I have a conundrum regarding how to use citrus peel in my soap.
I have previously made a very nice soap using lemon "zest" (which is super fine shavings of the colored part of the peel). I added the fresh shavings to my soap at trace and it turned a very white soap a nice yellow / light orange color. Curing was fine but I wanted a different shape bar so I grated the soap and pressed it into a PVC tube with a very heavy (20 ton) press.
The strange thing was that the pressed soap seemed much creamier and the peel was dispersed much more nicely.
My current situation is I have peeled lemons, limes and oranges. I cut thin slices then squares of one wedge peel of each fruit and dried them in the oven on warm. I did the same with grated peels which were dried similarly. The square cuttings would be put into a salad shooter to grate them.
I'm just wondering how different the dries peels will act in the soap vs the fresh zest I added in the original soap. The original recipe derived a great scent from the zest and I'm not sure if the dried shavings will do the same as IDK if some "essence" may have been lost in drying.
Has anyone tried different methods of using citrus peel?
I have previously made a very nice soap using lemon "zest" (which is super fine shavings of the colored part of the peel). I added the fresh shavings to my soap at trace and it turned a very white soap a nice yellow / light orange color. Curing was fine but I wanted a different shape bar so I grated the soap and pressed it into a PVC tube with a very heavy (20 ton) press.
The strange thing was that the pressed soap seemed much creamier and the peel was dispersed much more nicely.
My current situation is I have peeled lemons, limes and oranges. I cut thin slices then squares of one wedge peel of each fruit and dried them in the oven on warm. I did the same with grated peels which were dried similarly. The square cuttings would be put into a salad shooter to grate them.
I'm just wondering how different the dries peels will act in the soap vs the fresh zest I added in the original soap. The original recipe derived a great scent from the zest and I'm not sure if the dried shavings will do the same as IDK if some "essence" may have been lost in drying.
Has anyone tried different methods of using citrus peel?
