Saturday, August 31, 2019

Basic Lavender Peppermint Soap

This was my first effort at cold-process from back in July. But it's been curing for almost six weeks now, and I spent a little time cutting off spots to make it pretty enough for pictures.


This batch almost immediately formed quite a bit of ash. These are two palm-sized bars cut from a larger bar, and stamped. Appearance aside, I actually really like how it feels and smells. It is a hard soap that produces a nice lather. I scented with peppermint and lavender essential oils, and these scents come through fairly well after drying.

Here is the recipe for a 1-pound (weight of oils) batch:

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Lavender Oatmeal Honey Hot Process Soap

Despite the mixed success of my first batch of hot process soap, I made a second batch yesterday. This batch was also inspired by The Nerdy Farm Wife, from the article How to Make Oatmeal Honey Soap In A Crock Pot.


I changed the recipe up just a little. At the end of the cooking process, instead of superfatting with tamanu oil (of which I have just enough left to make a batch of charcoal facial soap), I replaced it with jojoba oil. I also added more lavender essential oil than the recipe called for. Here are the ingredients:

17 oz (482 g) olive oil (62%)
8 oz (227 g) coconut oil (29%)
1.5 oz (43 g) sweet almond or sunflower (5%) - I used sunflower oil
1 oz (28 g) castor oil (4%)

10 oz (283 g) water
3.9 oz (111 g) lye

After cooking for 1.25 hours on the low setting of my crockpot, I added:

.5 oz (14 g) tamanu oil - I used jojoba oil
1 tbsp powdered oatmeal - I ground up regular oatmeal in a Ninja blender
1 tbsp honey mixed with 1 tbsp water
1/4 tsp lavender essential oil - I used 1 tsp

The recipe yielded 2 lbs, 10 oz. For the molds, I used a Pringles can plus two cavities of a rectangular mod that held approximately 3.5 oz per cavity. The Pringles log ended up about 9 inches long, so I sub-cut into eight rounds. Each round of soap ended up being between 3.75 to 4 oz. Consistent with hot process soap, the texture is rustic.

UPDATE (8/31/19) 
We are using the second round of soap now. I love it! We began using it immediately, and it produced a nice, thick lather with lots of bubbles. After a few weeks, it has cured into a nice, firm bar. The lavender scent has faded somewhat, but still pleasant. After drying, my skin feels pretty moisturized. The oatmeal is a bit scrubby, however, so next time I will try to process it into a finer powder.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Lemon & Honey Tea Hot Process Soap

My first try at hot process soap was a mixed bag. Although it lathers up quite nicely and leaves my skin soft and moisturized, I am just meh about how it looks and smells.
Lemon & Honey Tea Hot Process Soap/Shampoo Bar


The inspiration for the soap was from The Nerdy Farm Wife's Chamomile Tea & Honey Shampoo Bar Recipe. I did not have quite enough castor oil as called for in the recipe, so at the last minute had to run the recipe through a lye calculator to adjust for the 1.5 oz shortage. Here are the ratios from SoapCalc.net:


So here is where I deviated from the original recipe. Instead of chamomile tea, I used an English Breakfast because I wanted to see if I could get a deep, brown color. I also added 1 teaspoon of lemon essential oil.

As already alluded to, I probably would not make these modifications again. The color wasn't quite what I was looking for, especially when combined with the lumpy texture of hot process soap. The smell of the English Breakfast tea was also quite strong, even after the cooking process. After I added the lemon EO, it came out smelling like a lemon Snapple. Again, not quite the effect I was going for. Finally, the mold was not the best choice for a hot process soap. It was a wide, flat box, where the texture of hot process would do better (IMHO) in a loaf or column mold.

Nevertheless, it is still a lovely soap, chock full of wonderful oils. One last comment, the original recipe was for a shampoo bar. I haven't used it yet as a shampoo bar, but will report back if and when I do!