Soap Crafting Club Adventure #1: Funnel Pour

Back in October, my awesome husband gave me the birthday gift of membership to the winter session of Bramble Berry’s Soap Crafting Club! What an incredible gift, right?! My extreme excitement made it terribly painful to wait for that first delivery of soaping supplies at the end of January. But it was totally worth the wait! I eagerly read through Anne-Marie’s new book, Soap Crafting, paying special attention to the soaps that I knew I would soon be creating. And I must say, reading the book made me even more anxious to receive my supplies!!!

Arriving right on schedule, my first delivery included Bramble Berry’s 5-pound wood mold, complete with sliding bottom and silicone liner, plus all of the supplies needed to complete the first month’s soap: a luscious and beautiful Blackberry Sage Funnel Pour Soap! Here’s what my first shipment included:

After reading the information and watching the videos provided online, I got busy making my first true funnel pour soap. As I prepped my workspace, I set up my computer (just in case I needed to watch the video again) and opened my book to the correct page. I felt so studious! 🙂 And mold prep was so easy! I never knew the joy of silicone liners until now! I have silicone molds, but I had never lined a wooden mold with silicone. NO freezer paper manipulations! How wonderful!!! I made sure to get my mold in place, complete with upside-down bottom-out cottage cheese container and funnel on top.

First, I prepped the colors as indicated. Then, I carefully mixed the premeasured lye solution into warmed oils (to which I added a bit of goat milk powder), and blended to a very light emulsification. I divided off my soap into 5 separate containers and got busy whisking in colors and fragrance.

And then began the pouring! The soap was very fluid at first, and I made sure to whisk it after every 3 or 4 rounds of pouring to maintain the fluidity.

Near the end, it was beginning to set up, but it was still pourable. The outermost layers (those first poured) were hardening up and not sliding out as easily as I’d anticipated, so I had to jiggle the mold frequently as I neared the end of pouring. It created a slight texture on the top of the soap, which adds even more interest. And this soap completely filled my mold! Look out! I realized that my soap was beginning to overflow from the middle just in time! I almost had soap waterfalls down both sides of my mold!

I must say that making the soap was really quite a cinch! I carefully followed all of the instructions and tips, and I took my time to assess each aspect of the soap (while still working quickly to make sure my soap didn’t set up too fast!).  All of my preparation and attention to detail paid off, and I had a very happy soaping session indeed. Utter satisfaction is planning and prepping, then executing to actually achieve the expected end result! That most certainly doesn’t happen often, but it happened on this soapy day! 🙂

After cutting this soap, I did discover small white dots inside, which means that I must have whisked in some air bubbles along the way. I also found some large purple spots, which means I must not have gotten  my Easter Purple LabColor mixed in thoroughly, despite all of my whisking! I like the purple dots; I could most certainly do without the air bubbles. But alas, such is a soaping life. These few small things don’t take away from my super-fun soaping session!! It was a blast making this soap!

This soap has been curing for a couple of months now, and the layers are blending together a bit, the lines softening thanks to the LabColors. The photos show a deeper brown/tan hue than the soap appears to be in real life. It looks more like pink in person. And when it’s wet, I don’t notice the air bubbles at all!

Blackberry Sage is by far my newest obsession in fragrance. I cannot get enough of this scent! I bathe with it, then I want to spray my rooms with it, wash my clothes in it, and slather it all over myself and my children so I can sneak sniffs all day long! Which means I must order some more Blackberry Sage fragrance so I can make room spray, laundry soap, lotion, and of course, MORE SOAP! It really is a wonderful spring and summer scent, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of smelling it. Do you have a favorite scent like that?

I’ve been thoroughly impressed with my membership to this fun club. I have access to an online classroom where the BB team posts instructions and videos on how to make the soap. There’s a whole community of soapers involved, from very experienced to brand-new saponifiers, who all get to post pictures, ask questions, and share experiences. There is so much value in interacting with one another, and it’s so cool to see how the same recipe turns out differently every single time. Climate and temperature and technique make every batch of soap unique and special. It’s been a lovely reminder that soapmaking truly is an artform, which Anne-Marie’s book so vividly displays.

Check out this post and this one to see my other Winter Session Soap Crafting Club adventures!

Until next time, I wish for you wonderful days full of favorite scents and suds!