Soap Zealot

To coin a term from my pal Lisa, I am a soap zealot! Here are my latest creations.

Hand Milled Cucumber and Carrot Soaps

 The above is the 7th batch of Cucumber Soap and I finally got it to to the right texture.

Remember how much trouble I've had folding mold liners?

It's hard to do with this tiny mold.

But, I have finally mastered the geometry!

Materials

Getting ready to make Cloud Nine above. This first batch has Tea Tree essential oil for scent.

Cloud Nine

The second Cloud Nine is Lavender.

Cloud Nine Lavender

Here they are side by side.

Soap and Snow

Oh, No! Snow!

 Winter struck again this week and then the snow promptly melted.

The idea for the soap I call “Wandugu” has been percolating in my head for weeks. I have a friend whose brother is at the end of his wits with skin irritations, so I set about to formulate a recipe for him.

Wandugu materials

I suspect he’s simply sensitive to the chemicals common in petro-chemical cleansers, but decided to add the extra emollients of African Shea butter and Grapeseed oil in case he just has extra dry skin.  Also, this soap contains only plant-based scent to avoid any possibility he might be allergic to the tiny amount of synthetics in fragrance oil. By the way, Wandugu means “brother,” in Kenyan.

First Attempt

The first batch of Wandugu failed and went into the crock pot for re-batching.

Second Try--Looks good

 Re-batching of the first Wandugu: After the gray and white were melted and stirred together in the crock pot, it looked pretty boring, so I added alkanet and indigo powders thinking I’d come up with a dark blue. I also added previously made soap chunks that were navy blue and a few castile spirals that I had on hand. Surprise! The batter turned camouflage green, thus the name. This soap making is a crap shoot.

Camouflage Soap: Security for our troups!

 This is the first batch of soap eggs that look good. I bought this “mold” at Goodwill and suspect it was intended for Jello. If I decide to make egg soaps to sell I’ll probably invest in a “real” soap egg mold.

Egg Soaps

 This pic below is of the base I make for the hand milled tomato, cucumber, carrot and strawberry soaps. The reason I’m posting this largely unexciting photo is because it displays my first successful attempt at folding parchment paper into an actual box-shape. That may not seem like much to anyone reading this post, but for me it’s a landslide victory. Geometry has always baffled me. I use gift bags at Christmas because I cannot wrap a decent looking package. Angles and the ability to achieve them have always eluded me. I’m very proud because I just kept at it until I succeeded. 

Soap base and first successful parchment folding

Seeds and Soap

My Mess

 I had to take some time out from soaping for gardening, even though it snowed this morning. The way the wind swooped down from the north reminded me of winter. Then the snow and wind stopped and the sun came out. March is funny that way. Still, it’s hard to get in the mood to start seedlings.

I wasn’t able to get all the herbs started, so will have to work on this project tomorrow.  Since I’m expanding the herb garden, I had ordered some pretty exotic seeds such as Pogostemon cablin (patchouli) and Physalis peruviana (Cape Gooseberry). All I can say is some of the seeds are so tiny I can hardly see them! I’ll have two more “sessions” before the all the herbs and vegetables are seeded.

Herbs Started

 Before I made the seed starting mess, I cut the soap I made yesterday in honor on my friend, Lisa. She’s a Dove Beauty Bar fan, so I attempted to make her a soap I call, “White Winged Dove”.

Essential oils forgotten

I got so caught up in the design elements that I forgot to add the essential oils to the first batch. So, I made a second loaf with somewhat different colors, added the scents and had a second chance to get the dove right.

Natural colorants

Even though I hadn’t cut the first batch yet, I was still able to imagine a possible mistake and correct it. Unfortunately, the first batch will have to be re-named for the female reproductive system. The bird is a little more visible in the second loaf.

First batch on right

So Lisa, I will give you a bar of the scented after its several week cure so you can compare Doves! 

There's a Dove in there somewhere!

Bechard’s Botanicals is Born

Back to Eden

Spring seems a little closer as we’ve had two days of mild melting. "Back to Eden" somehow reminds me of early spring, when all that green underneath is trying to push up. I’ve had my head buried in soap recipes, ordering scents, colors and oils and getting the new website organized. You'll be seeing much more botanical colors added to my batters. It’s an exciting time for me, as I have found my belated “calling” as a soapmaker. I hope to combine this with my love of the outdoors and gardening.

Back to Eden is an experiment it color placement in a “bastile” (70% olive oil) base. The bars are a little crude, but okay for my first try at this particular design.

Ingredients: Saponified olive and coconut oils, parsley, turmeric.

Uncut Castile Log

I knew I’d better get some 100% Olive Oil (Castile) soap made, as it takes a minimum of 14 weeks to cure. It’s amazing what some advertisers call “Castile”. It’s always, always pure olive oil. I like the little glitter flowers on top.

Showing off little gold glitter flowers

 I have made eight tries at Cucumber soap, using Garden of Nemesis frozen, organic cucumber puree. This time I added ground, dried parsley and the color stayed a nice green.

Hand Milled Cucumber

Ingredients: Saponified coconut oil and olive oils, Garden of Nemesis organic cucumbers, dried parsley, fragrance oil.

Nemesis Cucumber Soap

 This pic doesn’t do it justice. It’s lightly scented with cucumber-melon fragrance oil.

Eucalyptus Mint Storm

 Eucalyptus Mint Storm is my second attempt at using dried, ground parsley as a colorant. I think it looks pretty good.

 

Ingredients: Saponified olive and coconut oils, parsley, turmeric, rosemary essential oil, Eucalyptus and mint fragrance oils.

Kaleidoscope

This is the soap I thought I messed up. It is 70% olive oil and 30% coconut oil, with the latter being added 20 minutes later. It's curing nicely. This morning I grabbed a sample and lathered up to test it. It's just fine, but will take additional cure time as it believes it is super, super "superfatted". It is very moisturizing.

Everything’s Comin’ up Daisies

Gerbera Daisy

This dang daisy has noticed the longer daylight hours, but Mother Nature is ignoring that fact. Winter seems to chug on without a hiccup. The 10-Day Forecast has us at least staying above zero, with tonight as an exception.

It is Soaping Confession Time.

Soaping Disaster

Ingredients: saponified olive and coconut oils, annatto, parsley, paprika, essential oils of patchouli, lavender, grapefruit and cedar wood.

I got so busy calculating to subtract the colored oils from the recipe that I forgot to add the coconut oil. I had to melt the missing oil and add some to each of the various containers containing essential oils and colorants. Since I just couldn’t do the math, this batch is a crap shoot.

The second stupid thing I did was to add cornstarch to the bottom of the lye water BEFORE I added the water and then the lye. It cemented to the bottom of the plastic container and wouldn’t mix. Then the mixture turned into gel and I had to strain out cornstarch clumps.

I made a total of five colors from natural ingredients commonly found in any kitchen: ground parsley, annatto, turmeric, paprika and one that is a mystery, as I hadn’t labeled the jar of oil containing the herb believing I could remember what it contained. That's a joke I sometimes play on myself.

When confronted with six colors (one being the base), I became confused was at a loss as to what to do. I didn’t want to do another funnel swirl like Tequila Sunrise, so after I had added a few lines to the bottom, I flung the soap diagonally. After I had filled the mold, I did a back and forth swirl with a chopstick. I forget the name.

This was a mess to clean up and I don’t know if the separately and unevenly added coconut oil will react to the lye after the 20 minutes that had passed. Plus I don’t know about the gelled lye mixture.

Three days later, I unmolded the disaster and after a week it sits on paper towels, gradually seeping oil and still too soft to cut. The good news is, predominantly olive oil soap always seeps and is soft for a prolonged period. My fingers are crossed.

Do the Funky Chicken--wasn't that a dance?

I tried the egg mold, but my batter was too thick so the eggs are weird looking. 

 Here is the hand milled batter I have shaped into cylinders to use for embeds in landscape soap when I feel confident enough to tackle that project. These embeds aren’t perfect but I think will work.

This will be the desert "sun" in landscape soap

Whew! This soap making certainly requires stamina!