Ocean Mint – A Handcrafted Soap!
A rustic swirl of sea clay mixed with ground peppermint and seafoam ultramarine pigment. This handcrafted soap has the refreshing scent of peppermint and spearmint.
Magellan’s Gift will be at the Harrisonburg, VA Farmers Market for Mother Day sales. Please come early for the best selection. I will not be vending May 18, 2013, but will be back on May 25.
Lori Curry
Magellan’s Gift™ creating exception soap for life’s adventures!
Handcrafted Soap Fans!
Little clamp on fan for curing of Magellan’s Gift™ handcrafted soap.
Here is a photo of my Orange Patchouli Soap and Summer Spice Soap curing on the racks with a small clamp on fan. I have several of these wonderful fans and I feel they speed up the curing of my soaps.
My house has central heat and cooling, but in the summer the humidity still can slow down the curing process. Handcrafted soap needs time to become hard and long-lasting. Bubbles can improve with a well aged soap too.
In the past, I’ve tried running a humidifier and a window air conditioner in my dedicated soap curing room. I’m hoping my little fans will be all I need this summer.
These fans come from http://www.htgsupply.com
Both of the soaps photographed will be available in late May 2013.
Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™ ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!
A few of my favorite toys for making soap!
A few of my favorite soap-making pieces of equipment – not complete!
I love nice equipment! Some of this collection is quite old, but I have a few new additions too.
The mats that the equipment is sitting on are heating mats. They gently melt butters and solid oils overnight to just the right temperature. Batches of soap in their molds are sometimes placed on the mats with a quilt on top to give a bit of a boost in heat. This helps the process of becoming soap a little faster and makes for easier unmolding.
The large stainless steel pots are used for melting solid oils and butters on the stove top. Soap is also made in them. I have great HDPE buckets with pouring lips that are not pictured. These are lighter in weight then the stainless steel pots. The smaller stainless pot with a great lip for pouring is my favorite container for making up my lye solution. Care should be given when picking out your equipment. You want something nonreactive that will hold up. Pyrex is no longer the best choice for mixing lye; it won’t hold up. I do use Pyrex measuring cups for essential oil measuring. The essential oils are weighed and not measured; Pyrex will hold up to essential oils. The plastic (one pint) measuring cups are for making the swirl colors you see in so many of my soaps.
In the middle, at the back, you see little squeeze containers with dual tipped tops. I love these for top swirls. If you look around you can see a tiny brush that cleans out the little tops.
I have lots of small frothers to mix clay and mineral pigments with distilled water before adding to my soap. Both oxides and ultramarine mix quite well in water with these little guys. You do need to make them up fresh for each batch. I use whisks for larger jobs.
Above the little frothers is one of my gadgets for draining one bottle into another. Saves a lot of waste!
A commercial stick blender reaches to the very bottom of my soap making pots and holds up to a of lot abuse. It is very old. I do feel the invention of the stick blender or immersion blender has been the best thing that has happened in soap-making. I remember hand stirring for long periods of time!
My spoons are large and won’t fall down in the pot. They are made of silicone. I love the bright colors too!
The far right bottom is my Swirl Wand made by Rich Bartko.
To the right of the blue spoon are two different tools to bevel the edges of my soap. Beveling gives my bars a more finished feel in the shower. I’ll be glad to post where I found them if you ask!
Let me know if you wish me to do more posts on the topic of equipment!
As always ~ Magellan’s Gift ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap ~ Lori Curry
Valentines Day ~ Dark Patchouli Handcrafted Soap!
A special edition of handcrafted swirled soap, scented with reserve select patchouli essential oil.
It’s that time again, with Valentines day around the corner, I make a special batch of soap for patchouli essential oil lovers.
My 2013 edition is made with reserved select patchouli and is well aged. Patchouli, like a fine wine or a good shot of whiskey, only improves as the years go by–unlike citrus essential oil which can be uplifting, but fleeting.
This particular patchouli essential oil (purchased for this limited edition of soap) comes from India and is dark iron distilled and aged in an oak barrel from the year 2006.
The soap bars are swirled all the way through with sea clay, southwest clay and bamboo charcoal. A very striking batch of handcrafted soap with a creamy lather, perfect for the shower or bath.
Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™ ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!
Happy New Year 2013!
Peacock or Bouquet Marbled Orange Patchouli Soap ~ Magellan’s Gift Micro Soap Company
Happy New Years!
Thanks so much for a great 2012. Saturday, December 22, a new record for sales was achieved at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market!
I’m busy replacing my stock and will start vending January 5.
The Winter Markets hours are from 9 AM to 12 PM every Saturday
Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™
Magellan’s Gift™ Micro Soap Company Brochure!
Magellan’s Gift hires Chad Lewis to illustrate soap!
Illustrator ~ Chad Lewis
Click on picture for Face Book
E-mail: chadlewisillustration@gmail.com
For my next project, I’ve tasked Rich Bartko, (soap mold maker to the stars) and Chad to work on imprint mats for my custom slab divider molds. I’ve loved using the Wilton fondant mat with the ivy pattern (scroll down and look for spearmint soap). I much prefer custom images on my soap. The images actually will be on the bottom of the soap, which means no more worry about the magical ash that sometimes occurs on the top of the soap.
Another one of my crazy ideas is making a real sail with a logo. Our farmers market is under a large open pavilion. I can set up the sail off one of the supports. It would make a cool background, not to mention that it will help provide shade and even block some of the blowing rain!
Also for the near future: custom stamped cloth bags and custom boxes with Chad’s images!
Life is really busy with near record Christmas sales, but I’m so excited about the future of Magellan’s Gift™ that sleep will just have to wait.
As always, fine handcrafted soap for exceptional people!
Magellan’s Gift™ Lori Curry ~ Adventure and Discovery in Fine Soap.
Handcrafted Ocean Mint Soap!
A handcrafted artisan bar of soap from Magellan’s Gift
This is my current favorite! A swirled bar of sea clay with finely ground peppermint from our local Avalon Farm. The second swirl is created with seafoam green ultramarine and is scented with premium peppermint and a dash of spearmint essential oil. It is enhanced with macadamia nut oil. Peppermint can tingle on sensitive skin areas; some people buy it for this reason, and others avoid it. Blending it with spearmint gives it less tingle, but to me, it is just right. It is so refreshing in the morning and very festive for the season too.
I will be at the Harrisonburg, VA Farmers Market, the first four Saturdays in December from 9 AM to 12 AM.
Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™ ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!
