My Chef Soap Experience

[manwithbeers]

My first attempt at chef's soap from Soaping101 on YouTube. Seemed like a useful recipe so we had to do it.

It was also the first time using my simple little mold. Worked perfectly.

We were shocked at the speed at which it went through gel phase sitting on the kitchen table. It was warm in the room so I guess that helped. We were dismayed and nervous about the crack on top but it isn't very noticeable in the cut bars.

All very good so far and the aroma is nice. Can't wait to try washing up with spent coffee grounds and orange peel. I had problems not putting this stuff into my compost bucket...

 

[CaraCara]

Those look great and they gelled nicely too. Did you scent them with anything?

 

[manwithbeers]

Thanks CaraCara! It was scented with Essential Oils; Orange 5 fold, Lemon, and Cinnamon Leaf.

 

[Skatergirl46]

Looks good. Did you use dried orange peel, or did you just grate it and put it in? The scent sounds delicious.

 

[manwithbeers]

Hi Skatergirl46,

I dried the orange peels in 1/4" strips on my dehydrator and I store them in a mason jar until I need them. For this batch I ground them in a spice grinder. I left me with a lot of fine particles and a few grains the size of rice. The coffee was scooped right out of my morning coffee filter basket. I used 1 tsp. of each in a 2 pound batch.

 

[ashleyrobertson]

It didn't seem to discolor!?

Very nice. I made soap with coffee/orange, etc., and it turned my soap a very icky color. Yours turned out a lot better than mine!

 

[manwithbeers]

ashleyrobertson,

I've seen soap with coffee grounds before that took on a dark color. I expect it was because fresh ground coffee was used. I used my coffee grounds to make coffee first so the color was washed out before I used it. That may be what happened to your soap.

Cheers