Sep 2011
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks. We were supposed to have company at the end of August, but the prospect of Hurricane Irene rescheduled things to this past weekend. Consquently, I’ve been in a holding pattern with my soap production.
I did get a chance to make a 12-bar test batch of 12 different essential oil blends.
Lavender Oil – A Lasting Symbol, a Fading Fragrance
The natural versus synthetic issue isn’t going away anytime soon, and frankly, both products have their virtues and drawbacks. Essential oils are plant derivatives, and can vary greatly in quality and potency. While they may also have therapeutic benefits, essential oils are frequently contraindicated for use by pregnant or nursing women, as well as people on certain medications. Additionally, and most importantly for the soap maker, some essential oils can cause an allergic reaction called contact dermatitis. Remember, technically, poison ivy is “natural” – but you wouldn’t want it on your skin!
Synthetic fragrance oils have the advantage of being consistently produced in a controlled setting, so a bad year for lavender won’t affect the quality of the fragrance oil. However, synthetics can also cause allergic reactions, and let’s face it, essential oils have way better PR. No one waxes poetic over the energizing scent of methyl salicylate, but Wintergreen LifeSavers wouldn’t be the same without it.
Orange Oil – Lovely, but Fading Fast
I must say, the essential oils were a joy to work with. Sometimes blending fragrance oils gets to me – like spending a little too long in the Perfume Gauntlet at Macy’s. But after 10 days, there is a noticeable decline in potency, especially in the lavender and citrus blends.
I used a 40/42 Lavender Essential Oil, and a 10x Orange Essential Oil.
In case you’re wondering about quality by supplier, most of my oils are from Bramble Berry, but a few are from Mountain Rose Herbs and Majestic Mountain Sage.
Since I’m keeping it palm-oil free, I used a formula that’s simply Olive Oil, Coconut Oil and Castor Oil. It produces a very mild, white bar that has almost no odor of its own.
The Essential 12-Bar Testing Mold; Soaps Captured in Gel Phase
These are the blends I tested, with notes on the scent after 10 days on the curing rack.
1. Lavender Peppermint – lavender is fading fast. used a lower peppermint to lavender ratio, and the mint is still there, but overall scent is diminishing quickly.
2. Lavender Peru Balsam – same as the lav/peppermint blend – the peru is stronger than lavender, but also fading.
3. Rosemary Peppermint Spearmint – this blend appears to have good staying power – all three oils together are nice and strong. they’ve mellowed nicely
4. Rosemary Tea Tree Eucalyptus Anise – this blend also appears strong – the eucalyptus is the faintest one, but it’s still there.
5. Anise Orange – this is nothing but anise now, but it is good and strong. can see why this is often used in odor-killing soap formulas.
6. Grapefruit Orange – both scents are fading fast, although they’ve blended nicely.
7. Cedar Fir – fading fast, too, but still a little woody – it’s probably the cedar.
8. Geranium Fir – this is nothing but geranium now, but it’s holding up okay
9. Geranium Cedar – same as geranium/fir – not much left of the fir
10. Bergamot Basil – this is nothing but basil now – no trace of orange to it
11. Litsea Thyme – this citrus is strong – so is the thyme.
12. Litsea Black Pepper Thyme – same as above, a little less thyme a little more “lemon pledge”.
So of the 12 blends tested, the following have good sticking power in CP:
- Rosemary, Peppermint & Spearmint
- Rosemary, Tea Tree, Eucalyptus & Anise
- Thyme & Litsea
Peppermint Oil – Not Going Anywhere
The individual oils that I found to have good stick are:
- Anise
- Basil
- Geranium
- Litsea
- Peppermint
- Rosemary
- Spearmint
- Tea Tree
- Thyme
I’d love to hear about any experiments or testing you’ve done with essential oils. You can leave a comment here or at my Facebook page.
I also highly recommend this post by Lori at the Nova Studio on her Top Ten Essential Oils.
Aug 2011
I ordered another 16-bar slab mold from pawpawswoodcrafts!
Sadly, it did not arrive in time for my weekend soap rumpus, but it should be waiting at the Pony Express headquarters this afternoon.
Living in the boonies has a lot of perks, but 1 hour of postal service on Saturdays takes some getting used to.
I did make a batch of Baker Street in the slab mold, though.
Just poured:
Ready to cut:
A finished bar:
I tried something different with Island Time, but I’ll probably go back to the embedded sun motif.
The colors are spot on, though, and it was much easier to use the oxides than to have to make three separate batches.
And say “Hello” to Calico Jack, my first five color swirl!!!
I used four oxides – red, brown, green and yellow, plus titanium dioxide.
Calico Jack has a very piratical combination of bay rum, lime and tobacco. Arr!
Since nothing can follow a five color swirl, here’s the plainest soap I made all weekend: Pink Lemonade.
Just titanium dioxide to bring the brick red oxide into line. But the scent of fresh, sweet lemons is simply mouth-watering.
Aug 2011
After several attempts, I believe I finally have the swirl figured out! Much gratitude to Ruth at Sirona Springs for the advice. It turns out, I just needed a bit more water to help slow trace long enough to be able to work with the batter.
This first bar is scented with lavender, and the colors are a riff on Starry Night.
I’ve also discovered that micas, ultramarines and oxides are a joy to work with, especially compared to juggling two and three separate mixes to for annatto, alkanet and madder root infusions.
This is Orchid Thief – the woody vanilla scented bar – colored with micas and oxides.
The colors in the picture below came out truer to life in my lightbox.
And this is an in the pot swirl of Head Strong, my peppermint rosemary scented shampoo bar, colored with a bit of cool, ultramarine blue.
You’re getting a sneak peak at something I’m very excited about, too! I made a soap stamp! I’m working on a video, so that you can see how easy it is to make your own stamp.
If you’re on Facebook (ha, who isn’t?), you’d make my day by “Like-ing” me.
Jul 2011
I did quite a bit of soaping this weekend – I’ve been really keen to use the new slab mold I bought on Etsy from pawpawswoodcrafts! It’s brilliant! I love that the mold becomes the cutter – super easy to use!
So the first one I made was Lucky, which now features gold mica on top, to keep the theme going. 
I also did a batch of Blush in the slab mold, but still didn’t get the swirl quite right. More on that in a bit, though. I used a pink mica and titanium dioxide in this batch, too, but I just couldn’t get the white of the bar to show up in the picture. It’s really not as yellow as it looks.
I used ultramarine and pinch of charcoal to color another batch of Briny Deep. I like this shade of stormy blue better than the greenish-blue bar that I did last week with the woad powder.
I did another batch of Fetish, too, this time with mica and charcoal for color instead of cocoa powder. This was supposed to be an in-the-pot swirl, but the soap sped through light trace and practically went to gel in the pot.
Jay loves the scent of this one – it’s rose tempered with leather – it’s floral, but earthy, grounded. I’m calling it Desert Rose. I used micas for the colorant again, and I’m really happy with the contrast. You can even see a bit of gold in there.
Although I do like the way it turned out, this was supposed to be a spoon swirl technique. However, my soap traced so quickly, that I’m going back to the drawing board on my formula.
Since the same thing happens with every fragrance and essential oil I use, I have to believe the issue is in my formula. I know shea butter can speed up trace, and I’m using quite a bit in my soap.
The dilemma I face is that I really like the formula the way it is – except that it doesn’t allow time for swirling and other techniques.
I’m going to try increasing the water amount first, which might slow trace enough to be able to work, without having to change the oil amounts. I just don’t want to end up with a soft bar or one that has to cure for 6 months!
Jul 2011
Melanie Wilkes had it almost right – the happiest days are when Bramble Berry boxes arrive! I got my 12 bar silicone mold on Friday, so as soon as I got home I ran into the cottage to start soaping.
I had 12 fragrances I wanted to test, so I made a 35 ounce batch of just an olive, coconut and castor blend, and split it into 12 four-ounce containers. It’s a formula I’ve made before, and it comes out pretty firm, especially for a no palm oil soap.
And almost half of the soaps turned out beautifully. Half were soft either all the all the way through, or at the edges. And one was so mushy, it almost lost shape completely coming out of the mold.
I didn’t unmold these until Sunday morning. I made them Friday night.
They sat on a heating pad set to low for about the first hour, but I was afraid to leave it on longer.
I’ve only used a silicone mold once, so I wasn’t sure how well insulated it needed to be – but I covered it with a heavy towel.
None of the bars appears to have partial gel, but some are only soft on one side.
Strange, right?
I’m thinking the issue was gel phase.
Otherwise, it’s a fragrance oil issue. Each cup had 4 oz of soap before I added .25 ounces of fragrance. I didn’t mix fragrances – each had only one scent.
The scent that really went soft is Black Amber & Lavender. I’m going to try it again with the heating pad on for longer, and see if that helps, because I really like the fragrance.
Has anyone ever experienced such a range of textures in soap made from the same base but with different fragrances?
Jul 2011
You are looking at the last of the palm oil soap!
I used up my last bit with this batch, a rebatch of the ginger, calendula and coconut milk soap that I just didn’t like the shape of.
This bar is massive, but it smells incredible. I added a couple sample bottles of Ginger Fish to boost the ginger fragrance. Wow. When I say it smells like Bundaberg, I mean that in the best way possible. Bundaberg is a fantastic brand of ginger beer from Australia – makes the best Dark & Stormy’s (Gosling’s Dark Rum + Ginger Beer + Lime = awesome).
So I’m taking deep breaths of this one and thinking about a trip to World Market from some Bundaberg…
Jul 2011
Swirling continues to confound me.
I’m really hoping it’s the mold, but after viewing every YouTube video on swirling techniques, I’m thinking it’s probably just me. Poo.
I know the trick lies in knowing when to pour, not to let the soap get too far into trace, but my formula is quite shea heavy, which accelerates trace.
This soap was supposed to be swirled, and it wasn’t going to have embeds in it, but now it kind of looks like an alien planet.
It’s another batch of Orange Wedge, this time colored with annatto infused olive oil at about a 15% total oils rate.
This is what the first batch of Orange Wedge looked like:
The orange embeds were colored with tomato, but it’s been over two months since that batch was made, and it’s faded drastically. It’s actually the almost same color as the above soap now.
I’m hoping to achieve a more reliable orange with the annatto infusion.
Another colored batch that didn’t turn out quite as planned is the newly rechristened Raspberry Lemonade:
It was supposed to Pink Lemonade: a paler pink and only scented with lemon, but the madder root infused oil was very dark.
But it does smell delicious, so I may call this one a happy accident.
I have had some success so far this weekend, though. Another batch of Baker Street turned out just as pretty as the first two, swirled with charcoal.
And Briny Deep finally has a fragrance! After testing several different fragrances, it’s naturally a three fragrance blend that balances a marine salt tang with sun-baked pine and seaside spice. I made a larger batch colored with woad powder, but I’ve ordered some ultramarine blue to try next weekend.
A close up of the highly textured top, meant to look like an angry sea:
This was originally going to be a Salt Bar, but I’ve decided to make Briny Deep its own fragrance, and I’ll do Salt Bars in a variety of fragrances. I like the sound of a lavender salt bar colored with alkanet infused oil…
Jul 2011
So I won’t be using plastic molds again:
Learned a few things:
1. Cold process and plastic are not always friends
2. The freezer helps a little
3. Cut plastic is sharp
Those soaps are some very small test batches – actually one batch of soap split up five ways (the fifth bar is invisible).
The top left, the oval bar, is colored with turmeric. It was bright orange going into the mold, but has faded considerably. It’s also noticeably speckled. I used about 1/4 tsp in ~3 oz of soap.
The pink bar in the middle top row is colored with madder root added directly to the soap batter, at 1/4 tsp to ~3 oz. It’s also noticeably speckled and the bits of madder powder can be felt when washing. I like this better as an infused oil, but could have application in an exfoliating-type bar.
The bluish-green, sadly more green than blue, bar, the one on the top right, is colored with woad powder added directly to the soap, at 1/2 tsp to ~3 oz. This may be too much, since the lather was noticeably bluish in color. Like the madder and turmeric, the woad powder can also be seen and felt in the soap.
The soap on the bottom is just sprinkled with a bit of nettle leaf powder.
I tested five different fragrance oils in these bars, too. I’m most pleased with the blend I came up with for Briny Deep, which is what’s in the woad colored bar.
The madder bar is scented with Energy from Bramble Berry – beautiful scent. No wonder it’s a best seller!
I’m also really happy with the invisible bar, which was left pure ivory and scented with a beautiful soft floral – lily, jasmine, lilac… All right, here’s a shoddy cell phone picture of it:
It’ll probably be a second wave soap – not the starting line up, but the next batch of fragrances.
More pics and results tomorrow! And a batch of reclaimed ginger scented soap is sleeping now…
Jun 2011
What’s your favorite scent?
Mine seems to change with every new soap I make!
I was kind of worried about making this rose scented soap, because due to early childhood exposure, fake rose smells always remind me of bathrooms. Gross.
But since it was Bramble Berry, I gave it the benefit of the doubt, and I’m glad I did!
Baby Rose is such a fresh, clean realistic rose scent, and I got the perfect shade from madder root infused olive oil. I did this one at 35% infused oil, so it came out deeper than the Berrywine scented soap from a couple weeks ago. Very pleased with this.
And it’s given me an idea for the lemon fragrance oil – Pink Lemonade! Does anyone know if madder root is susceptible to discoloring the way alkanet powder is? I have Bramble Berry’s new ebook on natural colorants, and it shows how citrus fragrance totally changed a beautiful lavender shade to an equally pretty, but totally unexpected green! That’s why it’s important to make small batches with new colors and FOs!
The reason this post was not added yesterday is because the soap on the left didn’t behave. It’s still on the very soft side of the scale, but at least it was firm enough to cut. It should cure okay, but it probably won’t be a very hard bar.
It’s scented with Nag Champa and patchouli, and swirled with charcoal powder. I had hoped the base soap would turn a darker brown, so if I make this one again I may help it along with some cocoa powder. I’m just not sure I like the scent that much… but it may just not be to my taste. It might be better without the patchouli.
I am happy with the swirl, though! I think one of the reasons I’m ending up with soft batches is that I’m still learning the difference between emulsified and thin trace.
This batch and the other Baker Street batch that was soft, were both very easy to pour – very liquid – when I swirled them. Makes for a beautiful swirl, but the soap takes longer to set.
I think I need to bring the base closer to thin trace, then separate for color, then add the fragrance oil to uncolored soap, hand stir and swirl. If it’s a fragrance I can trust I can probably add it before coloring, though.
Well, I’m expecting 10 pounds of coconut oil by the end of the week, so I’m looking forward to an active three-day weekend of soaping!