Soap today!

Report card writing time usually takes control of 3 consecutive weekends so when they are done, I look forward to a few things.  This time I looked forward to yoga so I made it to 3 consecutive 6 am yoga classes! 

I also made plans to make soap with JayKay.  It had been a while since we had made any together, likely not since July 2017.  So it was grand time to make more.

For today's soap I used:  

• olive oil 
• cocoa butter
• shea butter
• mango butter
• Orange Valencia and Litsea essential oils
• powdered cocoa

The hearts were made by mixing powdered cocoa with a small amount of soap base.  I love how these soaps have turned out so far.  I blended the oils & lye around 115F.  The base colour was quite yellow/orange due to the olive oil and the citrus EOs.  It's only been a few hours but the soaps have already lightened-up a fair amount.  

The 2000g of oils made 12 oval soaps, and 12 square soaps.  I poured the leftovers in what I call my "square guy" mold.  JayKay is calling this leftover mishmash soap "Poppy Seed Explosion".  Oddly, I'm even more excited about this soap than the planned soap.  I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's ready!

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!

February Soap

Batch #2

A funny thing happened this past Christmas.  I ran out of gift-worthy homemade soap, and was surprised to find out that family members were notably disappointed by this.   I have been giving homemade soap for roughly 4 years now but hadn't realized it was appreciated as much as it was.  To prevent this calamity from reoccurring in Christmas 2015, I will strive to make a double batch of cold-processed soap every month in 2015 (or 12x).   There should then be enough soap to gift, trade, and of course, use ourselves.

Unfortunately, January was a write-off due to illness, so this past Saturday marked the first batches of 2015 soap.  It also marked the first time I made soap in my own kitchen.  As expected, the experience was chaotic, exciting, and super fun!  My soap maven JayKay came along and made her own beautiful 2 batches, and ensured I took a deep breath once in a while.

Details:

Ingredients:  Olive oil, Coconut oil, Cocoa butter, Cocoa & Turmeric for colours

Mistake of the day, forgot to take the oils off the stove so the oils were too hot when it was time to combine them with the lye.  Had to cool the oils in the freezer.  Combined them when lye - 106F and oils around 120F.  

Batch #2 again... because it's so awesome!

Batch #1 Essential Oil:  Lime

Poured in oval bars-silicon mould with the cocoa as the main colour, and turmeric in top centre.   Soap became too liquid after incorporating the EO.  As a result, the colours blended together.  I tried to remove the bars from the moulds the following day but they were very brittle so at JayKay's recommendation they spent quality time in the freezer for a few hours.  Bars have now hardened.  Some have circular discolouration in the centre which may be evidence of gelling in the centre.  Perhaps I should have kept them out of the freezer so they could gel throughout.

Batch #2  Essential Oils:  Grapefruit, Litsea, Lime

Used a 5" x 8" form & made bars.  Remaining Batch #1 colours were dumped in one end to make streaks.  The plain soap will be grated and used in a liquid laundry detergent recipe.  Can't wait to use the bars with colours because the results were suprisingly beautiful.  I wish there were more than just a few bars with colours. 

Thoughts for future soapy projects:

- baby soap

- spirulina

- oatmeal, poppy seeds, rice

- thick textured top

- one solid colour cut in chunks to add to other soaps

Journals

When I was 12 years-old I was homebound for 2 weeks with a nasty bout of Chicken Pox.  During these 2 uncomfortable weeks I read "The Diary of Anne Frank" from cover to cover.  Anne's writing inspired me to start my own Journal in which I wrote for the following 10 years.  Now that I'm all grown-up, journaling is no longer to record feelings but rather to keep track of various activities.

These days my Bread Journal gets the most use.  In this I keep 2 basic slow-rise recipes.  I also record every batch and loaf made.  My bread instructor (Brad Williams) suggested keeping a journal to keep track of successes & failures.  It comes in handy to remember how much water to use with certain flours.  Brad also suggests to record weather because this can affect the dough.  Keeping a bread journal has helped me to try again after failures by varying the amounts of certain ingredients.

My Knitting Journal is where I used to detail projects yarn, pattern, needle sizes, etc., however, since discovering Ravelry, project details are now online.  This paper journal is mainly a place where I glue yarn labels & samples.  I also glued a paper ruler (inches & cm) on the inside cover to measure swatches when travelling.  There's always a printed glove pattern in the back pouch for when the Internet is not accessible.

My newest journal is a Soap Journal where I record soapmaking adventures.  I keep track of the scents, colours, and bits which were used in the soaps.  I only need this one 2x/year so it's usually difficult to find.

I really enjoy the tactile feeling of writing on paper and looking back at past entries but sometimes it's just more practical to use a digital version.  I wonder whether paper journals will soon become a thing of the past.  Luckily, bookstores still sell beautiful notebooks.  My favorites are Moleskine Grid Journals.  Project journals, whether high or low-tech,  are excellent auxiliary memory devices.  Their real purpose is to write notes to my future self to improve on what I just did.

D.'s Magical Soapmaking Kingdom

Homemade soap is satisfying to use because it's so rich, colourful & delightfully smelly!  But more than the end-result, I love making soap because the process is so fun.  4 of us make soap a few times a year at a friend's house.  D. takes care of the dangerous bits (lye), and provides other supplies.

Twice a year, she transforms her dining-room into a Soapmaking Magic Kingdom filled with magical scents & colourful combinations.  There are always many scents to choose from, as well as natural scratchy bits which add texture & colour to soaps.  My favourite add-ins include nori & black sesame seeds while favourite scents so far have been Peppermint and also Blackberry.

Her soaps are no match for commercial or other handmade soaps available at small markets.

Tiny bubbles

As a school teacher, sometimes I am lucky enough to receive gifts at Christmas from students.  One of these Christmases 2 years ago a few students gave me colourful, scented, and beautifully decorated soaps, obviously handmade because each was unique.  After some detective work, I found out that one of the Moms in my class taught soap-making classes.  So I quickly enrolled in her next class, a few months later.

There is no real expectation that I will ever be able to make soap on my own, so I'm not sure the term "class" applies here.  D. guides 4 of us through the whole process.  She has a variety of colours, scents and add-ins for our soaps.  She also pre-measures all the necessary ingredients for the soap base such as:  olive oil, vegetable lard, and lye.  Not being so good with details, I'm glad D. does all the measuring so that I can concentrate on the all-important mixing and choosing the colour/scents combos.  The whole process is quite technical, and there are many places where a distracted person such as myself could go make mistakes.  I learned that all soaps contain lye (which is caustic), and that caustic = dangerous (actually, I knew this already) so I really would not want to make a mistake because someone could lose an eye.

4 of us have made soap at D.'s house twice a year since 2009.  Every session brings new scents, colours and textures.  So far I have made lemon, peppermint, blackberry, tomato-fresh, espresso, cacao, and rosemary scented soaps.

Above is a pic of my very first soap, tucked in its butcher paper while it hardens.  Lemon?

This one remains my favourite:  peppermint with black rice.  I love how the rice sunk to the bottom of the soap and looks like Cookies & Cream chunks.  Too bad I stuck my fingers on the top to check for hardness prior to cutting.  A lesson learned ... perhaps it is a class after-all.