where has Alchemy and Ashes gone to?

Hello friends,

I am just a few months new to the forum, but have been wondering where Alchemy and Ashes has gone? I really liked reading her posts and learned a lot from her. I am also hoping to hear about the results of her one oil experiments.

I am getting ready to make another cp batch tomorrow using hard cider and annato seeds as the colorant --maybe a pencil line with cocoa? I have some EOs picked out, but haven't decided on them yet. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks,
kpduty

I think she's taking a break for now.

Yesterday she posted an update on her Single Oil Experiment on her blog:
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2013/04/hey-remember-me-i-baaaccckkk-single-oil.html

Good luck on your hard cider batch

Thank you Genny.
I hope she comes back. She makes amazing soap.

my soap tomorrow

Hello again,
I am working out my recipe for cider soap making tomorrow. I boiled my cider and it is sitting and hopefully becoming benign and well behaved. I am going to freeze it slushy, I think.
I like to change one or two variables. This time I think my oils will be:
shea butter
OO pomace (with some annato colored oo)
castor
coconut
palm
and...something different. I was thinking about 5 oz of babassu oil.
does anyone want to weigh in on babassu oil? I have never used it.

My EO possibles are
orange 5x, rosewood, amyris, black pepper... anise or cedarwood.
I like more complex combos, so will definitely have 4 oils in the mix.

Any opinions or cautions?
I will use the fragrance calc and go with the lowest amounts.

Thanks for sharing your opinions and advice.

I miss her too.

Babassu is a substitute for coconut so if you use it you can cut or eliminate coconut.

http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2013/04/hey-remember-me-i-baaaccckkk-single-oil.html

Here is a link to her blog post about the single oil experiment. I saw it on fb the other day. Quite interesting!

I love babassu in soap but you want to be careful that you don't add too much since it has a higher cleansing value than coconut. So, your soap could turn out too drying if you don't watch your percentages of either or both oils. On the plus side, it's a little bubblier than coconut. :wink:

I can't offer a suggestion on if you should use it or not since I don't know the percentages of the other oils.

babassu oil addition

Hi Hazel,
I "think" I image captured the soap calc for you to see. I am out on a limb here, and if it works I will be happy. Anyway, here is my work in progress recipe. I haven't calculated the fragrance yet, and am still tinkering with it.

thank so much for your advice. kp

should I go down more with the coconut? eliminate it? I have 1 lb of th babasu.

Thank you Melstan. I am learning from you!

Hi again Hazel,
Here I am tweaking my recipe and acting needy. Sorry!
I think this looks better and will probably go with it in the a.m.
Many thanks.

I just saw these replies. Both recipes look fine but I prefer the second one since its values fall in the range I like to have for my soap. I would use more of a lye discount. However, I would use something similar to the first one for my BIL and nephews with the 5% discount. It just depends on what you prefer.

Thank you Hazel.
I made the second one and cut it this a.m. It gelled fully and I like it. Still waiting to see how the EOs will settle; smells different each time I check.
I used orange x5, cedarwood, rosewood, black pepper and anise.
I smell the anise first... but am hoping that will take a back seat in the end. I didn't use that much of it.... strong.
I didn't use anything to anchor the orange, either. Perhaps a mistake.
If I continue to smell the anise, I will call it Sweet Annie Cider soap and call it done. I like the smell of sweet annie in the garden anyway.
I'll post a picture later.
Thanks for your advice,
Kathy

melstan775 said:

Babassu is a substitute for coconut so if you use it you can cut or eliminate coconut.

Click to expand...

It can be used in place of coconut, but it is not a straight up substitute for it. You would still need to run it through a lye calculator and the properties are slightly different. For instance, Babassu is more cleansing than CO therefore could be more drying in the same percentages as CO. The plus side to this is as Hazel said in a post above this one, it is slightly more bubbly due to the higher cleansing properties.

The blend might hold up better than you think it will. I'm not an expert on EOs but I have read anise helps to anchor EOs other than citrus. For citrus, litsea cubeba was recommended in the article but it might stay well since you used 5x orange. Here's the link to where I read about anise and you might find it interesting. I don't know how accurate the information is in the article from personal experience but I know the author has been been soaping for years. Her other articles are interesting, too. I will say I was surprised at how long EOs stayed in a facial bar batch I had made over 2 years ago. I'm down to an itty bitty bar of it and last night I noticed I could still faintly smell the EOs in it. (This is why it's good to keep a bar to see how well the recipe, scent and colorants hold up over time.) I had used clary sage, lavender, sweet patchouli and geranium. I also used babassu in it. :wink: In her article, she mentioned castor oil as a fixative and it made me wonder if this is why the EOs didn't fade in this batch (and a couple of others) since I use a higher percentage in some recipes.

I'm glad jcandleattic mentioned about checking recipes in a lye calculator. It's a good reminder for other people reading this topic who might not have read this recommendation. She also mentioned an important point about using less babassu than coconut because it's more cleansing. I didn't realize this until after I had made 2 batches with babassu. Even though SoapCalc showed the difference in the values, I didn't think it looked like that big of a difference on paper. Boy, was I wrong. But this lesson just emphasized how important it is to experiment, see how oils/butters turn out and find out what you prefer. Fortunately, my nephews really liked the soap and took them.

You're welcome for the little info I could give you. I've written about it in the previous discussions that I love babassu in soap and especially in facial bars. This is just my opinion but I prefer babassu over coconut in facial bars because even though they look very similar on paper; there are some differences which become apparent if you do a comparison. Maybe not everyone would notice but I noticed differences.

I'll look for your picture. :grin:

Thank you Jcandle! That is interesting and helpful. I will read more about babassu. Don't worry, I use the lye calculator for everything soap related...it is also a fun time wasting toy when I am just thinking about soap options.

Thank you Hazel-- I have read the article and like it because it gives me hope for my soap smelling okay when it is cured. It is settling down now. I really like the babassu, too. The soap looks so nice--I like the high conditioning hand feel.
Lots to learn over here.