Camomile tea soap (4th batch ever)

[Rah]

Hi!
I'm relatively new to soap making... did it a couple of times a few years ago (only once with success) and a couple of times this year, with my friend. Our most recent soap that we made last week used camomile tea as the liquid, and we included camomile and jasmine essential oils!

Initially we were going to follow this recipe, from The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Cross:

15oz (425g) spring water
2 camomile tea bags
18oz (510g) coconut oil
8oz (227g) olive oil
6oz (170g) sweet almond oil
5 1/2 oz (156g) lye
2 tsp camomile essential oil
1 tsp lemongrass essential oil (that I changed to jasmine because I prefer it)

but my friend accidentally added a touch too much sweet almond oil, so not wanting to risk anything, I ran it through a couple of soap calculators and also calculated the recipe myself using SAP values, and every time I came across something rather odd. It seemed that the original recipe was VERY lye heavy, which I thought was weird considering we got it from a book. Even when I followed the calculation at the front of the book, the lye amount came out as much less. So I decided to adapt the recipe, even though I don't know much about soap making, because I didn't want to end up with caustic soap...

Our final recipe was this:

347ml spring water
2 camomile tea bags
510g coconut oil
227g olive oil
178g sweet almond oil
140g lye
2 tsp camomile essential oil
1 tsp jasmine essential oil

Does that look about right to you experienced soap makers??

The soap traced after about 20 mins, and hardened nicely in the mold after about 48 hours. Here are a couple of photos:

just poured

after cutting

It's hardening nicely and has such a nice mottled effect to it. I can kind of smell the fragrance, but one thing I've noticed is a lot of the soaps I've made have a similar smell to them, and the actual fragrances I've added don't come out that well. Would I have done better to add MORE essential oils to this batch?

Thanks in advance for all your help, I'm still very new to all this
- Rebecca

 

[Hazel]

The soap turned out really nice looking. I'm interested in hearing what you think of it since personal preference is the most important factor in soapmaking.

I agree with you. I think the original recipe was lye heavy and I'm really glad you double checked it in a lye calculator. I have seen comments before about this author's recipes being lye heavy.

Just my opinion about the recipe - I have dry, sensitive skin so I'd find the soap too drying in the beginning. It's possible I could eventually use it after a long cure since soap does become milder over time but probably only as a hand soap. Also, I always weigh EOs/FOs because it's more accurate. I don't know how much a tsp or two of EOs would weigh. I use EOs at .5 oz ppo so I would have used approximately 28 g total for the same size batch. Although, I don't use a wide variety of EOs and I tend to err on the side of caution since I'm not very experienced with them. I have read posts by other members who use EOs that there are some which are safe to use at a higher percentage.

 

[Susie]

Hi, and Welcome!

First off, always, always, always run every last batch through a lye calculator. (Did I mention always?) Never trust anyone else's recipes. I re-run even my own recipes through the calculator again to get a new batch page to put notes on and record additives.

Second, that is way too little EO for that size batch. You need to weigh 0.5oz EO/PPO. That should have been 1 oz EO for that batch.

It is pretty soap, though. Did you just dump the tea bags in the batter?

 

[Lynnz]

Soap is looking good and well done for checking and running it through a lye calculator. Susie has given some great advice when she says always check always . I cannot comment on the EO amount as I am not experienced in this area but the combo sounds divine. I use a fragranced Chamomile from Bramble berry that is delish and love to add calendula to the mix. All the best and keep bring us pics as it really is nice to follow peoples soaping journeys

 

[Belinda02]

One of the first lessons I learned as a quilter is to Always check measurements. I've found incorrect patterns in from kits, books and magazines. There is a ton of room for human and print error.

 

[LunaSkye]

The soap looks beautiful. I'm also using a chamomile tea for my soap, but I also used banana puree for the base. I hope it comes along well.

 

[Rah]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

Well, now I know to ALWAYS check any recipes with a lye calculator. I've actually used one of the recipes in this book before, which turned out good and not lye heavy, but I'll always make sure to check from now on.

Also, yeah I did think that it didn't seem like much EO, but like I said, I was following the recipe. What does PPO mean, though? Is it per pound oils?

I think from now on I'll just use this book for inspiration for combinations, instead of following each recipe to the letter because the list of problems I'm coming across is adding up! Another one is the coconut oil thing - since making this soap, I've been reading stuff on here about only using around 20% coconut oil in recipes because it's very drying on the skin. I just hope this soap comes out ok with the high percentage of coconut oil we used.

And Susie - yeah, we left them in the spring water for a few hours at first to infuse it, and then when the soap reached trace we broke them open and scattered the leaves into the mixture. I really like the final effect. I just wish we could smell the fragrance a bit better. Oh well, next time!

 

[Hazel]

Yes, check. It's been mentioned frequently through out the CP section which is the reason why I thought you knew to double check. If you hadn't seen it posted elsewhere, then I'm really impressed you thought to do it. Most people don't.

You're right. Per pounds of oil. There is an acronym topic if you come across one which you're not sure what it means. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=3789