Cucumber & Yoghurt Soap

I made some Cucumber & Yoghurt Soap. We all know the skin loving properties both these ingredients possess. Cucumber is very good for acne prone skin as well. Since it is highly astringent, I wanted to add something that would balance it out and make it moisturizing as well. There is a generous helping of Shea Butter. I love the feel of Shea Butter in soap. It gives the soap a silky feel. Since Shea is high in unsaponifiables, which means that a lot of the fat in it does not get converted to soap, we get the true benefits of this butter. My Red Clay soap which I made earlier is a hot favourite with all who have bought it.  

Red Clay Soap with Shea Butter

Frozen cucumber puree

I was hoping I would be able to maintain the lovely green of the cucumber. I pureed the cucumber whole, skin et al. But as you can see in the photo below, the lye did manage to alter the colour a lot. That was disappointing. Next time, instead of substituting the water with the cucumber, I shall add it at trace. Maybe that would help maintain the green colour.

Lye & Cucumber mix

My new molds being put to good use

I <3 soap

The soaps turned out pretty big, weighing roughly 125 gms each. That is way above the size of my normal bars, which are roughly between 70-80 gms each. This lot produced just 12 soaps. I made a few sample soaps as well. Cute little pumpkins!

They smell lovely with a blend of Rose, Vetiver & Cedarwood EOs. The Rose though seems to come out more strongly right now. 

 I know it has been a while since I have posted here. It was sheer laziness that prevented me from writing. And a few disappointments. Yes, I have been making soap and not all the batches have come out the way I wanted them to. I guess I should take it in my stride. But, with the craft bazaar coming up in a month's time, I would like to have a lot more soap to offer. It will be the first time that I am going to exhibit my soap. The soap I was most looking forward to was the Tomato & Milk Soap which went wrong from the word 'Go'. I had made two similar batches, one with Tomato Puree and the other with Milk. The idea was to attempt a funnel swirl. But, I guess the fragrance I added took me by complete surprise and the mixes went into accelerated trace. So, I had to abandon the idea of swirling and decided to just layer the mixes. 

Soap after unmolding

But, I guess luck was just not on my side that day. It was too thick to even layer the soap! Everything seemed okay when I poured (put) the mixes into the mold. But, when I unmolded it the next day, I was shocked to find that the top layer of the Tomato soap had separated from the layer of milk soap, as you can see below. 

The centre though did not come apart. I decided to try the oven method and rebatch the tomato soap in muffin trays. And this is what I got...

Not the prettiest of soaps, but they are meant for personal consumption. They definitely have all the goodness of tomatoes. 

I decided I wanted to make a tomato soap because of all the skin loving properties that they have. Tomatoes are high in vitamin content and are a rich source of anti oxidants called Lycopene. Lycopene can counter the aging process on our skin by cutting out free radicals in our bodies. The tonic benefits of the tomato deep cleans and tightens pores. Alpha-Hydroxyl Acids found in tomatoes helps get rid of pimples and acne through its gentle exfoliating action. But, since tomatoes are an astringent, I decided to counter by combining a milk soap to add to its moisturizing properties.

I will definitely not be able to put it up at the stall. It looks quite ugly, I must say. So, I shall enjoy all the benefits of the tomato and the milk........