Puppy Poo Shampoo

Puppy Poo Shampoo

I have had several people ask me about getting a dog soap and when I would have one available.  So I started doing research.  I am one of those people that will research an idea almost to death before I actually start working on making that idea an actual item.  In this case I wanted to be able to make the soap as naturally flea repellent as possible naturally without causing any problems for the dogs that it was used on.  I knew that essential oils would be different for dogs than for humans and I did not want to choose oils that would possibly hurt the dogs.  After about 3 months I was satisfied that I had a reasonable handle on the oils to use.  I also wanted to use an infusion of fleabane for my liquid.

from nativeamericanencyclopedia.com
Fleabane Daisy

Fleabane is a wildflower with a folklore reputation for being flea repellent.  It grows wild in fields and roadsides all over my area of the country.  It is a member of the daisy family and is quite prolific in reseeding itself.  In this case I helped out my mom by pulling out the plants that had come up in her garden and flower beds.  In this way I avoided having to collect plants where there might be issues from road run-off or vehicle exhaust exposure.  I cut off the roots, rinsed the plants thoroughly and cut the plants into 3 inch pieces.  To the plant pieces I added boiling water until all of the plants were covered.  I let this set for 24 hours to get as much as possible out of the plants.

Fleabane lye solution

For the essential oils I choose tea tree, cedarwood, peppermint & sweet orange.  According to my research these are all dog safe - cats are another matter.  Tea tree and peppermint oil were recommended by one site and orange and cedarwood were recommended by another.

After straining out all of the plant matter, I measured out the liquid for the recipe.  Then I measured out my lye and added it to the fleabane infusion.  I measured out my oils next.  Because I made this soap on a warm day the coconut oil was really soft but not liquid so I didn't need to do any melting.  After using the blender to make the oils into a smooth slurry, I added the lye solution to the oils.  Since this soap is simply utilitarian I did not add any colorant and the scent is from the essential oils and fleabane infusion.

Oils for batch

I blended the batch, adding the essential oils at a light trace, until I reached a thick trace before pouring the soap into molds.  I started with the sample bar mold before filling the regular mold.  The soap was already heating up before I even got it into the mold, and as you can see from the picture it gelled almost completely.      

Soap in the mold

When I cut the soap, I found that the inside gelled area was still fairly soft.  It would hold it's shape, but still had a lot of give.  I could have further decreased the liquid in the batch, but I wanted it to be as effective as possible.  I don't know that this soap would be strong enough to replace your current flea repellent, but at least it is natural and should be soothing to your dogs skin and should leave your dogs coat glossy and smooth.

I am linking with the following blogs:

http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com                                http://www.bystephanielynn.com

http://blackfoxhomestead.com/                                          http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com

http://www.hopeineveryseason.com                                  http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

http://littlehomesteadonthehill.blogspot.com/                      http://www.sewcando.com/

http://www.campwander.com/                                          http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

http://coloradolady.blogspot.com                                      www.aboverubies.net

http://abidingwoman.com/                                               http://www.besimplybetter.com/

http://www.deeprootsathome.com/                                   http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/

http://raisinghomemakers.com                                          http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

http://www.52mantels.com/                                             http://www.the36thavenue.com/

http://www.create-with-joy.com                                       http://teachingwhatisgood.com/

http://www.the36thavenue.com/                                       http://seevanessacraft.com/

http://katherinescorner.com/                                           http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com

http://alifeinbalance.net                                                   http://www.hopestudios.blogspot.com

http://thediydreamer.com                                                 http://www.the-chicken-chick.com

http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com                       http://www.flusterbuster.com

http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com                        http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

http://www.growinghomeblog.com                                 http://nourishingjoy.com

http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/              http://trayerwilderness.com/

Goat's Milk Baby Soap

Goat's Milk Baby Soap

This soap started with a local friend of my mother's who has milk goats.  She has lots of extra milk and I was looking for goats milk.  So we worked out a trade.  When she has time to learn how to make it I will teach her how to make soap, in exchange she is keeping me well supplied with goat milk.  

Frozen goat milk ready for lye

I started with measuring out the goat's milk and lye.  I wanted to keep the milk as cold as possible through adding the lye.  I added the lye in 15 minute intervals.  While I was waiting for the lye to work I measured out my oils.  For this recipe I used olive oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil, and palm kernel oil.  After getting all of the oils measured out I added to it 5 oz of pureed organic carrots.  Carrots are high in vitamin A which makes them good for the skin.  

Oils with Carrot puree

I used mostly melted oils.  My coconut oil was melted but the palm kernel oil was only softened.  After getting all of my oils mixed thoroughly, I added the lye solution to the oils.  I mixed with my stick blender to a medium trace.  Since I wasn't doing any layering I wanted a thicker trace.  I filled my sample mold then I filled my wooden mold.  

Close-up of the swirls on top

After my soap was in the mold, I mixed about a quarter of an ounce of vitamin E with a single .15 cc scoop of sienna mica.  I dripped the mica solution all over the top of the soap in the mold.  I used the sharp end of a skewer to swirl the mica in a circular pattern all over the top. 

I am really quite pleased with this soap.  The yellow coloring comes from the carrots, do be aware that you might find a tiny piece or two in the finished soap.  This soap is not scented but I wanted to be sure that it would be as mild as possible on a babies tender skin.  This soap will be ready to ship on March 16th.  

I am linking with the following blogs:

http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com                                http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/                                          http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://www.hopeineveryseason.com                                  http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com
http://littlehomesteadonthehill.blogspot.com/                      http://www.sewcando.com/
http://www.campwander.com/                                          http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
http://coloradolady.blogspot.com                                      www.aboverubies.net
http://abidingwoman.com/                                               http://www.besimplybetter.com/
http://www.deeprootsathome.com/                                   http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/
http://raisinghomemakers.com                                          http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/
http://www.52mantels.com/                                             http://www.the36thavenue.com/
http://www.create-with-joy.com                                       http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://www.the36thavenue.com/                                       http://seevanessacraft.com/
http://katherinescorner.com/                                           http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net                                                   http://www.hopestudios.blogspot.com
http://thediydreamer.com                                                 http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com                       http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com                        http://www.adelightsomelife.com/
http://www.growinghomeblog.com                                 http://nourishingjoy.com
http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/              http://trayerwilderness.com/
http://timeforseason.blogspot.com                                     http://mylampisfull.blogspot.com/

Floating "Peeps" Soap

Finished "Peep" Bars

I was trying to decide what kind of soaps to make for spring.  I wanted to have at least one that would be fun for the kids in my life and those of my customers.  I finally settled on making something that would be appealing to the child in everyone.  After all who can refuse a marshmallow peep.  I can't and I am not a marshmallow fan to begin with.   I also wanted to make the bar somewhat substantial.    

As you can see it is pretty stiff.

I started by measuring out ice and water to the full amount in my recipe.  The ice helps to keep the lye water's temperature low so that it can be used more quickly.  When making whipped soap the key is to keep your oils COLD.  Warm oils are soft and liquid, but cold oils will hold the air bubbles that you are going to beat into this soap.  Because lye will heat up your water considerably due to the chemical reaction, you want to start with mixing this first and using a good bit of ice to keep the temperature down.  You don't want to get your oils all whipped and have to sit around waiting for your lye water to get cool.

4 "Peeps" on a bar

After my lye water was mixed and set aside in the sink I started measuring my oils.  Since my space is normally unheated, I had turned on the space heater a couple of hours ahead so that it would warm up a bit and placed my coconut and olive oils on top to melt.  Unfortunately, they took forever to cool.  I was able to measure both in a liquid state and I ended up beating them in my bucket inside a bucket with ice water to get them cool enough to start holding the air.  As you can see the batter is very yellow orange.  This comes from using turmeric infused sunflower oil.  I knew from reading up on whipped soap that the batter would be much lighter after whipping so I wanted to make sure that the color would not disappear.

Rows of individually piped bars

After whipping the oils with the orange essential oil I was using for fragrance for what seemed like an eternity it finally got to the point of holding a firm peak.  Most of my research had said to get to the stiff peak stage before adding the lye, but at this point I was dealing with very cold feet and was getting pretty tired.  ( After all I started on the soap at 8:45 after I had put the kiddos to bed for the night. )  I added my lye water, which was almost completely cool by this point, in stages.  Then I started beating the batch again after each addition.

I made the mistake of making this batch too large and my batter was too high in my widest container.  This prevented me from being able to whip as much air as I wanted into the batter.   The soap will still float it just won't float as high in the water.  It took a while but I got the soap stiff enough that it would stay in the piping bag without pouring out.

It really does float although not as well as I would like.

Once the soap was stiff enough to work with I filled my piping bag and started to pipe the bars. I piped each one onto a separate cupcake liner.  I piped two layers of 1 1/2" x 3".  Next I piped the body of the peep, then the head.  I realized also about 2/3 of the way through that I had a problem.  The soap was stiffening up and getting very difficult to pipe.  It was hard to make the peeps look presentable at this point.  I finished up what I could with piping.

I brought everything into the house so that I could work in the warmth.  I neatened up the bars that had ended up looking a little too rough for my taste.  I also pulled out the sugar.  I coated the top and sides of each bar with sugar to get the same appearance as peeps.  These should be ready for purchase from my Etsy shop by March 3rd in plenty of time for Easter baskets.

It is so nice to work on something for spring when it is cold and nasty outside.  I hope that you are all staying warm and cozy where ever you are.

I am linking with the following blogs:

http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com                                http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/                                          http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://www.hopeineveryseason.com                                  http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com
http://littlehomesteadonthehill.blogspot.com/                      http://www.sewcando.com/
http://www.campwander.com/                                          http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
http://coloradolady.blogspot.com                                      www.aboverubies.net
http://abidingwoman.com/                                               http://www.besimplybetter.com/
http://www.deeprootsathome.com/                                   http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/
http://raisinghomemakers.com                                          http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/
http://www.52mantels.com/                                             http://www.the36thavenue.com/
http://www.create-with-joy.com                                       http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://www.the36thavenue.com/                                       http://seevanessacraft.com/
http://katherinescorner.com/                                           http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net                                                   http://www.hopestudios.blogspot.com
http://thediydreamer.com                                                 http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com                       http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com                        http://www.adelightsomelife.com/
http://www.growinghomeblog.com                                 http://nourishingjoy.com
http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/              http://trayerwilderness.com/

http://timeforseason.blogspot.com

Rooibos Vanilla Soap

Rooibos Vanilla

Today I made some new soap.  This soap will be a part of my regular line of soap.  I have been trying to get this soap made for a while now, but I just haven't had enough money for materials.

I started by putting 5 tea bags in a jar with around 10 ounces of hot water to steep for tea.  Once my tea had steeped I added the remainder of liquid for my recipe in ice and water.  Next I measured out my lye and added it to the tea mixture.  As usual it was a little smelly, but the smell settled out pretty quickly.

Not super defined, but I like the swirls anyway 

After my lye water was ready and cooling, I started measuring out my oils.  Since I was coloring with oils I reserved out equal amounts of madder infused olive oil and plain olive oil.  I split the soap in half for coloring so it would not be a problem to add the oils separately.  Since I have had to start storing everything for my soap in the shed this has gotten a little more difficult.  For starters I ended up having to make three trips out to the shed for more oils because I had emptied the bottles in the house.  It has been interesting to see the effect of the cold on the different oils.  But I will go into all of this in a different post.

After warming up the oils enough to scoop or squeeze them into the bowl for weighting, I had to get all of the chunks blended out so that the lye would melt the oils evenly.  Let me just say that coconut oil gets VERY hard in the cold.  I also added about 2 tsp of Vanilla Bean fragrance oil from Brambleberry to my oils at this point.  This is somewhat to make sure that I don't forget too add it later.  After I got everything all smoothed out to my satisfaction, I added the lye water to my oils.  I started blending the mixture with my stick blender until I reached a light trace.  Once I had reached light trace, I split the batch in two equal parts and added the oils to each part.  To the white half I also added about 2 teaspoons of titanium dioxide mixed with about 2 tablespoons of water.  After I had my additions added, I used the stick blender to get my additions incorporated into the batch portions.

The top is mostly a creamy white right now, but there
are a few swirls of the pinky color

Once my colors were sufficiently incorporated I stopped blending.  I had already taken it a little too thick.  Because the soap was so thick it didn't behave like I had hoped it would when I poured the color  into the white.  After I finished with my usual sample mold, I started pouring into my mold.  It turned out that most of the white was on top.  I used a skewer to mix the color portion up into the white.  I ended up with less definition that I had hoped for, but it is still a very nice looking soap.

I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://www.hopeineveryseason.com
http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

Lady Grey

Lady Grey

This soap did not go as planned.  To start with I tried to fill my mold with squirt bottles.  Let me just say, NEVER again.  It took forever and all of my soap thickened way too quickly.

Adding the soap coloring

I made a nice recipe and separated the soap into 2 medium containers and 1 large.  In the large I added madder oil to make a pink.  To the mediums I added titanium dioxide and activated charcoal respectively.  I mixed everything by hand so as to not accelerate trace.  After filling my squirt bottles, I started filling my mold.

I started with a layer of pink, followed by alternating black, pink, white, pink and so forth.  I finally gave up on using the squirt bottles when the soap got too thick to squeeze out of the bottles.  At this point I just made thin layers with a spatula.

After getting all of my soap in my molds, I insulated the whole thing.  After checking on it I found that I had some water pooling from adding water to the squeeze bottles to get as much of the soap out as possible.  This water was added after the soap had been at trace for about half an hour so I wasn't worried about lye being in the liquid.  I put the soap in the oven at 170* for about a half hour.  After an hour it still looked like it had too much liquid so I did another half hour @ 170*.  Then I left the soap in the oven without opening it for the night.  I got busy and forgot to take it out.  BIG mistake!

All trimmed neat & tidy

I made this soap on Saturday.  Sunday morning I woke up with a migraine.  My husband came home from church and started pre-heating the oven for biscuits, at 475*.   And yes my soap was still in the oven!  Yikes!!!!  He had asked me to come help him in the kitchen for a minute, and I was wondering what I was smelling.  I decided to check the oven.   I found the soap.  I had lined my mold with a small trash liner and it had melted.  So did the bungee cord that I had used to secure the mold closed.  Not only did it effect my soap, but my oven was a mess also.

We promptly carried the soap outside to cool.  After the soap had cooled completely, I started unmolding it.  I started by cutting the bungee cord off.  Next I took the soap out of the mold.  The liner had melted to the soap.  I cut all six of the sides off of the soap.  I took about a half inch off of each side.  I sliced the remaining soap in half length wise, before slicing it into bars.

I know that I will do a different design next time, and hopefully I won't loose any soap.


I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://nourishingjoy.com

Musical Lemon Lavender Soap

Musical Lemon Lavender

This soap was inspired by a candle from Yankee Candle.  I stopped in this summer and fell in love with the Lavender and Lemon candle.  However I wanted to keep the soap all natural.  I also have friends that are musicians and so they are the inspiration for the top of the soap.

Music Notes cut out of soap

Placing the music notes

I started out by making a 1 pound batch of cold process soap colored with activated charcoal.  This soap I left unscented.  It took more charcoal than I thought it would to color this soap.  I then poured it is a silicone 9 X 9  cake pan that I got for soap.  I put  it in the oven for just a minute to make sure that it gelled because I knew I was going to use it the same day.  After about 5 minutes in an oven pre-heating to 170* I put the mold in the freezer to speed cooling.  After about 2 hours in the freezer I pulled it out of the mold.  I cut the soap into three strips of 9 in X 3 in X 1/2 in.  From there I cut the strips into smaller strips about 3/4 in X 3 in.  Next I cut out little music notes out of the strips.  I set these aside until the base soap was done.

Top is all full

 For the base soap I started by measuring out my water and lye and making my lye water.  Next I measured out all of my oils.  I have found that when I am not working with milk I prefer to not melt my oils, but to let the lye do it for me.  In my personal opinion this leads to the soap being a little more silky.  Of course, this is just my personal opinion.  The oils I used meant that my base soap was fairly light in color.  I poured off equal amounts of soap, about 2 1/2 cups in 2 different containers.  I colored one with turmeric oil for yellow (although in hind sight I should have gone darker) and the other I colored with alkanet oil for a purple.  Next I added zinc oxide mixed with a little oil to the remainder of the soap for white.  Zinc oxide has the added advantage of being very good for your skin.

As you can see placement of the
notes is random

After I got all of my soap ready, I started by filling my sample mold using just a little yellow and purple in with the white.  After I had the mold filled, I took a wooden skewer and did a figure 8 swirl through each cavity.  This give a hint of swirl to even my samples which I like.  I am a very detail oriented person.  You can ask anyone in my family and they would gladly confirm that fact.  ;)

Unfortunately the yellow doesn't show 

The music note are level with the
top of the soap bar

I frequently start with my samples so that I don't run out of colors for the samples or have too much of a color for my design.  After my samples were finished I started filling my mold.  I started with a nice layer of white soap, followed by a layer of the remainder of the yellow.  Next I added another layer of white followed by the remainder of my purple.  I stopped at this point and used a spoon to swirl the soap from the top to the bottom of the mold.  This gave me a nice swirl throughout.  Next I layered the remainder of the white on the top, smoothing it out for a nice canvas for all of the music notes.


Once I got all of the little music note placed I used a wooden skewer to nudge each of the embeds down into the soap.  I did not insulate this soap and it does not appear to have gelled.

I sliced the soap after 24 hours.  It behaved very nicely.  The embeds did not splinter or fall out when I cut the bars.  Although inside the bars the purple is more purple, in the samples it is still almost blue.  We'll see what happens after it has had some time to cure.  Well, have a wonderful thanksgiving everyone!




I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com

Earl Grey

Ready to go

I have been frantically making soap in preparation for a craft show. I wanted to make this one for part of a his and hers gift set along with Lady Grey.  Earl grey is a very nice fragrant tea and therefore will make a mildly fragrant soap all by itself.  I had decided to go with a black, cream and of course brown color scheme.

I started with making about 10 ounces of tea with 5 tea bags to add to the water for my lye.  I moved next to my usual preparation of measuring and mixing my oils and mixing my lye water.  I have sodium lactate to help make the bars harder, but I frequently forget to add it.  I mixed the lye water with my oils and brought it to a thin trace before separating into three containers for coloring. 

 I wanted equal amounts of the black and brown soap mixture.  I only needed a little bit of white for the design I wanted to do.  I started with the black.  I had premixed my activated charcoal with enough water to make sure that it was not clumping, I added this mixture to one of the larger containers of soap.  I didn't add anything to the brown because the tea had already colored that portion.  I added just a little bit of titanium dioxide to the small portion of soap to be white.  Each color was blended just a little bit to make sure that the colors wouldn't have clumps.

Nicely swirled

I had prepared the mold with two dividers down the length of the mold.  Since I get 2 bars from each slice this way I get the same pattern on both sides.  I started by filling my sample mold.  Next I poured the outside edges  in the brown while holding the dividers steady.  I did get a little leakage though.  Next I poured the black in the middle.  After I got the black into the mold I mixed everything in the center section since I had some leakage from the outside section.  At this point I pulled out the dividers carefully and scraped the soap off of them and back into the mold.  Next I poured the white down the line where the divider had been.  I was hoping that the white would go a little deeper than it did, but it worked.

After getting all of the soap in my mold I used a skewer to do the swirl.  I inserted the skewer all the way to the bottom of the mold and proceeded to do a tight figure eight pattern in each half of the mold.  This gave me the swirl in the soap.  This particular swirl is know among soapers as a Mantra swirl.

The scent of this soap is very mild.  It is fresh with just a hint of citrus.



I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com

Maple Pumpkin - Awesome

Finished Bars

My favorite part of fall for the last 10 years or more has been going to pick apples at an apple orchard in Michigan.  They make awesome doughnuts too.  My favorite is pumpkin with a maple glaze.  I decided to try to reproduce it in a soap.

 

With everything but maple syrup

I started by mixing up my oils and adding the pumpkin puree to the oils.  I have discovered that I really like to use un-melted oils.  I mix the oils with my stick blender to break them up this way the oils get broken up and the pumpkin gets thoroughly mixed with the oils.  I then add the lye water to  my oils which melts them.  I have found that it seems to work really well unless my lye water gets too cool.

After getting the lye water mixed in I realized that I had forgotten to discount the water from the pumpkin and the maple syrup.  Oh well, live and learn.  The soap did trace well though.

Adding maple syrup

After I got the soap to trace, I added the maple syrup to the mix.  After I mixed the syrup in and got the soap to the thickness I wanted I poured it into the pre-prepared mold.  After the soap was all set in the mold I mixed cappuccino mica with some glycerin for a glycerin swirl.  Unfortunately, I added a little too much glycerin and so it didn't absorb completely into the soap.  I did have to do a little cleanup afterwards.

I added a brown mica swirl since the
maple syrup won't show up color wise.

I didn't have to deal with any soda ash on my soap bars, but I did get some on my sample pieces.  I half expected to get some due to the extra water in this batch.  Soda ash is not a huge deal to fix though.  I will just have to scrape off the ash before I wrap them.  I did however get some partial gel on the bars.  Fortunately it only effected about 6 or 8 bars.

This soap smells very, very mildly.  There is literally only a hint of scent.







I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com

Peppermint Stripe Soap

Finished Bars

I have been trying to get soaps made for the fall and Christmas seasons.  I finally got the last of my colorants in that were ordered.  I started by making a 5 lb batch of soap from olive, coconut, palm kernel and sunflower oils.

Samples in the mold

After measuring out the water and lye and mixing them.  I measured out my oils.  After getting everything measured out, I added the lye mixture directly to the oils and started blending.  Mixing the lye with the oils without melting the oils is my new favorite way to soap.  I find that I have better control over the thickening.  I also added the peppermint oil at this point.  It thickened really quickly.

The second layer going on

I topped the soap with piped stars

I started out using squeeze bottles to fill the molds, starting with the sample mold.  This helped me get things started before the mixture thickened up too much.   I was able to fill the entire sample mold with the squeeze bottles.  I also started out filling the regular mold with the squeeze bottles.  After the soap thickened up I used a rubber spatula to gently spoon the soap into the mold and spread it out.  This was a little tricky because the soap didn't want to be spread.  I did manage, but it took some careful maneuvering.

Love the suds

After I got most of the soap into the mold, I put the last of the soap into the mold by making stars all over the top of the soap in the mold.  This adds to the appearance of the soap.  I let the soap sit for about 5 hours in the mold without any insulation.  When I went to pull the soap out of the mold it had already hardened enough to pull it out.  After I pulled the soap out of the mold, I then pulled it out of the liner to let it dry a little more before slicing.  I sliced it the next afternoon.  I only had one problem with slicing and that was the fact that for some reason the stars on top were a little on the crumbly side.  It wasn't a big issue, but it did make it harder to keep the e red striped looking clean.  After I sliced everything, I let them sit for about another 24 hours.  This kept them from being so soft that the soap sticks to the stamp.  After stamping all of the bars, I lined them back up on the rack so that they can finish curing.

All finished and stamped

I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://jillshomeremedies.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://obsessiveandcreative.blogspot.com

Pink Grapefruit Salt Bars

Pink Grapefruit Salt Bars

I have wanted to make some salt bars for a while now.  I had the recipe all figured and everything.  Well I finally made them.

Soap with Sea Salt added 

I started by measuring out my liquid, I used half ice and water in separate containers.   I measured out my lye, then I added the lye to the ice.  I poured the water into the container that had held the lye and swirled it to make sure that I had all of the lye before pouring it in with the rest of the lye.  This ensures that I don't end up with a higher super-fat percentage than was planned.

Next I started measuring out my oils.  I used 80% coconut oil along with Sunflower, Rice Bran and castor oils.  Because coconut oil can be drying I used a 20% superfat.  Normally I don't use more than 30% coconut oil in any of my recipes, but the salt negatively effects lather so the extra coconut oil compensates for it.  I also added 2 Tbs of pink grapefruit essential oils as this point.  Note I did not melt the coconut oil at all.

In the mold

I added the lye to the oils and started to blend it.  The color wasn't great at this point, but I wasn't finished.  I blended until all of the oils were emulsified.  At this point I added about 1/2 tsp of madder root powder directly to the soap and blended until there weren't any more lumps.  By this point I was at a light trace.

It was time to add the salt.  So I measured out 40 ounces of sea salt ( equal to the amount of oils).

Sliced and ready

I added the salt in three parts to help minimize lumps of salt in the final product.  Unfortunately I forgot to make sure the salt was free of lumps before I started adding it.  As a result I had to do a little mashing after the soap was in the mold.  It worked but it would have been easier if I had crushed the lumps before adding the salt to the soap.  After I got the soap all in the mold I sprinkled the top with some Himalayan pink salt.  Since the soap is lightly pink due to the madder root the pink salt makes the finished soap look that much better.  I did not force gel on this soap and it didn't heat up like the last several batches have.  Since it wasn't hardening up like it was supposed to, I put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.  This did not make it gel but it did cause it to stiffen up a bit more.

I finally decided that it wouldn't work to cut it the next morning and started cutting.   It definitely got interesting.  I have several small shallow cuts on my hands so handling this soap was a little challenging.  I kept having to wash my hands to get all of the soap off.  I finally got all of the soap cut.  I decided to wait before putting the soap on the curing rack.  I didn't want to have groves in my finished bars, and the bars were still soft enough for the rack to deform the bars.

Just washing my hands with this soap left them feeling amazing!  I think one will be a keeper.



I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://obsessiveandcreative.blogspot.com
http://jillshomeremedies.blogspot.com
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com
http://obsessiveandcreative.blogspot.com

Chamomile Soother

Finished Soap

I made 2 batches of soap on Monday.  One of them was a batch of English Breakfast the other was a batch of chamomile.

Poured in the mold

I started by measuring 10 ounces of water and steeping the tea in it.  Next I measured out 14 ounces of ice and my lye and mixed them.  I measured all of my oils next.  I decided not to melt my oils again.  I had good results with this.  I mixed the tea with the lye and added the remaining water.  After getting a light trace I seperated into 2 parts and mixed titanium dioxide in one and turmeric oil into the other.  I had cut a piece of cardboard to fit down the middle of my mold.  It was definitely interesting to try to pour both colors at once so the cardboard didn't move.

Right after swirling

 I managed to keep the soap fairly even amazingly enough.  After I swirled the soap itself, I mixed a little bit of cappuccino mica with a little glycerin.  I dripped the mixture around the top of the soap.  I used the very tip of a skewer to swirl it around drawing circles on the top of the fresh soap.

I have found that I don't need to insulate my wooden mold.  It almost always gels without any help.  The few times I have added heat it has backfired on me and my soap has ended up overheating.

Swirl after curing

I left the soap overnight to harden and saponify.  After pulling the soap out of the mold in the morning, I cut the loaf in half lengthwise.  I realized after I poured this soap that I should have used 2 dividers in order for the bars to have the swirl in each bar.  I am really pleased with this soap in spite of the swirl division.

Cut bars

Top of the bars

Love the lather

This soap still smells a little funky like tea soaps usually do for the first couple of days, but it should smell really nice in another couple of days.  When I went to trim and stamp the soap last night it had gotten pretty hard already.  I am really pleased with this soap.  It has a lovely lather.  And I am excited to add this soap to my available lineup.



I am linking with the following blogs:
http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com
http://www.jillshomeremedies.blogspot.com/
http://www.create-with-joy.com
http://teachingwhatisgood.com/
http://cupcake-n-bake.blogspot.com
http://alifeinbalance.net
http://thediydreamer.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com
http://lavendergardencottage.blogspot.com
http://www.flusterbuster.com
http://www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
http://www.bystephanielynn.com
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/
http://www.iamannekehn.blogspot.com