Teach Soap

Well, after many months, I FINALLY took the time to experiment with making some m&p soap batches, so I thought I would share my experiences here.

I used both Brambleberry clear and white m&p bases, mostly in a combination of 1/3 white to 2/3 clear (just to make a fairly opaque soap). I had no troubles melting the soap bases using my microwave oven, which I used at only 30% power, with stirring every couple of minutes after about the first 4 or 5 minutes, so as to not boil or overheat the soap. I heated the cut-up soap pieces in glass measuring cups (of either 4 or 8 cup capacities), and found that if I heated the soap to the point that the glass container was almost (but not quite) too hot to touch after stirring the soap, it was just about at the right temperature.

Now I know this was probably bad for a beginner to do, but I didn't use any kind of standardized or pre-obtained recipes, but "winged it" by more or less guessing on my own. I used essential oils in all cases (no fragrance oils), except for one batch in which I used some floral absolutes. Here are my results:


#1) Lime-Spearmint: I like this one a lot! Used about 8 times as much lime essential oil (distilled, not expressed) as spearmint oil, which ended up smelling pretty balanced between the two aromas.

#2) Spruce-Cedarwood: Used 9 times as much spruce-fir essential oils as the cedarwood EOs (a combination of Atlas and Virginia Cedarwood oils), 20 ml total oils in 720 grams of soap (which made 4 large, 6.1 oz bars), which ended up smelling overwhelmingly of the conifer needle oils and hardly or not at all of the cedar; next time, I would add more cedarwood oil in proportion. The soap came out smelling very strongly of the spruce-fir needle oils as poured, but was surprisingly light-scented when used in the shower --- next time, I would add more spruce-fir oils as well.

#3) Ylang Ylang: As for the Spruce-Cedarwood batch above, used 20 ml of total YY EOs (half YY III, half YY Complete) in the same amount of soap base as used in that batch. And similarly to that batch, it came out VERY strongly scented as poured, or when smelled directly from the bars, but was not so very strong when used in the shower --- next time, I would add maybe 25% more Ylang Ylang oils, to get it to the strength that I was hoping for. Interestingly, this soap was very fruity and balsamic, and not too floral, while in use, very much unlike how the raw EO smells by itself.

#4) Frankincense-Myrrh-Spices: This one used in total somewhat more oils than the last two batches, and was roughly a 50:50 combination of Frankincense and Myrrh EOs on the one hand, and a mixture of spice EOs (clove, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander seed) on the other. The bars when cooled smell fairly spicy, but the predominate smell when in use is of the frankincense and myrrh, which is what I was hoping for anyway.

#5) Jasmine - Orange Blossom: For this batch, I used 100% white soap base, and instead of essential oils used floral absolutes, which yes were expensive, but it only took a small amount of each to give a good aroma to the soap. I used 40% Jasmine Sambac Absolute, 40% Jasmine Grandifolium Absolute, and 20% Orange Blossom Absolute, dissolved in approx. 12 ml of fractionated coconut oil before mixing them into the melted soap base. This one I have not yet tried using, but the bars smell very nice, very floral, without being overwhelming or cloying. Only needed 2.5 ml total of the floral absolutes for one batch that made four 6.2 oz bars, so the expense was not that much greater, per bar, than for the others, and actually less than for the Frankincense-Myrrh-Spice soap immediately above.

In terms of my liking for these batches, I would say my favorite one was the Lime-Spearmint, followed in order by the Jasmine, the Frankincense-Myrrh-Spice, the Spruce-Cedarwood, and the Ylang Ylang last. I do not dislike the Ylang Ylang one, but it was the one batch whose aroma as the soap was the most radically altered or different from the pure essential oil, so I guess that was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment --- but I cannot call it bad in any way, either, although I felt it needed to be somewhat stronger.

I hope somebody out there might find this to be of help, or of interest in trying similar batches down the road.

You can wing it except for adding essential oils. Add to much and they can be irritating. Some of the EO's that can irritate are cinnamon, clove, black pepper & allspice. Those should be used in very small quantities. Take a look at the IFRA Essential Oil Safety Guidelines. http://www.ifraorg.org/view_document.aspx?docId=22268 I suggest that you get a small and accurate scale. They are not that expensive. I prefer not to use absolutes in soap, as it's a wash off product and they are $$$. I love them in lotions and creams though.

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

I see. Thank you for the clarification. If you ever want to play with essential oils and blends, take a look at http://www.rainbowmeadow.com/infocenter ... select.php

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

Well, I can certainly see where it might concern you to read of some newbie casually playing around with potentially seriously irritating oils in soaps! I did, in fact, treat those spice oils as I would have any caustic reagent that I used to use in the laboratory --- or habanero peppers for that matter, which are NOT to be trifled with! Believe me, one only finely chops over a half-pound of habaneros by hand and then accidentally rubs their eyes with that hand ONE TIME!

_________________
Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!