Soap, soap, soap!

I've been working like crazy at the soap shop to load up on soap after the holidays!  There are some long awaited returns sitting on this rack - Lavender, Oatmeal Milk and Honey - and some new ones too! 

I've been wanting to make a Pomander soap and a Patchouli Twist soap for quite a while. And I finally had time to do it! Want to know why I've been able to make all this soap? 

 My new oil melter! This bad boy helps me make 6 batches of soap a day (with time to spare!) when before I was only making 2-3 batches. 

These three batches of beer soap for Miller Brewing Company were made in under an hour! I love it. 

Well, folks - long story short: you have tons of soap to look forward to in the coming months!

On a final note, I leave you with a picture of kitty:

Meow!

Late Night Soap Shop

Tonight, I'm at the shop making soap pretty late.

Here I am drilling my mold back together.  There were some problems with the last batch getting the slab of soap to come lose.  I had to break down part of the mold to get it out.

Now I'm lining the mold.  Getting the paper nice and straight!

I melt my oils individually and pour them all into the big soap bucket.  Here I'm doing olive oil.  You can see the big can of olive oil on the table.

After blending the oils and lye water (in this case lye beer because this is a batch of beer soap) the soap starts to reach trace.  A little more blending and we should be good!

Finally, the soap is ready to be poured into the mold!  After this, I wait a little bit until the soap solidifies to the point that it isn't liquid anymore.  Then I'm able to plastic wrap the mold and cover it with layers of towels to slowly cool.

If you are in the area driving by after hours and notice the open sign is still on, odds are there is soap making going on.  Stop in and see the soap making in action!

Beer Soap for Father's Day

When I first made beer soap last year, it was a big hit.  Maybe not right away, but once the holidays started rolling around, everyone wanted beer soap.  By that time, all the soap I had made just for Father's Day was sold out.

This year, I wanted to have beer soap ready in time for Father's Day, but I've decided to start keeping beer soap in stock all the time!  What we're going to do here is keep cycling through various combinations of beer/fragrance until we start finding ones that people go crazy over or come back looking for.

Currently, we have the following beer soaps available:

• Black Cherry Beer Soap - made with Farmhouse Ale Lazy Mutt
• Clean Cotton Beer Soap - made with Milwaukee's Brewing Co. Louie's Demise Ale
• Hazelnut Beer Soap - made with New Glarus Coffee Stout
• Mauna Loa Beer Soap - made with Monkey Wheat Ale

Stop in and let me know which is your favorite one!