Christmas Alternatives

[artemis]

I want to get a jump on Christmas gift soaps, but I'm just not feeling the red and green combo right now. I have a frosty blue and white already, but wondered: what colors are you doing for Christmas this year?

 

[SudsanSoaps]

Red and silver looks Christmasy to me.

 

[KattChaos]

Red & Gold or Green & Gold or even Blue & Gold. Basically, any color BUT Orange & Yellow with Gold.

 

[Obsidian]

I don't really do Christmas soaps anymore but I once did a gingersnap cookie scent with brown, cream and a touch of red. Looked really nice and smelled fantastic.

 

[Rusti]

Red and silver, silver and gold, red and gold, green and gold. I made a red and gold one.

 

[Stacyspy]

I did a 2 tone green (peppermint), white with sugar on top (white christmas), white and pinkish brown (guava fig), blue and white (winter woods), and and orange and cranberry.

 

[Kittish]

Purple is gaining popularity as a Christmas color, and works well with green or gold or both.

 

[dibbles]

White with gold or silver, try an apple green or kiwi green with deep purple.

 

[IrishLass]

Purple and gold.

IrishLass

 

[artemis]

The silver and gold sounds promising-- reminds me of the Burl Ives song. IL, your purple and gold soap looks very regal! I'll have to think of red paired with silver-- I haven't seen that combo much. Maybe I'll have to do like Clyde Yoshida and get out my paints to visualize some of these ideas.

 

[artemis]

I did a 2 tone green (peppermint)...

Stole your idea! This is what I tried last night. I was aiming for a lighter shade for the base, but I'm having trouble knowing just how much green oxide to use. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it. Thanks!

 

[cmzaha]

I always pre-mix my oxides in glycerin so I can use just what I need to color. Of course oil can be used to pre-mix but it can go rancid if you have leftover color for long. Most oxides can stain and migrate if used to heavy. To me, green screams Spearmint, blue peppermint, blue & green Spearmint Peppermint

 

[mommycarlson]

I have so many gold mica's but every time I use them they turn a weird orange in the soap, any advice for getting that lovely gold like Irish Lass?

 

[jcandleattic]

I have so many gold mica's but every time I use them they turn a weird orange in the soap, any advice for getting that lovely gold like Irish Lass?

My only advice would be to paint it on or use a cosmetic biodegradable glitter.

 

[dibbles]

I have so many gold mica's but every time I use them they turn a weird orange in the soap, any advice for getting that lovely gold like Irish Lass?

Clyde just put this video out: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6VADrbIEFM&t=167s[/ame] It might help.

My favorite golds are Sister Golden Hair from Mad Micas, and Maya Gold from Nurture or Goldfinger from Mad Micas, which are very close, if not the same. Gold is tricky. Maybe just use the gold as an accent and do a mica in oil drizzle on the top.

 

[mommycarlson]

Thank you jcandle and Dibbles, the videos are always so good, just love Clyde! It looked to me like Irish Lass had some gold in her soap, maybe she can chime in on how she achieves that. I'll try to drizzle some on top of some of my Christmas soaps, next on my agenda

Also, IL, love that JOY stamp, where did you find it?

 

[KatyP]

I think you can use just about any color, as long as you can make it fit with a holiday theme based on its scent (or name, if you're a Namer like me). I've made plenty of holiday soaps that are shades of brown, or that include orange, and even though they aren't a holiday color they still sell very well. In my experience, once someone walks up to my table they have already decided to buy something. After that it's all about the fragrance. As long as the colors make sense with what they are smelling, they will buy whatever fragrance they like best.

Photos are: Cranberry Fig; cupcakes in Cranberry Chutney, Champagne (for New Year's!), Cranberry Fig, and Pumpkin Spice Latte; Gingersnap (honey & beeswax soap)

 

[Kittish]

I love that you have your cupcakes actually in liners. Cupcake soap is cute, but there's a bit of mental disconnect for me seeing them naked. Cupcakes are supposed to be in cupcake liners.

 

[IrishLass]

I have so many gold mica's but every time I use them they turn a weird orange in the soap, any advice for getting that lovely gold like Irish Lass?

My go-to gold mica is the Gold Dust mica from Oregon Trails. It has never turned orange on me.

In order to get the gold swirl that you see in my pictured purple/gold soap (which was a 1.2 lb. batch, btw), I mixed a scant 1/4 teaspoon of the Gold Dust mica with 1 teaspoon of glycerin to smooth it out, then I mixed it with 1/4 cup of my (as-of-yet uncolored) emulsified main batter and set aside. Later on after pouring the main portion of my batter into my mold @ medium trace, I drizzled in the gold batter (as well as the purple batter) in a snake-like fashion from on high into the soap batter, and then finished things off with a hanger swirl.

I also stamped the soap later on with the same Gold Dust mica.


Edited to add: I found the Joy stamp a few years ago at Michaels. It came in a package of various Christmas stamps that they were selling at the time (for scrapbooking).

IrishLass

 

[SoapSap]

Burgundy and pine green