When I re-branded my business I wanted a business name that included my husband and that would aptly describe what our business was about. Thus I changed our business name to CKS ventures. I couldn’t have chosen a better name. Every month, week, day and sometimes even hour my life is certainly a “venture.”
My latest venture has been in “soaping.” There are several reasons I have curiosity in making soaps. First, I have a vast interest in getting the toxins out of my home and body. I am on a quest to replace all the products I use both in my home and in my body to products that are made with natural ingredients, essential oils and most importantly non-toxic. Secondly, I am constantly looking for ways to make extra money so that I can have financial freedom.
soaps
Which brings me to another venture that I am about to start next week, but more about that next week.
My first love remains my designing and creating jewelry. I am realizing though that I need to diversify and constantly look for new opportunities and keep my options open if I want to gain financial freedom. I also get bored very easily, not sure if that is a blessing or curse, thus I am always looking for ways to earn extra money and try new things. This is what led me to diversifying into aromatics. Aromatics are a nice tie in with gemstones and jewelry. Aromatics are also consumable, unlike my jewelry. I love the artistry in soap making. Not to mention the mad scientist in me likes to experiment with mixing “shit” together to see what I can create!
The whole lye thing in cold–process soap making still scares me a bit. I don’t know why. I love soldering in jewelry making. If you know anything about soldering, it is not exactly danger free! I haven’t blown anything up though (yet)! Never the less because lye does scare me a bit, I am starting out with pour and melt soap bases to get a better feel for soaping and to make sure this is not yet another of my passing fazes of things that I want to try but then don’t really enjoy doing as much as I thought or that is too time consuming to really make any money at doing it. Or that no one else, but me, thinks my creation is really cool, to want to buy it!
I found a great book to help me along the way, “soapmaking the natural way” by Rebecca Ittner. I have gone through and picked out several recipes that intrigue me enough to give them a try. Once I work my way through the recipes, I will decide what next! So far I have tried 2 recipes from the book and an additional 2 found on Pinterest.
The first melt and pour soap recipe I tried was from www.apumpkinandaprincess.com It was a recipe I found through Pinterest. The recipe was for Pink Himalayan Salt Grapefruit Soap using a goat milk soap base. For the most part I like the soap. I do wish that it lathered a bit more. While I was making it the Himalayan salt settled to the bottom fairly quickly and the soap tended to harden really fast, almost before I could get it into molds. It does make a nice exfoliating soap.
I also experienced my first problem with pour and melt soaps. I left my soaps in a mold overnight. The next morning when I went to unmold them, they were covered in little drops of water, almost as if my soap was sweating! Come to find out this is exactly what my soap was doing. This phenomenon is known as glycerin dew. For more information on glycerin dew and how to prevent it check out the following links. http://makeyoursoap.com/prevent-soap-sweating/ and http://makeyoursoap.com/prevent-soap-sweating/
The two recipes I tried from “soapmaking the natural way” were Bamboo Garden and Ocean Breeze. Bamboo garden turned out nicely, other than I think I should have stirred it a bit better as some of the turmeric powder did not dissolve real well. The bar has a nice scent and lathers well. I love the way Ocean Breeze smells and it makes a great unisex soap. However, mine did not turn out real well. It is mushy. It lathers and smells great and is not sticky, but is very mushy! Not sure what went wrong. I will try again to see if I get different results.
Ocean Breeze
Bamboo Garden
Of the 4 melt and pour soaps that I tried, I had the best results and like the best the “CharcoalDetox Face Soap.” I found this recipe on Pinterest from www.happy-mothering.com There are several variations for soap using activated charcoal. This soap smells good, lathers well and feels luxurious. Activated charcoal has many uses and benefits too.
CharcoalDetox Face Soap
Stay tuned to our next venture.
Ta, ta ‘til later,
cheryl