This week I ordered 8 pounds of castor oil. Many of my oils, like coconut, I can get at local stores, but castor oil is not among them, and I know if I run out I will not be able to make most of my favorite recipes, so I'm laying in enough to get me through at least the next six-twelve months.
Since I was ordering from Bulk Apothecary anyway, I also ordered some five-fold lemon EO and some spruce EO.
Oh, and I started trying out my 6% honey soap in the shower for the first time, and
it didn't make my skin hurt!! This is a big deal, because so far, only my pure lard and pure tallow bars haven't made my dry skin hurt, and I was starting to think they'd be my only go-to shower bars.* That would be fine, but they're not very interesting visually or olfactorily. If the honey soap works for me, I'll be happy.
*One of the surprises for me was to discover that my castile and bastille bars aggravate my eczema. After reading so much good about them in the earliest days of my research into soap making, I anticipated them being very gentle... you gentle folk on the SMF had a much harsher opinion about high-OO recipes, which I'm starting to come around to joining you on! I may give up OO entirely, or reduce the percentage a lot.
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Second edit to add the recipe if anyone's interested (Adapted from Almond Facial Soap, p. 60,
Smart Soapmaking by Ann Watson):
Component | Grams |
Almond Oil 63.5% | 400 |
Coconut Oil 23.8% | 150 |
Cocoa Butter 12.7 | 80 |
Beeswax | 20 |
Honey | 38 |
Water | 188.3 |
Lye | 94.1 |
Salt | 10 |