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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Newest Soaps

I have been pretty busy in my soaping area recently - I finally figured out a recipe I really like, even though it seems a little expensive, and I've been working on making some new soaps that will be using a consistent recipe format.

My first soap I made is slightly different than my new "standard" recipe - it's a very gentle soap for some friends who want uncolored, unscented honey soaps.  It contains honey, beeswax, mango butter, avocado oil and colloidal oatmeal (among other things).  It was created to be palm- and coconut- free.


Normally, I try to avoid power circles, but I think it looks pretty cool here with the stamp :)
I also was feeling the winter blahs, and I was out of stock of my Sunshine soap (scented with Yuzu FO and Orange EO), so it was time to bring some citrus into the house and improve our moods.  I felt so much better after making this soap!
Just looking at the bright colors makes me happy!  There are poppy seeds in the white portion for some exfoliation.
I also wanted to try to make a facial soap - I'm getting close to out of the cleanser I currently use, and I figured I may as well try to make my own!  I got this recipe from Amanda's blog at Lovin' Soap.  It has a bunch of really great-sounding ingredients, which I happened to have on hand:  avocado and babassu oils, mango butter, activated charcoal and lavender essential oil. Here is her recipe - I resized the recipe to fit my column mold, but I calculated wrong and ended up with a bunch of extra soap batter, which I poured into my cupcake molds for individual-sized soaps:


Avocado oil – 4 oz

Babassu oil – 8 oz
Castor oil – 2 oz
Mango butter – 4 oz
Olive oil – 12 oz
Rice Bran oil – 2 oz
Water – 9 oz
Lye – 4.35 oz
1/2 Tablespoon Charcoal


I wanted to make it a little swirly, so I put the charcoal in about 2/3 of the recipe and then swirled it in the mold. I also had bought some 3" column mold liners from her, since I've broken the bottom of my BB mold. The swirls weren't uniform throughout the mold - as you can see the bottom of the mold was much darker and the top of the mold got the nice light swirls. I like both looks, though, and I can't wait to try out this soap!




I also tried to make a dog shampoo for my two little yorkies - I'll post the recipe and pictures later. The recipe uses neem oil and an EO blend. It doesn't smell too neem-y, and I am excited for it to cure so I can give it a whirl!


Also, I am feeling more proud of my pictures - all of these pics are still taken on my iPhone, but I downloaded the Camera+ app and have been making better use of PhotoScape to crop pics.  I am still having trouble with resizing the widths so they appear uniform in my blog.  I'll figure it out eventually :)

Here's what my table looked like while I was taking the pictures above.  Gotta love being able to crop :)




~Chrissy

13 comments:

  1. The stamp looks really cool in the "power circle." Seems almost purposeful. And I love the facial soap. You'll have to let me know if you need any testers. :)

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  2. I will definitely welcome testers! I am very excited to see how this turns out - I hope that it's half as good as I'm expecting it to be...

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  3. Gorgeous soaps Chrissy! I had that same facial soap recipe on file to try too...yours turned out great! The Sunshine soap is so happy looking, and I love the power circle with the stamp...it looks like you did it on purpose!

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  4. Very nice Chrissy! I love the stamped soap. What App are you using for your Iphone? I have tried taking pics with mine and they all come out too dark :( I usually have to wait for a nice sunny day to take pics outside with my regular camera. I tried a photobox but that did not work out well.

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  5. it is a good idea to make soap that is both palm and coconut oil free. I use coconut oil in almost all my soaps and just got babassu oil so I have to try it also. Yous soaps look so frech and i love the swirls in your facial soap. My favorite facial soap is a salt soap with 50% salt and 20% superfat. It doesn´t dry my skin at all.

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  6. Thanks, Roxana! I am using the Camera+ app for my iPhone (not Camera Plus - use the '+' symbol instead). I think it's 99 cents or something, but it allows me to take so much better pictures by controlling the focus and exposure for each photo. There is also some editing software in the app, too, but I don't tend to use that as much. I just use PhotoScape on my computer instead. I've not tried a photobox, but I wonder whether the wrinkles would stand out - they seem like they can get pretty wrinkle-y.

    Marika - I've never made a coconut oil-free bar, so I'm very excited to try this one out. I am hoping it's a great soap for my friends with very sensitive skin. I've also never made a facial soap, and I can't wait to try this one out. I have some salt bars on my list to try once I get a new mold with dividers - hope it comes soon! Do you use 100% coconut oil for your salt bars, or do you also put in a small % of other oils / butters?

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  7. Oh, and Cee (and Andrea) - while I didn't partially gel the soap on purpose, it adds some color and interest to this bar for my friends who really wanted a plain bar with no added colorants. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm not sure whether I could repeat this, though :)

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  8. I think the power circle looks cool, too, especially as a background for your stamp. And the Sunshine soap is awesome - I love that bright yellow!

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  9. I use 80% coconut oil, 15% cocoa butter and 5% castor oil in my salt soaps that I use for my face. And the lather is so creamy and has a few big bubbles.

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  10. Thanks, Jenny - the bright colors (and the bright smell) really put me in a good mood :) It's so fun to think ahead to the spring and summer fun that is coming!

    Marika - that recipe sounds divine! I'll definitely have to check it out soon. A nice salt bar has moved to the top of my list when I get the mold with the dividers.

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  11. The yellow soap is really gorgeous! Like the look of the soap!

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  12. Thanks, Natalia - it's Brambleberry's Fizzy Lemonade Colorant. I like the nice yellow it gives, especially when my recipe is fairly white.

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  13. I love the half gelled circles with your stamp. It really gives the stamp some emphasis!

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