Nurture Handmade Blog
Soap projects, design techniques, recipes and the stories behind them. Pick a topic to start.
Soap Projects
22 posts-
Soap ProjectsMaking Pacific Northwest Hybrid Soap
A Pacific Northwest inspired hybrid soap built around Winter Wonderland fragrance oil and the memory its scent brings back.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Jasmine-Infused CP Soap
Making jasmine infused cold process soap with Foxy Lady fragrance oil, from infusing the oil through to the finished bar.
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Soap Projects8th And Ocean Cold Process Soap
Making 8th and Ocean cold process soap in Florida humidity, with the batch split into beach and ocean portions and finished with soap frosting.
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Soap ProjectsBourbon Street Beer Soap
A New Orleans inspired beer soap for the cooler months, and why beer soaps stay popular with makers all year round.
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Soap ProjectsMay Your Soaps be Merry & Bright
Holiday crafting inspiration for the season, from festive soap batches to the nostalgic decorating projects that go with them.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Pumice Soap
A pumice scrub bar built around a tropical fragrance, from a maker who does not usually reach for tropical scents.
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Soap ProjectsReformulate to Be Great
Master Soap Maker at a Squirrel and A Scholar Soap Co.
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Soap ProjectsMake Sweet Satsuma & Lemon Peel Cold Process Soap
A bright citrus cold process soap scented with sweet satsuma and lemon peel, made for the shift into summer.
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Soap ProjectsA Lesson in Mica Marbling
A mica marbling technique used to build a mojito style soap, with marbled molasses and a passion fruit fragrance oil.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Cold Process Clay Soap
A cold process soap colored with clays in earthy tones, with extra batter reserved for piped decoration.
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Soap ProjectsEpic Orange Cold Process Soap
An orange cold process soap with embeds and piped frosting, wrapped in a storytelling introduction.
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Soap ProjectsHeavenly Avocado Soap
An avocado cold process soap made away from home in an unfamiliar kitchen, and how to adapt when the setup is not your own.
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Soap ProjectsSunrise Cold Process Soap
A sunrise inspired cold process soap made during an early morning soaping session, with the colors chosen to match first light.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Aurora Borealis Handmade Soap
Bringing the colors of the aurora borealis into a cold process soap design, from a maker who has only seen them in photographs.
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Soap ProjectsFollow the Silk Rainbow
Planning a fall and winter soap collection around a limited seasonal fragrance oil, and the rainbow design it turned into.
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Soap ProjectsA Landscape Soap of Glacial Proportions!
A glacial landscape soap inspired by contest entries, with the aroma that sparked the design and the layering that builds the scene.
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Soap ProjectsLand of Milk & Honey Cold Process Soap
A milk and honey cold process soap that started with a backyard find, and a look at where creative inspiration comes from.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Apricot Sunrise Ombré Soap
An apricot ombre soap made while pushing past the feeling of not being skilled enough, with the gradient built shade by shade.
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Soap ProjectsTea Time Handmade Soap
A tea themed handmade soap, made when the first cold evenings arrive and a hot drink starts sounding good again.
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Soap ProjectsMaking Cavalier in Camo Handmade Soap
A camo patterned soap scented with Cavalier fragrance oil, made to make amends for a forgotten customer request.
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Soap ProjectsThree Milks, One Recipe! Making Tres Leches Soap
A tres leches inspired cold process soap using three different milks, and what each one brings to the finished bar.
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Soap ProjectsAn Interview with Bee of Sorcery Soaps
An interview with soap maker Bee of Sorcery Soaps about how she got started and what keeps her making soap.
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Design Techniques
10 posts-
Design TechniquesGive It A Whirl (Do the Whirl Swirl!)
A follow up to the cardboard divider swirl, this time with real mold dividers, for a two toned whirl swirl design.
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Design TechniquesFinding My Favorite Soap Frosting Recipe
Comparing soap frosting recipes to find one that pipes cleanly and holds its shape on a high top bar.
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Design TechniquesLet’s CPOP and Use Melt & Pour Embeds
How to CPOP a batch in the oven to force gel phase, and how to add melt and pour embeds along the way.
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Design TechniquesThe Total Guide to Soap Frosting
Soap frosting does not need 80 to 100 percent hard oils. A simpler, more balanced approach to piping tops, and how to get there.
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Design TechniquesUsing Acceleration to Your Design Advantage
Fragrance oils that accelerate trace are usually avoided. Here is how to use that speed on purpose, as part of the design.
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Design TechniquesUnited We Stand, Divided We Swirl
A two toned swirl made with a mold divider cut from cardboard, and a reflection on the soap making community behind it.
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Design TechniquesGiving the Zigzag Swirl A Try
Trying the zigzag swirl in a berry scented batch, finished with soap frosting and sparkling crown embeds.
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Design TechniquesSplit Decisions; One Batch, Two Designs
One batch, two design techniques, and how to choose between them when a fragrance performs well enough to carry either.
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Design TechniquesInterrupted Layers for Spooky Soap Making
An interrupted layer design made for Halloween, a beginner friendly technique that works at almost any trace, thick or thin.
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Design TechniquesMini Drop Swirls Simplified
A mini drop swirl beer soap that looks like rising bubbles, plus a plastic bag trick that makes squeeze bottle cleanup painless.
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Recipes & Ingredients
10 posts-
Recipes & IngredientsHow To Make The Best Soap Ever!
Two cold process recipes built on a few core oils, one with palm and one without, with full percentages and weights for a two...
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Recipes & IngredientsNo-Stink Beer Soap
A honey barrel beer soap made without the brewery smell lingering in the finished bar, and how the beer is prepared first.
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Recipes & IngredientsFormulating Recipes; A Look at Fatty Acids
A reader question about fatty acids turned into this look at how each one shapes hardness, lather and conditioning in a recipe.
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Recipes & IngredientsMaking an Infusion with Copal Resin
How to make a copal resin infusion at home, and what it adds to the scent and appearance of cold process soap.
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Recipes & IngredientsIncorporating Resins in Cold Process Soap
Finding opoponax in a fragrance oil led to infusing the resin itself into cold process soap. How the infusion is made and how it...
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Recipes & IngredientsMy Favorite Face Soap Recipe
A face soap recipe built for combination skin, a dry T zone with an oilier jawline, tested and adjusted over time.
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Recipes & IngredientsHandmade Shampoo Bars
An avocado shampoo bar recipe built to stand up to everyday washing, and the oversight that led to it.
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Recipes & IngredientsBenzoin Resin... The Other Scent Fixative
Benzoin resin as a scent fixative in soap, following earlier posts on opoponax and copal, with how to infuse it.
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Recipes & IngredientsCure & Cold Process Soap
A 30 day test tracking how hardness, lather and mildness change across the cure of one batch, and what saponification actually does.
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Recipes & IngredientsOf Additives & Unruly Patchouli
Testing tea as a soap additive in an Unruly Patchouli scented batch, finished with a fluffy piped top.
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Color & Mica
10 posts-
Color & MicaSize Matters! Micron Size and Mica
Natural mica above 150 microns cannot legally go into cosmetics, though it is fine in soap. The FDA rule behind that limit, and why...
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Color & MicaWhat is Mica? Is it Natural or Synthetic?
Mica is mined, not lab made, though a synthetic version exists too. How to tell muscovite from fluorphlogopite, and why neither can be called...
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Color & MicaAll the Pretty Purples
A spring roundup of purple toned fragrance oils, and a first batch built around Lilac Blossoms.
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Color & MicaMy Blending Obsession
Guest writer Amber Beltran on her mica color blending obsession, and how she puts a color combination together.
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Color & MicaColors for Bath Bombs
Most green and blue micas are not approved for bath bombs, and neither are most glitters. What the regulations say, and how to check...
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Color & MicaBright Ideas & Beautiful Blends
Behind the scenes on a month long soap experiment, plus quick project ideas for makers who are short on time.
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Color & MicaColors, Colors Everywhere!
Where color inspiration comes from in ordinary daily life, and how those small moments turn into the next soap design.
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Color & MicaThe One-Color Challenge: Part 2
Building a full soap palette from one focus mica, revisited with Blackberry Bliss fragrance oil.
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Color & MicaOutstanding Oranges & Captivating Corals
Building warm orange and coral tones with Mango Tango mica, after years of passing the shade by.
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Color & MicaHow to Label Colors, How Mica is Made, and More!
Conference slides on how mica is made and how to label color additives, with three printable handouts covering certified and exempt colors.
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Fragrance
3 posts-
FragranceFragrance Oils: Your Guide to Scents That Captivate
The science behind fragrance oils, from how aroma molecules reach the olfactory receptors to how natural and synthetic materials are blended.
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FragranceAnchoring Fragrances in Cold Process Soap
Using kaolin clay to anchor fragrance in cold process soap, tested with Botanical Bliss, with notes on anchoring essential oils too.
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Fragrance101 Fragrance Blends
101 fragrance oil blend combinations to try, plus the full tutorial for the Crisp Apple Rose and Mint Water soap that inspired them.
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Safety & Regulations
3 posts-
Safety & RegulationsA Lesson in Sugar & Lye Safety!
A guest blogger's firsthand account of a lye eye injury, shared as a reminder to wear eye protection at every stage. Contains photographs of...
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Safety & RegulationsReading the FDA Color Tables
How to read the FDA color tables column by column, so you can check for yourself whether a color additive is approved for the...
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Safety & RegulationsWhat is Soap and How is it Regulated?
Shower gel, dish soap and detergent are not legally soap. The FDA definition of true soap, and what that classification changes about how a...
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News
2 posts-
NewsRooted in Nature: A Message from Carrie on Our Path Forward
Turning 50 and foraging for morels led Carrie to a profound realization: Nurture Handmade must do more for the Earth. Read about our new...
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NewsNurture Soap Is Now Nurture Handmade
Why Nurture Soap became Nurture Handmade after a Google account hack led to fraudulent ads, and why the site itself was never compromised.
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