Oh Ya! Now I remember! (Botanicals)

[John Harris]

I made soap for a few years in the 1990s and 2000s. Then life changed and I stopped for a long time. Then life changed again and I started again, but I couldn't remember a lot of things about how I used to do it. Once thing I noticed a couple of years ago, as I unearthed all my equipment, was that I had a number of bags or "botanicals." Lavender flowers, Calendula petals, Comfrey root, Marshmallow root, etc., etc. I couldn't remember what I used them for, so I threw them out.

Since, I have remembered what I used to do. I used to put them in a coffee maker and make a pot of of liquid steeped in that botanical, a kind of Comfrey root "coffee", for example. Then I would use that as the water component to be mixed with the lye.

I am wondering now, given the ravaging powers of lye, was I wasting my time making these liquids? Would any of the botanicals' properties have made it into the bar of soap?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Who knows? But it looks good on the label. People will make their own assumptions when purchasing.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Would any of the botanicals' properties have made it into the bar of soap?

Not likely. To obtain their beneficial properties, botanicals need to steep longer to extract all their goodness than it takes to pour them through a coffee maker. And then drink them. Don't soap them. The resulting color from teas is almost always some shade of brown and any fragrance, like rose or lavender or lily, doesn't survive at all. Sad.

Oil infusions, on the other hand, work best, either cold or hot. My favorite botanicals in soap are oil-infused comfrey leaves and calendula petals. Both make pretty soaps as do many other choices to make natural colorants and to use in balms, salves, lip balms, creams, lotions and other products, Here's one way to make oil infusions:

DIY Carrot Tissue Oil for facial soap.