Teach Soap

Besides my hand blender "issues", I had loads of fun making this soap. The Lavender FO is not overpowering and the tea tree EO adds a refreshing note. For this 4 lb batch I added 1 oz of Brambleberry's Lavender FO, and about 0.2 oz of Aveda's Tea Tree EO.

The darker bars have oatmeal in them, where as the lighter ones did not pass the swirling test. I'm not bothered here, though. I just love the smell!

Here's my recipe:

Amount
% in
recipe:
Apricot Kernel Oil 5.00
Canola Oil 20.00
Coconut Oil 20.00
Corn Oil 15.00
Olive Oil 20.00
Soybean Oil 20.00


Here's a pic!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/M7 ... directlink

Good for you!
Next time you want to make a purple soap, mix the colorant into some glycerin so you don't end up with speckles.
Aveda's oils are VERY expensive. There are many vendors online including BrambleBerry with as good as quality of oils, but with a much better price point.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Cubbles, your soaps look great to me. To me the speckles adds character

Thanks! I kind of like the specks too. I know I'd like to have a solid color come out eventually. The Violet oxide I got from BB was all clumpy. I was hoping the hand blender would dissolve them. Alas, I killed my blender. Hand stirring did not get rid of the little chunks.

As for Aveda's oils: yes! They are very expensive. I bought that one ounce bottle many moons ago, however. I think It was 13$. OUCH! Trader Joe's has an Australian tea tree oil for half the price.

Thanks for looking out, though!

for your 'clumpy' oxides, us a small sieve or a tea strainer and break up any clumps with the back of a teaspoon!

Your soap looks nice!

[quote="jbren"]for your 'clumpy' oxides, us a small sieve or a tea strainer and break up any clumps with the back of a teaspoon! [quote]

That reminds me...
I was at Home Depot the other day and saw a little dimpled (?) strainer in the plumbing aisle. It is intended to sit in your sink drain and catch anything as water goes through. They have a couple of sizes. The smallish size sits easily on top of a bottle with a little dimple part down inside the opening. This works great for straining out the bits from my infused oils.

_________________
- Mickey!

Those bars look lovely, and the scent combination is just like a soap i used to use for freshly healing piercings, but the company that makes it (crazy chameleon, i think) stopped making it in bar form. I absolutely loved that smell, so i can tell they smell awesome just from looking at them. The color's real pretty, too.

While I have heard of fragrances smelling light when dry and stronger when wet, I think this soap of mine has done the opposite.

This batch has cured for about 4 weeks now, and the pH read somewhere between 7 and 8.

I tested it on my hands and then tried it out in the shower. It was very creamy and I loved the lather, but the fragrance wasn't as strong as right before stepping into the water.

for 4 lbs. of soap this only had 1oz of Lavender and 0.2 oz Tea Tree. I'm pretty sure it could use more FO.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Yes the pH strip testing has been a challenge lately. I simply carved a small piece of the soap, lathered it up and dipped the strip in that. It's in the greenish area right now.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

That was a tricky site to find the meter, but I found it! 100 bucks is a lot for such a high-tech gizmo. Ouchie on my wallet!

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Got it!

I tongue zapped one bar and it tasted yucky--like NOT soap yucky...I've tasted soap many a times. This was border-line soapy taste... and it was the TOP of the mold cut.

I got curious and shaved off the top, which was lighter than the rest of the soap...after a couple of millimeters I tongue zapped again and it tasted like full-on soap...

Was that lighter stuff I shaved from the top, this "ash" that I'm reading about?

It was most likely ash. Congrats on your soap!

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.