Hello,
I am fairly new to making soaps and I make them only for personal use or as a gift to friends so far.
I have tried a few recipes that I experimented with. I used different kind of oils, ingredients etc. In general, all my recipes turned out ok.
However, I like making CP soap with herbal tea instead of distilled water. I use some herbs that are available only in Greece, and I have noticed, each time I make soap with herbal tea from these herbs, my CP soap becomes spongey and has a funny feeling when pressing (it actually bounces back from the pressure). The first time this happened, I thought it was too much water or something. But I used the same oil recipe without tea as water and it did not turn like that. Now I made a second batch with different oil recipe and got the same bouncy effect (the outcome is curing).
The first soap when cured (it actually needed a long cure as well) was very nice and extremely gentle to the skin. I found it gentler than all the other non-herbal tea soaps I have made so far. But it also gave me the impression that the soap made with the tea was lighter than the soap made without the tea.
Therefore, I was wondering if anyone else has had this effect with herbal teas?
In my recipes I completely replaced the water with herbal tea that I had frozen in order to avoid scorching with the lye and I use a 32% lye concentration (so I don't think it's a matter of too much water).
I find it funny and strange.
I am fairly new to making soaps and I make them only for personal use or as a gift to friends so far.
I have tried a few recipes that I experimented with. I used different kind of oils, ingredients etc. In general, all my recipes turned out ok.
However, I like making CP soap with herbal tea instead of distilled water. I use some herbs that are available only in Greece, and I have noticed, each time I make soap with herbal tea from these herbs, my CP soap becomes spongey and has a funny feeling when pressing (it actually bounces back from the pressure). The first time this happened, I thought it was too much water or something. But I used the same oil recipe without tea as water and it did not turn like that. Now I made a second batch with different oil recipe and got the same bouncy effect (the outcome is curing).
The first soap when cured (it actually needed a long cure as well) was very nice and extremely gentle to the skin. I found it gentler than all the other non-herbal tea soaps I have made so far. But it also gave me the impression that the soap made with the tea was lighter than the soap made without the tea.
Therefore, I was wondering if anyone else has had this effect with herbal teas?
In my recipes I completely replaced the water with herbal tea that I had frozen in order to avoid scorching with the lye and I use a 32% lye concentration (so I don't think it's a matter of too much water).
I find it funny and strange.