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New Fragrance for Fall

19
Sep 2012

As the weather turns cooler, I find that warmer scents are more welcome. Fragrances that would put me to sleep in the summer – spicy cinnamon & clove; sweet vanilla – are just what I need to feel that holiday lift as the days get shorter.

So this is a comforting blend of vanilla, sandalwood and heliotrope that I’ve called Orchid Thief, in recognition of vanilla planifolia, the orchid from which we get the vanilla pod.

This bar is made with a bit of cappuccino mica, to provide contrast against the natural coloring of the vanilla oils that darken the soap over time.

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Essential Oil Testing

06
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.

http://naturallavenderoil.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lavender_essential_oils.jpg
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.

http://www.essentialoilsaromatherapyinfo.com/images/Img15.jpg
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
http://www.thenutritionpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/peppermint-oil.jpg
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.

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Weekend Soap Rumpus

08
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.

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Quick pics

19
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. :)

clover scented soap with bling

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.

berry wine scented soap with pink mica

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!

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A Soapy Condundrum

10
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.

testing fragrance oils

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.

soft bar

Has anyone ever experienced such a range of textures in soap made from the same base but with different fragrances?

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Hello Ginger!

05
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…

ginger, coconut milk and calendula soap

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Of swirls, scents and seas…

05
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.

orange bergamot chamomile scented soap

This is what the first batch of Orange Wedge looked like:

orange bergamot chamomile scented soap

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:

raspberry lemon scented soap

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.

briny deep scented soap

A close up of the highly textured top, meant to look like an angry sea:

close up of briny deep soap

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…

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Well, at least they were cheap!

04
Jul 2011

So I won’t be using plastic molds again:

plastic + cold process = whoops!

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:

garden path floral soap

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…

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Back in the saddle

26
Jun 2011

Made three successful batches yesterday – and have my final, absolute, no I mean it this time, this is it, perfect no palm oil formula down. It’s a full 10% lovely unrefined natural shea butter – so nice.

I didn’t take a picture of Tabula Rasa, but it’s a plain bar – unscented. This batch turned out beautifully, much firmer already than some of the other formulas I’ve tried. Should cure nicely.

Then I did another citrus batch, this time with a lemon fragrance oil. I used annatto seed for color again, but I think it’s just a bit too orange for what I was going for. Still, the fragrance is wonderful! For now, I’m calling it Lemon Aide.

lemon scented soap

I attempted a funnel swirl on this one, but I don’t think I have the hang of it yet.

I am pleased with the swirl on the last batch I did yesterday. This one smells like leather and is swirled with dark cocoa powder! It’s called Fetish.

leather scented soap

I have a rose scented, madder root colored batch and a nag champa & patchouli blend with a charcoal swirl under wraps right now. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!

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The naming is the hardest part!

13
Jun 2011

Confession: Sometimes I have a name before I even have a soap for it! Names came like lightning for a while – quick, bright, and devastatingly perfect.

Lately, though, I’ve been stuck. I go around and around in my head trying to find a balance between catchy and memorable, masculine and feminine, creative and familiar.

I was going to call this one Sunburst, until I saw it, and smelled it.

It’s scented with Lemongrass and Litsea Cubeba essential oils. It’s more golden than yellow, and to me, it smells like lemon Pledge.

Yeah. I’m less than thrilled with it, but the funny thing about scent is that it’s very subjective. Someone out there probably loves this scent, while it makes me think of housework!

This is also the soap that I thought was ruined because I left out the castor bean oil. I’ve tongue-tested it for zap, and strangely, there isn’t any. I’m glad, because it’ll probably at least be a useable soap.

It’s also the first time I tried an in-the-pot swirl, and I’m not sure if the results would have been different if I hadn’t forgotten the castor bean oil.

The next soap is my proof that Hayley from Paintbox Soaps is right: Soap Everything. For some fragrances, there is a tremendous difference from the bottle to the batch.

This next soap I made with a fragrance oil that I thought was a bit stinky in the bottle, but something about it intrigued me enough to give it a chance.

I used some madder root infused olive oil, too, at 40% of the total olive oil, but it did not turn out as dark as the madder infusion in Island Time, as you can see in this picture, where they’re side by side, Island Time on the left.

If I make this one again, I’ll increase the amount of madder. I like the pale pink, but it could be a titch darker and I’d be happier. I’m calling this one Berry Blush for now.

The final soap of yesterday’s round was another version of my shampoo bar, Head Strong. This one has always been a palm oil-free bar, since I wanted to keep the creaminess of the lather down. I absolutely love this scent, too. It’s a peppermint rosemary Aveda type that is so bright and refreshing.

I did this batch without the rosemary and nettle tea. I like it better, the color is cleaner looking, a pale ivory.

I’m plotting my next order of fragrance oils now. Will definitely buy more lavender, but I’d like another floral. I may try Baby Rose from Bramble Berry.

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