So the last time I made cold process soap was in March 2011.  What a long hiatus!  I had to take a break from soapmaking because I am pregnant and all of the fragrances were making me feel nauseous!  I store my finished soaps in the garage and I couldn't even go near the garage with out feeling like I had to gak!  The first trimester was the worst.  I'm about at the end of my pregnancy now and I wanted to get back into soaping.  I missed it.  So I decided to make some soap today.  A real simple 100% olive oil castile soap.  No color, no fragrance.  It makes for good and gentle baby soap too.  I still have some from before that I can use, but I wanted to make some more.  So I used 4 pounds of olive oil to make soap!  Yup that's a lot of soap!  It was so fun.  So castile soap takes a long time to cure so I'll let these sit around for a good, long time before I consider using them. 

Ah, but what about soap ice cream cones!!

Yup, that's right I made soap cones!

These soap cones are really BIG.  They are about 9 oz.  My usual bar soaps are around 4-5 oz.  Here's the size in comparison to the cupcake soaps.

And here's a cute three item collection

I saw silicone ice cream cone muffin molds.  So I got 3 of the molds and used one to make soap cones.  I think I might keep the other molds, at least one, for food use.  They would make great edible cupcakes and either use frosting or real ice cream as the top.

I thought the cone part would darken a bit more.  I used Summer Melon Spritzer FO and it has a little bit of vanilla in it, but so far it hasn't darkened at all.  Interesting.  The 'ice cream' portion I used Grape Juice FO and I tried a purple swirl cone.  The purple didn't turn out quite as dark as I wanted and the mixture got too hard and it's looking a little lumpy.  So the soap cones are looking more pale than I wanted, but they are supercute anyway!  Since these soap cones are so large I suppose one could cut them in half either from top to bottom (might be tricky) or cut between the cone and the top. 

More packages arrived at my door! 

I got my cyclomethicone, dimethicone, Dry-Flo, Isopropyl myristate for lotion making.  My goal is to try and make my lotion have more slip, less drag on the skin.

I got more fragrance and essential oils.  Oh boy.   I have GOT to stop purchasing any more fragrances.  I have so many 1-2 oz bottles.  It's pretty rare that I have actually repurchased any particular fragrance because I love trying out new ones.  I got some Lily of the Valley.  Oh WOW!  I did not know what Lily of the Valley smelled like, but I kept hearing people say it's a great fragrance.  Holy moly no kidding!  It's so refreshing.  Usually I'm not a big floral person, mostly I'm a fruity/clean fragrance type, but I really like this FO. 

I'm expecting to get some more silicone molds, bottles for lotion, more mica colorants, MP soap base.   More stuff to make more soap!

What the heck are dimethicone and cyclomethicone?  They are unmodified silicones.

The following is directly from this website:

http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/silicone_use.html

“Silicone
Use with Skin and Hair

Unmodified
silicones stay on or near the surface of the skin. Not only are the
molecules
too big to physically enter past the upper living cells — they
associate with the upper layer
of drying skin — but they also cannot penetrate cell membranes due
to their large size. They
also dislike both the water and proteins inside cells.

Cyclomethicones are unmodified silicones. They evaporate quickly after
helping to
carry oils into the top layer of epidermis. From
there, they may be absorbed by the skin.
Cyclomethicones a similar function in hair care
products by helping nutrients enter the hair shaft.

Dimethicones
are also unmodified silicones. They form a barrier layer on the skin
which
must be renewed as the skin sloughs off.
Dimethicones coat the surface of the hair and
lubricate it, improving combing providing detangling,
and thus, hair loss and breakage.

Silicones
form a protective layer which helps prevent transdermal water loss — a
very
useful characteristic for many products. Silicone gums
provide instant shine to hair.
Silicones act to help seal moisture into the hair,
which helps prevent many kinds of damage. “

—————–

What are Glycerin, Isopropyl Myristate, and Sodium Lactate?  They are emollients and humectants.

The following is directly from this website.
http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/emollients_and_humectants.html

“What are emollients
and humectants?

Emollients are ingredients
that soften and soothe the skin. They may be naturally occuring, such as
fixed oils and glycerin, or they made be man made, such as silicone oils
or isopropyl myristate. Their moisturizing qualities are provided by the
chemical composition of the material itself.

Generally, emollients are
added to such products as creams and lotions to provide extra
moisturization or to help relax fine lines and wrinkles.

Humectants also soften and
soothe the skin. They are usually derived from vegetable oils, but can
be man made. Humectants derive their moisturizing abilities from water
which they pull from the nearest available source. “

———–

While I might be able to give out a tidbit of information regarding some ingredient or technique I recommend everyone do their own research.  I don't know everything and won't ever claim to know everything! 

So, I've been using my lotions for almost 2 weeks.  No break outs.  Seems good so far! 

However, I do notice that my lotions have 'drag' to them.  The texture is creamy for sure, but there is some drag on the skin.  I've purchased some dimethicone, cyclomethicone, and isopropyl myristate.  They are known to provide more slip to lotions.  Also I ordered some modified corn starch (Dry-Flo) which is supposed to provide a little more velvety feel to the lotion.  I've also read that Sodium lactate which I already have for soap making is a good less sticky alternative to glycerin.

So, next time I make lotion I'll try some of these additives and hopefully it will reduce the drag on the skin.

So here's a photo of my second and third lotion batches.  Remember the first one had the cider vinegar in it.  I'm not sure I'm going to keep that one around.  If you can get over the vinegary smell the lotion is quite nice, and cider vinegar is supposed to be a good tonic for the skin, but it's got a potent vinegar smell.  This might appeal to other people, but not to me.  Frankly, I can make it without vinegar so why should I waste time using something I don't really like.

So my second batch was the OOH lotion (sans vinegar) called so because it has Olive Oil and Honey in it (I like how that acronym works out).  This recipe I got off of the internet and it's a really nice one.  Very thick and creamy.

The next batch I tweaked a facial cream recipe I found.  I tweaked it to products I had on hand.  This one is a little looser in consistency, but I think that's because I accidentally put in a little too much aloe vera juice.  This cream is a little lighter in consistency and feel than the OOH lotion which actually works out well for a facial cream/lotion.

The packaging:  I got some of these Malibu/Tottle tubes, printed labels on vellum paper and ran them through my Zyron sticker maker.  I think they are simple labels, but they came out looking great!

So, now I'm testing. I'm using the OOH lotion on my body and the Facial Cream on my face.  I have pretty normal skin on my body and oily skin on my face.