Soap Makers Help!

[cheeptrick]

Have any of you read Anne L. Watson's books?? I stayed up all night last night reading her Milk one...very good. I like her 'cool' method...I stay away from the 'warm' powdered milks.

I'm going to soap with coconut milk later this week....I've been using Susan Cavitch's test batch bar recipe and tweaking the oils and changing milks etc. I'm going to do a yogurt one too.

NEW coconut oil, palm kernal, and RICE bran oils coming.

ALL out of sodium hydroxide...well enough to do a few test bars...but that is it until Mr. Fedex man comes to visit.

 

[Morgaine]

Ok, I'm being bad, I only got the kitchen done, but I'll get to the others later (yeah right

)

Cheep trick, that is awesome looking it! I love the marble look you got! Was your soap at a thinner or thicker trace when you mixed the batches? Very natural looking!

I haven't read that first book. Could you explain the cool method and what warm powdered milk is?

I like coconut milk in soap, though I don't do it often for some reason. I can't find it at my local grocery store, I have to go the grocery store 1/2 hour away and I always forget to get when ever I do go.

Yougurt is also really nice. I find the lather is a little thicker and creamier than just milk soaps. A little bit more like buttermilk soaps. Cream is awesome in soap too. I have a little bit of raw milk left over from making yogurt that I'm letting go sour and I'm going to soap that. Anyone use sour cream? Hmm.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
I think I had a brain freeze when I was doing this. I remembered what you said about the 12%, but what I did was to infuse just over 12% of the OO. I realized this when I was measuring out my oils, so I knew there was a chance it wasn't going to get to the correct level. Since OO is a much larger percentage than my other oils, that means that I probably did a bit less than half what I needed to do. I will try this all again, if only to see that I can.

I'll give it a few more days out in the air, then I'll take some pix and let you see what I did get. I just hope this one hardens up enough before the festival next month. Otherwise, it's going to be a Christmas soap. BTW, what ppo are you using of the BRC?

Thanks for the link to the new supplier. I agree. It's a good thing to support women owned businesses. Afterall, that's sort of what most of us are doing, right?

 

[Backyard Buddies]

How do you guys use the yogurt in your recipe? Do you freeze it or simply chill it, add it after the lye is cool or at trace? I think I'd like to try that, especially since I make my own anyway (Thanks MissPrissy!). I'm thinking a natural one would be Cucumber & Yogurt. That would have nice label appeal, I think.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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Oh! I hope we can compare yours with the FO that I have. It hasn't been released for sale yet but those who've sniffed it are really liking it. Are you doing yours with EOs?

 

[Morgaine]

Aww, I used 12% of my total oils. Fingers crossed that the next batch will be better. I still can't wait to see what it looks like if just to compare. And someday you may want that color!

I'm using 3 oz BRC for 4lb of oils, I guess that's .75 oz ppo? You might be able to go less, but I'm not sure. since it's a best seller I want to make sure that I don't drop too low that it becomes a light smell. It's soo good though isn't it?!

I used the yogurt as 50% of my liquids, I find that way the easiest. Mix equalish water and lye ( I always add about 50 extra grams of water) and then when cooled to below 100 add the yogurt. Cucumber and yogurt does sound nice. Very spa like too.

 

[Morgaine]

Quote:
Oh! I hope we can compare yours with the FO that I have. It hasn't been released for sale yet but those who've sniffed it are really liking it. Are you doing yours with EOs?

yes it is eo's. I used the rainbow meadow calc for it.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

I started my batch at .7% BRC but then decided to splash a bit more into the pot so I likely ended up close to your level. I just didn't think .7 was going to do it. I'm guessing that .75 is probably about right and agree that I wouldn't go less.

I'm definitely going to give the yogurt a try. Sounds lovely!

So, you're using Patch EO? I was under the impression that it was really expensive, but when I just looked at EOU, I see that it's not that bad. What's with all the talk of it being in short supply and really costly right now?

 

[Morgaine]

From what I have read the prices have really started to drop in the last few months. I also read that it's worth it to get the dark iron distilled, a lot of people didn't like the cheaper grades. I bought a pound of the dark iron distilled from New Directions Aromatics and it is really nice, much deeper and elegant than what I have smelled at the health food store, which I;m assuming was the cheaper grade and jsut smelled like musty dirt and I didn't like at all. I'll send you a sniffie when I send out the box tuesday

 

[cheeptrick]

GET THIS BOOK....it is AWESOME! I naturally soaped like this and have tweaked her recipe a bit...my favorite soap recipe is a combo of her recipe and Cavitch's.

I see this book...becoming my bible!!

http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/index.html

She details how to soap with YOGURT, all types of milk, coconut milk, CHOCOLATE MILK, soy milk...its amazing. NOT too expensive either...got it off amazon for $11 or so.