I love this new fall scent! Pinot Grigio is a perfect blend of floral and fruit. Plus, it isn’t overpowering like most wine scents I’ve smelled. I paired it with our new(ish) Bubble Tray Mold to create these fun party soap bars using the melt-and-pour Shaving base for extra rich lather. The front is detailed by using a dropper and the back is swirled. Add liquid white to make the soap appear more opaque.
Hi everyone, it’s Kat! Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching a one-hour private class on in-the-pot swirling and made this fun 3 pound loaf. The colors are yellow mica, cellini red mica, activated charcoal and ultramarine violet. We wanted to stick with all-natural scents and came up with an exotic essential oil blend of Ylang Ylang, Grapefruit and Orange Valencia. The results are fantastic! I could see these colors working beautifully with a Patchouli (or patchouli blend) soap. Love it!
I think most female Pacific Northwest residents will agree with me when I say we love coffee, but we love coffee and chocolate even more. I happen to love it in soap, and so should you! (This is Kat posting by the way, in case you might have had a moment of confusion over Soap King).
We carry a fragrance called Chocolate Espresso, which I admit makes me want to eat a bar of soap scented with it, or drink it straight out of the bottle (don’t do that). Thank goodness I haven’t gone that far. I made some lovely soap with it today, and I think bathing with it is even better yet.
I started with some white melt-and-pour base and added fragrance and ground coffee beans. This is the soap for my embeds, which you can do any design you want. I made stars.
For the background, I used a clear base colored with cappuccino mica.
Pour a layer of brown and let it set up a bit to hold the embed. Spray both the embed and the layer with rubbing alcohol so everything sticks together nicely. Then fill in the rest with more brown.
Pop them out and try not to take a bite. Enjoy!
Beat the summer heat with a refreshing watermelon slice… of soap! We can’t get enough of this popular fragrance oil in these cute melt-and-pour loaf bars. Anne-Marie did a fun tutorial on watermelon soap here using the half round mold. 
If you need ideas for summer craft fairs or farmer markets, make a whole watermelon product line! Lip balm is so easy with our pre-made base. Just melt and add 12 ml watermelon flavor oil per pound of base and color with Cellini Red lip safe mica, then pour into tubes or pots. Add the fragrance oil to bath salts tinted with red mica, or make aromatic soy candles using the watermelon candle scent.
What’s your favorite summertime fragrance?
Our newest addition, Lavender Chamomile Huggies (Type), is powdery fresh and lightly floral. Back by popular demand, this fragrance is absolutely delicious in baby products. It’s soft, sweet and just amazingly kissable. It starts out with top notes of Lavender, Chamomile and a bit of Orange and Eucalyptus. The blend is rounded out with Cedarwood, Musk and Hay, making it absolutely precious smelling. I paired it up with the adorable Hummingbird and Lily Heavy Duty Mold and the Low Sweat White Base.
We do! New arrivals at Otion include the banana-rific fragrance oil, Monkey Love, and a bunch of specialized extracts including aloe, avocado, evening primrose, mallow and green tea. Extracts are amazing in lotions, soaps and liquid soaps! Curious as to what the benefits of extracts are? Here are some examples:
Aloe Extract: Aloe is renowned for it’s ability to heal, moisturize, and sooth irritated, inflamed, or sunburned skin. Our Aloe Extract is water soluble and is fantastic in soaps, lotions and shampoos. Suggested usage rate is 2 – 15%, a natural yellow color.
Evening Primrose Extract: Long known as a natural anti-inflammatory, Evening Primrose extract has traditionally been used in mature skin preparations, but also wonderful to soothe skin dryness, itchiness, and redness. A natural yellow, this extract is water soluble and can be used in handmade haircare and skincare products, including lotions and soaps. Suggested usage rate is 2 – 6%.
Carrot Extract: Carrot Extract is high in vitamins A and E and beta carotene. It is an anti-inflammatory, soothing chapped and uncomfortable skin. It is thought to bring balance to the moisture in both skin and hair as a conditioning agent. This water based extract will be beneficial in handmade hair conditioner and skincare recipes, especially for dry winter skin, aging or matured skin. Use at 5 – 10% for conditioners and 1 – 5% for skin care. Extract is yellow in color.
Mallow Extract: Mallow was cherished by the Ancient Romans for it’s soothing and protecting properties to dry and sensitive skin. It is commonly used in skincare preparations to reduce inflammation. In hair care, Mallow Extract is said to hydrate and support moisture balance within the shaft of the hair. Use up to 5% of this oil based extract in your handmade skin and hair care recipes.
This sweet smelling essential oil smells just like black licorice. It is often used as a flavoring agent cold and cough medicines, and used as a rub to relieve muscular aches and pains (when diluted with a carrier oil such as sweet almond or avocado oil). It can be used as a chest rub or in a vaporizer to relieve symptoms of colds and coughs.
Swirled cold process soap scented with Star Anise on display at Otion
Furthermore, this Chinese herb is said to aid digestion and has stimulating properties. It may help improve health in women and ease menstrual cramps. It is a great base scent for blending. Try combining Star Anise with orange, lavender, cinnamon or clove essential oils. Warnings: This essential oil is not intended for internal use without the guidance of a doctor. If ingested in large amounts, anise essential oil will slow down the circulatory system as it is a mild narcotic. Also, Anise essential oil contains ‘anethole’ which may exacerbate those with skin conditions. Do not use during pregnancy.
Out of all the hundreds of molds and fragrance options, you really can’t go wrong with our best selling Oatmeal Milk and Honey fragrance oil paired with it’s matching mold. I have yet to come across a customer who didn’t fall in love with this scent. It is the perfect balance of sweet honey, creamy and soothing milk, and warm and toasty oatmeal. A truly comforting and mouth-watering aroma that makes me sigh a big “ahh” after smelling it. Plus, the mold is detailed enough to allow the most creative touches, or add your own ground oatmeal for a luxurious scrub. Try the goats milk or honey melt-and-pour soap base, or swirl them together. You won’t be disapointed 
We’re bringing in the New Year with new fragrances, and Mangosteen is already on my favorites list. It is absolutely bursting with fruity goodness and is a combination of mangosteen, guava, and green melon swirl finished with a succulent undertone of juicy yuzu nectar and coconut palm. In the bottle, it smells a bit like tutti fruitti or a fun bubblegum, but the fragrance does lose some of its tarty fruit notes in cold process soap. It discolors yellow in MP and light tan in CP soap and is great in lotions and sugar scrubs. Also, it tends to go cloudy in liquid soap. I think of it as a little vacation for my nose!
Here’s a list of our most popular scents of 2010. No surprise at the #1 spot!
1. Oatmeal Milk and Honey (goes tan in soap)
2. Energy (not safe for gel candles)
3. Vanilla Select (discolors brown)
4. Lavender Fragrance Oil
5. Sensuous Sandalwood
6. Island Coconut (discolors brown)
7. Relaxing (discolors brown)
8. White Tea and Ginger (mutates in cold process soap)
9. Plumeria (accelerates trace in cold process)
10. Yuzu Cybilla
We are excited to add Sweet Meyer Lemon to our selection of fragrance oils! This juicy new scent is more complex than your basic lemon and perfect if you are looking for something fresh and uplifting with fun floral notes. Over at Bramble Berry, this fragrance is affectionately referred to as ‘Sweet Tarts’ because it’s such a sweet, happy fragrance. Think of a lush, Caribbean garden bursting with the aroma of sweet lemons, horned melons, succulent kiwis, and ripe pineapple wedges. Sweet tropical florals complete this island wonder and some have compared it to the ‘Caribbean Salsa’ fragrance by Slatkin candles. We love how it performs in CP and MP soap.
The display soaps are made using a layered marbling technique with melt-and-pour soap similar to the Naid Soap Arts Snowflake Project at SoapQueen. 