As much as I like micas...

[Mobjack Bay]

My “crunchy” self is still drawn to simple soaps. To satisfy the need, I made two batches of oils for a base recipe, split each into three portions, added the portioned lye water and different additives to produce the following:

From left to right in the top row, the additives are:
1. Calendula (finely chopped), lavender (finely chopped), aloe (liquid), spirulina (just a little straight powder) and green clay with a lavender and citrus EO blend - in other words, all of my favorite things!
2. Orange wax, coconut cream and grated ginger with orange and ginger EOs
3. Cucumber purée and peppermint tea with BB’s Moroccan Mint FO

On the bottom, the additives are:
Left - reduced IPA beer, baby oatmeal and a tiny bit of ground oatmeal, with a blend of FOs including Juniper Breeze (MMS), Birchwood Oud (BB) and patchouli (BB)
Right - carrot purée, orange wax and cardamom powder with Orange Peel FO (BB)

I am super happy with these soaps and will be even if the colors fade. They all smell wonderful! This is the first time I tried the Orange Peel FO and I hope it lasts. It smells a lot more orangey than the orange EO, which is not of the “x” variety.

So, where is soap number 6, you ask...

Perhaps the oils/fats cooled off too much? The recipe is high in Shea (39%). I used a new FO called Chai Tea from Nature’s Fragrance, which smells just like Chai tea. I haven’t dug into the soap in an attempt to figure out what’s up with the white clumps. The soap itself does not zap.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

all very pretty but I am partial to the light yellow one--I love yellow soap

 

[Mobjack Bay]

all very pretty but I am partial to the light yellow one--I love yellow soap

That yellow is from the little bit of orange wax I added and the EO. I kept my SF low in order to add it as an additive.

 

[dibbles]

Lovely.

 

[Dawni]

I don't know why I wanna eat the first one.......

They all look great

 

[Amonik]

I like the green ones best

 

[Nanette]

My “crunchy” self is still drawn to simple soaps. To satisfy the need, I made two batches of oils for a base recipe, split each into three portions, added the portioned lye water and different additives to produce the following:

View attachment 41554

From left to right in the top row, the additives are:
1. Calendula (finely chopped), lavender (finely chopped), aloe (liquid), spirulina (just a little straight powder) and green clay with a lavender and citrus EO blend - in other words, all of my favorite things!
2. Orange wax, coconut cream and grated ginger with orange and ginger EOs
3. Cucumber purée and peppermint tea with BB’s Moroccan Mint FO

On the bottom, the additives are:
Left - reduced IPA beer, baby oatmeal and a tiny bit of ground oatmeal, with a blend of FOs including Juniper Breeze (MMS), Birchwood Oud (BB) and patchouli (BB)
Right - carrot purée, orange wax and cardamom powder with Orange Peel FO (BB)

I am super happy with these soaps and will be even if the colors fade. They all smell wonderful! This is the first time I tried the Orange Peel FO and I hope it lasts. It smells a lot more orangey than the orange EO, which is not of the “x” variety.

So, where is soap number 6, you ask...

Perhaps the oils/fats cooled off too much? The recipe is high in Shea (39%). I used a new FO called Chai Tea from Nature’s Fragrance, which smells just like Chai tea. I haven’t dug into the soap in an attempt to figure out what’s up with the white clumps. The soap itself does not zap.

View attachment 41555

Lovely! Love crunchy!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I'm interested in the cucumber puree. Do you chuck the whole thing in the blender, or do you remove seeds/skin?

 

[Nanette]

I'm interested in the cucumber puree. Do you chuck the whole thing in the blender, or do you remove seeds/skin?

There is something called a Persian cuke--I got mine at Trader Joes...they are thin skinned and seedless enough to put the whole thing in blender and use that as your water.

 

[Kathymzr]

When you purée the carrot and cucumber 1. Do you strain it and just use the juice? 2. If you use the whole cucumber or carrot purée, do they turn brown like other foods would? If not, why not? 3. Can you infuse your water with fruits/veg ?
And 4. Has anyone tried saffron?

 

[Nanette]

The only experience I have with using cucumber is from Anne Watson's book Cool Soapmaking--she says you can use juice or puree. I think you might try both to see which you like. The Cool Soapmaking book soaps these cold, freezing the puree or juice and sprinkling the lye slowly over the frozen cubes to keep the cucumber from "scorching" with the heat of the lye.

 

[KiwiMoose]

There is something called a Persian cuke--I got mine at Trader Joes...they are thin skinned and seedless enough to put the whole thing in blender and use that as your water.

I think that's what we call a Lebanese cucumber here - they are small, about the size of a zucchini?

 

[Nanette]

I think that's what we call a Lebanese cucumber here - they are small, about the size of a zucchini?

Yes, and thin skinned, very lightly seeded so they puree into mush easily..

 

[Keaton]

3. Can you infuse your water with fruits/veg ?
And 4. Has anyone tried saffron?

Do you mean infusing the water like when you make cucumber water/spa waters? You could do this, but I doubt it'd have any effect on the final soaps color, smell, or skin benefits. I imagine the water soluble compounds in fruits and veg don't survive saponification. Purees of fruits and veg are common, but you have to be conscious of the water content of fresh produce, as well as keeping temperatures low, because of the sugar content in a lot of fruits and veg. Using dried produce is an option, but I don't think they're as preserved in the process as a puree, so you'd run the same risks as when adding any botanical material unfortunately.

When I first got into soapmaking, I was really interested in "crunchy" ingredients and only EOs for fragrance, but the more research I did, the more concerned I was about spending a lot on a nice EO or natural powder dyes that just faded and went to waste.

Herbal infusions are much simpler, though. I hear saffron soap is lauded for some nice skin benefits. I'm not sure how the companies that claim these benefits use it in their recipes, but saffron is luckily very small and dry and uniform in color in the whole usable part (as opposed to like rosebuds or calendula). You could use saffron for colorant in a lot of ways: grind it up and put it straight in, or infuse either the oils or the water for your soap with saffron.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Starting a new thread....
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/fruit-n-veg.76564/#post-789539

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I love them all.

They mind-smell really nice too. Well done, MJB

 

[dibbles]

They mind-smell really nice too. Well done, MJB

Mind-smell - I love that!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I'm interested in the cucumber puree. Do you chuck the whole thing in the blender, or do you remove seeds/skin?

I used an English cucumber, as differentiated from a Persian cucumber, here. They have thin skin and no seeds to speak of. I puréed it in a blender until is was more or less a liquid and used it for the balance of the liquid I needed with my masterbatched lye water.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I used the carrot purée the same way. One difference though is that I cooked the carrots before I puréed them. In both cases, I SB’d the purées into the oils before I added the lye water.

As I understand it, the orange colors from fruits and veggies are often from carotenoid pigments, of which some forms tend to be a lot more stable compared with chlorophyll. I’m still collecting info for that pigment/colorant table I plan to make one of these days...

 

[lenarenee]

I use organic carrot baby food and it makes a nice color, slowly fades to a nice yellow after many months.