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Chlorella powder I purchase chlorella powder from a natural foods store. It's in the section with bulk herbs and spices. I'm pretty sure that infusing the chlorella into the oils will yield a green soap. I add chlorella at trace when I want a to create a batch of green soap. You have to...

Here are the results. (Finally!) The picture of the batch was taken March 8 right after I cut the soap into bars. As you can see, the soap at that time was the color of linen I thought that perhaps the technique wouldn't produce the peach color I had created before. But after curing for six...

I think it's how the chlorella reacts to the air during the curing process after going through the reaction the lye. I can't explain it; I'm just hoping it works this time. I'll keep you posted.

I'm trying a technique I haven't used since 2005 to see if I can replicate the results. I made a tea with distilled water and powdered chlorella, strained it through a coffee filter, then mixed in the NaOH. Like before, the tea was a very pale green color, and when I made this soap back in 2005...

Janeau—the essential oil was amyris, which was described as West Indian sandalwood. However, I later discovered that amyris is also described as West Indian rosewood, and the scent is much closer to rosewood than sandalwood. I was hoping for a sandalwood EO substitute. I do like the scent of the...

Colors and fragrances The colorants are all natural. The green soap on the left is colored with chlorella; the six-sided bar was colored with green clay; the yellow bar with annatto. The brown bars were colored with cocoa powder and/or tomato paste. The scents in my description are the...

I haven't been active on this forum for a while, but I have been making soaps. Here are some of the recent batches: Left to right: cedar & fir; West Indian bay; cedar & lemongrass; West Indian sandalwood; lemon eucalyptus; and rosemary.

I add the ground almonds as a mild exfoliant.

I'm making a batch of soap today and ground some almonds to add to the batch. In the past, I've used blanched almonds; today I used unblanched almonds with their brown seedcoat still on them. I put the freshly ground almonds through a fine mesh strainer so only the smallest particles sift...

Cocoa Powder I used cocoa powder and tomato paste in a recent batch of beer soap. The resulting bars smell a bit like musk but in a good way. I thought the musky smell came from the beer.

Goat Milk I added dehydrated, whole fat goat milk at trace to a recent batch and LOVED the results. Used a bar of it to shave this morning. Very creamy and mild, but lathered well. That's the way I intend to go.

Lye Solution Percent Okay, I'm bringing this up again because I'm curious. I have been using a 40% lye solution for several years and am now wondering if that is a bit too high. What percent solution do you use and what factors cause you to increase or decrease the NaOH saturation? I'm thinking...

Rolled oats I also used rolled oats, grinding it finely in a spice grinder, then putting it into a fine mesh strainer and tapping the strainer so that only the finest particles get through. I do this on a sheet of parchment paper to collect what I'm going to add to the soap. This method never...

Pumpkin Seeds Well, I put some raw pumpkin seeds in my spice grinder and give it a whirl. I ground it for several minutes but there were still chunky pieces in the mix. I tried to put it through a strainer to collect the finest particles but the ground seeds were too moist and fibrous for...

Water I agree with Carebear also. I calculate the sodium hydroxide depending on my blend of oils and the discount I'm applying, then calculate how much water to use to create a 40% lye solution. (Weight of NaOH divided by 0.4)

I've searched and I haven't found any posts on adding ground pumpkin seeds to soap. I would think finely ground pumpkin seeds would act as a mild exfoliant in soap. I'm going to puree some of the pumpkin to add to the batch; adding ground pumpkin seeds would make the bars extra "pumpkiny." Has...

Beer as Liquid Hmmm... If you're using the beer the day after it goes flat isn't there alcohol in the beer that ends up in your final bars? One of the main reasons I boiled the beer is to boil off the alcohol content. Or does alcohol evaporate out of the bars during the curing cycle?

October Soaping I'm ramping up for the holidays. Last weekend I made my first beer soap: Amber Ale & Almond. I colored it with cocoa powder and tomatoe paste and the bars are a wonderful, warm brown color. Today I made a batch of Goat Milk, Oatmeal and Honey soap. I think it will be a great...

Last weekend I made my first batch of beer soap. I put a 12 oz bottle of Redhook Autumn Ale in a water bottle and left it in the fridge for a week to get it flat. Then I put it on the stove and boiled it down to just 1.5 ounces of beer syrup and added it to the batch at trace. It seemed like a...

Goat Milk Thanks, everyone, for your input. There are so many different techniques. I'm sure they all have their benefits. I am going with my original plan of adding four tablespoons for my four pound batch. I'm making a batch of goat milk, oatmeal and honey soap. I'll let you know how it turns...