Eucalyptus Soap

This past weekend my soapy friends & I gathered once again to make soap.  It had been a while since we had gotten together for such an occasion.  Since our soap teacher is no longer taking groups, we had not met to make soap as it's difficult to get 4 cooks in a kitchen.

So this past weekend, we were all in the same kitchen at the same time.  2 friends used the mighty attractive Good Planet cold-processed soap kits, while another made her lovelies from scratch.   As for me, with jet-lag and all, I watched the excitement from the dining room as I couldn't get my oils together in time.

It was so exciting to watch all the soaps come together that when I returned home, I measured and melted all the oils, then let them rest while the family had a nice Easter Monday dinner at Mom's.  When we returned, I mustered the courage to get the lye+water going.  This was my first time making soap without a mentor with me.  Although I have made soap for 5 years now, I had never made it on my very own.

Before

After

 It took a little over 60 minutes for the lye & oils to cool to the right temperatures.  I had to place the oils in the fridge for a while to get them to cool quicker but when everything reached 114 - 117F, I mixed lye & oils together.  I still love seeing the oils develop a new personality when they thicken as they reach the trace stage.  I always feel like greeting them with a "Why hello!  That's who you are!"

This batch was a mixture of:  olive/coconut/palm oils, cocoa butter, water, lye, and eucalyptus/lavender essential oils.  Some bars also have spirulina (for a bit of green contrast), and Deep Bay fennel seeds.  I upped the palm oil % to make the bars harder this time.  They were ready to cut today and I couldn't be happier with the results!