2014 Brambleberry WINTER Soap Panel - Part 1

Hello, 

It's Heather, from Fatty's Soap Co.

A couple of months ago Brambleberry posted a question on their Facebook site asking what your favorite Brambleberry product is. If you were interested in taking part in the 2014 Winter SOAP panel as a tester you just needed to post your favorite product and post to your favorite social media site. They would review the submissions and choose eight panelists to take part in the testing of these secret fragrances. I'm thrilled to among eight other talented soap and bath and body products artists! Check out the Brambleberry blog to meet the others, learn about new products and enjoys all things soap. 

I chose to talk about my favorite Brambleberry product, their silicone molds. I have a multitude of them! But, my all time favorite one is the five pound silicone liner that fits their five pound wooden birch mold. I'm a huge fan of wood molds, and I also love my silicone ones! Hey, what can I say? A soap maker needs all kinds of tools, just ask any one of us.

5 Pound Silicone and Wood Mold with
Dead Sea Mud Tea Tree Oil Soap.

 
Being a tester means that we panelist get to try eight fragrances in the medium of our choice. I am choosing cold process soap, because that's what I like to do most. I'll be soaping at room temperature with a very basic three equal part recipe of sunflower, tallow (that I render myself) and coconut oil. I chose this recipe... one, because it's a tried and true recipe that anyone can make and the ingredients are easy to come by, especially for beginners. And two, because tallow moves slow for me, and I wanted to make sure that I'd have time to test out the fragrances without any "surprises". 

Since there are no absolutes, I get to have creative freedom in making these soaps. Normally as a soap maker you tend to stick with a color/fragrance scheme. Which is smart. You want your senses to embrace the color, fragrance, name, ingredients, etc. It's hard to wrap your brain around a soap that is supposed to smell like fresh oranges that is colored purple and named dusk. Are you feeling me?

With that said, I'm going with my heart, first instinct and vision I get upon first opening the bottles. Stay tuned for my reaction and my artistic rendition of these mysterious eight fragrances. And thank you Brambleberry for choosing me to be included on the panel. I'm overjoyed and thankful!

Heather Rai

My first mystery fragrance: #1 Berry Happy