Thursday, October 18, 2012

Morning after

16.10.2012 - Update on my 8% SF soap
I turned the soaps out of the moulds this morning. They are still soft. But, firm. In fact, they have a jello kind of feel to them. Wonder if it is the 8% superfat or the other superfatting oils. Will wait and see. Hope they firm up and cure. I really do like the colour and the smell is divine...

Citronella & Eucalyptus soaps curing


The smaller soap did not gel

I am not a big fan of silicon moulds for my soaps. I have noticed that silicon tends to keep the heat in for far too long and hence the soaps in these moulds do not harden at the same pace as the ones I put into plastic. Has anyone else had this problem? Please share your experiences with me. The only thing that makes me go back to them are the wonderful shapes and sizes they come in. As you can see, the smaller cake on the left was in a silicon mould. It is still too soft to the touch.

Update on Salt Bars

As promised here are my salt bars when I turned them out of their moulds this morning. The spearmint smell makes me want to dig my teeth into them. Very refreshing smell. I should probably try it in one of my sugar scrubs. I have been wanting to make a chocolate sugar scrub. A mint chocolate sugar scrub would be nice. Will share if I do...




 Salt bars made with 70% salt

Having made at least a dozen batches of soap, I realise that I do not like working with palm oil or shortening. While soaps made with palm are hard and white, I do not think they are very moisturising. Maybe I should try using them at 20% of the total oil weight. I have tried 30% in my Carrot and Coconut Milk soap, and though it turned out very nice, I thought it could do with more conditioning. I do not feel the same when I make soaps without palm oil. 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Another batch of laundry soap

Liquid laundry soap

I made a fresh batch of my laundry soap today. I seem to be running out of it pretty fast since I now use it for dishwashing as well. It is made with my non-SF soap that I had made a little while ago.

Non SF soap for laundry and dishwashing

 The proportions I have used today are a cup and a half of grated soap, a cup of washing soda and 7 ltrs of distilled water. I have scented it with tea tree and lemongrass EOs.

First attempt at Salt bars

Enough is enough........I had to try out the salt bars that I had ogled at on the net. Notwithstanding the different opinions that were out there. I would never know till I had tried it.....So, today I did my first batch. A small batch with 100 gms oils. I added 70 gms of normal every day salt. Really excited and can't wait to try them out. One month seems so loooong..........



Salt bars in moulds. Coconut, grape seed,castor 
& rice bran oils

I shall post pictures tomorrow after I unmould them. The colour in them is because I used my previously frozen carrot puree as the liquid with the lye. I have scented them with spearmint and ylang ylang(wierd combination, i know). I have superfatted them at 12% and have also added a couple of drops of almond and jojoba oil at trace. My greatest fear is not to have a soap which is suitably moisturising in the extremely dry weather we have here. So, I have learnt to be a little too cautious. My first couple of batches were with 5% SF and the familly is not very happy with the moisturizing..........

Monday, October 15, 2012

Finally......I made 8%SF soap


Finally, I got down to it. After nearly a fortnight, I did make a small batch of soap, about a pound and a half. I have been wanting to try out soap with 8% superfat. The ones I made with 5% superfat have got great reviews, and friends and family love the way it leaves their skin moisturized. But, it still does not do away with the need to use lotion. I wanted to attempt a soap which would do away with the need to use lotion. Here, in Bangalore, the weather is extremely dry. So, here goes ...........

Base oils, superfatting oils and EOs

You can see my base oils, which are paprika-infused olive oil (hence the colour), rice bran oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil and castor oil. This is the first time I am working with sunflower oil. In the foreground, on the left are my superfatting oils and honey and on the right are the EO blend of lemon grass, citronella and tea tree. 

The oils and lye at light trace

I normally mix my oils and lye at a very low temperature because I don't want to panic  with the soap coming to trace very quickly. I added by EOs first and then my superfatting oils. Since I was using honey, which accelerates trace, and Evening Primrose oil for the first time, I did not want it to either seize or come to trace quickly. Thankfully, neither happened. It was smooth sailing.  

Ready to pour into the moulds

Once I added the EOs, it did get to trace pretty fast. But, that was fine.......... I decided to use individual moulds instead of a block since it was such a small lot.


Into the moulds...........

As you can see, I managed to get only 8 square cakes (3in square) and a small silicon mould.  I absolutely love the colour. It is such a rich orange. I wish my carrot and coconut milk soaps would have turned out this colour. But, carrot goes through a colour change after saponification and that lot of soap was more yellow than orange.


6 hrs later.....

After 6 hours, I was surprised to see that the soap had got to the gel stage despite being in individual moulds and having covered it loosely with a cardboard. If you look closely, you can see the gelled soap underneath the top layer in the mould in the centre first row. In fact, I think it had a minor volcanic eruption if I am to go by the stain on the cardboard. Honey was the culprit. And expected. I can't wait to see what it will look like tomorrow. It is currently very soft. I hope I did not superfat it too much. Tomorrow will tell.

Anyway, goodnight every body. Been a fruitful day today................

Sunday, October 14, 2012

My soaps....


My current crop of soaps
These are the current batch of soaps which have cured and are on sale. Left to right in the top row are clove & eucalyptus, cirusy green tea and yummy beer & honey soap . The second row has my carrot & coconut milk, olive & coconut oil with poppy seeds and lemongrass soap. The last soap is peppermint soap. The lemongrass was my first attempt and the peppermint was the second batch........not bad, right?

In the first picture the two soaps in the foreground are rebatched soaps in which I added jojoba and sweet almond oils. My DH loves them, so I have not distributed any of those and have kept them just for him. Though, he is yet to try my olive & coconut oil soap with poppy seeds for exfoliation and the beer & honey soap. I bet he will love those too.

It has been more than two weeks since I made my last batch of soap. I seriously need to make a batch today. I hope I can, considering it's a Sunday and the gang is at home. If I do, I shall try posting photographs of the process................

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A little about me........

It is nice to see that I have been having quite a few visitors to my blog. 64 views in a little over two weeks. That's a good start, I would think. Though I do not know how many actually did pause to read my blog. Maybe they tumbled upon it by accident or left just as quickly. Anyway, I shall look at the glass half full as always........

Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a SAH (stay-at-home) mom of three. Two daughters and a son. They have all been homeschooled. Or rather, the girls have completed their schooling and my son is in high school. I am proud of the fact that my older daughter is now working at an ad firm as a copywriter and my second daughter is yet to decide whether she would like to study further or take up a job. Maybe a little prodding from me would help. But, I want her to figure it out. I will only prod when I am asked to. My son loves to play tennis and enjoys his few hours of game everyday. His idol is..........yeah, you guessed it, Roger Federer. Currrently, he participates in tournaments at the state level.


Looking for a drink, maybe....

My DH works for a private company. He has been quite supportive with my soap making and loves my soaps. I am hoping he will help me with his marketing expertise when I decide to go commercial in a big way, which I should soon else my home is going to overflow with soaps.............