Making and Pouring Pumpkin Soy Wax Candle

 I have been yearning to start on my fall candles for a few weeks now. Now that I found some time, I made  Pumpkin Spice Soy Wax Candles with a pumpkin embed!
Here is how my wax looked before melting. The wax comes in flakes, which made it easy measure.

 Before the wax is melted, I attached my wicks. I used cotton wicks that come with a safety tab on the bottom. The tab won't allow the candle to burn down to the very bottom and burn your table, or worse, start a fire!

 I used a glue gun to attach the wicks and a pop cycle stick to reach down and tap the wick down.

 I poured off some wax and colored it bright orange. I didn't scent this wax.
I used this wax to make my pumpkins. I used a pumpkin ice mold from the dollar store.

 I colored the rest of the wax a lighter orange. and added Pumpkin Spice fragrance oil from Brambleberry.Com.

 I popped the pumpkins out of the mold. I "lost" some tops, so had to remelt a few. They came out a little "rustic" looking, but they sure are cute!

 The wax is cooling. The color looked really dark, but since soy wax is white, the colors come out muted.

 For this wax I heated up the wax to 180 degrees, added the scent at 160 degrees, and poured at about 120 - 125 degrees.
I heated my containers with a heat gun to prevent the wax from pulling away from the glass.

 Here they are all poured. I used pop cycle sticks to center the wick.

 To make the topping, I melted some pillar wax and whipped it with a mixer until it was light and fluffy. I popped the pumpkin on right after the wax was plopped on. The wax cools fast!

All finished!

All ready for the Fall!

New Soap and my purchase from Brambleberry!

Yesterday I received my haul from Brambleberry! I just love this company and have never been disappointed with anything that I have purchased from them.
Their delivery time is a little slow, but it's worth the wait!

Take a peek at what I bought and see what happened to my last two batches of soap!

Too Early For Halloween?

I know it is early for Halloween, but when you make soap, you have to plan WELL in advance!

 Soap needs several weeks to cure, if not longer, so planning ahead is needed to keep up with the demands and to be ready for a holiday. Above, and below, is a picture of my Boo Berry soap. It is scented with Blackberry Fizz, which is a very nice deep berry scent.

I wanted this soap to be for Halloween, but I wanted it to be more versatile. I added purple paper and a black spider to the package. After Halloween I can simply replace the wrapper not associated with Halloween.
I think they turned out cute! I will bring a few into the shop and the rest will be sold on Etsy and other outside shops I sell at.

Candle sales are starting to pick up. The top one is scented with pumpkin spice and the bottom is carrot cake. I wanted the topping to look like cake, but I'm afraid it might look like puke! What do you think? It smells awesome!

The Weird Popcorn

Popcorn Soap

Have you ever heard of popcorn soap? I have been making this soap for several years now. It seems to come and go in popularity, but it is always popular around this time of the year.
I love making this soap, although I bought a small mold and I can only make 9 kernels at a time, so time wise, it's not a soap I make often. I will usually make a small container of soap and pour into the soap mold when I happen to be in the kitchen, collecting the kernels in a small baggie. This saves time in actually making the soap, but my kitchen is filled with the scent of popcorn for longer than I wish.

Popcorn Soap

Popcorn soap is interesting to everyone because it looks just like a kernel of popcorn, and it smells just like popcorn!

Cut and Curing

My apple pie soap loaf is cut and on the curing rack. They should be ready in about 3 weeks. This mold makes taller soap, so the slices are a little thinner than my other loaf.

I was just using up the extra icing, but I do like how they turned out.

The cupcakes turned out great! These will be ready in about 4 weeks.

Shopping for a shaving mug on Etsy

I'm shopping for shaving mugs on Etsy today and I thought I would share my finds with you.

virginiawyoming made this mug. I love the soft yellow color. The cost is $26.50

 

sheilasthings makes this mug and it is $19.50 and comes with a starter mug and shaving soap, although I won't need the soap as I will be filling the mug with my own soap!

brookhousepottery made this sweet shaving mug. I like the creamy white color and it's simple design.

It's going to be a hard decision to make! I need to pick out a shaving mug and next will be a shaving brush. Any ideas?

New soaps for my Etsy shop, ABreathOfFrenchAir

I have been busy in the soap kitchen lately and thought I would share with you.
Gentleman's Club is a wonderful blend of Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Amber, and a touch of Cinnamon. It really smells like heaven! I think it's a great unisex scent, so don't let the antique ties fool ya!

This soap is made with Indian Sandalwood fragrance. It's a nice spicy scent. I'm still working on a new name. Any ideas?

 Ah, another beer soap! This one is scented with Cedarwood and Ylang Ylang. I love this soap and it's in my shower right now.

Treasury on the front page of Etsy!

I made a treasury, on Etsy, yesterday and it made the front page that evening! I think this is the third time my treasury has hit the FP. I've been working on this happening more often, so check back to see if it happens again!http://www.etsy.com/shop/aBreathofFrenchair?ref=si_shop

Body Wash From Scratch!

I have 4 batches of soap under my belt! It's quite a challenge and takes a long time, but I enjoy making it! So far I have made Lavender, White Citrus, Raspberry Vanilla, and Orange Clove. If you click on the pic above, you can view how it's made. I tried posting video's here, but I can't get them to work.
There are 8 short video's, which I took with my digital camera. Maybe Santa will bring me an actual video camera this year!

I decided to go back to my old labels and my yellow and blue colors. I think it helps brand my products and are easily noticeable.