#Kudzu #hotprocesssoap #kudzusoap
Kudzu Scented Hot Process Soap.
Friday, December 5, 2014It's been a few days - actually it's been over a week - since either of us posted on this blog. "Why?" you might ask.
HA! - Christmas! Oh, and the flu!
Yes, Alison followed her son's lead and came down with type A influenza early last week. Spending almost a week in bed with the covers pulled over her head isn't how she imagined spending the first week of December. Thankfully, she (and her son) are back among the living, and no other family members seem to have gotten the bug.
With Alison down and out, I mailed a few packages, delivered some soap orders, rearranged the supply room (again), and basically hung out with my daughter and helped my husband finish putting our front porch back on.
On Thursday evening I received an inquiry regarding our Kudzu soap. During the course of the conversation, and as I relayed what soaps we had in stock, I realized that we are totally out of Kudzu soap. Oops!
To fill the glaring hole in our soap stock, I made a HP batch of Kudzu on Friday. The following photos will show you (briefly) how I made the soap.
+Natures Garden describes their Kudzu FO as a fragrance that "consists of top notes of muscadine, strawberries, and fresh peach; middle notes of jasmine, muguet lily, and violet, with a base note of sheer musk."
We aren't sure about the fresh peach, but we do know what Kudzu blossoms smell like
and this FO smells the same.
I used Enchanted Forest Mica from +Rustic Escentuals.
It's the closest color we have to Kudzu leaves.
Speaking of Kudzu leaves, pictured above is one we dried this summer. We store our dried Kudzu leaves in a ziplock bag which keeps them fresh and dry.
I ground the leaf up in our special, soap-making-only, coffee grinder.
After several minutes of grinding I realized that the leaves were as small as they were going to be.
I stick blended coconut, olive, palm, and castor oils with the lye/water. I mixed the batter right in the crock pot. Once I reached thick trace, put the lid on the crock and let it start cooking, I did not stir again for the first 1/2 hour. After that, I stirred every 15 minutes for one hour and thirty minutes.
I used PH strips and the zap test. No problems, the soap was done.
I double checked the temperature of the batter. The flash point of the FO is 200 degrees, and even though I know the crock pot won't go that high, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
The temperature registered right around 175 - 180 degrees, perfect!
With no temperature worries, I added in the Kudzu FO and mixed it thoroughly into the batter.
Once the FO was evenly blended throughout, I removed approximately 3 cups of batter, and put it in a glass measuring cup that was sitting in a hot bath of water. I do not want to take a chance of the soap cooling and hardening at this point.
I added the Enchanted Forest Mica (pre mixed with a TBSP of the Olive Oil) to the batter in the warmed measuring cup.
Once all the Mica was added I began to stir.
The batter turned a nice green color.
Into the non-colored batter, I sprinkled the Kudzu flakes.
I added the colored batter back to the crock pot
then gently stirred the two batters together to create an "in the pot swirl"
The batter is in the mold, dividers are in, can't wait to see it.
After 24 hours in the curing room, the soap was ready to be unmolded.
Here is a single bar of Kudzu Soap. It smells so good.
The Kudzu flakes are plainly visible.
And here you have the latest batch of Kudzu soap.
It will be ready after it cures for a week.
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