Lotion, Soap and Bath Salts

I made some soap, bath salts and lotion for our neighbors for Christmas.  They lavished us with gift last year, we had no idea, so we made sure to participate this year.  What a lovely tradition!

I haven't made much soap or other products in a while so it's great to get back into it after about a year.  I'll be making some more here soon since Steve and I are running out of soap for ourselves!

Merry Christmas!!

First soap in the NC House

Making the first soap in a long time at our new home in North Carolina.

It's always an adjustment to figure out how to use the space correctly and where to do what but it went pretty smoothly.  

I made peppermint soap as part of a gift to our neighbors.  We have a great neighborhood that give each other gifts at Christmas.  Love it!  I love that now I have yet another excuse to make soap and other fun stuff!!!

Gift For An Amazing Colleague

Round soap

I purchased Bramble Berry's round soap mold with a liner that is supposed to make it easy to remove.  I was $9 so why not.

I planned on making a small batch using 450 grams of oils.  My usual batch of 900 grams of oils yields 8-9 bars of soap.  I’m not counting the water/lye weight for these.  I figured the smaller batch would be a good test of the round mold and yield about 4 bars of round soap.

I measured out my oils, water and lye, then set out the essential oil of eucalyptus and some Chrome Green (teal) pigment mixed with a touch of olive oil.  I then mixed my soap.  Once emulsified I took a little less than a cup of soap out into my pyrex pitcher in order to mix the pigment with the soap.  Then I began the pour of my round soap.

I started pouring the colored soap, then some of the uncolored, then colored, then uncolored….etc. etc. until I finished pouring all the soap.  I wrapped the mold with my heating pad in a box so that it could stay in the vertical position.  

Then I went to clean up and discovered the EO was still measured out in its bowl in my mixing area.   Darn it!  I decide to pour it in to the mold and try to mix it into the soap. The soap was still liquid but I didn’t get it mixed in well enough.  Two days later I unmolded the soap; which stuck to the liner by the way and the liner created a little point on one side of the round soap. I noticed just the top of the soap had the eucalyptus smell and the half inch of soap was brown and very strong.

The rest of the soap is pretty but unscented. I sliced the EO part off figuring I can use pieces of it dissolved in my bath when I want to have a eucalyptus bath.  I’ll have to try this whole thing again and hopefully next time remember my EO!!!  I’ve never done that before!  Ugh!

I’m going to Lowes this weekend for some PVC pipes since I want to try out some plastic bag liners I purchased for round soaps.  I think the Brambleberry mold is not quite the same size as the PVC molds.  I’ll try it out and also try the bag out with the BB mold too.  I want round soaps!  If these bags work I know how I can custom make them myself therefore making them shorter or longer as needed.  I’ll post as I proceed.

Lip Balm Tint

I'm having so much fun with this!!  My lip balms have always been a friends and family favorite.  I make a sunflower, shea based balm with beeswax.  Currently I have two flavors, Honey and then Peppermint EO.  Both are awesome.

I decided to try out some lip safe colorants.  I used a burgundy oxide and then Merlot and Copper sparkle mica's.  The tutorial I was following just used the micas with an additional Gold mica.  I ended up adding 4 times the amount of colorant to the small amount of lip balm than was required in the lip balm.  I didn't want mine too sheer.

I'm thinking of getting a mini hand beater to mix in these colorants in the future.  It would help with adding colorants to soap as well.  I like to make my lip balm base in a mason jar and then take out the amount I need when I make lip balms.  I haven't made a ton at once recently so I just use the dropper method of filling the tubes rather than fill a whole tray for 50 lip balms at once.

The lip balm looked pretty dark, but really the concentration of color is not that great where you'd call it more of a lipstick.

Here are my pale lips before....

And then with a light application of the lip balm.  The lighting is bad but it still at least shows that it's sheer and natural looking.  I'm pretty pleased but plan to try out some other tints in the future.....maybe go all mica like the last recipe since the oxide I used cut down on the shimmer.

Lip prints on my coffee mug!

This lip balm is still my honey flavored one, gonna have to get some peppermint made soon,  I love then both!

Lotion Trial Number Two

I used the same recipe but lowered the stearic acid by 1% and upped the water 1%.  I accidentely added too much Jojoba, couple grams.  This time I used a Rise and Shine sample fragrance which is very light and unisex.

I purchased a bottle drying rack (baby bottle I'm guessing).  This worked nicely to sanitize all my bottles and such before making the lotion.  I kept with a higher temperature for mixing but still within the range of the preservative.  This allowed for easy pouring.  I did a smaller batch so made two 2 oz bottles and one 4 oz bottle.

I need to get the regular emulsifying wax to try out and see the comparison of the two.  I still like this recipe in general but excited to try some other oils and of course other scents!

The Color Purple

The color purple, naturally, is a difficult thing to get in Cold process soap.  At least for me it is.  In the past I was able to get a pretty dark purple.  This time I worked with 8% of my oils being alkanet root infused olive oil.  I think in a future post I will have to try alkanet again and compare this result to my next try. 

In some lights my freshly cut soap looks a little bit mauve but still has a purple tinge.  It's pretty but I'm wanting to find the perfect percentage and usage of alkanet root powder for the purple I desire for a lavender soap.  This soap was Ylang Ylang with some Palmarosa to cut the overly sweet scent.

It smells fantastic.  It will look awesome too once I trim and bevel the bars.  I'm really not a rustic look kind of soaper.  I like a bar that even at first use I can swirl it between my hands and it doesn't cut.  When I first started soaping I never beveled the edges.  Ouch!!!

My Ylang Ylang/Palmarosa soap above sits on top of my Lemongrass/Patchouli goats milks soap.  This purple color you see is more close to the actual color I see in the soap under most lighting situations.  The lemongrass soap turned out lovely.  I had a nice pour that was still pretty thin so the bars came out with no lumps or issues.

Some bars had some marring at the ends since I tweaked the silicone mold a little too much.  I just have to be careful how I remove it.  The soap stayed in the mold at least 48 hours before removal.  Additional time would be fine too, hardening the bars a bit may help with the marring issue.

Also note the dark yellow spots.  I just tossed my yellow oxide in the oils and stirred.  Lazy bum!  I really should have incorporated my yellow oxide into a small portion of the oils first then added to the rest.  The color is a bit dark too.  I should have used just one 1.25 cc scoop of the oxide.  Oh well.  I still think it looks nice and it smells amazing!

I'm trying to use up most of the fragrance and essential oils I have left before I order more.  There are favorite scents I'm dying to recreate but they will have to wait.  This weekend I intend to try another lotion; a smaller batch and perhaps just slightly less thick and finally get some bath bombs made.  Also if my order arrives in time I can try my hand at making my lip balms have a tint!  It's so much fun to get back into this hobby; but as the weather gets nicer I think I'll have less time for soap and more time for the pony.....such are my priorities!

Lotion!!!

I made lotion for the first time!  I used a simple recipe of almond, shea butter and jojoba oil.  My emulsifying wax was the conditioning e-wax Behentrimonium Methosulfate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol found here.  It's also known as BTMS.  Many love to use beeswax but I've read about it being difficult to hold the emulsion and I wanted my first time making a lotion to be successful.  I may try out other waxes that can be used for emulsions but for now I'm happy with the result.

I used a paraben free preservative, Optiphen (Phenoxyethanol and Caprylyl Glycol).  From all my research I've decided that preservatives are a necessary thing in lotion.  If you want "all natural" that will potentially include bacteria and fungi and the habit of keeping your lotion in the fridge and tossing it after about a week.  Yuck.  No thank you.  I think the tiny amount of preservative is much better than spreading a fungal or bacterial infection across my skin.

I've had 8 oz blue PET bottles in my soap making area for years.  The silver caps are so classy (though the silver part seems to pop off easily so future orders will be standard white disk caps).  I don't know what I feared with making lotion.  All it is is mixing ingredients.  

Well that and sanitizing everything that may touch your ingredients.  I used the recommended 70% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) to sanitize everything.  No residue is left with rubbing alcohol that could irritate the skin like some other disinfectants.  I soaked the counters, all my tools and the bottles.  Once all was dry I melted my oils, e-wax and stearic acid in the pot.  I heated distilled water in a Pyrex pitcher.  Once the water and oils were both around the same temperature 150 or so, I combined them and stick blended the mixture.  I added more heat to help the combination and prevent cooling and oil solidification.  Getting the oil and water emulsified was really quick.

Once the mixture lowered to the right temperature for Optiphen to be added I poured/mixed the preservative into my lotion and then I incorporated my essential oil, Lavender.  Optiphen needs to be added at temperatures below 176 F to stay effective.  I for some reason thought 140 F was the temperature, which was still fine, the lotion was very liquid and so I was able to pour from my heating and mixing pot into my bottle via the funnel.  I hadn't realized how much lotion the recipe would make.  I filled three of the 8 oz bottles and had to run for another little container as well.

The lotion is thick and absorbs quickly leaving a protective layer; not greasy or waxy at all.  I can't believe the few grams of Lavender essential oil has made this lotion smell so lovely.  I used only 3 grams of EO; for soap I use 60 grams and sometimes have issues smelling the scent.  

I'm excited to try out new combinations of oil and come up with some base lotion recipes that I like.  I want something nice and thick, perhaps with lanolin, for my feet and perhaps when I have chapped skin.  Something light and something medium in weight.  I can combine different e-waxes to different effects and reduce or increase the stearic acid for thickness as well.  For now I won't do too much different from known recipes until I get a better feel for this new aspect of the hobby.

Alkanet and Ylang Ylang

I haven't done Alkanet root coloring in a while.  I made a simple soap with lard and lanolin with the scent of Ylang Ylang and Palmarosa essential oils.

You can see a big difference in color from first pour to full gel.  It usually takes a few days until the purple really shows through, it's all based on pH.  I may have to make a new infusion of alkanet since the one I had been around for a little while in my fridge.  Here's hoping.  If not.....try, try again!

Second Try at Individual Oval Molds

This past weekend I got around to finally trying out my oval soap mold once more.  I tried a goats milk soap again, with two cc scoops of a yellow oxide, and a lemongrass/patchouli essential oil mix.  It's mostly a lemongrass scent but the patchouli cuts it a bit and holds it better in the soap I think.

My mold has been cleaned many times and scrubbed.  The mica I placed into the mold before pouring the soap has stayed in some areas.  Never again will I try to add the mica into a mold first, I'll only mix it in the soap or oils.

I was worried the darker essential oil would make my yellow invisible so I added the two scoops instead of my original idea of one.  We'll soon see the result.

The goats milk was frozen in cubes and then lye slowly mixed into the slush.  I placed the container in a sink of ice water to assist in keeping the temperatures low.  Lower temperatures mean that the soap will stay cool and will most likely reveal the colors I intend.

My oils contained the yellow oxide since I wasn't planning on a trying a swirl this time.  Since they were above 80 degrees F, I placed the pot int he sink as well to cool it down.  I try to get my goats milk soap to 80 degrees, meaning the lye mixture is 80 and so are the oils.

After combining the lye and oils I stick blended until there was a very light trace.  I can't tell you how awesome stick blenders are!  When the soap was ready I poured it into each little cavity.  Only the last three started getting thicker but still very pourable.  I have to adjust my recipe size for this mold since I had extra soap that I quickly poured into a leftover container.

Since my pot is rather large for pouring I tried out this silicone pour spout.  At a thin trace it worked wonderfully and aimed the soap perfectly into each little cavity.  I was very pleased!

Could Be Worse.....

My first attempts after a long dry spell have yielded a couple odd soaps.  The first was simple, no colors and just Anise essential oil.  I poured at a nice medium trace with no issues.

My peppermint goats milk traced quickly and I had issue with my swirling attempts to make it look like a peppermint patty. 

I'm still having issues with the slab mold I use for goats milk soaps when I cut the bars out.  I lop off chunks of soap.  I have a cheese wire I'll try next time to see if it helps and of course my new oval individual molds will be used now too.  Still beveling works wonders and then as above with the Anise soap, so does packaging!

At least for now they are mine or gifts to friends and family who aren't judgy....

Salts n' Scents

Epsom salts are a favorite quick product I enjoy making.  A touch of fragrance or essential oils, a bit of coloring and Voila!  A perfect bath treat for sore muscles!

Since I made my father's favorite soap I wanted to make something special for my mother as well.  I had enough of the wonderful Lilac fragrance oil to make some bath salts and a scent oil roll-on.  Easy! Of course I wrapped them for Christmas before I even thought of taking a picture.  Oh well, here is the unlabeled bag of the salt I made using oxide colorant.

Yet I still had another lesson to learn.  Select shades are great colorants to use in cold process soap but not as reliable in bath salts I've discovered.  I had to tweak it a bit to get a lavender color for the salts.  Oh well, they smell perfect and will be a nice gift.  With the remaining Lilac oil I made some more salts to use myself.  I tried out coloring with Ultramarine Marine Violet Oxide, it turned out nicely with very little.  I'm not sure it's meant to be used with bath salts though....oh well, I'll be the guinea pig!

The scent oil is simply fracionated coconut oil and fragrance oil.  It's so simple!  Hopefully my mom will enjoy these until I can make her a special soap too! Until then enjoy the picture of a bag of four bars of soap for my dad.  Hopefully he'll be happily surprised!!!

Goats Milk and Individual Bars Mold

This was an interesting experiment.  I've always done cold process soap in a log mold or a slab mold, the slab mold for goats milk soaps to help keep the soap cool.

I just received this oval shaped mold from Brambleberry and was excited to use it.  Something about a rounded soap is intriguing to me; it's different from my norm.  I made a recipe using goats milk, lard, olive, coconut, lanolin, and castor oils and scented with a mix of Lavender essential oil and a touch of Clove essential oil....suggestion of the hubby.

I tried coloring with some left over wax chips I had from when I first started soaping (I'd actually made a nice purple soap once using these wax chips before moving to oxides and micas).  Since this is just for us I'm not worried about the colorant choice.  The purple color did not turn out even in the pot.  I had to grab a couple blue color chips to make it look alright and even then the color turned a gungy green as I blended.  

I wanted to swirl Copper mica in the soap too but the muddied color didn't turn out well though you can see some of the coppery colorant.  In prepping the mold I added a dusting of the copper to each mold so the sparkle would show at least on the top of each soap at least.  Cold process doesn't show sparkle like clear products which is fine....the dusting may be a good idea in the future, I can see the potential here.

My issue again....not adding colors and swirling early enough in the soaping process.  I waited too long to separate the soap to color so by the time I poured the soap it was at a reasonably thick trace, this is much harder to get into these individual molds!

I glopped the soap in as best I could, spread the soap out over the tops, banged the mold on the counter hoping to fill in all the gaps and then crossed my fingers.  It's ugly but it smells nice and will be a good recipe I hope.  Can't wait to try it out.

I feel like a beginner again!  I'm blending my soap to fast, getting it to trace quickly and then having issues with trying to swirl colors because of the thick trace.  I need to slow down and work with the thin trace in order to get the quality pours I've had in the past.

Candy Cane-Peppermint EO Goats Milk Soap

I sure had a fun afternoon of soap making!  I decided to make an old favorite, Peppermint Essential oil (EO) goats milk soap.  Around the time of Christmas it’s fun to make it a red and white swirl like a peppermint candy.

I used lard, Crisco and Palm Kernal oils for this soap and started melting them on the stove first and then began working on my goats milk lye mix.  I use 100% goats milk for my milk soaps.  The key to keep the colors true and not have the sugars in the milk caramelize is to keep the lye mixture cool and the whole batch cool (to include not letting it gel). 

I measured out my frozen goats milk cubes into the pitcher, and slowly added my lye crystals to the cubes as I stirred continuously and held the pitcher in a sink of ice water.  My solution never got above 70 degrees F.  My oils though took forever to heat up and were near 100 degrees.  I cooled them in the ice water but by the time the temperatures were right my lye mixture was really thick.

When I added my mixture to the oils it sank and didn't incorporate.  I was really concerned that this soap would not turn out at all but quickly placed the pot on the stove to add some heat.  Over a few minutes the oils were incorporated into the lye mixture and I began to see normal soap creation though it was a bit thick.  With more heat it thinned a bit but I knew I didn't want to add too much heat to ruin my color intentions.  It was finally time to take about 10 ladles of soap out of the pot into my glass measuring cup to color with Merlot Mica.

I mixed both, at times adding heat to each, then nearly forgot to add the peppermint!  Finally I was ready to pour in my slab mold.  The slab mold is the best for goats milk soap since the greater surface to volume ratio allows the soap to dissipate the heat produced and keep my goats milk soaps from turning the usual tan color.  I tried my best to swirl with the glops of off white and reddish soap but it was thickening up way to fast.  Oh well, smells great so I won’t worry about a perfect swirl this time.

I think the biggest issue was that the lye solution thickened up so fast since it stayed in contact longer solely with the goats milk.  I need to make sure my oils are nearly melted before beginning to make the lye solution. I also hate bumpy soap!  The swirl marks are still left on the top of the soap, we’ll see if I want to plane it smooth or just deal with it.

Pretty happy with the results considering!  I'll wait a couple days before cutting the bars.

Anise Essential Oil-Natural Bar for my Dad

It will be a surprise for sure when my Dad opens his favorite homemade soap, the Anise Essential oil bar.  No fancy oils just a simple base that cleans well and he just loves!

It's awesome to be making soap after some time NOT making soap.  Can't wait to make the next batch!

What should it be?