Happy Givember from Bramble Berry !

 Thank you to Kristen and Anne-Marie from Bramble Berry for sponsoring this blog !  Kristen from Bramble Berry, the soaping supply company that I seem to turn to more often than all others for their fragrance oils, essential oils, colorants and supplies, contacted me asking if I'd be interested in trying some products and sharing the results on my blog.  Heck, YEAH!!  I was flattered that Anne-Marie even knew of my little blog and thrilled to have been asked to try product.  The best part?  They ALSO gave me an offer for the readers of this blog to be used in the month of November - or Givember as Bramble Berry has declared it ! 

So, my surprise box arrived on the doorstep a couple weeks ago. Inside was the Bramble Berry 
5 pound mold. I purchased their silicone liner to go with the mold as I've never been handy at lining a mold with freezer paper.  I always seemed to end up with a super wrinkly edged soap loaf that needed a lot of "fixing".
Okay, so ..if that weren't enough...I was also supplied with some micas and Bramble Berry's popular Cranberry Fig and Moonlight Pomegranate fragrance oils and asked to go forth and create !
I decided to not "over think" this one and to just mix it up and see what I come up with.  It seems I get the most unique and popular soaps when I don't try too hard.  

Here's the final result!   Read down for my review of the Bramble Berry 5 lb mold and silicone liner, the actual products used in this soap AND......a special coupon code!   Any order placed during the month of November that includes this code will be entered into a drawing to win a Bramble Berry gift certificate worth $50.00 !!   

Here's the Bramble Berry 5 lb loaf mold with the silicone liner. Yes, the liner IS a bit floppy and I'd recommend taping it to the mold along the sides - at least until you've finished pouring.  I didn't at first and ended up with a couple soap glops between the liner and the inside of the mold as you'll see. I'm a bit of a messy soaper, so maybe you'd fare better. 

Soap's in the mold (ignore that blob of green soap spilling down on the right) and it's halfway full - time to swirl.  I used the "Celine Swirl" method, invented by Celine from I Am Handmade, and then filled the mold the rest of the way, swirling again before I added the top layer. 

I used four plastic hair coloring bottles ordered from Amazon (available at Sally's Beauty too) filled with black, red, white and green to create the top lines - and then swirled them with a bamboo skewer.

I got smart and ran a couple pieces of tape on the sides - too little, too late. I'll use masking or painter's tape next time. It's STILL easier than lining a mold with freezer tape in my opinion ! And wait until you see how easily it is to unmold your soap.....so slick !!  Those specks are cranberry seeds on top - with a small bit of glitter to add a festive Holiday touch.

The bottom wooden piece slides out and the silicone liner just comes out the bottom. Genius !!

So easy - loving this !

The thinness of the silicone liner allows it to "peel" away from the soap.  This was the easiest release of a soap from a silicone liner I've ever had.  And I was able to ease it around the corners to keep them sharp. I've had problems with soft corners that don't come out cleanly with other liners.

Did I mention it was easy?  :-D   

Here's the soap I'm calling "Good Cheer".  It a Holiday-looking loaf and the Cranberry Fig and Midnight Pomegranate smell amazing together!!

My cutter is from Cumberland Acoustic and such a time saver. 

Here's another look at "Good Cheer" - thank you to the generous ladies at Bramble Berry who sponsored this blog and allowed me to try a few colorants I hadn't tried before - not to mention their wooden mold with the slide out bottom design.  I'm so thankful to have it and know it will get a lot of love and use !

The colorants used were all from Bramble Berry:

Merlot Sparkle mica
Vintage Gray mica
Luster Black mica
Chrome Green pigment
and Pearly White mica

Fragrance:   Cranberry Fig and Moonlight Pomegranate from Bramble Berry

Cranberry seeds and mica from  Soap Making Resource.


As promised, here's the code.  Only codes used on orders placed during the month of November will be entered into the drawing to win the $50.00 Bramble Berry gift certificate.   

GIVEMBER50

If you haven't tried Bramble Berry products before, I'd highly recommend them for both melt and pour and cold process supplies.  Anne-Marie's Soap Queen videos on YouTube were my initiative to start melt and pour soap making several years ago and have been a help with cold process now as well.  My daughter and I had a lot of laughs and good times creating soap using melt and pour bases when she was younger.  She's a wife and a mother to an almost-three-year-old now and works full time, so our days of making soap have ended for now, but I hope in the future to teach her how to make CP and I know she'll love it as much as I do !

Happy Soaping and thank you for keeping me company!   xx   Suzy