Our Kudzu isn't pesky, it's heavenly especially in soap and candles

Tuesday May 6, 2014

We got started a little late this morning. Our best intentions always seem to wind up lost between book work, new scent trials, and showing each other the latest find on the computer. The computer finds are the kiss of death because inevitably we travel from the initial "item" to fifty thousand other sites, and by the time we look up, 45 minutes have passed with nothing to show for the time.   We are sure this problem is more than likely universal, just part of the information overload that the world wide web gives us - a good thing, right?

After said late start we decided on a HP (hot process) soap, mainly so we can have it in stock for the upcoming Mountain Laurel Festival (May 17th in Clarkesville, GA).  As we've mentioned HP soap is ready to use in a week so it was ideal for us.  

The scent we chose is a beautiful blend of florals and quite honestly does smell like it's namesake Kudzu!  We are going to make soap and candles today so lets get started with the soap.

All of our reading and Web research has led us to begin thinking about things like water percentage and superfatting our soap, or, adding a small percentage of extra oils for better suds or for more moisture.  Because we would be using the HP method we decided on a slightly higher water concentration (only 3% higher) , entered our amounts into soapcalc.net, and were ready to roll.

With crock pot at the ready, we added coconut, palm, olive and castor oils.  We added the lye into our water (never add water to lye - very dangerous), and once it had cooled a little added it to the oil mixture.

We mixed it with the stick blender a few minutes until it was most certainly emulsified.

It took about 5 - 10 minutes to cook enough to be very still, we actually ditched the spatulas and used a heavy stainless steel spoon, we kept on mixing.  Sometimes it seems that just as we are beginning to feel like we are getting good at this, something different happens.    

The directions for HP soap always refer to "mashed potato" stage, and we have seemed to hit that stage rather quickly the last two times we used HP.  Well ok the picture above looks exactly like really smooth mashed potatoes, but it didn't look exactly like it had before.  We just didn't believe this could already be ready.  It just hadn't been long enough, so we took the dreaded Zap test!  "A" now understands exactly why it has been called the zap test.  YUCK!

We put the lid back on the crock pot and let it continue to cook.  After a bit the bottom layer began to gel a bit, then pretty soon the whole batch was gelling.  AHHH!  Finally a stage that we recognized!  Before much longer the soap got to the "mashed potato stage and it was time to add the colorant and scent.  It cooked for about an hour and a half this time.  

We decided to use TD (titanium dioxide) and Chrome Green Oxide because after all Kudzu is green, right?

First we mixed the TD into the soap to lighten it up. 

After the TD was thoroughly mixed in we scooped out about 1/3 of the batter and added the green colorant.

Again we made sure the green was completely incorporated into this portion of the soap.  

We added the green back to the main batch of white soap and gently swirled them together with a spoon, we wanted a distinct green and white soap.

Once it was mixed up enough we put it into the Bramble Berry ( +Bramble Berry )  18 bar wooden mold. We did tamp it down pretty hard to make sure all air bubbles were out of the soap, then we placed a piece of freezer paper over it and pressed the soap into the mold smoothing the surface in the process.  Finally, we added the plastic bar dividers 

Once they were in we made sure they were pushed all the way through the soap and pushed down a few high spots.  

It's now Wednesday May 7, 2014.  Today "A" and her daughter "E" worked labeling, organizing, and generally making Soap Lily more streamlined. No more wasting 15 minutes looking for the tape or funnels; everything now has a "spot". Thank you "E"! 

"K" spent the day in NE South Carolina keeping an eye on 2 of her Grandchildren.  

Before A and E began the organizational portion of their day, they first un-molded the Kudzu HP soap. It is a beautiful HP soap, and it does smell just like blooming Kudzu. The following picture is the group shot followed by the solo picture of this soap.

Just in case you wondered, it smells very, very good.

Back to Tuesday's creative flow now - the candles. We made green, Kudzu scented candles to go with our HP soap.

Using a new (easier) method, we hot glued the bottoms of the wick to the inside base of the jars.  We calculated the amount of wax we needed to fill 4 pint-sized jars with melted wax.

Gluing the wicks down

Tape so the glued wicks won't fall over after the wax is poured.

We started by measuring over 40 ounces of wax into the melting pot then submerging the bottom of the pot in hot water (med high temp on stove) so the flakes would melt.

We kept an eye on the wax, and after 100% of it had melted, we added half a block of Lime colorant.

Melting wax

Adding half a block of lime green colorant to the completely melted wax

The color block begins to melt as soon as it hits the hot wax.

The color block is pretty much melted, and you can see the wax is now a dark green color. See "A's" reflection peeking over the edge of the melting pot? We added the fragrance oil when the melted wax had cooled below the fragrance's flash point (temp at which the scent would just "burn off" and lose its potency).

Once the wax had cooled enough, we poured the wax into the prepared jars. So far, this process has been pretty stress free.

The last picture shows the 4 finished candles, the color, once it cooled turned out to be a bright fresh lime green color, which is exactly what Kudzu plants look like when they are leafing out.  Once they completely cooled off we trimmed the wicks and added the labels, the candles smell terrific!

Our first try at coloring candles, paying respect to the acres and acres of Kudzu covering the state of Georgia (and the south). We present

Kudzu Candles!