Autumn is upon us and soon, summer nights will give way to cool, crisp evenings. If you’re anything like us, you pull out the cozy blanket and most likely light a few candles; there’s nothing like a warm, comforting light to take the chill out of the air! Candle making is a great way to expand your soap and/or cosmetic line … Read More
Common Scents: All About Lavender
Welcome to our new series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. In this edition of Common Scents, we will explore the rich and royalty filled history of (almost) everyone’s favorite essential oil: lavender! Lavender first entered … Read More
How to Speak Soap: A Beginner’s Guide to Common Handcrafter Terms
If you are just starting your soap or cosmetic making journey, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we will provide the terms and definitions for common terms that you’ll come across while formulating and crafting your product. From legal terms to industry “slang”, this article will cover a wide variety of words you might encounter. Let’s get started! … Read More
Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Packaging (Part 1) – Finding the Best Fit for Your Bar
You’ve made your product; that swirl is just right, the scent; amazing! Now comes the big decision…how are you going to package it? When it comes to packaging soap and cosmetics, there are many different options on the market. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, and everyone has opinions on which type is best; we won’t try to decide … Read More
Making CP Soap: A Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners
If you’ve been bitten by the handcrafted soap love bug & are itching to learn how to make it yourself but have no idea where to start, then you are definitely in the right place! Click here to enter the HSCG’s How-To Library and access the basic step-by-step Cold Process soap tutorial! (But be careful – soapmaking can be extremely therapeutic … Read More
HSCG at CSW 2014
Recently, the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild was lucky enough to send Guild President Feleciai Favroth and Executive Director Leigh O’Donnell out to the 2014 Central Soapers Workshop, held this year in Overland Park, Kansas. The brainchild of Kenna Cote (speaking this year at #soapconf14!!), this fast-growing gathering was designed especially for soapmakers in the central United States who may … Read More
Classes in Your Neck of the Woods
You checked out that book (or bought it on Amazon) and are feeling just a wee bit intimidated. Your cold process batch turned into a volcano post-molding, unintentionally leading to really, really clean countertops and floors. That melt and pour bar turned your skin blue in the shower or made you look like you were reenacting a scene from Psycho. … Read More
Lye Calculators for All!
If you’re a new soapmaker, welcome to your new addiction! There are many kinds of soapmaking that don’t involve you needing to handle lye, like rebatching or hand milling a pre-made soap base or the extremely versatile melt and pour style of soapmaking (commonly sold in stores as “glycerin soap”). For those of you who want to make a cold … Read More
A Million Little Pieces (of Soap)
Have you ever found yourself cursing over unevenly cut soap samples? Ingenious soapmaker member Leanne Laboy has just the trick. Looking for a way to manage the different soap weights she needed to cut, inspiration struck her from the shelves of a kitchen store. Leanne found that a wire cutter used to shave off slices of butter “can cut straight … Read More
Soap + Mold: Happily Ever After
She’d been salivating over it for months (years, maybe?) and finally, it was here. No more odd-sized bars cut from shoe box molds. No more fighting with freezer paper or struggling to precisely line makeshift molds. She dove into the newly delivered box and unwrapped a brand-new silicone lined mold. Admiring its fine, shiny, perfectly square edges, panic set in… … Read More