Bugs Be Gone!

#bugbegone #insect-repellent #nomorebugs 

*Note:  we wrote this blog 2 weeks ago and just didn't get around to posting it...

April 2, 2015

When school is out this afternoon spring break officially starts for Habersham County. I'm sure the kids will be mentally starting the break way before the last bell rings today.  Alison and her daughter have a big trip to NYC planned and I am going to be taking care of my 2 grandchildren while their parents go out of the country.  We are all going to have fun!  

Since the soap kitchen will be virtually shut down for the next week or so, we decided to make a batch of HP soap in anticipation of the warmer weather in our imminent future. It may not be the same everywhere, but in our neck of the woods warm weather means bugs; thus the creation of our Bug-Be-Gone soap.

We love making soap, HP or CP. Both have particular characteristics that make it fun.  The HP is great because basically you can use it almost immediately.  To be on the safe side we usually wait a week, but during the clean up of a HP batch we wash without gloves and have never had a problem; it's that safe.  CP is prettier, but oh, the wait!  The wait to us is so long (but worth it, always).

We used the Bug Be Gone EO blend from +Lebermuth Co. The blend includes citronella, lemongrass, orange, eucalyptus and litsea cubeba essential oils.  We also added a little Tea Tree EO from www.bulknaturaloils.com.  This blend of EOs smells better than bug repellant usually smells. We hope the bugs will hate it, though!

The base oils we used were: Olive, Sweet Almond, Coconut, Palm, Castor and Palm Kernel. In this picture we are adding the lye/distilled water into the oil mixture.

We had the crock pot on high while we melted the oils and for the first 1/2 of the cook, then we turned it down to low for the remaining hour and 15 minutes.

Once we added the lye/water we stick blended until we had fairly thick batter or a medium to heavy trace (trace is the drop trail the soap leaves on the surface when you drag your blender across the top).

Another nice thing about HP soap is you don't have to wait for lye/water to cool down, so you can add it to the oils at most any time.

This is what the soap batter looked like after cooking covered, on high for 1/2 hour At this point we stirred it throughly and then turned it down to low.

This picture is about 45 minutes into the cook. We had almost reached the stage that is called "mashed potato," but we still had a way to go yet because we know our usual HP cook time is at least 1-1/2 hours.

At this point the soap had been going for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We did a zap test with no problems, it smelled like soap and tasted like soap - we declared it soap!

Next we had to wait for the soap to cool down enough to add the "Bug Be Gone" because it has a flash point of 70 degrees celsius. As you can see....we are there!

In go the EOs. This actually smells pretty good for a bug repelling scent.

We thoroughly mixed the EOs into the batter,

spooned it into the 18-bar mold,

added the dividers, and then let it sit overnight.

And there you have it - Bug-Be-Gone soap.  

A friend of Alison's told her about using Bug-Be-Gone soap at the beach.  She would rub it all over her skin before going outside, then when she came in, she just hopped in the shower.  She loved it!

We are hopeful that using this soap before a trek in the woods will help keep the bugs off. No promises though! Some bugs are going to bite no matter what precautions we take.

Bug-Be-Gone soap - we are ready for summer!