Soap Lily: Spicy Tea

#IndianSpiceTea #hotprocesssoap #homemadesoap

#tryingnewthings

(Note from Kathy: As you read this blog entry you might notice the word "we" is used quite a bit. Actually it should be "I" as Alison is the only Lily working in the soap kitchen this week. I am subbing at my old job until next Wednesday and Alison is carrying the whole Soap Lily load - so I wanted to say thanks and give her props for being the functioning Lily for the next few days.)

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

In our continuing effort to experiment with natural, healthy ingredients, today we made a test batch of soap using a loose tea from Roots 'N Remedies. The tea is called Indian Spice, and the fragrance - even before brewing - is truly out of this world. We used distilled water and brewed the tea at double strength the night before. Brewing it ahead of time gives the tea plenty of time to cool down before time to add the lye.

Pictured above is the loose tea in the baggie and the brewed tea in the bowl.

Usually the chemical reaction of the lye to distilled water creates fumes that can be quite horrid, and are in fact harmful if we breathe them (while mixing we breathe through a soft cloth to filter out the fumes). When we use other liquids, (wine, tea, milk etc) we never know what kind of smell we will get from the chemical reaction.

Today, however, was different. Interestingly, the smell of the lye mixed with this tea was not terrible. The usual lye smell was there, but we could also detect a nice layer as well, almost like an apple cider or apple cider vinegar.

The color of the tea/lye mixture was also nicer today. In the following several photos, you can see the change in the tea as we added the lye. It changed, but it became a deeper, more beautiful color - not at all like the change we saw when we used Mango Green tea a few days ago.

First few bits of lye are going into the tea

Now more of the lye. See the beautiful color?

And after it had cooled a bit, the color was an even richer

golden, mustard color.

Above you can see the oils in the tiny tester crock,

and the Indian Spice Tea/Lye mixture in the bowl.

Slowly adding the tea/lye to the oils

This crock is the perfect size for our test batches!

Notice the difference in the color before stick blending...

and after, it had turned into a soft beige color.

We mixed until we reached a thick trace. It actually looked like

a very thick vanilla pudding. At that point, we put the lid on and let it cook for 30 minutes.

This is how it looked after 30 minutes.

It cooked for a total of 1 1/2 hours.

See how it sticks to the side of the crock at this point? This is a sign that the soap is probably done.

To be sure it's done we used a PH strip and zap test.

The soap was done, and we were ready to put it into the mold.

At this point we noticed there actually was a bit of a fragrance to the soap. This is unusual because in our experience between the lye and the saponification process, the smell of the original ingredients is usually lost. Even with something like wine, the smell just doesn't survive saponification. There must be something about this Indian Spice tea, though, because we could smell a bit of it!

Since the smell did survive the cooking process, it makes us cautious about the strength of the herbs in the tea. Sometimes spices or herbs can be rough on sensitive skin. When we try out these soaps we will need to pay close attention to how our skin feels before, during, and after washing with it.

Even though there was a hint of fragrance, we still wanted to use a fragrance oil in 1/2 of the batch for testing purposes. You know, we want to be, like, all scientific and stuff. So, we measured the total amount of the batter, then divided it in half, putting half back into the crock pot momentarily.

We put the other 1/2 of the batch into eight squares of our tester size mold. Then we got ready to add fragrance to the other 1/2.

For the Indian Spice Tea soap, we decided on an FO from +Natures Garden called Chai Tea. According to their website, the "fragrance begins with top notes of spicy cinnamon bark and nutmeg; followed with a body of fresh green tea; finished off with the aroma of creamy soy milk." It is absolutely fabulous! We want to use it again.

We did have to take care with it, however. The safety data for this oil indicates that it should only be used at a rate of 1% in soaps, bath oils, or bath gels. For perspective, in our regular five pound batches of soap, we generally add around 3.30 oz of fragrance oil. With this FO, we would only be able to add .66 oz to a full batch of soap (not even a whole ounce!).

So, we whipped out our old math skills and figured out 1% of the total ounces of oils used in this soap, then we divided that in half because we only added fragrance to 1/2 of the batter. It did not add up to very much FO, but even at such a small amount, it still smelled so good. We really do need to make something else with this FO. It will be interesting to see how such a low rate of usage will work in a whole batch of soap.