Teach Soap

I'm working on a chai eo blend today. I found the thesage.com blog blend and tried it, the coriander is an interesting touch. I happened to have it since my hubby bought it by accident. I don't have vanilla, and it seems to need it cause the star anise is taking over.
Every chai I drink has cardamon but at $300 for 3 oz I'm not going to touch that. Does anyone have a favorite substitute?

So after letting the test mix sit and blend together for a few days, I have to say that it smells good. even without the vanilla. I want it to be more on the clove-y side, because that's what I think of when I smell chai, but that is easy to do.

I don't know where you're seeing cardamon at such a price. EOU has 4oz for $45.18.

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

I think letting the EO's sit for a few days is definitely key with a complex blend like most chai's seem to be, I know mine have morphed a bit Gotta say though, I can't make a blend without cardamom -- I have a very specific chai (tea) in mind when I work on it, and cardamom has a starring role. XD

That IS alarmingly expensive for cardamom, though! I've been through a handful of different suppliers, with one of them having 5 variants of the stuff, and I like New Directions Aromatics the best -- it's the most pricey of the ones I've tried, but it's still $123 for 3.3 oz. (and I don't buy it in that quantity right now! ) It's the one that smells most like the spice right out of the bottle, to me.

I used the cheaper Eden Botanicals cardamom in my chai soap blend, but I let the blend mix for 2 weeks before I soaped with it. The cardamom is really pungently medicinal straight out of the bottle, but mellows a bit in the blend over time.

Liberty Naturals' cardamom CO2s seem on par with Eden's, quality-wise. The steam distillations are less sharp, but not as smooth as NDA's.

I'm pretty sure I tried EOU's -- I know I got several things from them in my last order -- but if I did, I didn't like it much. ^^;

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

Ooo... have you tried it in CP soap? I've been curious about trying this blend and would love to know how well it works...

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So, I relooked at the prices I had checked, and yes, it's about 120 for 3 oz. I must have gotten it mixed up with the something else I was researching. (I tend to over multitask.) Still, I tend to draw the line at 100-200/ lb. I'll have to look at eou.
I'm still in the qtip testing phase, so I haven't gotten to test it in soap yet. It's going to be a milk soap, so I'm trying to envision it with a milky scent to it. The anise and coriander end up mixing really well and remind me of a chai I used to drink all the time. I have a bar from peacock republic that I'm using for reference. Theirs is still yummier, so I'm going to wait until I have a few blends that I want to try. Since I'm using only eo's and many have eugenol in them, I'm conscience that I have to limit the percentage to 0.6% of my oils. I know cinnamon at that rate still smells great, but the total eugenol content (clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg) combined need to be that percentage. If I can get a bar to be that yummy with that percentage rate, I'll be very happy.

@itspennylane - did you ever get the copaiba balsam we talked about? I have a big bottle of it in my cabinet from NDA now, but to be honest, it's very woody. Smells lovely and warm but it's not something I can necessarily imagine at 50% in a chai blend (as the one NDA customer had suggested in the reviews). So am still trying to figure out what kind of blend I'd use this for. Apparently it has fixative properties though.

I did also get a teeny bottle of cardamom from NDA but geez, it's so expensive and there's so little of it I'm hesitant to use it for fear of wasting it in a blend that doesn't work out just right! Or it might just disappear too though it seems to have lots of body.

Nutmeg isn't cheap either I noticed ... and by the time you combine all the EOs...

Very astute re the eugenol content - thanks for sharing! Is eugenol what makes spicier EOs more irritating to the skin?

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

I had posted a reply about the copaiba, but I guess it got lost in the mix. The copaiba reminds me of the balsam wood my brother used to make rc planes out of. I did try it in the first chai blend i did, but i agree wih you, it doesn't belong in a chai mix. rainbowmeadow has copaiba in a few of the blends, so i might try it again in another mix.

Thanks and sorry that I missed your reply before. Will check it out
Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Just got the cardamon in the mail. Even without opening it up all the way it smells awesome. I can't wait to try it out in a blend

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

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~Shell

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

The next question would be... if you are doing a blend would it be advised to let the blend sit and mix for 2-4 weeks before using it in the soap?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I definitely would... I tend to make 100g of a blend at a time, which will get me 2-3 batches of soap, and let it sit for at least 2 weeks. Longer is great, but sometimes I'm just in a hurry. (One thing's for sure, this is not a craft for the impatient. ) I've found that spice blends in particular (like chai, or a gingerbread I'm working on) seem to benefit from a long sit, but my blending repertoire is still kind of small at the moment, so that may not mean much.

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!