A better version of Burma Shave, our latest creation - shaving soap!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

We said it a couple of days ago and we will say it again, how can it possibly be MAY already???

Should we start thinking about Christmas shopping? Oh, heck no! We won't go there. Sorry if we made anyone get queasy, it's just that, wow, the days are flying by.  

Today "A" had her wish come true.  She has wanted to make a shaving soap since day one, and today she did.  Bentonite clay is necessary for shaving soap as it helps the razor glide across the skin.  The clay arrived yesterday in the  Bramble Berry ( +Bramble Berry ) order. 

 

Today the delivery Gods were smiling on us once again, and the shipment from Natures Garden ( +Natures Garden ) arrived with a ton of fantastic new scents.  One of them was a trial type "sample size" of ....

Yes, it actually smells just like we hoped it would.  The description said "spicy-sweet blend of French verbena and lemon, a green Florentine Iris and violet leaves, and sublime notes of Mysore, sandalwood and ambergris".  

We weren't sure what violet leaves smell like, Mysore, we have no clue, but most of it sounded great so we took a chance and bought a sample; we were not disappointed.  This scent smells delicious and perfect for shaving soap.  It was meant to be!


Since it was a sample size, there wasn't really very much fragrance oil in the bottle, so we decided to make 1/2 the batch scented and the other half non scented.  In our usual creative mode we rigged a divider for the 5 pound loaf mold, granted it looks amateurish, but it worked!

Knowing ourselves as well as we do, we took the extra precaution of marking the paper with scented and unscented, so tomorrow, when we un-mold it, we won't ask each other, "Uh, which one is which?" We are so smart!

Today "A" was the purveyor of soap, and it was "K's" turn to mumble into her computer whilst looking for a great price on coconut and palm oil.  She's still looking and may have to head to (shudder) Walmart!

The recipe came from Steve at Soap Making Resource, and it included the following oils: Olive, Coconut, Castor, Palm, and Sweet Almond.  We used the Bentonite Clay as well as colloidal oatmeal (regular old fashioned oats finely ground).  The recipe called for the soap to be in a mayonnaise like state when you pour, and we translated that to mean a heavy, heavy trace.  We were comparing what we had with pictures on line, and we poured it when it looked like this.

You can see how thick it is, like pudding on steroids.  We poured the unscented half into the mold, then added the scent to the remaining half and finished pouring. 

We tamped it down a few times so we won't have air bubbles in the soap.  We took a picture and put the lid on it until tomorrow when we will get it out to cut.

Friday evening:  Tried to remove the soap, it was basically solid, but still fairly soft, decided to give it another 24 hours.

Saturday night:  Removed the soap and cut it, we got 8 bars each of scented and unscented.   Since we did not use any color while making the soap the gray must come from the clay.  There is a slight shade difference between the scented and not scented, with scented being the darker of the two.  

Scented on left, unscented on right

The soap was very easy to cut.  not sure why it is so soft, might be the clay, it will probably harden with time. 

You can see the fine specks of oatmeal in this picture, this is the scented soap, a bit darker than the unscented (see next picture).

When looking at the individual pictures it's hard to tell the difference in color, however if you scroll back to the group shot you can see the scented is a shade or two darker than unscented.  We can't wait to try this one out, it should be ready in time for Father's Day.