Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE)

I like to use some oils that are soft and have a shorter shelf-life in my recipes, like sunflower oil.  In the past, I have used a mixture of Vitamin E (.5-1%) and Vitamin C (.25-.5%) to help retard rancidity in my soaps.  I haven't had many issues with rancidity to date, which has been great!  Due to how quickly I've been using my oils lately, I just add the extract directly to my master batch when the master batches are prepared.

However, when I was digging around on the internet for something else unrelated, I stumbled across this interesting study which seems to indicate that while Vitamin E & C have many great skin benefits and can help defer rancidity in oils in general, Rosemary Oleoresin is a better performer to preserve shelf life of oils in soap.  The article is written by Kevin Dunn (author of Scientific Soapmaking) and is a very interesting read:  http://cavemanchemistry.com/HsmgDos2006.pdf.

Since the ROE rancidity effect appears in this one study (I am trying to find other studies which will confirm these results), I wanted to give it a shot in some soaps to test drive it a bit.

I made a 2-loaf batch of a repeat of the soap I made for the mica swirled top challenge, and added the ROE to the oils at .5% of the oil weight.  However, while I was mixing the oils to trace, the ROE didn't mix in well with the rest of the soap batter.  There was a layer of reddish orange stuff floating on top of the batter, even as I stick-blended it through medium trace.  I didn't think to take a photo while this was going on.  Now that I've re-read the articles, I have definitely over-used the ROE in my soap batter (recommendation of .02-.1%, depending on where you're reading).  I also tried to soap cooler than normal - around 75 degrees, instead of my usual 110 degrees or so. Since these kind of challenges go in threes, I had also forgotten to put in the EO blend I had mixed up for this batch, so I'm going to make another batch tonight WITH the scent this time :)

What's interesting is that when the soap batter was poured, the top of the yellow layer looked pretty green.  However, when I went downstairs tonight to take pictures after it had set up for a couple days, the green layer on top has gone away. It must have re-absorbed into the soap?  Very strange.

Here you can see a very slight variation of color between the top and the side.  However, I had just unmolded the soap, so the color difference could be the more wet soap vs the drier top.

In this picture you can see the color a little, too, but the top doesn't look green like it did when it was soap batter.

Here's a picture of how they turned out cut.  I really like these colors for the scent, even though these ended up unscented :)

Another show-off picture

Here is a good blog post which looks at the anti-microbial claims of ROE and whether it can function as an effective general preservative:  http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2012/01/essential-oils-rosemary-essential-oil_17.html  (in short- it is not a sufficient stand-alone preservative system).  For anyone interested in cosmetic chemistry knowledge, Susan's blog is a great resource, and has some excellent starting recipes for lotions, shampoos, etc.

I've been researching what happens if one uses too much ROE in soaps, but I'm not finding a ton of information.  This soap will be relegated to personal use until I can determine whether it is safe to use.

Also, I had a friend over a few weekends ago to help me take some pictures and show me how to use my little old point-and-shoot.  She took some amazing pictures with the natural sunlight, and she showed me some good ways to set up and use my camera, too.  I'm so happy with how the pictures turned out!

Some Chocolate Mint cupcakes - they look like edible cupcakes!

The Challenge #3 soap - mica swirled tops

Yuzu / Orange soap

Soap Challenge #2 - Elemental Swirl

This one I took myself :)  Rosemary Mint.  It looks similar to the ones my friend took with her SLR camera, even though you can tell hers are better.

Have a great Monday!

~Chrissy

Salt Bars (with safety update)

Up until recently, the only divided molds I have had are fancy-design cavity molds.  This is fine for regular soap, but I wanted to try my hand at salt bars.

Jenny at Lather Be Soaping posted this tutorial on salt bars, which explains a lot about why coconut oil (and the high percentage) and other things - definitely go and check out her post for more information and some pics of a beautiful bar of soap.  I wanted to try out making my own bars, and I got my hot little hands on some pink Himalayan salt to use.  My husband uses Himalayan salt blocks to cook steaks (which are delicious, by the way!), but I went and bought medium-ground salt for my soaps :)

I used the same recipe Jenny uses on her blog:
80% coconut oil
15% avocado oil (I love avocado oil!  I use it in all my recipes)
5% castor oil

I superfatted at 20%, since such a high % of coconut oil can be very drying.  My problem was understanding how to size this recipe.  I wasn't sure whether the salt would dissolve into the recipe or if it would add additional bulk to the recipe, so I sized it to fit a 9-bar mold for bars that were 3.5"x2.5"x1.25" (or approx 40 oz oils).  I added 36 oz of salt to the recipe at trace, since you can use a salt weight of anywhere from 50%-100% of the weight of the oils used.

I definitely over-produced :)  The salt does add additional volume to the bars (duh in retrospect), and it made nearly double what I was looking for.  Therefore, I needed to cut the bars in half to get them to a size that can be held (and used).

Here's a pic of the soap being mixed:

The salt didn't mix in as well as I thought it would...  I had to do the same thing as Jenny and switch to a whisk.  MUCH easier after that :)

Here it is in the slab mold before I put in the dividers.  One note on sliding in the dividers - I don't think I pushed hard enough on the dividers, and there was a layer of soap stuck underneath the dividers when I tried to unmold.  I haven't had this happen on my other soap recipes in this mold - may have been the thick batter and saltiness.

Love that pink color!

And here are the cut bars.  They got pretty crumbly around the edges when I tried to cut them.  I waited about two hours until they were solid-feeling (but still warm), and then cut with my miter box.  The soap was much crumblier than I had anticipated - probably because of how much undissolved salt was in the bar and I may have needed to cut them a little sooner...

The color is nice, but all the edges are kind of crumbly.  A couple days after cutting, though, and already the lather is feeling lotion-like.

I have a feeling that even though the salt bars may have won this round, I am going to win the battle!  (muah haha)

SAFETY UPDATE:  I realized after this posted that I am showing a picture of my bare hands with the caustic soap batter above.  When I soap, I follow the safety precautions prescribed by numerous blogs, including Soap Queen (Google cold process safety procedures if you're new to CP soaping and want to try it out).  I had removed my gloves to grab my camera to take this picture so that I wouldn't get soap batter on my camera from my gloves.  I just forgot to put the gloves back on for the picture.  Any soapers that are new who want to try this recipe, PLEASE PLEASE follow good safety practices for soap making.  

Listen to Sweet Brown - Lye Burns: Ain't nobody got time for that! :)

~Chrissy

New weekend soaps

I am working on a post on the new Soap Hutch mold I got recently to talk all about this amazing multi-purpose mold that Rich made for me.  He has been such a pleasure to work with and great at communicating on details of the mold.  I will get into the features of my great Christmas gift in the blog post I'm working on, but for now, just know it's awesome :)

So, since it has a 9-bar divider function, I wanted to utilize it and also play with a chopstick swirl.  One of the nice things about this mold is that it's 4" tall, so each of the 9 divided sections can hold up to 3 bars of soap, or 27 bars total in one mold!  This means that the bars that I swirled had additional layers of depth and design - I really enjoyed seeing how the middle bar of each 3" block turned out.

The blocks all looked so grey from the activated charcoal I used for one of the colors.

Check out how great the swirls inside look:

And the scent is heavenly (Black Raspberry Vanilla).  I did notice, though, that on the tops of some of the blocks, there was this strange yellow-ish color developing in the white portion.  I'm not sure what caused that, since the color didn't make it through the entire block - it was only on the top bit that was exposed to air.  I really struggled getting the soap blocks out of the mold, because the liner on the bottom of the mold was stuck to the plastic bottom of the mold - it took me forever to separate the liner from the mold.  The swirls turned out so beautifully, though, I will definitely use it again!

I also made a hot process lavender soap in my trusty old crock pot.  I have a lot of trouble getting the tops to look smooth with HP, so I poured it into BB's vertical mold to keep all the sides flat and even.  I colored it with alkanet root infused in olive oil (3 heaping teaspoons in 12 oz olive oil).  I was worried about the color, since it was red-looking when I infused the OO over heat, the color turned a pretty purple when I mixed the soap batter, and it became an ugly grey color when it was cooking in the crock pot.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the colors.  I will make another batch soon and will take pictures to show off the weird color morphing.

The final color ended up pretty great, though - I apparently was having a purple weekend, which was fitting that the Prince station on Pandora was my soaping music :)  I love purple and the Purple One!

I love this color - you can see the change from when it was first cooked (in top left) over a few days curing.  Gorgeous, if I do say so myself!

I need to work on a few more blog posts on the Soap Hutch mold as well as a salt soap I could finally make with the divider mold.  Expect more soon!

Happy Monday - 

~Chrissy

Soaps with Milk

Long absence everyone!  I have spent the past month enjoying time with family and friends, some down time for myself, and a little bit of time sick in bed with the flu that's going around and other various winter diseases.

But now, it's back to the blog (and hopefully soaping!) Last fall, I experimented with some milks in my soaps.  I had heard all about how lovely and creamy they made the lather, and I wanted to check it out for myself.  The first soap I made with cream (about 90% of the liquids) was this Pumpkin Spice soap, also using pumpkin puree and BB's Pumpkin Spice FO.  

It was awesome (and still is).  I loved the smell, it lathered beautifully, and it smelled delightfully pumpkin-y and also spicy for the fall.  This turned out so well, that I next tried this Gingersnap soap with coconut milk - 100% of the liquids for the lye. 

The colors turned out more gray than brown, even though the swirl was nice, and these bars in my slab mold were HUGE!  They averaged around 7oz when cut...  But when I was mixing the lye with the coconut milk, it started to turn a little orange.  That's okay, I told myself, because I'd read about it happening on various forums, blogs and soapmaking books.  I probably just was adding lye too fast to the milk.  However, when I got the solution mixed in and started to mix the soap batter, YUCK - what is that awful smell!  That coconut milk smells burnt and horrible!!

I told myself it would probably go away over time, and it is a favorite of many friends and family.  After curing for about 4-5 weeks, I no longer noticed the smell of the burnt milk, and my nose was not offended by this soap any more.  Great!

Next, I tried cream again (the heavy whipping cream from the grocery store) to make a peppermint soap.

I was sure I had the hang of soaping with milks now, so I was even faster about adding lye to the soap and used 100% cream for the liquid in the lye mixture.  I added the lye to cold cream (not frozen), and before long, it turned a brilliant orange.  I was not worried, because it had turned out well in the past, and I was sure this time would be no different.  As I was soaping, I tried not to notice the horrid smell of sour, burnt milk.  It was terrible.  I scented with peppermint EO to cover up the milk smell, and let it cure.

The scent did fade over time, I noticed.  But last week when I went to get my hubby a soap for his shower, I picked up a tester I had made from this batch. (I made a second batch also with less milk, which smells much more pleasant)  Holy Hannah, did that smell sour!  I made my hubby smell, and he promptly threw the bar in the garbage.

I am worried about using milks in my soaps after this horrible experience, not knowing whether I am just very sensitive to milk now since I haven't been eating dairy lately, or if it was something I messed up.  I did a little research, asked some questions on the Teach Soap Forum, and got some answers.  

It seems that I probably used too much milk in the recipe, and I am likely sensitive to the milky smell.  I will wait for awhile before I'm tempted to try milks in my soaps again.

On a more positive note, though, I did find a fantastic winter recipe I have been using for the horribly dry and bitterly cold winters we have up here in Minnesnowta, and I will get pics and a blog about that shortly!

Hope you all are staying warm!

What did I do wrong? Hot Process Edition

I wanted to try a crock pot Hot Process soap, since I received this lovely beauty from my friend Andrea:

 It's a well-loved crock pot, and it came at a great price - free! 

Hobbes always needs to be involved in my photos.  He's a very curious dog...

Last Wednesday, I did some research online, read the chapter on Hot Process a number of times in my The Everything Soapmaking Book, and decided to have a go.  I tried the recipe on page 149 fr dry skin, since I had all of the ingredients for the soap itself.  I colored it with ultramarine blue and ultramarine purple and scented it with Lavendar and Bergamot EO.

I probably should have tried this when I was less pressed for time - I had to run to a volleyball game and had just enough time for the soap to cook and to get it in a mold.  Since I was running late, I didn't think to take photos of the soap while cooking, but I did stir it a few times as it cooked.

Here's what it looked like when I glopped it in the molds:

Love how it smells, but the color is a little too blue.  I also think it looks a little grainy.  It tested as neutral, I got it pressed down and went to my game (which we ended up losing.  Tough night!).

Today, nearly a week later, the soap is still really soft and I can sculpt it and mold it around.  It won't come out of the molds, so I took a knife to try to loosen the edges.  I can scoop the soap out in scoops:

It still smells great, and I still think it's too blue, but I have no idea what happened...  Did I not wait long enough to unmold?  Does it need to set for longer than a week?  I measured everything in ounces as per the recipe, so I'm sure it wasn't as precise as if the recipe was in grams.

I've never made hot process before, so any thoughts would be appreciated! 

~Chrissy