Hello Aloe!

#fragranceoiltesting #aloevera #coldprocesssoap

Tuesday, April 24, 2015

Today was another day set aside for testing.  Now that we have our great set of small molds, it is much easier to make just enough soap for 1 oz of fragrance oil.

In our recent burst of fragrance hunting, we chose 4 different aloe fragrances.  Now, to my (Alison's) way of thinking, if we make a soap that says "aloe" in the fragrance, it only makes sense to actually have aloe in the soap.  Along with the fragrance oils, we purchased a small amount of aloe leaf powder, so we used it in today's testing as well.

+Natures Garden describes the benefits of using aloe leaf powder by saying, "Aloe Vera leaf powder is known for its skin healing properties.  It is used for irritated, sunburned, or inflamed skin. Aloe vera powder contains salicylates, which are known to relieve pain.  It is also high in antioxidants, vtamin C, and other minerals which allow the skin to heal faster."  Sounds great to us!

All of the FO's today came from +Natures Garden. All fragrances had high ratings from reported users, and the testers all indicated nice strong scents with no ricing, no acceleration, and no discoloration. Their tests did not take into account the possibility of using aloe leaf powder, though. You can see below how the additive affected the color. The descriptions of the fragrances are as follows:

#1 - Aloe & White Lilac "is a fresh, complex fragrance beginning with top notes of petitgrain, Italian bergamot, and ozonic notes; middle notes of lilac, lily of the valley, and hints of tuberose; base notes of sweet vanilla, amber, precious musk, and oakmoss."

#2 - Green Clover & Aloe "is a terrific unisex scent. Green Clover & Aloe is a fresh, green fragrance that reminds us of wild summer herbs growing in a field. This fragrance is much more complex than its name sounds. A floral fruity combination of fresh citrus and jasmine petals on a woodsy, sweet musk background."

#3 - Watercress and Aloe "Unique blend beginning with subtle top notes of lemon rind and fresh palm leaves, followed by fresh watercress and aloe notes, and finishing with jasmine & eucalyptus.  Great Spa Type Aroma!"

#4 - Aloe Vera & Cucumber "is the scent of crisp, cool cucumbers, refreshing green aloe and a touch of fresh citrus blended together to create a scent as light as a summer breeze."

Nature's Garden has a recipe that includes Aloe Vera Leaf powder, and the directions say to use 2 tsp per cup of water.  Our recipe measures ingredients by weight, so I weighed the water and measured it to see how much powder to use.

Hmmm...this is how the water looked when I added the Aloe Vera Leaf powder to it.  Neither pleasant to see nor to smell.  I began to question my plan, but was determined to see it through.

Originally we had planned to have a different color swirled into each FO sample batter.  Given the dark color of the water, we decided that the whole batch would have to be lightened with titanium dioxide rather than just one of the samples.

Once the lye/aloe water and the oils had cooled, we poured the water mixture through a strainer as we added it to the oils.  We wanted to be sure that any particles that hadn't dissolved would be strained out.  As it happened, all aloe leaf and lye had completely dissolved as it was supposed to do.

Even before we began mixing, we could see how dark the batter was going to be, so we went ahead and added the TD from +Bramble Berry and Icicle Mica from +Rustic Escentuals.

This photo is just because we love the way it looks as we begin to swirl TD and Icicle Mica into the oils.

As we emulsified the batter and brought it to trace, the color lightened to a creamy coffee or light caramel color.  It really was a nice color, but not conducive to the beautiful greens and whites we had in mind.  Not a problem, we are flexible.

We divided the batter into four equal parts.

Portion #1 was the Aloe & White Lilac. 

We added  about 1/2 tsp of additional Icicle Mica to this portion.  We did not mix it with oil, but added the mica directly into the batter.  Then we poured it straight into the mold.

We made a couple of butterflies with the additional batter.

Portion #2 was Green Clover & Aloe.  Just as with sample #1, it mixed nicely, no ricing, no acceleration.  So far the scents are scents are clean, fresh, and really quite wonderful.  The smell of the aloe leaf powder did not seem to be affecting the fragrance of the FOs.

For this batch, we used Pistachio Mica from +Rustic Escentuals.  We mixed it with safflower oil and poured the colorant into the batter for a gentle "in-the-pot-swirl."

The green did give us some differentiation from #1, but the color of the batter did mute the shade of green from we would have liked to have had.

The leftover batter went into the ladybug molds.

Portion #3 was the Watercress and Aloe FO.

By this time, the batter was getting rather stiff.  Probably partially my fault because I used a recipe that contains some hard oils like cocoa butter and palm oil.  It was getting cool as it sat waiting for me to mix and pour each portion.  Once we stirred in the FO, though, the batter loosened up nicely, so it really was no problem.

For this FO we used Enchanted Forest Mica from +Rustic Escentuals plus a bit of Chrome Green Oxide from +Bramble Berry to create a darker shade of green. We mixed them with a bit of safflower oil then 

gently swirled the color into the batter.

Most of the Watercress and Aloe batter went into the mold, 

and this leftover bit went into a couple of bumble bees.

The final portion of the batter had really gotten stiff by this point.  We stirred in an ounce of FO sample #4 - Aloe and Cucumber, and the batter loosened up nicely.  This FO was stronger than the other 3.  Usually I (Alison) love any fragrance with cucumber because it is so light and clean, but this was a bit stronger than I typically like.  It isn't bad, just stronger than I expected.  It will be nice to see how it is after curing.

We used the leftover green colorants and also used Sunshine Sparkle Mica from +Rustic Escentuals. This time rather than pouring the colorants directly into the pot, we took a bit of the batter out and mixed it into the colors before added them back to the pot.

This looked a bit like a few diapers we have changed in the past...

After swirling the batter, we filled the 4th mold plus a couple of dragon flies.

Group shot of all the soaps we created today.

Just before placing the molds in the curing box, we took a picture of them.  The colors were growing on us, and the fragrances are so fresh and clean.  The aloe will be very nourishing for the skin, too.

After 1 1/2 hours in the curing box, the colors were looking really interesting.  We closed the box to wait for 24 hours before removing them from the molds.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2015

And now the pictures of the soaps after curing for 24 hours.

First we show the soap in the mold, then out, and then finally after we sliced it into bars.

Yes, it looks a bit ashy here in the mold, but wait until you see it out of the mold.

Here they are out of the molds.  Aren't they pretty?  We were very surprised by the pink, but just because we were surprised doesn't mean that it is a bad thing.

The Aloe and White Lilac is a soft pink with a hint of caramel.  The fragrance is mild and clean with a hint of soft floral mixed with the green.  We like this one. 

Green Clover & Aloe is probably Alison's favorite of these 4 FOs.  It is a very lightly sweet clean, green fragrance.  She can't wait to take that ladybug home to give it a try.

Watercress & Aloe is really quite pretty with the darker green swirl.  The fragrance has that same green freshness to it, but this one has a sharper layer to it with a pungent bite.  Hope that description makes sense.  It is a nice fragrance, so don't take the description negatively, but it is a noticeably different smell.

The Aloe Vera & Cucumber looks really pretty with the additional colors in it.  After curing for 24 hours, it is still not my (Alison's) favorite.  I'm really surprised by that!  I usually LOVE fragrances with cucumber in it.  This one just seems to have an "after-smell" that I'm not crazy about.  

Kathy doesn't smell it the same way I do, though.  She doesn't smell whatever it is that I'm criticizing. This is actually Kathy's favorite of the four FO's.  She describes it as "a very fresh herbal scent with a little tailspin of sweetness." 

And here they are - the members of the aloe family.

A little different perspective.

We can now say that we have used aloe leaf powder to add some wonderful elements for the skin, and we have tried some new FOs.  A few color surprises added some fun to the process, but overall we consider this to be another successful test day.

These will dry on the curing racks for 6 weeks and will be ready to use on 

May 5.

No soap today, we saved a calf, yes a calf!

#twochicksinthewoods #newborncalf #calfrescue

Friday, March 21, 2015

Sometimes things get a bit strange in the soap kitchen. Today, however, was the strangest so far.  Here is what happened:

Since it was a pretty day, I (Kathy) was out on my back deck/porch talking on my phone, not really paying attention except to the conversation.  A vulture flew over me, maybe 15 feet up.  That was weird and got my attention.  A minute or so later another one buzzed by.  I watched it circle down towards the pasture below my house, then I noticed several of the cows running around and mooing their heads off!

What in the world?  

I kind of kept my eye on the cow circus below, and within a few minutes wrapped up my conversation and really looked around the pasture.  What caught my eye was a black (Angus) cow, right next to the fence who was mooing quite loudly and looking up the hill.  Following her line of sight, I spotted a white face, a calf, about 25 feet up the (steep) hill at the base of a big tree! Calves are supposed to be in the pasture, with their mamas! You can bet the vultures knew it was in the wrong place. This called for action!!!

I went into the house and informed Alison that we were going to check on a calf that was out of the pasture and had vultures leering at it.  I grabbed two golf clubs on the way out of the house & handed one to Alison. Why you ask? Because it's always good to have a golf club when approaching a calf (yep, I made that up, no clue why I picked the golf clubs up, but they did come in handy as our "walking sticks.")

Off we went, down the hill my house is on, then up the steep hill my neighbor's is on, and around the front to where the calf was.  The following pictures show you what we saw as we approached the calf.  

Another question you might ask, why did you take your phone and video the rescue?  You never know! It pays to take your phone, and no one would have believed us if we hadn't had video proof!

One thing we both noticed upon viewing the video is that if we asked each other once, we asked 4 or 5 times, how did it get up the hill?  I supposed we expected the calf to answer, or the mama cow, but they kept strangely quiet - at least as far as any explanation goes - and I guess we will never know how that new born calf climbed through the fence and half way up my neighbors hill!  By the way, the neighbor is the one who owns the cows.

Please enjoy our calf rescuing mission, and sorry for the repetitive, how did it get up here?

Once we stopped filming I texted my neighbor about the calf.  By the time Alison and I were almost back to my house my neighbor drove up and we explained what had happened.  He said he had checked on the mama cow the night before as she was showing signs of calving. He was amazed at where the calf wound up and was grateful Alison and I had "escorted" the calf back to the mama cow, especially with vultures in the vicinity .

Making soap is what we do most of the time, occasionally we rescue new born calves!

We are pushing for spring a day early!

#wisteriaandlilac #flowersoap #pinksoap

March 6, 2015 (day soap was made)

March 19, 2015 - the post I forgot to post! (the day post was written)

The pictures for this post have been waiting for me (Kathy) to write about them for weeks. Since today is the day before spring officially arrives I decided to be proactive and bring a brightly colored spring flower to you a day early. It's pouring rain and 42 degrees outside, so a touch of spring will bring a little cheer into an otherwise gloomy Thursday. 

A friend of mine called and asked if we could make soap to go in a swag bag to be given out at the spring retreat the Women of the Church are having on April 17th.  Without missing a beat I said, "Absolutely!" Then we talked about the details.  

The theme of the retreat is "Bloom," so the soap had to tie in with that.  My friend, her name is Kathy too, had a list:  the soap should smell like flowers (no problem); it had to be a pretty good size bar of soap, not a "guest room" size (no problem);  she wanted it to look like a flower (slight problem, but manageable); and they had a budget (no problem).  

We wrapped up our phone conversation, and Alison and I put our heads together. We almost called it our church soap challenge, but actually it wasn't too hard to figure out.  We knew ahead of time that to do any type of design on the soap it would have to be CP, so we checked the curing dates and it was perfect timing. The soap would be 6 weeks old and cured on the 17th of April!

 We got to work making the soap - we actually were planning and making the soap at the same time!

The FO we chose from The Lebermuth Co. is called Wisteria & Lilac. We love it and have used it several times, and it SMELLS like flowers.

Lebermuth describes it as follows: 

"A fragrance with sparkling fruity top notes and at the heart of the fragrance a melodious floral bouquet.  Top notes of juicy grape, crisp apple, melon, clean ozone and nuances of banana.  Mid notes of lingering lilac, wisteria, classic rose, jasmine, gardenia and a touch of camphor.  Warm woody base notes with powder and musk."

We used TD to make the batter lighter and Fired Up Fuchsia (for the flowers)  from Brambleberry

The Enchanted Forest and Icicle Micas came from Rustic Escentuals.

We mixed up our colors, using the Icicle Mica in the Fired Up Fuchsia to soften the pink.

The TD went right into the oils as we want a white bar for our pink flowers!

I strained the lye/water as I added it to the oil mixture (coconut, palm, olive, and castor oils).  We added silk to the lye/water and have found it's better if we strain the water as we pour it into the oils.

The heavenly Wisteria and Lilac FO is added to the batter.

We removed two separate cups of batter and colored them with our Enchanted Forest Green and Fired Up Fuchsia.

Then we evenly divided the remaining batter into two 18 bar molds.

The bars would be full size in shape but not as thick as our normal bars.

After inserting our 18 bar dividers in each of the molds we got busy.

We split up; I put the pink gobs of batter on each one

while Alison was doing the stems. Then we switched out, I got a little ahead as gobs are much easier than stems.

Once all the gobs were done, I tried my best to swirl a "pink bloom" on each bar. At the same time Alison was still doing stems - too bad we didn't have the video camera set up.

I finished blooms and helped her wrap up the stems, thankfully the batter was still fairly workable.

And before we knew it, we had 36 bars of soap with pink flowers on them!

We think they are pretty, and we are hopeful that the ladies at the retreat will enjoy them as well.

We had a bit of left over batter.....

so of course we made more flowers and a couple of butterflies!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, it's pouring rain and 40  (the temperature has dropped) degrees outside, but this picture makes me think SPRING!

Our Bloom soap will be cured and ready for swag bags by April 17th.