Stink, Stank, Stunk (but not anymore)

Scented on L, and unscented on R

#healthysoap 

Thursday, November 13, 2014 

(Alison here)

Have you ever followed a recipe that you have seen flawlessly created by a famous food personality on the Food Network? Have you ever tried one that didn't exactly turn out as you expected?

My family still shudders at the memory of an eggplant recipe that I once followed. The chef made it look so easy, and beautiful, and delicious. Maybe we just don't like eggplant, but the perfection she presented on TV did not in any way resemble the concoction that ended up on my table.  Even the squirrels glared at me through the kitchen window after I thew that mess off the back deck. 

Today's soap reminded me of that eggplant because we produced something that wasn't quite what we were expecting.  It DID have one huge difference, though. A nice Fragrance Oil makes all the difference in the world with a bar of soap; there was nothing I could have done that would have made that eggplant edible. 

But lets get to the soap:

Today was another experimental soap.  We are working to create an exclusive line of soaps that will be very healthy for the skin and for the whole person.  The plan today was to use Mango Green Tea in place of plain distilled water, to use Neem oil as one of the oils, and to add turmeric to the soap as a healthy, healing additive. 

Mango is rich in vitamin C and antioxidants.  Green tea is also an anti-oxidant as well as an anti-inflammatory, and there are even more benefits to consuming green tea.  Turmeric is anti-inflammatory as well as anti-bacterial.  Neem oil has been used as an antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial.  But don't take my word for it.  I do not claim to be an expert.  Krupa, at Roots 'N Remedies on the square in Clarkesville, however, can tell you so much about natural healing and healthy living.

We have used turmeric in soap before, and my son and I were very happy with how it helped our skin.  Kathy and I knew from that experience, though, that the soap would not smell great without some added fragrance, so we were expecting a bit of an unpleasant smell. 

We had not used Neem oil before, but as we conducted research on how to use it for soap, we found that it, too, would create a rather unpleasant smell.  In several different sources, we read descriptions and warnings about how bad the soap would smell, but each time the writer also promised that the smell would not last and would even be unnoticed if a nice fragrance oil is part of the recipe.

We can handle a little smelly oil.  

Because this is a test batch, we planned to leave 1/2 unscented and add fragrance oil to the other half. This way we can get an accurate result and really see how the soap feels, looks, and smells both with and without added fragrance.

We had brewed the Mango Green Tea from Roots 'N Remedies in advance, using distilled water.  The advanced brewing left plenty of time for the tea to cool completely before we added lye to it.

Pictured above are the Neem seed oil and the turmeric (both from Roots "N Remedies). Also pictured is the FO we had selected especially for this blend of ingredients.  Mango Sage Tea is from +Natures Garden, and they describe the fragrance as "a unique combination of refreshing leaves of rubbed sage, juicy mango, papaya, and strawberries, with a wonderful base note of freshly brewed white tea leaves."

Sounds like a perfect fragrance for a Mango Green Tea and turmeric soap doesn't it?

We measured out the small amount of tea we needed for this test batch.

Then we added the lye to the liquid.  See above how the color of the tea is

changing with the addition of the lye?  Now look at the following pictures.

As we completely stirred in the lye, the color of the tea really darkened.

And by the time we were ready to add it to the oil mixture, it was super dark.

These oils are a blend of several, one of which is the Neem seed oil.  At this point, the smell was making itself known.  But, hey, we can handle a little smelly oil.

We blended the mixture in our tiny tester crock until we reached a medium trace.

Then we added the turmeric and used the stick blender to evenly mix it throughout the batter.  We continued blending until the mixture reached a heavy, thick trace.  Then we put the lid on the crock and let it cook for 30 minutes.

This is how it looked after 30 minutes.  Remember my saying that we could handle a little smelly oil?  Well, this was something else altogether.  

As the  Neem seed oil and the turmeric were cooking, the smell was almost enough to make me forget that it was past lunchtime and that my stomach had been growling.

The soap continued to cook, and we continued to stir it in 15 minute increments.  After our usual hour and a half,  it was time for the "zap" test.  UGH!!  The smell was bad enough, but now imagine tasting it! I couldn't tell if I was feeling a zap, or if it was the turmeric, or if it just really tasted so bad that it was uncomfortable.  We decided to cook it an additional 15 minutes.

After 15 more minutes and a second test, that zappy feeling was gone.  The soap was done.

We measured it to see how much we had, then we put 1/2 of it back into the crock pot to keep warm while we put the other half into the mold.

The first eight squares are the no-fragrance-added soap.

To the other 1/2 of the batter (that we had put back into the crock pot), we added 1-1/2 tsp of  Mango Sage Tea FO.  It was amazing how the FO completely changed the smell of the soap!  My research was right so far.  Neem and turmeric do produce an unpleasant smell in soap, but adding FO solves the aroma problem.  We CAN make a healthy and beneficial soap that also smells good!

We left the sample soaps in the mold for 24 hours to cool and harden.  As this is an HP soap, it is safe to use immediately, but we like to let it cure for at least a week before we let anyone have it. That week gives it time for the water content to continue to evaporate a bit more, resulting in an even harder bar of soap.

We really are eager to see how this soap comes out.  With the healthy ingredients we used, this will be a great soap!

Pictured above are the no-fragrance-added bars.  Happily the bad smell so prevalent while the soap was cooking has vanished. Now there is a faint peanut butter smell which is fine.

Pictured above is the scented 1/2 of the batch.
Visually, there isn't much to tell them apart, but there is a difference in the fragrance.  We really like the Mango Sage Tea FO, and we are so excited about the healthy ingredients in this soap!