Sleigh Ride

Finished Bars

My newest soap addition is called sleigh ride.  The idea came from a sample fragrance I received this summer from Brambleberry.com.  For those of you who don't know, Brambleberry is an awesome soap supply company.  ( No this is not a paid endorsement, just my personal experience with the company.)   The fragrance is called Woodland Elves.

Filling the mold

I didn't have enough of the fragrance oil to make a full batch and I really didn't want to make a small batch.  So I added some cedarwood essential oils and just a touch of wintergreen for a coolness to the scent.  I started by mixing my oils as usual.

Olive oil 40%
Coconut oil 30%
Sunflower oil 20%
Palm Kernel oil 7.5%
Castor oil 2.5%

I did not melt my oils.  I just used the lye water to melt the coconut and palm kernel oils.  After adding the lye water I used the stick blender only until I had a good emulsion going.  I knew I needed to add my colors at a thinner stage in order to manage the swirls like I wanted.  I pre-mixed each of my pigments with a little bit of water so that they would be ready to mix up.  After I poured the soap into 2 other containers (about equal amounts eyeballing it), I added the pigment stirring by hand to start with before mixing very briefly with the blender to make sure that my colors were smooth.

Swirling the top

 I started out with a nice layer of white on the bottom.  To that I added a layer of green and then red before starting over.  I ended up with 2 layers each of the white, red and green.  By the time I was ready to pour the second layer it had thickened to the point that I could tell I wasn't going to be able to get a second smooth pour.  I had filled my sample mold in between.  After topping the mold off with a nice smooth layer of white, I mixed about 3 .15 cc scoops of gold mica in about 1/2 tsp of glycerin.  I dropped it on the top and proceeded to do a very shallow swirl.  I knew I didn't have much room without being in danger of pulling up some of the color.

After 24 hours

After getting everything situated I left the soap on the table overnight to work.  I have stopped doing extra insulation on my soaps unless it looks like I am going to get a partial gel.  My mold is made of wood and it seems like anytime I insulated quickly I end up overheating and cracking.  I do think that this one gelled, but it didn't crack!

After about 24 hours I checked to soap and it was still a little too warm to un-mold so I put it in the freezer for about half an hour to speed up the cooling process.  When I pulled it out of the freezer it was cold but not frozen.  I pulled the soap out of the mold and pulled the liner off of the soap so that the sides could start drying just a little bit.

Cutting bars

After letting the soap sit for about 2 hours I went ahead and cut the loaf in half.  After about another hour I cut the bars.  I don't have my curing rack anymore (It died :(  ) so I had to make do.  I was trying to figure out what I could use to support the shelves that I still had, when I though of using Duplo blocks.  So I snagged the kids box of Duplos and started building.  I had to add one layer at a time, building the support, adding the shelf of soap, then adding the next level of supports.  ( If anyone tell you that they are too old for blocks like this, then they just haven't pulled them out recently.  Even my grandmother will play with them if the blocks are out.    ;) )

As you can see it worked quite well until I ran out of blocks.  I kept the "rack" for a couple of weeks before I gave the blocks back to my kids.  And before you start thinking that I am a cruel, heartless mother, let me tell you that my kids thought it was awesome.

Makeshift curing rack

The only issue I have with this soap is that I am not fond of the scent.  Everyone else has loved it, but I am not fond of woodsy scented soaps.












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