Today was a mother/daughter shopping, shopping, lunch, shopping, shopping day for Alison who is suppling the necessities for a completed camp trunk for her daughter's departure next week.
I was busy cleaning all the pollen off my front porch when the UPS man arrived with a package from www.rusticescentuals.com ( +Rustic Escentuals ). This is our first order from the Roebuck, SC company. We ordered it on Thursday and got it on Friday. How great is that?!
The order consisted of one scent and some bees wax; all arrived in good shape along with a pen, 2 pieces of candy, a free scent sample, and a free sample of soap! Obviously the UPS delivery was a sign, so I put away the hose, mop, and cleaning solution and headed in to make soap.
Lemon Verbena is one of our best sellers, and we are running low, so with several shows and events coming up I decided to make a batch of HP (hot process) lemon verbena, or basically duplicate what we'd made earlier that had sold so well. I decided to use the the new Lemon Verbena scent we'd just gotten from Rustic Escentuals.
Since this is a repeat batch I used the same color combination that we had on the first Lemon Verbena. TD (titanium dioxide) to whiten the base batter, and Fizzy Lemonade to give us our "lemon" color.
After the crazy lye issue we'd had on Thursday, I used lye from another vendor and happily had no problems (whew!). Using the tried and true Old Faithful recipe I mixed the coconut, castor, palm and olive oils together in the crock, and when all were melted, I added the lye/water combo and began mixing the soap.
If you have read anything about making soap using the HP method you will have seen the term "mashed potato stage." Here it is.
Honestly, I love mashed potatoes, and if I hadn't smelled the soap.....
I did a PH strip test which was, as usual, ineffective. So I did the zap test, actually 4 times and no reaction. The soap was officially cooked.
At this point, possibly 2 hours had passed (I wasn't a very good time keeper), it was time to add the Lemon Verbena. I grabbed the bottle and then noticed the words Flash Point 133 degrees!!! Oh no, this is HP soap, HOT process. I quickly got our candy thermometer and it read 175 degrees.
In case you are wondering what happened, the flash point temperature is something that fragrance oil manufacturers put on the fragrance so that the end consumer knows the exact point at which a scent will burn off. In other words if I had put the Lemon Verbena fragrance oil into the soap batter while it was 175 degrees, there would have been very little, if any, fragrance to the soap. It would have burned off.
Now I had to get the soap cooled down to below 133 degrees. Tick tock this took forever, 1-1/2 hours to be exact.
In the mean time I added my colorants, hoping that it would help the cool down.
Lemon Verbena is one of our best sellers, and we are running low, so with several shows and events coming up I decided to make a batch of HP (hot process) lemon verbena, or basically duplicate what we'd made earlier that had sold so well. I decided to use the the new Lemon Verbena scent we'd just gotten from Rustic Escentuals.
Since this is a repeat batch I used the same color combination that we had on the first Lemon Verbena. TD (titanium dioxide) to whiten the base batter, and Fizzy Lemonade to give us our "lemon" color.
After the crazy lye issue we'd had on Thursday, I used lye from another vendor and happily had no problems (whew!). Using the tried and true Old Faithful recipe I mixed the coconut, castor, palm and olive oils together in the crock, and when all were melted, I added the lye/water combo and began mixing the soap.
This is what the mixture looked like before I began stirring. Since we are using the crock pot, we don't have to be as careful about temperatures and can add the lye/water combination to oils as soon as all oils are melted.
I used the stick blender and the emulsification started almost immediately.
This is what it looked like after about 30 - 40 seconds.
After about 2 minutes the batter was noticeably thicker and was a creamy white color.
After mixing for about 5 minutes the batter was a very creamy white color and quite thick. I cleaned off the sides of the crock and put the lid on it for 15 minutes.
Thicker, isn't it? At this point the gel phase was starting, so I mixed the batter up, put the lid back on and let it cook for another 20 minutes.
The soap is gelling, and it's almost translucent at this point. I stirred it again and let it go another 20 - 30 minutes, checking it about every 5 minutes - or when I remembered.
Honestly, I love mashed potatoes, and if I hadn't smelled the soap.....
I did a PH strip test which was, as usual, ineffective. So I did the zap test, actually 4 times and no reaction. The soap was officially cooked.
At this point, possibly 2 hours had passed (I wasn't a very good time keeper), it was time to add the Lemon Verbena. I grabbed the bottle and then noticed the words Flash Point 133 degrees!!! Oh no, this is HP soap, HOT process. I quickly got our candy thermometer and it read 175 degrees.
In case you are wondering what happened, the flash point temperature is something that fragrance oil manufacturers put on the fragrance so that the end consumer knows the exact point at which a scent will burn off. In other words if I had put the Lemon Verbena fragrance oil into the soap batter while it was 175 degrees, there would have been very little, if any, fragrance to the soap. It would have burned off.
Now I had to get the soap cooled down to below 133 degrees. Tick tock this took forever, 1-1/2 hours to be exact.
In the mean time I added my colorants, hoping that it would help the cool down.
Since the yellow batter was in a glass container it was cooling faster than the white batter still in the crock pot. I mixed the white more and the yellow less so they would (possibly) cool down simultaneously. Tick tock!!!
Finally the temperature was low enough to add the fragrance oil, but by this time the yellow was getting pretty stiff and I knew time was not in my favor. I quickly mixed the two batters together and put them in the prepared mold. I inserted the dividers and put it up for the night so it could cure.
Sunday morning I unmolded the soap, all my worries were for naught. The Lemon Verbena looked great and smelled out of this world, I wonder how I can have so many "favorite" fragrances!?!
All the bars are different shapes
The tops are not as smooth looking as CP soap, but that is the nature of HP, it looks a bit more rustic and hand made.
You can see the yellow variations mixed into the soap.
This soap is ready to use right now, no cure date as the HOT process makes it ready to use immediately.
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