There’s a Blizzard in my Snow Globe
Today me and Isabelle went to the craft store to try to find toys or tiny ornaments for snow globe soap. Well look what we found! A soap making kit with these very snow globish molds.
It’s large enough to fit larger size toys.
And the kit came with glycerine so I thought, great, I can return my 10 pounds of glycerine.
So me and Isabelle happily went at it. I used half of the glycerine that came in the kit, 1 pound. I thought we’d wait for the first batch to finish and then we’d make the second batch. I popped the glycerine in the microwave but it didn’t really seem to be melting. Isabelle didn’t mind. Mix, mix, mix over and over. She loves mixing.
When it finally all melted I added one drop of blue soap dye. When I poured it into the mold I thought, hmmm that’s looking a little opaque. But the original glycerine was translucent so I figured it had something to do with it being liquid form and still hot. I let Isabelle push four little penguins in, all the while she was saying, “no mama! They’re upside down.”
Then we added our snow. We didn’t have enough glycerine to cover the snow so we melted one more cube and used that. So easy.
We waited 40 minutes and the soap was pretty much hardened. BUT it was still opaque.
And then I had to pop them out. I tried pushing them out. Nothing. They wouldn’t budge. I pushed and pushed and aaaaahhhhh!!! I called my sister for help. She said stick them in the freezer. After half an hour in the freezer and pushing so hard I thought my thumbs would snap back they FINALLY came out.
If I had read the directions thoroughly it says put them in the freezer. It even mentions soap glitter. I’m a goober.
Ok so what did we do wrong? Why are our snow globe soaps opaque? Too much mixing? Too much dye? But how can I put half a drop in? Maybe I should have melted the entire two pounds for the one drop of dye. Because the one cube I melted is translucent! See…you can sort of see his feet.
And now what? How do I get the penguins out to redo them? Or are they a lost cause and we’ll just use them?
Guess I’ll need that ten pounds of glycerine after all.
LOVE the post title. Totally made me laugh. I have no idea what’s going on. I wish I could help.
I would totally love one of them, if you feel like giving them away. I love soaps with things in ‘em.
aww! i don’t know why they turned out opaque! maybe you can microwave the opaque ones to remelt the soap so you can get the toys out. if not it’ll be surprise soap! tell them the animals are trapped in the glacier/snow and they have to wash to get them out!
Haha, I just asked you about this in an email. I bet if you melt all the glycerine and add the dye to that it would be translucent. If you don’t want to do that, maybe you could just stick the tip of a toothpick in the dye to get a tiiiiiny bit, then stir it into the melted glycerine?
I made another batch which came out fine, well mostly fine. I tried to add a smaller drop of dye. I doubt I really did. But I made sure not to mix it so much so it didn’t spread around as well. But I still screwed it up. I forgot to add the scent.
Ok I was wrong. They didn’t come out totally fine. I just pulled them out of the freezer and…I suck. I’ll have to take a picture.
Ok, I couldn’t help but laugh, b’c this stuff happens to me all the time… You don’t have to call them soap snow globes… they can be Surprise Globes
Hope it all works out!
oh man! This is so weird. I will have to consult with my chemist husband (he’s not really a chemist but he understands chemistry much better than I do). It must have something to do with the bubbles. Atmospheric pressure? Temperature? Mixing too much? I didn’t have bubbles when I mixed mine. Weird weird weird. I’m so sorry this was such a bomb for you. I think they look cute still… they definitely make me want to wash my hands a lot so I can see the toy inside.
oh no! I think that is part of the ‘cuteness’ of them…….they have little surprises in them.
Oh, they are *really* cute! I’m sorry they didn’t come out as you’d expected! I had the same thing happen to me recently, actually. I’ve been making soap for many years, and it hadn’t ever happened before. I think that when the glycerine is old, it dries out some, which means it takes a lot longer to melt, and requires a lot more stirring, which equals more air. My base was old, and it was harder to cut, which is where this theory came from – I don’t really have a clue if I’m right or not, lol! If your base had been sitting in a warehouse, or on a shelf, for too long, that could be the problem, though. Have you tried it with the 10lbs of base, yet?
Maybe that was it. We tried the 10 pounds and those turned out fine.
These are great! I would love to put a lizard in a blizzard.