Happy New Year !

Fireworks @ Punggol

Wow ... 2014 sped past me and I have landed in 2015 with a whoosh! Kiddos and I were invited to join a group of lovely friends on New Year's Eve -- our very first countdown party!! It was amazing to watch the fireworks blast off from several metres in front of us.

We were giddy with delight when we got to meet Kym Ng, a popular local celebrity. My kiddos were pretty star-struck when Kym, who is well-known for her bubbly nature and her ability to connect with her audience, gushed how cute MeiMei was! And Gege was all shy when she exclaimed "Wah! You very handsome hor!" Ha!

Kym Ng, MeiMei, Myself & Gege

We had an awesome time. Thank you P for the invitation!

I am all pumped up and have many plans for 2015. This is gonna be an awesome year. A big thank you to each and every one of you who have supported me throughout the years, good friends who have stayed by my side during my darkest moments. I am very blessed indeed.

May this new year bring you Joy, Love and Happiness!

XOXO ... holyrose

2014 Soap Challenge ! -- Spoon/Chopstick Swirl

It has been more than a year since I participated in an official soap challenge. When Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks announced the Spoon/Chopstick Swirl for her December Challenge Club, I knew that this technique would be perfect for my holiday themed soap! 

I started off by making some soap toppers. Using a leaf piping tip, I piped soapy holly leaves. Initially I was a little disappointed when the olive green colour morphed to a pale green; but they looked quite pretty with the small soap balls that I had rolled and tossed in red mica. 

Handpiped Soapy Holly Leaves

I decided to do the spoon swirl with a drop swirl in 3 different colours -- Red, Green and White. My choice of fragrance for this soap was Cranberry Fig from Bramble Berry. I apologise for not having "in-the-process" photographs to share with you as I was so focused on working fast and have forgotten to pick up the camera (AGAIN). I really should consider making a video the next time.

The soap frosting was piped on using a separate batch of soap. I used a disposable piping bag and  simply snipped off the end instead of using a piping tip. Sprinkled some fairy dust and popped on the soapy Christmas decorations!

and YES! There is a little surprise in the soap!

I love how my "Wishing Star" soap turned out. Thank you Amy for this wonderful tutorial! 

Soapy Alphabet Challenge!

 Sometime last month, I was asked to create a very special gift for a wonderful lady. 

This lady had visited the 2012 Singapore Garden Festival and she left her contact number with a fellow vendor after seeing my soapy creations. I gave her a courtesy call several days later and the rest was history. 

As an artist, it is an awesome feeling when someone truely appreciates your craft and passion. As Lady Captain of Seletar Country Club, she gave me numerous opportunities to share my passion with her peers. For this, I am always grateful.

So, when I received the call from C, I felt honoured that these lovely ladies had thought of me when sourcing a gift for their dear Lady Captain. C told me that they wanted to present their Lady Captain with my soaps, sculpted in the alphabets of her name. I could not say no to this soapy challenge!

This was my sketch of the soaps that I had sent for approval ...

TADAH!! These made me really happy ... they turned out exactly the way I had visualised!

Handcrafted Soap Alphabets

2013 Soap Challenge ! -- Holly Swirl

Singapore celebrated her 48th birthday on 9 Aug 2013. I was getting tired of the typical 'National Day' soap in red and white, with stars and crescent moon or a Merlion; and I wanted to create a soapy version that embodied the true 'spirit' of Singapore.

So, when Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks shared the Holly Swirl, I knew that it would be the perfect technique for the soap I had in mind. The Holly Swirl is essentially a swirl in a swirl technique created by Holly Bailey of Missouri River Soap Co. You can see her lovely Green Apple and Rose Soap here. 

Bramble Berry is sponsoring this month's prize. The winner will receive a signed copy of Anne-Marie Faiola's new book Soapcrafting as well as everything needed to create one of her recipes in the book. Second and Third place winners will receive free registration of next month's Soap Challenge Club. So exciting!!!

My entry for this month's Soap Challenge is the "Singapore Sling".

The Singapore Sling is a long drink created by a Mr Ngiam Boon Tong who was working as a bartender at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore sometime before 1915. Today, there are many versions of the original recipe. MeiMei and I were happy gals when we found a bottled version in our local supermarket.

Our inspiration ... 

Singapore Sling

Preparation:

The cocktail mixture was heated gently to allow all the alcohol content to evaporate. The leftover mixture was poured into an ice-cube tray and allowed to solidify in the freezer. I used part cocktail mixture (sans alcohol) and part distilled water combination in my recipe.

I prepared a slow moving blend of Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil and Palm Oil and lined my favourite 2 lb mold from Bramble Berry. Choice of colourants: Copper + Gold Mica, Merlot Mica, Red Oxide and Yellow Oxide. Fragrance blend: Pineapple Cilantro and Kumkuat FO. (colourants and FO from Bramble Berry)

M&P embeds that MeiMei and I prepared in advance.

Pineapple slices and Maraschino cherry M&P embeds 

I did not manage to take any WIP photos (A-G-A-I-N). I was head-scratching most of the time as I watched the cocktail mixture turn my lye solution from a bright red to yellow to orange-red and the soap batter morphed from dark orange to bright yellow. After I added my colourants to a portion of it, it turned a sad brown.

Then I carefully pushed the embeds into the soap ... only to watch them sink ... *wail**

Fresh soap

It was v-e-r-y different from what I had planned and I was getting really frustrated. Then MeiMei came hopping along and squealed, "oooohhhhhhhh!! It's ssssooooooo NICE Mummy!"

My heart melted :)  I felt renewed. Sprinkled some glitter and everything got better - magically.

Freshly cut. I love the swirls but the colours turned out very dark due to the reaction of the cocktail mixture. 

"Singapore Sling" soap

"Singapore Sling" soap

I love the Holly Swirl and will surely use this technique in my soaps! Thanks Amy for this soapy challenge! 

2013 Soap Challenge ! -- Mantra Swirl

This month's soapy challenge is the MANTRA SWIRL technique.

Amy Warden (Great Cakes Soapworks), the creator of The Soap Challenge Club, taught us 2 different mantra swirl techniques. I opted for the advanced / modified mantra swirl technique to enter for the challenge. I love this technique as it showcases the swirl on different sides of the soap when cut.

I used Amanda Griffin's slow-moving recipe, replacing rice bran oil with olive oil and shea butter with mango butter; and Cranberry Fig Fragrance Oil from Bramble Berry. MeiMei suggested that I use Yellow, Pink and Green for the 3-colour technique of the advanced / modified mantra swirl.

So, after watching the various videos provided by Amy (numerous times!); I finally felt "confident" enough to embark on my new swirly adventure.

Preparation: (clockwise) mold with dividers, hanger with chopstick taped to it, 1 tsp colour pigments in 1 Tbsp olive oil, Cranberry Fig FO, Mango Butter and blend of Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil and Castor Oil.

I wish I had remained calm enough to snap some photos of the soaping process. I was home-alone and was battling a fast tracing batter with impossible dividers! HA!

Earlier, I was feeling pretty proud of myself for diligently taping down the dividers to the mold - very securely ... then I realised when it was time to remove them that they would not budge and ended up cursing and scratching madly at the "invisible" tape to pull them off !

When they (the dividers) were finally removed, I had to bang the mold several times to smooth out the surface and immediately ploughed my hanger contraption through it. Next was the mantra swirl on the top - was I supposed to do a "S" or an "8" ??

This was the aftermath of my soapy war ...

Pretty happy with the result, I sprayed the top with rubbing alcohol and placed a piece of cardboard over the top of the mold. 2 hours later ... quite horrified to see tiny bubbles on the surface of the soap! urgh!

The soap was unmoulded after 2 days and cut. I fell in love with it instantly! WOOHOO!!

DAZZLE !

Kiddos and I decided to call this - DAZZLE! ... cool lah!

Peacocky !

I finally unmoulded the slab of Peacock Swirl soap after letting it sit for a week. It was still a little soft when I cut it into bars but manageable.

 

These bars have been curing for almost a month now... they smell GORGEOUS and quite PEACOCKY I must say!

 

Super pleased with these beauties!

 

2013 Soap Challenge! -- Peacock Swirl

Hello! It has been a while since my last blog post in February. I am back!

I decided to join a Soap Challenge Club organised by Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks. This month's soap challenge is the PEACOCK SWIRL technique. I have daydreamed about this peacock swirl soap since I first saw it made by Amanda Griffin of Lovin' Soap back in October 2011! See her post here.

I normally work with Melt & Pour and have only experimented with several batches of CP; so I was pretty excited and even robed in MeiMei to assist me. We googled for inspiration and decided on 5 colours - Black (charcoal), Blue (ultramarine blue), Teal (hydrated green chrome), Copper (copper + gold sparkle mica) and White (titanium dioxide). All the colourants used in this soap are from Bramble Berry.

Both Amy and Amanda had generously shared their 'slow-moving' recipes. I finally decided on 70% Olive Oil, 20% Coconut Oil, 5% Avocado Oil and 5% Rice Bran Oil. I also used Bramble Berry 's Kumquat and Energy in equal proportions. GOSH! I am so in love with this combination! YUMMY!!

Here's our lil peacock adventure (my 1st Soap Challenge ever!) :

Preparation - Bramble Berry's 18-bar slab mold, comb/rake, colourants (I ended up using plastic cups as I was unable to find my squeeze bottles! Things always go "missing" when I need them! BOO!)

Mold, Comb and Colourants

I think I got an emulsion??

Attempting an emulsion

Bottom layer scented with Kumquat & Energy Fragrance Oils, coloured soap is left unscented.

Base layer with titanium dioxide, waiting to pour the colours

I wish I had my squeeze bottles! ... and MeiMei asked, "Why are your hands shaking, Mummy??" erm ... "coz I am S-U-P-E-R NERVOUS?!?!!"

Shaky hands = Wriggly lines

MeiMei & I inserted the comb and started to pull it through the soap (together) ... very slowly and carefully... then IT HAPPENED. The colours started to turn muddy and the soap refused to pass through the comb and was pulled to the lower end of the mold. The skewers must have been positioned too close to one another! Not wanting to give up, we wriggle the comb ... we kindof  did a jiggly dance at 3/4 of the way ... by the time we pulled the comb out, we went "yyyeeeeeeee". It looked pretty messed up!

Our muddy struggle with THE comb

Grabbed my chopstick and started swirling. I enjoyed this part and was relieved that it had some resemblance to all the pretty peacock swirls that I have seen. The blue and green colours had disappeared. We were disappointed that our lil peacock adventure did not quite produce the effect that we had hope to achieve. Nonetheless, it was exciting. It made my hands shake!! I popped on the lid of the mold and brought the kids out for dinner.

After swirling

15 hours later, I jumped out of bed the moment I opened my eyes, grabbed my GooGooMonster glasses and ran downstairs to take a peep at my soap. A-W-E-S-O-M-E !! It had a wee-little bit more blue and green and NO ASH!!

15 hours later ... My 1st Peacock Swirl Soap !

I will have to wait till tomorrow before I can unmold the soap and cut into bars. There will be a separate blog post to share with everyone the peacock swirl soap bars.

I must admit that I have gotten over the initial disappointment and am pretty pleased with the end result. I am truely in love with this soaping technique and it has been such wonderful experience taking part in this soap challenge which has brought together 122 international soapers. Thank you Amy for setting up the Soap Challenge Club! Looking forward to more soapy challenges!