Teach Soap

I just made some a few minutes ago, and I thought I would share. I actually found this recipe off About.com

3 oz cocoa butter, 3 oz shea butter, 3 oz beeswax, 3 oz liquid oil
I used sweet almond oil. Should I have used a different oil? Or maybe did half that, half something else?

I melted the butters in the microwave and then stirred it all up (the recipe said you could mircrowave it). I reduced the recipe to about 1 oz of each, because I just wanted to do a little small samples to see before I go using alot of expensive stuff.

Anyways, when I purchased it, the cocoa butter was like ROCK hard--is that normal? I had to get a spoon to dig it out, and even then, it only came up in shavings. Our area lost power for a few days and we had an ice storm come through...so I thought perhaps it had to do with being so cold, since supposedly it melts at room temp/skin temp, perhaps it was just so hard because the outdoor temp carried inside the building. Still if that was the case, I would have thought it would soften a bit when I kept it in my home overnight.

Anyways, so this was my first time trying these so I think I have some more experimenting to do. They do kinda melt to the touch now, and leave a slight greasy feeling...which was expected and I actually kinda like. I hate when you rub lotions in and 5 minutes later you need more. I like the natural smell because I used the beeswax and undeodorized cocoa butter. My question is, since even touching them at all seems to leave greasy finger marks on there, how to do pick them up or put them in packages? And actually, what is the best kind of package for these so they don't melt? Paper? I was thinking of shrink wrapping but then I was afraid that would totally turn the bars into puddles! I am just not sure how to make sure they look perfect condition when they arrive to the customer. Thanks!

My cocoa butter is rock hard too. I wouldn't worry about it. I think that is just the nature of it. Yes, when they are touched you will leave finger prints. That's one reason I like the deodorant style tubes. I don't have to touch the final product. When I did a large order of bars, the customer wanted them in metal tins so I would take a piece of plastic wrap and use that. Handling as much on the sides as possible. If by chance a print did get on the top, I would take the plastic wrap and smooth it out. Light rubbing worked fine. You can also wrap them in the plastic wrap. I don't think I would wrap them in paper. The oils will seep through, I think. Hope that helps you some.

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Haven

I would have done 1.5 oz cocoa butter, 1.5 oz shea butter, 3 oz beeswax, 3 oz liquid oil. Cocoa butter is very hard. Once you are done mixing all of the above and put it into your containers, wait at least a day or so to see if you like it this way. Cocoa butter continues to harden over 24 hours.

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

oh ok. So really could be that just because they popped out of the molds they weren't necessarily ready to be used yet. Just curious, I am open to adjusting the ratios that is why i did such a small amount this time.....what does upping those to 1.5 oz do?

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

woops oh ok. I was thinking upping because when I did my trial I reduced it to 1 oz of each, so I was thinking 1.5.....didn't occur to me that you were changing the original recipe. I will try that, thanks!

If you wanted to leave out the Cocoa butter abd just use shea or mango butter, would you increase the beeswax?

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Diana
Butter Babies Soap
bbsoap.com

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

I wanted to thank everyone that posted about lotion bars. I had to try this the other day as my skin was drier than a raisin and lotion was just not doing anything. I whipped up a quick batch:

1 oz beeswax
.5 oz shea
.5 oz cocoa butter
.5 sweet almond oil
.5 jojoba

and as I was waiting for the oils to cool a bit I added some chocolate FO and a little gold mica. Well, I THOUGHT it was a little but I look like King Midas when I use my bar, lol . I love the way it feels I just have to wash off the mica after using. Oh well, live and learn, right?

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ween rules

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