Grapefruit Bar

Full batch of previously successful grapefruit bar.

Oils:
200g TJ's olive oil (50%)
80g Whole Food 365 virgin coconut oil (20%)
120g Crisco (30%)

Lye:
55g NaOH
152g water (filtered water)

Scent:
16g grapefruit essential oil (Ye Olde Soap Shoppe)

Texture:
16g dried grapefruit zest

Notes:
- combined at 45C
- used blender at lowest setting, increments of 30s until trace, took about 60s total
- added zest and essential oil
- blended in 10s increments, probably for an additional 60s until thickened trace returned
- cast in saran wrap lined box
- baked at 65-70C for an hour, then let cool in oven for 12h
- cut the following day

Citrus-sage Bar

Lydia's first soap: Citrus-sage bar with lime zest, with slight alteration to oils.

Oils:
240g TJ's olive oil (60%)
100g Whole Food 365 virgin coconut oil (25%)
60g Crisco (15%)

Lye:
54g NaOH
152g water (tap)

Scent:
5.5g orange(sweet) essential oil

Texture:
5g dried sage
10g lime zest (one large lime's worth)

Notes:
- used blender at lowest setting increments of 15s until trace
- then added zest/sage and essential oil
- blended for an additional 30s and achieved a pudding-like thickness

Recipe:


Lime/sage mixture:


Lydia at work:


Super thick:



Casted:


Oven curing (along with sad satsuma bar that is still not solid):

Lemon Castile Soap (Recipe 2)

Soapmaking has been revolutionized for me. I decided to make a half batch since I only had enough coconut oil for a half batch and I'm planning to place a bulk order with Brambleberry instead of buying more at whole foods. I also wanted to try adding milk at trace instead of mixing with the lye as I've done previously (see Olive Oil Soap, Recipe 1). So:

5.6 oz olive oil

2 oz coconut oil

0.4 oz crisco

1.1 oz lye

1 oz water

Since I was going to add milk at trace, I mixed the lye with about 1/3 of the liquid total. First thing, I noticed that I got to light trace faster than normal. I don't know if it was the reduced liquid or the fact that it was a smaller batch and therefore a little easier to mix in the bowl. Once I hit light trace, I added

2.1 oz whole milk from fridge

and boom!! trace! The whole thing mixed into a light mayonnaise consistency; this is something i have NEVER been able to achieve with my previous recipes despite mixing for literally hours. In a hurry now, I added maybe 3.5 oz lemon essential oil, threw some plastic wrap into my bread tin and poured it in. Thankfully, it wasn't getting much thicker but stayed at a manageable consistency but I was terribly excited. The color was a wonderful pale yellow and I have every hope of getting beautiful creamy bars from this. Next up, I will try the free sample of zucchini flower fragrance oil from Brambleberry with coconut milk added at trace!

Update: next day the soap was already hard.  Usually it takes several days, yay!

Grapefruit Bar

Grapefruit bar with grapefruit zest and essential oil, following same recipe as previous.

Oils:
100g TJ's olive oil (50%)
50g Whole Food 365 virgin coconut oil (25%)
50g Crisco (25%)

Lye:
28g NaOH
76g water (tap)

Scent:
8g grapefruit essential oil

Texture:
1 grapefruit's worth of peel, zested with a cheese grater

Notes:
-used blender at lowest setting for 10s, then added zest and essential oil
-blended for an additional 30s and achieved a very nice, thick trace

Grapefruit zest:


After casting:


Translucent phase?

Lemon Castile Soap

Used the same basic soap recipe as Olive Oil Soap (Recipe 2), but omitted the oatmeal and lavender. Instead, collected zest from two lemons and spread the zest out to dry for several hours. When dry, crumbled the zest further using fingers. Instead of tap water, this time used cold Brita water.

70% olive oil (11.2 oz)

25% coconut oil (4 oz)

5% crisco (0.8 oz)

2.2 oz lye

6.1 oz water (Brita filtered, cold), Note: this mixture reached a temperature exceeding 130F, but temperature dropped fairly quickly.

Oil mixture reached 140F and was taking a long time to drop. Filled sink with cold water and rested pan with oils in sink. This was very effective.

Revelation! Without the lavender and oatmeal, the solution remained a pale yellow and emulsified well. Mental note to add lavender and oatmeal at trace step in the future instead of adding to hot oils.

At thin trace (since this soap is heavily olive oil, it took forever to mix), added:

citrus zest

0.5 oz lemon essential oil

The lemon essential oil itself is yellow so may also impart a slight yellow coloring. This is nice. Next time, may use zest from 3-4 lemons instead of 2. Also, lemongrass essential oil is far cheaper than lemon, and apparently fixes in cold process soap very well so use that when this lemon oil runs out.

After adding the essential oil, noted that the mixture seemed to thin out a bit and required maybe another hour of on and off stirring before getting thicker. Lemon scent is detectable one day later and soap is a pale yellow color (pretty!)

Update: two days in and the lemon scent is a great deal less detectable. Aiiiieeeee!!

Update: six days later I turned it out and started cutting but it is still a tad too soft to make perfectly clean cuts. I think with this basic soap recipe you always need to wait about a week. The lemon scent is definitely still there though and it's a lovely light yellow color. I really can't wait to use this soap!

Satsuma Castile Soap

Second try at castile soap, using halved recipe of my first attempt. Will add some Body Shop fragrance oil to give it a Satsuma scent.

Oils:
100g TJ's olive oil (50%)
50g Whole Food 365 virgin coconut oil (25%)
50g Crisco (25%)

Lye:
28g NaOH
152g water

Scent:
~0.25oz of body shop satsuma oil

- messed up on the water, forgot to halve it
- brought both solutions to 40C
- used robot mixer for 15min before realizing it wasn't working, then hand stirred.
- the result of incomplete mixing initially was curd-like precipitate:

- got a clear trace stage - could dribble from spoon and leave a texture on surface, but solution never seemed to get thicker from there, possibly due to higher water content.
- cast into saran wrap lined iphone box:

- given the higher water content, will leave it in the oven to keep it warm and hopefully accelerate the saponification and drying process

Olive Oil Soap (Recipe 2)

Followed same procedure as in Olive Oil Soap (Recipe 1) with the following adjustments to recipe:

70% olive oil (11.2 oz)

25% coconut oil (4 oz)

5% crisco (0.8 oz)

handful of ground oatmeal

handful of lavender buds

2.2 oz lye

6.1 oz water (from tap, room temperature), Note: this mixture reached a temperature exceeding 140F, but temperature dropped fairly quickly.

Added a few drops of lavender essential oil during the trace stage, however, no scent was detected. Probably did not add enough oil as most people recommend adding at least 0.5 oz per pound of soap.

Update: Here is the soap 3 weeks later, still curing in my laundry room. I think people generally cure for 4 weeks but I'm sort of paranoid about the lye so I let it go a full 6 weeks.

Olive Oil Soap (Recipe 1)

Here was my first batch. Test subjects overall enjoyed this soap, one subject (Jess) only objected to the shape, preferring an oval soap with no hard edges. This comment was: not useful. Test subject me found this soap moisturizing and felt skin quality improved with use. Test subject Ryan enjoyed everything about the soap, from scent to lather to cleanliness. Test subject Ferret can leave his own comments of soap below.

70% olive oil (11.2 oz)

20% coconut oil (3.2 oz)

10% crisco (1.6 oz)

handful of ground oatmeal

handful of lavender buds

Melt oils together (not too much, try not to exceed 120 degrees or it takes forever to drop back down) and then toss in the oatmeal and lavender. In a separate bowl combine:

2.2 oz lye

6.1 oz milk (previously frozen and then broken up into a bit of a slushy)

(Note to self: I found this mixture reached near 120 degrees)

Once the temperature of both reaches near 100 degrees, combine lye mixture into oil mixture (NOT the other way around) and then stir for a million years with a spoon or spatula until it becomes thick. Then pour into molds (any kind of container really) and leave somewhere to cure for a few days (I'm not sure how long yet, it was certainly still too soft today) and then remove from mold and cut up with a knife. Then leave to cure for 6 weeks before use.