this past weekend---pointers appreciated on display

    in Business Side of Things

    Posted · Edited by puma52

    3 hours ago, scifichik said:

    I did a last minute show this past weekend and had no helpers, so it meant going light on tables, displays, and product (degenerating discs in my spine, doesn't stop me but does make me slow). I did take about 4 dozen of each top-selling fragrance and restocked the display area as it sold. I have a banner on order, but it didn't arrive in time, so my table drop front looks bad.

    I'm thinking of having Avery or some other place print my labels (with the fragrance section blank that I could print later) so my logo gives a nice pop of color on front, and there isn't a sea of white.

    Any pointers or constructive input appreciated for my display, as I'm still new at doing shows/fairs.   It was fun, and after I pretty much bought family's Christmas from other vendors with my profits, I still left with $80 from sales, so for a first-year event in a very small rural town, I was very satisfied.

    table2.jpg

    Your table looks great and I'm so sorry your banner did not get to you in time, but I can imagine that the next show you do , is that it will look awesome!  I love the red color of your table cloth... it is so festive! I hear ya on the back issues...herniated bulging discs here....but that does NOT stop us does it??!! We git 'er done and when we have to, we just take it a little easier on ourselves! :) The not Scentsy sign is an eye grabber and hey if it works and gets people over to your table, go for it. Congratulations on a profitable and mighty fine show and getting some Christmas shopping done too! :)

    looking for a alternative to candles and melts

    in Wickless

    Posted · Edited by puma52

    On 11/28/2016 at 9:29 PM, blacktieaffair said:

    Dipped TP, Dipped Stuffed Animals, Aroma Beads, Dipped or Drizzled Pine Cones, Scented Salts, Room Spray, Linen Spray. 

     

     

    Ditto above.

     

    OH my gosh!!!!! Is this THE Blacktieaffair that used to live in Pigeon Forge and moved farther South???!!! OH my, if this is you...I have worried about you so much!!! How are YOU friend?? I'm sorry...I did not mean to hijack this thread...my apologies, but Wow...just had to ask...I am pleasantly surprised and shocked! Welcome back! :)

    Bushwacked!!

    in Crafty Discussion

    Posted

    Shew Jcandleattic! You were busy girl! Congrats on getting so much done. Moonstar...you are one brave woman to get out there and shop this weekend. :) I took Wednesday off so I could deep clean the house to get ready to cook our Thanksgiving dinner. Thursday am up and at tum @ 6am ...made 2 turkey breasts, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade noodles, corn, pumpkin and chocolate pies, crispix mix, dill dip mix, fruit & dip, and punch and watched Hallmark Christmas movies. Friday decorated pine tree out back with blue lights and a star on top...watched Hallmark Christmas movies. Saturday decorated outside up front, made a candle order and watched Hallmark Christmas movies. Today hubby and I put our plants to bed for the Winter.....trimmed up the elephant ear plant that had dropped to the ground, trimmed the canna's , wheelbarrow-ed some pots around front to a more protected area so the perennials in them will hopefully grow again next year, mulched around trees and butterfly bushes, fed the wild birds and am now watching more Hallmark Christmas movies. :)  

    • Like 4

    My first soap

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    On 11/14/2016 at 6:37 AM, Terry said:

    Thank you Puma !!  We had so much fun....and yes I do feel way more comfortable with the Lye now....  :thumbsup2:

    We used palm, coconut and olive oils.  I suppose this is a basic recipe of sorts ?...

    My sister used their Christmas Tree scent - smelled so good!!  

    We are going to trade bars when ready, can't wait!  :yay:

     

     

    Oh ...that will be so fun to trade bars!! :)

    • Like 1
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