Teach Soap

Hi guys...

Im new to soapmaking! Love it and I am completely fascinated with the fact that you can create your own scents for the batch!!!
I spent some money on EOs and jumped imediatly onto the creative process:)
I just finished my first batch of homemade soap and it smells great!
For a quick test I used the small remains of soap in the silicon mold to see the consistency, lather and smell. Obviously this is not cured yet but its completely solid! I was surprised to noticed that it made a nice lather but it has 2 major problems:

1 - it dryes my skin a bit!

2 - As soon as it creates the foam it stops smelling. The foam of my soap doesn't have the nice strong smell of the soap itself and after washing my hands with water the scent just disapears!!! Whats wrong?

My recipie:

Castor Oil 05.0%
Coconut Oil (92 Degrees) 15.0%
Jojoba Oil 10.0%
Olive Oil 70.0%

With 5% SUPERFAT
I had EO also (Cedar, Cinnamon, Tangerine)!

Could you give me an insight about these troubles, specially problem number 2?

Thank you guys and congrats on the amazing forum!

How many pounds of soap did you make?
What was the total weight of the EOs?

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Yes, it drying. You need to give it time to cure. Most cold process soaps are cured for at least 4 weeks or more.
What was the % of the essential oil blend that you used? Tangerine can fade in soap, so if that was your main essential oil, that could be why. Soap is a wash off product. The fragrance will not normally stay around for long periods of time.

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

The total batch was 1Kg when pouring in the mold.
3% of EO.
The dry soap smells awesome:)

Curing should make it less drying.

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

Thank you for all your help... Ill let it sit for 4 weeks!

About the LOTION BARS... you sure got me really interested on the subject! Ill jump right into it:)

try making a bar with patchouli, cedarwood and lavender. That one stays on skin all day!

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

Thank you for all your feedback guys... but honnestly Im getting a little frustrated:(

First: I had a really hard time to find out my supplies (I live in Geneva)! Weird fact considering that I live in a modern European town.

Second: my soap is in cure for the past 2 weeks. It smelled wondefully in the firs days but now I can hardly smell the scent at all... the EOs have just lost their strength... (evaporated I guess)

Does this means that my EOs are bad quality. I used aboout 3% EOs on my recipe.

Any ideas?

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Genny

Thank you Genny! Ill give it a try!

I think I used about 3% of EOs... what percentage would you advise me to use in soap making? specially with volatile EOs like Tangerine?