Black Vanilla

Still working towards a more moisturizing bar. This time, tried 5% superfatting as normal, and then an additional 5% of sweet almond oil at trace. Added cinnamon to the vanilla scent from candlescience.

Oils:
240g TJ's olive oil (60%)
100g Palm oil (25%)
60g Coconut oil (15%)
20g Sweet almond oil (+5% at trace)

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

Scent:
28g (1oz) vanilla fragrance oil (CandleScience)
12g cinnamon

Texture:
40g oatmeal

Notes:
- combined at 45C
- used blender at lowest setting, increments of 10s until trace, took about 30s total
- added texture, fragrance oil, and superfatting oil
- blended in 10s increments for an additional 30s until pudding-like consistency
- cast in saran wrap lined box
- baked at 65-70C for 3 hours, then let cool in oven for 18h
- at trace, mixture was brownish. after casting and 3h bake, turned a dark brown.

Lemongrass Coconut Soap

Used same recipe as before except used coconut milk instead of cow's milk.  Recipe again:

5.6 oz olive oil

2 oz coconut oil

0.4 oz crisco

1.1 oz lye

1 oz water

at light trace added:

0.4 oz lemongrass essential oil

mixed well then added:

2.1 oz coconut milk

I'm curious about how the coconut milk will affect the lather, reports from other sites suggest that it should give a very rich creamy lather.  We will see.  Meanwhile, the lemongrass oil smells disturbingly of mosquito repellent.  I really hope it mellows to something more palatable, the last thing I want to think about in the shower are mosquitoes.

Update 2/24/11: I just cut the soap and to my amazement the center is a pale green color!  The outside is a light yellow; not sure if that green will remain after curing but it's a nice look.  The mosquito smell has faded a bit but it now actually smells like ginger candy.  Very odd.

Lavender-Oatmeal

First bar with new oils from Brambleberry. Superfatted with sweet almond oil at trace step. Already smells amazing.

Oils:
200g TJ's olive oil (50%)
80g Coconut oil (20%)
120g Palm oil (30%)
22g Sweet almond oil (+5% at trace)

Lye:
59g NaOH
152g water (Brita filtered water)

Scent:
28g lavender fragrance oil (CandleScience)

Texture:
4g dried lavender
32g oatmeal

Notes:
- combined at 45C
- used blender at lowest setting, increments of 10s until trace, took about 30s total
- added texture, fragrance oil, and superfatting oil
- blended in 10s increments for an additional 30s until pudding-like consistency
- cast in saran wrap lined box
- baked at 65-70C for an hour, then let cool in oven for 12h

Almond Cybilla Soap

A full post containing all kinds of extraneous thoughts can be found on monkey obsessions but there was an interesting thing that happened with this soap so I thought I'd mention it here to, for our records.  Basic recipe containing milk was used (see Lemon Milk Castile from before).  There was a dramatic color change that occurred during the first week or two of curing.  See picture below.  Almond scent is still quite strong and true though, which is all I care about.  I looooove this smell.

Here it is before curing:

After:

I cut this soap about two days after I put in the mold but I think next time I"ll wait a full week because it was still a bit soft and I couldn't get perfectly clean edges.

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!