Another grotesque soap mold

Since I’ve been asked by a few people about what the soaps and candles would cost, my manufacturing cost on the soaps is between $1.25 and $2.00 (they’re pretty big bars at about 1/2 pound) and my cost on the candles is around $6.50 — that’s in beeswax for a candle that weighs a bit less than a pound. Doing them in paraffin wax or soy wax is much less costly and drops my cost to $2.50 or less. Add to that shipping ($10 and up depending on where it’s going — the Canada Post website has a rate calculator that will tell you exactly — my postal code is M6R2B2 if you choose to use their calculator). I can scent them in a ton of different ways, and it’s easy to put in additives like various exfoliants, or extra ingredients like caffeine. I’m just doing this for fun, so as long as it’s not a ton of people asking, I’m happy to send them out for cost plus whatever you want to tip me.

To begin, I made a new soap mold in the same series using the same method of making a master in clay and then pouring a silicone mold. This time instead of one eyeball, you get a bunch. The gold one is pineapple scented and the darker one is bubble gum flavor (I know, it should have been pink) with some powdered walnut hull mixed in. You can click on all these pictures to zoom in by the way.

I’ve been experimenting a little with putting a “ZENTASTIC SOAPWORKS” stamp onto the back, by suspending the stamp in the liquid soap, but my method is far from ideal so the results still leave a little to be desired. That said, I do grok how to fix it so the next batch I make will look much cleaner.

I’m also starting to do a little more experimenting with multiple colors. This white and blue-purple soap is a mix of camphor and eucalyptus, and was made by first pouring in some shea butter soap without any additives and sloshing it around in the “veins” and then letting it pool in the eyeball and harden before adding the main body of soap. Anyway, I’m likely done with posting soap projects for a while because I’ve committed to a big (and fascinating) programming contract, but if you would like some do feel free to contact me (via email to snowrail@gmail.com is best, with a subject line that makes me notice it among all the spam that still gets through gmail’s filters).

10 Comments

  1. bonnie wrote:

    I love them! Truly cool.

    Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 7:53 pm | Permalink
  2. Dustin wrote:

    Have you thought about using a small palm sander without any sandpaper as a sort of vibrator to help get out those bubbles a bit better? I think it ought to work pretty well.

    Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 8:44 pm | Permalink
  3. Love the popped bubble effect in the soapworks bar!

    Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 1:58 am | Permalink
  4. Trevor wrote:

    The multiple eyeball design is great.

    When do you expect to have more candles made? I’d love to get my hands on some, and I’d be more than happy to pay you for whatever you wanted to send me.

    Monday, October 11, 2010 at 11:33 am | Permalink
  5. Nygaard wrote:

    I want to try this, only to make one very special bar… https://www.layercake.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/soap.jpg

    I just need to get my hands on some human fat haha.

    Monday, October 11, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Permalink
  6. Shannon wrote:

    BTW when I originally wrote this entry I wrote the wrong size — they’re 1/2 pound (!) bars, not 1/4 pound.

    I can make more candles on demand, so they’re ready any time.

    Monday, October 11, 2010 at 4:16 pm | Permalink
  7. Ace wrote:

    I’m really interested in the soaps and lollipops, your designs rule, but I don’t suppose you’d be up to making any vegan ones?

    Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 9:01 pm | Permalink
  8. Shannon wrote:

    Making vegan ones is easy to do. Caitlin and Nefarious and I are going to set up an etsy store some time soon after all.

    Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 1:28 pm | Permalink
  9. Steph wrote:

    Awesome!
    Have you ever thought about utilizing zen cart and just hosting your own store on this domain as well?
    No fee’s that way since zen cart is free although a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes.
    Although your smarter then I in the programming/code dept so I have faith that you’ll be great!
    LOVE the soaps, they look awesome!

    Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 6:17 pm | Permalink
  10. Taryn wrote:

    These are beautiful!

    Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 1:41 pm | Permalink
Wow Shannon, that's really annoying! What is it, 1997 on Geocities? Retroweb is NOT cool!

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