June 2014 | Lemongrass Verbena - Palm Free Soap | KCK Soapery

 

So proud of my mom's third batch of soap.  Told my mom to just have fun and look at what she made.  A beautiful fragrant soap loaf.   Each bar has their own swirl pattern.

 

 

Picture above was taken after I finished playing with the design of the top.  I can't resist and has to play with the batter every now and then.  I thought I've mixed the white and yellow so much that the color will just be a very muted yellow.  Colorants use were neon laser lemon dye powder and titanium dioxide.  So I oven processed the batch which usually gives me a brighter color.

 

 

This picture was taken after the mold was taken out of the oven.

 

With the help of an online soap calculator we came up with this recipe.  Coconut oil, Olive oil, Rice Bran oil, Mango butter, Sweet Almond oil, Avocado oil and Castor oil.

 

Fragranced with Lemongrass Verbena and the hubby said I should always have a stock of this on hand.  The fragrance is described as an enticing blend of citrusy, refreshing lemongrass and leafy green verbena blended with a hint soft vanilla.  Sooo yummy...

 

 

After about 20 hours, I removed the loaf off of the mold and it was still a little bit soft I dented one side of the loaf with my fingers.  But it was fine when I cut the rest of the loaf.

 

 

I also sprinkled some iridescent sparkles and love the effect it gave to the bars.

 

 

Happy Soaping!

 

 

 

 



Three Color Taiwan Swirl

 

Last week's project.  I tried another recipe for this project and it was still soft over the weekend.  I tried to remove it today and it did come out of the mold but some pieces still got stuck in the mold and it is still soft to the touch.  But I already want to make a new batch so off of the mold it is.

 

This batch contains avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil, castor oil and shea butter.  Fragranced with Tobacco Bay Leaf and some Peppermint for the guys.  The hubby also like this fragrance as well.  Colors used were titanium dioxide, neon blue raspberry and woodland green.

 

 

I just left this at room temperature and did not cover it in any way but sprayed alcohol after designing the top.  Ash developed on top as well.

 

 

Happy Soaping

 Video below is a little too close, you can't see much of the action.  I am so sorry for not checking how the view would be.

 

 





Falling In Love

 

 

Yesterday's project scented with "Falling In Love" fragrance oil.  Ingredients include Olive oil, Coconut oil, Sweet Almond oil, Avocado oil, Rice Bran oil and Castor oil.  For the colors I used, Titanium Dioxide, Matte Woodland Green, Stained Glass Yellow and Neon pink.  I also added a teaspoon of sodium lactate to harden the soap and add to the soap's moisturizing ability.

 

 

Cutting was done this morning while the hubby was home.  I asked for his opinion of the scent and he went = "hmmmmm Fresh"

 

Just out of the oven:

 

  I lined only the wide side of the mold to see if it will prevent the bubbling oven processing produced on the sides of the soap.  As you can see, that mystery is solved.  The side that was not lined have bubble marks while the lined side is smooth.

 

The cupcakes below are both still very hard and stubbornly won't come out.  I also made mini cupcakes with diplomas on top but I forced them out of the mold and were all destroyed.

  

The batter did not harden enough to make a good piping texture so the frosting is flat.  The plan was to make a higher frosting with the heart on top.

 

These two will just be perfect for my mama and mother in law for mother's day.  If they will eventually come out of the mold intact of course.

 

 

Happy Soaping!!! 

 



Tea Tree Lavender Soap

 

 

Do you guys think the soap have some flower looking designs on them?  I made this for Amy Warden's soap challenge for April which is "flower power" - flower designs on soap.  Most members of a facebook soapmaking group said that they see pansies.  So this would be my official entry. 



 I happened upon the soaprecipe101 website and found a Tea Tree Soap Recipe which caught my eye.   Since I already have all the oils needed and a bottle of tea tree essential oil which is still waiting to be use,  I went on and played with this.

 The recipe includes Olive oil, Coconut oil, Sweet Almond oil, Avocado oil and my added twist of Jojoba oil and Rice Bran oil.  Fragranced with Tea Tree essential oil and Lavender 40/42.

Colorants used were Activated Charcoal for black, Woodland Green, deep purple, titanium dioxide and stained glass yellow.

 

This project is supposed to be my version of the video below:

 

 As you can see, I still have a long way to go to even come close to what she did.  But I still will share  my video below just because I have it.  The camera stopped before I said my goodbyes.  I apologize for that.  I will try to keep the video short next time so the camera won't quit on me.



 

Happy Soaping!!!

Second Faux Funnel Swirl

 

 

Made this yesterday using another luxury recipe from "The Everything Soapmaking" book.  It contains Shea butter, Sweet Almond oil, Olive oil, Coconut oil and Castor oil.  I used titanium dioxide for white, neon pink, neon blue, neon green soap dye for this batch.  Since the soap batter ended up higher than the soap mold, I did not cover or insulate it in any way.  This was fragranced with China Rain.   I did not work fast enough and the batter started thickening on me again.  As you can see in the picture above, I was happy with the swirl result.

 

I forgot to take picture after pouring the soap batter.  Soap ash started to form and the top started cracking as well.  If anybody can shed some light on why it cracked it would really help and thank you very much in advance.

 



 

  This time, I did not line the mold or wipe the sides with mineral oil.  The soap did not come out intact and one side chipped and remained inside the mold.   Still have to see if that was the cause. 

 

The hubby said the fragrance is very girly.  Lyn said it looks very pretty even with the cracks.

 

 

Thank you very much for any comment and input you can share.

 

Happy Soaping...

 

 

 



First CPOP Cut

The excitement from yesterday's experience continues as I sliced the soap a few hours ago.  I am quite happy with the result actually.  The colors black, rose and white are all vivid.  The batter was just too thick that most of the colors did not went through all the layers for a complete spoon swirl.

 

Some of the bars have cracks.  If I remember correctly, it is due to too much heat during the oven process.  I have to still experiment more on this.  For now, I think the difference is that the colors are more vibrant for the ones that went into the oven than those that did not.



So glad and thankful that these soaps turned out not as bad looking as I was regrettably expecting yesterday. 

Here is a youtube video about CPOP I watched after yesterday's episode in my kitchen.
 

 



First CPOP using Luxury Soap Recipe

This recipe is from the book "The Everything Soap Making".  This is a luxury recipe which includes Avocado Oil, Mango Butter, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil and Castor Oil.  Since I like to make things a little different, I also added Coconut milk.

This batch is supposed to be my entry for the "Drop Swirl" soap challenge hosted by Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks.

I was not able to do any drop swirling because my soap batter thickened so fast that I can't pour it in a way that drop swirling is possible.  So I did what I can and we shall see tomorrow how it will look like. 

Fragrance used were Lavender 40/42 blended with Yuzu from Bramble Berry and I used Activated charcoal for my black color, Rose clay for the rose color and Titanium dioxide for the white but kept my base uncolored.

I should label this under the failed category.   But because of the use of avocado oil and mango butter I refuse to consider this failed.  It might not look as I have envisioned it to be but it should still be luxurious.

The ingredients are luxurious but the look is so halloweeny to me for now.  Something to look forward to tomorrow.

 

Cold process oven process is when a cold processed soap in placed in the oven at 170 degrees to force it into the gel phase.  I saw contradicting reasons why people are doing this.  But since I was told at the forum that we can do it with regular cold process soap recipe, into the oven it went after I finished designing the top.  We shall also see what the difference is going to be like tomorrow when I cut the soap.

 

The youtube video below will show everything that happened.  Obviously I assumed wrong when I thought that the batter had not reached trace yet.   Maybe the coconut milk and the colorants I used really hastened the thickening of the batter.  Whichever is causing it, the batter hardened too fast for me to do any drop swirling for this batch which was my original intention. 

 

Thank you for stopping by.