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Soap making is a fun and exciting hobby, full of trial and tribulations! When you create soap you are creating art, each one is different, never the same. An addicting hobby.... once you get started all you think about is what kind of soap to make next. This blog is about my soaping experience please enjoy!



Monday, May 24, 2010

Johnny's "Lady Bug" Soap







My husband John. He has been supportive of my new hobby. I have been keeping the kitchen in a bit of a mess last few months. But he wants me to be successful. He came up with an idea of making a "Lady Bug" Soap and I ran with it. I came up with an idea of Black Raspberry Fragrance Oil, colour the bar red and add poppy seeds to visualize the ladybug concept. Well did it turn out nice. Again using my bible (Sandy Maine's The Soap Book) I came up with the recipe. I added a few other ingredients and of course used the soapcalc for proper measure here is the finished bar. Smells soooo gooood!!
Looks real good too!
I am very pleased with this batch. Here you can see the finished bar. I will give you the recipe.
3.0 oz Castor Oil
5.8 oz Palm Oil
6.0 Oz French Roasted Hazelnut Oil
32.5 oz Crisco (w/palm)
24.0 oz Coconut Oil (76 degree)
24.0 oz Olive Oil
4 tsp Moraccan Red Clay
4 oz Black Raspberry Fragrance Oil
1 bag Poppy Seeds
36.214 oz distilled water
13.456 oz Sodium Hydroxide (lye)
yield 6 lbs of soap (5.96 to be exact)

I had left over ingredients from a coffee soap I made so I decided to use them up in this batch. The soap turned out amazing!
2 days before mix your clay with your oil, I used the hazelnut oil to blend with the clay, but again you can choose your EO.
As with the Eucalyptus Soap the method is the same for this recipe.

Melt the hard oils first on the stove then mix the liquid ones after the hard oils liquify. Mix your water and lye. Let the two cool to 110 degrees. Then mix together
Take a cup of soap at trace and mix into the red clay, I thoroughly mixed it into the soap mix as I wanted the soap to be solid red. Add your frangrance oil and poppy seeds pour into molds let it sit 36 hours unmold and cut.

How to Mix your Clay

With the recipe what I did was prepare the French Green Clay 2 days before hand. In a container mix the 4 tsp of green clay with an essential oil. I used 2 oz Sweet Almond Oil. Mix with a stir stick and put in the fridge so the grains of the clay absorb with the oil. I continually took it out of the fridge and gave it a good stir. This makes sure that the grains of the clay are fully absorbed with the oil before mixing it into the soap. You don't want to have dry grains in your finished bars. Plus the oil seperates from the clay if left alone, just like oil and vinegar does if you don't shake it. Same thing.

New Soap Eucalyptus Spearmint and Instructions



Here is my Eucalyptus Spearmint bars of soap I used the Sandy Maine book again and added some Greed French Clay for marble effect and Eucalyputus Spearmint Fragrance Oil. Again with Sandy's Maine recipe, it turned out real nice and smells amazing. Here is the recipe and instructions how to make:
32 oz Crisco All Vegetable Oil (new w/palm)
24 oz Coconut Oil (76 degree)
24 oz Olive Oil
2 oz Sweet Almond Oil
4 tsp. French Green Clay for colour
5 tsp. Ground Pumice
30.4 oz Distilled Water
11.45 oz Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)
With your tare scale measure your ingredients. I start with the Olive Oil set aside. Then I measure my coconut and crisco and place them into a stainless steel pot for melting on the stove. Before I put the element on I measure out my distilled water and place that into my other stainless pot and put it in the kitchen sink and open the window. Then measure the lye.
Once I've done all that I mix the lye into the water and stir so it gets properly melted in the water and then I turn the stove on at medium heat and melt the coconut and crisco oils so they become liquid. Once they are liquified I take off the stove and then add the olive oil. At this stage the lye and the oils need to be cooled down to at least 110 degrees. This is where you test the temp with your candy thermometers.
While things are cooling down I line my molds with wax paper to have them ready. You can do this before hand but I find it takes a good 1/2 hour for things to cool so I do it then gives me something to do while I wait.
Of course having your stick blender ready, and your other ingredients handy by the stick blender, should be the next thing you do. Its just like baking. Then your not running.
Okay so now you are at 110 degrees. you should have your rubber gloves on too as now you take your lye and pour it into your oil pot. You will see right away it mixes into your oil like heavy white pudding. Take your stick blender immerse it into the pot then turn it on and blend. When you notice that the mix is turning thick like pudding and the mixture stays on the blender and leaves trace marks on top you know your soap is at trace.
Now take your Fragrance Oil and pour into the soap mixture. Give it a good few blasts with the stick blender. Now add your ground pumice stone and stir it in, you can stir with the stick blender on the off mode to mix it in.
Now for the Green Clay. Because I wanted to marble the soap, I took about a cup of the soap mixture and poured it into the container with the clay and mixed it with a wire whisk, when I felt it was mixed enough I poured it into the pot. (ITP) and did not mix it thouroughly into the soap as I didn't want all the soap to turn green. I poured it in gave it just a quick stir and thats it! Ready to pour into the molds.
I had two molds ready to go. Pour the soap into the molds and smooth out with a spatchula so its even. I cover the molds with a couple of layers of plastic wrap and set aside to saponify. I also have a nice piece of heavy bubble wrap I put on top of the molds and then cover them with an old bath towel. Now you have to wait for the soap to do its thing. 36 hours, at least! Just leave it to cook. Its hard not to peak and smell. but don't as you want the soap to stay hot and warm plus you don't want soap ash to form on top.
After your bars have sat undisturbed for 36 hours you can take them out of the mold. The soap logs you have created are ready to cut into bars. Going back into the blog I have expalined my use of a mitre box for cutting the bars.
I got 44 bars out of this batch of soap and it yields 5 pounds. One of best bars to date! My fragrance oils, lye, coconut oil were all ordered from http://www.saffireblue.com/

Sandy Maine's "The Soap Book"



I have been talking so much about this book here it is so if you want to pick up a copy you will know which one to buy. Like I said before its my bible, easy to follow and nice recipes to try.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Nature's Touch Organic Soap!


Well my friend Sandy Wilson from Perkionmenville, PA has been my mentor I just love her! I was struggling with a name to call my soap business and this is what she came up for me, I love it Sandy and have registered it with Revenue Canada and now have a Vendors Permit! It suits the Organic Shop to a tee!! :-) This is the result of my hard work since coming back from Red Deer at Christmas, with my sister Donna's encouragement and Sandy it took only six months to get my business up and going!
I just hope I can keep up if I sell out :-(
I need to soap everynight and the only thing is is costs money to make money and that I don't have...maybe time to talk to a banker...we'll have to see. Grand Opening is in 10 mins...May 21st, its now 10 mins to midnight I bet Amy can't sleep a wink. I wish her all the luck in the world at her new shop and want to thank her for such a great opportunity to be a part of it!!!! YAHOO

Amy's Organics!!! and I'm In!!!


Well I have been extremely busy with soap making. I've kind of mastered the Sandy Maine Recipe and am still loving it as it is simple and turns out real great! I haven't been writing my blog because as it turns out I just happened to go on the Kiijjii site,its like ebay where you can post ads for stuff for sale and want ads and things. So one morning about a month ago I was poking around the hobbies and crafts section and saw this ad for someone who was looking for someone local who makes handmade soaps....my face dropped, what is this I exclaimed!!!! to my husband John , I emailed her right away and told her I was making soap in my kitchen. This girl Amy is in the process of opening an organic shop and was looking for local artisans to help fill up her new store. It is a country store that is a about 15 mins out of town and she called me, we met and she agreed to put my soap there on consignment. What a break for me!!! I was the only one who answered her ad too by the way.
I have been very busy making soap and getting all my other soaps wrapped and tagged and weighed and going to the printers, I finally bought one so I can print my stuff out at home. thats another story..... buying stuff to make my display for the shop space she's given me. I have been working at cab driving, making soap, walking dog, doing my gardening and housekeeping, running back and forth to her shop and am exhausted but so excited!!!!!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A good recipe!

Okay so I am catching up a little here no pictures ....but my bible has been Sandy Maines, The Soap Book. Her book uses the same ingredients for the soap base and then gives recipes using different scents and oils. I love this book! Its so simple: I'll give it to you....

24 oz olive oil
24 oz coconut oil
38 oz Crisco All Vegetable oil (I use the new w/palm)
12 oz lye
32 oz distilled water

At trace add your Fragrance Oils, Essential Oils your colours if you are marbling your clays or ground exfoliants. mix and put into your molds. I find her book so easy to follow for us beginners! check her out on the web www.sunfeathersoaps.com

*Note* it is always good to check your recipe before you start with www.soapcalc.com
for exact measures. Its easy to follow!

Till next time Happy Soaping!

(Now I am in a panic cause I don't know what I did with her book...Its somewhere in my soap piles I've got going on) I hope!

So much to Learn! Soap Molds

I have been struggling with the unification of my soap bars. I have one wooden log mold which I like, another is a plastic mold which was okay at first but the last batch of soap I made with it the sides buckled and I ended up with a puffed out log mold. After cutting it the bars were okay but I had to trim alot of excess off the sides . Because I am going to be selling I want my bars to be uniform so I don't have a bunch of soap thats all whacky! I tried using milk cartons too which the bars turned out but are more square "ish" I have looked at Walmart, Superstore, Staples, for containers that may be suitable for makng a good soap bar but to no avail. I am getting fussy now. (to order on the internet from suppliers, is expensive at this point).
I am pretty tapped. Soaping is not a cheap hobby as I am finding out.

My hubby had a telescope box that was the perfect size and so I used that on the last batch of soap I made and got 44 bars out of it. I will continue to use that box until I can afford to get something else. You really want your bars to look the same! I may commission my hub to make some for me with some of the lumber we have around here.

Soaping Update

Since I started this blog I was such a "newbie" at the process of making soap. Over the last few months I have contiuned to make soap. The Patchouli Love Soap turned out real nice. It leaves a light trace of scent on you all day! No wonder its called Love Soap! I've had people tell me "it smells nice in here" (I drive cab) I'm going to have to make more of it.

I am excited actually as I will be putting soap on consignment in a new shop here in Thunder Bay "Amy's Organics" 526 Lakeshore Drive. My soap will be there on consignment. So that is the reason I haven't written on the blog as I have to get ready to sell!!! We will open May 21st