Inspite of the fact that we are almost finished with one-third of summer 2014 (Alison's editorial note: NOOOOOOO - don't say how much of summer is already gone!!), soap is being made. It is not quite the production we had last month, but we are still happily looking for scents and dreaming up new designs in our spare time.
In fact some of our soaps are selling so well we are running out of them and making more. Case in point, the hot process (HP) soap we made using Ocean Mist fragrance oil from +Natures Garden. The following description of the scent gives you an idea why it's so popular.
"A complex bouquet of carnations, lily of the valley, and hyacinth: underlined by oakmoss and white musk."
Quite honestly, it smells as good as that description sounds.
Since this was a duplication of a soap that we had made before, we used the same colorants - 1982 Blue and Titanium dioxide (white) - and added them when the soap finished cooking.
We had the Ocean Mist fragrance oil measured and ready, so next we measured the oils (coconut, sustainable palm, olive, avocado, sweet almond and shea butter) and combined them with the lye/ water. Finally we stick blended until the mixture emulsified, covered the crock pot, and began cooking the soap.
After the first fifteen minutes the batter was getting to "gel" stage. You can see from the picture that it is somewhat translucent. We checked and stirred the batter every fifteen minutes or so.
This picture is about one hour into the process, it is now at the scientific "mashed potato" stage. One way you can tell is that the batter on the side of the crock is crusty and has turned into soap, you do not want to scrape that into your batter, leave it on the side.
Judging when the soap is "cooked" is always tough. I used a PH strip which just doesn't seem to be a definitive help. In desperation I resorted to the very scientific "zap test" where I taste the soap. Actually to perform the test, you touch a bit of the soap to the end of your tongue, and if it zaps you (and it does, think electric shock) it means the soap is NOT done. It's like touching your tongue to a 9-volt battery. If there is no zap and it tastes like soap, the soap is done and it's time to add fragrance and colorants. Today there was no zap and it did taste like soap, so in went the Ocean Mist scent and the titanium dioxide (to lighten the soap color).
I removed several cups of batter to which I added the 1982 blue.
I mixed the blue colorant in thoroughly, then added that blue batter back to the white batter and gently swirled them together creating a swirl pattern with two distinct colors.
I added the soap to the log mold, tamping it down several times to alleviate air bubbles. Since the hot process (HP) method was used to make the soap we can cut it in twenty-four hours and it can be used in a week.
The soap is quite pretty and smells lovely.....Ocean Mist!
This soap will be listed in our Etsy shop soon.
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