Teach Soap

I make a oatmeal, milk, and honey soap that is awesome (IMHO). I make sure the lye mixture and oils are below 100 before mixing, and then after adding the honey and oats, pop it in the freezer so it stays lily white. I've insulated it before, but the milk turns too dark for my taste. I want to do a honey vanilla soap with vanilla infused olive oil and copaiba for a little scent. I'm hoping it works.

That's what I made last night (milk/oats/honey/beeswax). I only used a small amt of milk though. The color so far is nice (still un cut) but it definitely gelled and I decided not to try and stop it with this one b/c I was worried about partial gel. (It got REALLY hot from the honey/wax.) Though I did make a gm soap once and kept in super cold until I cut it and it stayed a gorgeous off white color.

Share pics if you have 'em... would love to see how you did yours!
Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Still waiting for the package. I will keep you posted.

Awesome! Thanks.

BTW - my milk and honey soap smells amazing ... like better than it did after unmolding. Smells of fresh baked cookies or something! No EOs or FOs either. So all the scent must be coming from the milk/honey/beeswax.

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

I got the copaiba and the benzoin in the mail, finally. First impressions: the copaiba smells like balsam when on a q-tip, and it's pretty faint. I'm going to make soap with it next week, so I'll see how it works then. The benzoin is the consistency of glue (actually thicker than Elmer's), nice light vanilla-y scent. Should go nicely in a blend, I plan on using it in small amounts first in a test batch to check for sensitivities. I couldn't find a restriction on benzoin in the IFRA document that I downloaded. Does anyone have a reference to the regulation on it?

I'd love to see any documentation as well. Are these IFRA guidelines actually published somewhere or do you have to be a member or purchase them or?

Can't wait to hear how your new EOs work! I ordered some copaiba balsam last week so just patiently waiting for it to arrive. Interesting that it's not that strong as the NDA customers were just raving about it.

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

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

If you search IFRA Standards Booklet (46th Amendment) in google, the document I have is the third listing.

I can't use either of the balsams. They make my skin red and very itchy. (I don't have sensitive skin or any other allergies.) Benzoin is a very well known sensitizer so I'd never use it. Any of these might be okay in a product for your own personal use but I'd never sell or give away products containing any of them. dottie

IFRA booklet. http://www.ifraorg.org/en-us/standards_booklet
or http://www.ifraorg.org/view_document.aspx?docId=22594
Your vendor should be able to supply you with an IFRA certificate covering this particular ingredient.

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

Benzoin is extremely sensitizing and I would not recommend using it in any product, for yourself or to sell. The balsams are also problematic, but quite as bad as the benzoin. I urge you to really do a lot of research before utilizing these, especially the benzoin. And by research, I mean more than just looking it up in the IFRA booklet.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I can't use benzoin at all. There are other alternatives if you are using it in as an anchor for essential oils.

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

I've got some copaiba coming this week that I will try in a teeny batch. I decided to avoid benzoin altogether as it seems just too problematic all around.

Anyone want to share advice on how to use amber? I've read that it's not a true EO but more like a resin of some sort. Curious how to get this scent into soap? (Also read that ambergris is super rare...??)

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

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

Okay this is totally new information to me Irena! Thanks so much. I honestly (and naively) assumed I could just "buy some amber oil of some kind" and plunk it into my soap. Ha! Then I got to thinking this morning that hey, wait a second, how would they even make an EO from amber?? LOL.

What usage rate (of the infused oil) would you recommend?

I'm going hunting for some amber resin now!
Karri

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I soap therefore I am.