cedar_lea

Oh Duh! Elements! Yes I've tried the hand and body lotion and I wasn't very impressed. It was thinner than I like and didn't do anything for my dry hands. In fact I still have half a bottle I haven't used. I think it would be a good lotion for people who use lotion on thier legs daily and would like something light that doesn't leave much feel afterwards. Noodle's description is really accurate!

I really like sun kissed berries, floraberry, and berries and blooms . . . Garden Berries or Spring Berries was the other that I thought of or if it's more of a floral Backyard Garden or Country Garden would work too. From the scent description I'm picturing a garden with blooming flowers and a berry patch. As far as color maybe you could adjust your indigo to be more of a blackberry or blueberry color? I get the indigo with the hyacinth and berries and think it's kind of clever.

I was on the fruit vein too. At first I thought you had made a candle that looked like a split open pomegranate and I was about to die of jealousy!

lol. I think the actual flower smells like cotton candy & plum wine & flowery goodness. I'd be interesting to see how it smell though. I haven't been brave enough to pick up any FO yet because all of the peony products in stores only have the light powdery floral scent & not much depth. If you think it's true though I'd definately be interested in looking into it. I just discovered peonies about 5 years ago so I probobly just smell them differnt because they remind me of things I had before. I'll send you my address. That's a really sweet offer.

Wow that's really interesting. Now I want to try it too. Brambleberry mentions using it for soap on thier page for it: http://www.brambleberry.com/Tamanu-Oil-P3217.aspx

What didn't you like about it?

I really love the way these "I didn't get it as swirly as I wanted" soaps look when people post them. They always make really interesting organic shapes that I keep trying to see things in. They're like clouds and have a really artistic feel. From what I can see the one in the back of the first picture looks like koi fish and one of the others looks like a dogwood branch . . .

Has anyone smelled any of these? I've been wanting a good peony, but all of the peony scents I've smelled miss the parts of the peony scent I like most (I think peonies smell like cotton candy and plum wine!)

Where did you find ingrediants list? I couldnt' find it on the website, but the sample pack seems pretty affordable is shipping isn't bad.

OK. I know nothing, but I am wanting to make a soap mold sometime in the next couple months because the one I want doesnt' exist. What is pot time? Any other "Things you should know before jumping in" that those of you who have done it before want to share?

Making your own color wheel is a really good idea. In my color theory classes we spent alot of time making color scales that we would bind together and use like a pallet you get at a paint store or a printer (flipbooks of color swatches that you know how to recreate. The part that going to be challenging is that your wax is a part of that color pallet. When you're painting your paper doesn't typically change color much but because the wax color is blending with the dye color the percentage of that is importaint too. That said I think it's a great idea. Color wheels are often more conceptual anyways. Unless you have the exact same red as the one in the wheel it's not going to blend to the exact same orange when mixed with the yellow, ect. Getting to know what the colors you've chosen for your pallet are and how they work together.

This is because if you are designing colors to be displayed on a computer you have to work with RGB as the color scheme. RGB is based on the light spectrum & that's why it's a subtractive process because more light = lighter color. The calculators are for making colors appear on a computer, television, video, ect. Because physical pigments become darker as more is added they have to be an additive process. I believe CMYK is used because it gets around the fact that colors all have different values (Yellow light and blue-violet is dark) This is REALLY important for a printer because the colors are layered not blended so you can't really add yellow on top of a true blue and get a medium value green. So the printer has to use lighter red and blue so that it can get the lighter colors through layering. Layering will not get you the same colors as a well mixed color blend. In most cases the difference won't be huge, but in some it's pretty significant.

Agree that we need to know how it smells and how it's being marketed. The description is: This fragrance immediately brings you back to childhood; where you'll find yourself blowing bubbles with luscious, fluffy, pink bubblegum! Natures Garden's Bubble Luscious fragrance begins with top notes of strawberry, aldehydic effervescent notes, and citrus; followed by middle notes of coconut and clove; sitting on a base note of crisp vanilla. Does this come of as sweet and candy like? It kind of sounds like it's trying to be strawberry soda, and if that's the case renaming it might be a simple enought change to get someone to go "OH I love that!" What does it make you think of? Because it's possible that it's just not giving the impression strong enough and you could add more of X thing to get it there. For example: blending with a strawberry to accent that note, blending with a sugar or cotton candy to make it sweeter, blending with a vanilla or a bakery scent to make it more of a cupcake scent, blending with a champagne or something that gives it more of a grown up scent because it's too wimsy for your customers, blending with chocolate to make it into a truffle smell . . . I could go on but it probobly wouldn't be helpful without knowing what you're dealing with for real.

Are you actually using the RGB color wheel? Because it won't work with dye. The RGB spectrum is based on light so red and green make yellow instead of brown. It's strange, but it's how moniters work so you have to know it if your in computers or lighting. The CMYK is for printing dyes so it should work, but there's alot of colors that can't be made with CMYK because they don't use a true red or blue. I'm not sure if this program is designed for dyes or not but if you can make yellow with the RGB settings it's not going to be true for not light based pigments. There isn't going to be a guide to drops adding color because the color is affected by the color of the base item. Also there are ALOT of different greens that will react differently with all the different reds. A color is a combination of the color and the base. The amount of product will affect the colors. A drop of green added to a small batch will be alot darker than the same amout in a larger batch. If the wax itself is more whitish it will be easier to get pastel colors. If the wax is more yellowish it will be harder to do purples than oranges reds and greens. The easiest way to mix the colors you want is to get two of each pirmary -- a warm and a cool version (lemon yellow and golden yellow, cadnium red and a more magenta red, cobalt and cyan) green a few different browns and black. Some people also find a very dark purple to be really useful in getting richer dark colors. The white would be your base. That way you can mix cools together for a brighter cool color or add the warm for a lower chroma one. Remember that your base is white so if you want the exact same color but darker = more drops, unless you've already achieved a very bright color and then you'll need to move to the black. I suggest looking at alot of color charts and value scales and realising that each color is a certain level of bright vs dull, dark vs white, and color location on the wheel. If you can tell which of those areas need adjusted than it's pretty easy to learn what you need to do to make it right.

I'm remembering years and years ago when a friend decided to introduce me to partylight there was a fruity bayberry . . . I wanna say bayberry and plum . . . that convinced me to go ahead and order the expensive candles. It was yum!

I love WSP's one (crafter's choice). I've only used it in soaps but I don't think it smells fuelish at all. Really fresh and like peeling a grapefruit.

I need to give everyone who suggested Peak's Ocean a HUGE thank you. I never thought I'd find an ocean scent I'd like. OOB I was kind of nuetral but I figured it was as good as any other I'd ever smelled and played with it a little . . and I mean a little. I did add some cypress and some pumpkin pie (It's for a soap that's a castle by the sea so I wanted a little bit of homey spice undertones), but left the scent mainly the ocean because I was worried it would drown out a little. Now that my M&P has been poured and set the ocean scent is almost overpowering -- and way salty and not flowery at all. I'm in love! I also got my AH order in today, so just a few OOB notes beause I love the ones everyone else posts so I figured I should give back. Hyacinth -- A little on the green side. Not as heady and flower as Elements, but still recognisably true Vanilla Bean -- Whoever decided to add the bean to the desription may be a little crazy in the nose! I smell butterscotch. Actually I smell buttershots liquor with a defiate vanilla to it. Buttery nipples anyone? (That's the buttershots shots with whipped cream on top right?) Warm Vanilla Nutmeg -- More carmel vanilla than nutmeg, but the spice gives it a nice firey note. It makes my nose tingle in a good way. Redwood -- Smells like cutting fresh firewood with my dad. I don't know if I'd call it redwood, but it's plausable. It's definatly like fresh cut alder! I loce it! Fresh Sliced Cucumber -- OK I am obsessed with this scent. I knew it was amazing before I bought it. It hits every nuance of slicing a cucumber perfectly. It's incredible. I haven't used it strait in anything yet so I can't really say how it holds in something, but I love it as just a wet green fresh blender and can't imagine it would be bad alone. Sea Kelp -- I've learned my lesson not to judge the fresh stuff OOB, but it's got a sweet perfumy scent that was unexpected. Other than that it's got a nice dark kelpy green note & ocean notes Madagascar Spice -- I had been using Symphony Chai as an allspice & wanted something a little more affordable. While the two are not identical they both have alot of cinnamon and cardimon and a good blend of hard to distinguish spicey notes. I'd actually say the Madagascar is more complex and slightly less sweet than the Chai. I'm happy with it Lavender -- My roomate describes it as fresher than most lavenders. I get a well rounded floral note and a solid herbal note but it does have a crispness to it that would definately lend nicely to anything that has a clean mood to it (if that makes sense)

Sorry this confused me at first. It looked like you were trying to mix colors the way your computer does wich won't give you alot of results. RGB is based on the light spectrum where colors combine strangely. If I'm remembering right the colors mix and become white not black. Now once I stopped thinking of the seperate color systems and thought of them as just one you've got the same set up as most professional artists. They would typically say warm red (typically cadnium) and cool red (I'm forgetting the name for this one but it's slighty magenta) have warm blue (ultramarine, which is a little bit cyanish) and cobalt. Some would use two yellows too, but it's not as necessary as the two reds. You can mix most colors with just your base primaries, but by using the cool/warm versions you can get brighter oranges and purples. Green is another one that is not essential but it's really nice to not have to mix up a green any time you want to mute you red. Black is of course essential. So now that I'm trough being confused I see that you have a really good setup and it all makes sense. I've just never thought of it as CMYK & RGB.

Actually I want to mix it with bergamont and oak and maybe somthing else (I'd have to smell) to make a steampunk scent for soap, Victorian with a mechanical greesy note.

That must be it then. It's funny that I can't find that thread! It was hilarious. Jokes about taking the car to the shop & then washing with mechanic's shop soap and saying you did the work yourself. I am relieved to know where I can find it though. It was driving me absolutely crazy & I'd thought it was from NG but I couldn't find it . . . I can stop wondering now!

Has anyone heard anything about skin safety? I almost bought from them a couple months ago because they're one of the only places that has a Citron FO but I'm trying to keep my collection of not skin safe scents minimal. I'm always tempted to grab them when I shouldn't. I like that alot of thier scents are basic. Too bad the review also say chemical smelling and weak so far . . .

I know I read someone postig a review on it a few weeks ago . . . it's possible I was looking at old posts though. I can't stop thinking about it. I have all of these crazy steampunk ideas that would make it so fun to play with! But I can't seem to find the post. . . or remember who made it. I thought it was NG but I couldn't find it there. It's possible it's just discontinued & that would be sad, but not knowing is killing me!

There is something to the fragrance level thing. My roomate is only allergic the one time I dribbled and missed it and the strait FO got on something that ended up on his desk. He was fine smelling it beforehand but the scent intensity gave him a huge headache and sneezes. He's been fine when I've used the oils since, just can't handle them in his face. So far my only allergies are to sagebrush (the actual plant) and Drakkarr. Both make me lightheaded and groggy and then come sneezes and itchy eyes. Not fun. I wish I knew what it was in Drakkarr that did it so I could avoid it.

That's what we do too. It's a little trickier with the soy I've been testing, but if you use one of the little cheese spreader knives on the edge it comes out. Those cheese knives are great. They're also a must is you're caulking a bathtub or something. Our poor knives get used for everything but cheese!

Thank you. I love reviews & that bread sounds like just what I'd look for in one.