Oatmeal Honey Soap - 2 lb batch
- 25% olive oil
- 20% shortening
- 20% coconut oil
- 15% shea butter
- 15% almond oil
- 4% castor oil
- 1% neem seed oil
- water/lye
- Additives included honey, ground oats, tumeric, oatmeal/milk/honey EO, vanilla bean spice FO
I found this to be a nice creamy soap at light trace. As soon as I began adding in the extras the soap traced heavily rather quickly. After doing some research and checking with my soaping buddies, I have come to the following realizations...
- oatmeal speeds up trace
- FO speeds up trace
- honey speeds up trace, and heats soap
You will notice the soap has a dark center in each piece. This is due to the soap being too warm as it set. It is called 'gelling'. Some people like the gelling as it increases the richness of pigment. Some people prefer without as it makes the soap look more natural and rustic. I usually go for the non-gelled look, however, this time I will have to settle, as it may fade but will never disappear.
I achieved gelling by not cooling the soap as soon as I poured it - if I had placed the molds into the freezer I may have avoided it. Also, I believe I mixed my soap at a too high temperature. I should have let both components cool a little more before mixing. I believe I mixed at around 140 degrees and should have let it cool to at least 90-100 degrees.
Live and learn!
Avocado Soap 2 lb batch
This soap was created with a 6% superfat rather than the default 5% for extra moisturizing.
- 11.20 oz avocado oil
- 9.60 oz coconut oil
- 6.40 oz shortening
- 4.80 oz olive oil
- 12.16 oz water
- 4.95 oz lye
Additives included 1 tsp yellow macha tea powder (added to the water), 1 tsp ground oats, grapefruit seed extract, sweet orange EO, eucalyptus mint EO.
Bath Bombs
These are whats left of my bath bombs. They still smell amazing, and I made them about 6 months ago.
- 1 cup baking soda
- 1/2 cup citric acid
- 1 Tbsp melted shea butter - I made a mixure of melted shea butter, almond oil and about a drop or two of vitamin E oil, but used 1 Tbsp total of the mixure.
- drops of EO or FO
- drops of colour (optional)
- a few spritz's of water/witch hazel
One batch makes about 8 bombs the size pictured. My mold was from a multi pack beads, so each mold is about 1.5" wide by 2.5-3" long and about 3/4" deep or so.
- Please note, if anyone wants to use my recipes, please be sure to run them through a soap calculator before you begin, just to double check my numbers.
- Also, all soap measures are by weight, not liquid measures
This is my prefered soap calculator program.
.http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp
