So again copious notes because I am a nubcake. And lousy pics because I insist on doing cell phone pics in-situ. Apologies if I'm not loading the pictures right.
I had been reading all about salt bars and settled on making one last night. I'm supposed to be waiting for my shipment from SMR to come in, but who has patience like that?
The recipe I decided to use was CP:
Coconut oil 80%
Shea butter 15%
Castor 5%
20% superfat
I whizzed it with the stick blender to a light trace, and then mixed in 80% of the oil weight in salt. I had a tiny bit of Orange and Lemongrass EO left that I tossed in, but it might have been too little.
And then, because every batch right now is a learning experience, I wanted to try a gradient pattern as well, like the one from this tutorial: http://thesoapbar.blogspot.ca/2012/07/gradient-soap-tutorial-emily-shieh.html?m=1
Having no colorant but turmeric in my house I bravely soldiered on! I put 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric in the "color" bucket and some of the soap, and mixed it well with hubbys little whisk (shhhhh dont tell him). Then vaguely followed the directions on that gradient tutorial (without looking and with a cocktail for courage!)
I got it all in the mold, with the overage in a standby round thing because I wasn't sure how much space the salt would take. I was told to cut early because they can get so hard to cut, but they weren't ready after 2 hours so I wrapped it up in saran and towels and left it on top of the floor heater that has the pilot light on. And wandered off to bed.
Heres what it looked like in the morning with my highly professional drawer divider mold lined with saran wrap:
And then unmolded:
As predicted it was quite hard, and I learned that the thick cleaver is a bad choice because it is too thick - my first cuts were crazy split crumbles. Hubby elbowed in and and proved it was better to use the thin large sharp knife, which worked a treat.
Im really pleased with how the turmeric colored the soap, and have a better idea how to make the gradient now.
I had been reading all about salt bars and settled on making one last night. I'm supposed to be waiting for my shipment from SMR to come in, but who has patience like that?
The recipe I decided to use was CP:
Coconut oil 80%
Shea butter 15%
Castor 5%
20% superfat
I whizzed it with the stick blender to a light trace, and then mixed in 80% of the oil weight in salt. I had a tiny bit of Orange and Lemongrass EO left that I tossed in, but it might have been too little.
And then, because every batch right now is a learning experience, I wanted to try a gradient pattern as well, like the one from this tutorial: http://thesoapbar.blogspot.ca/2012/07/gradient-soap-tutorial-emily-shieh.html?m=1
Having no colorant but turmeric in my house I bravely soldiered on! I put 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric in the "color" bucket and some of the soap, and mixed it well with hubbys little whisk (shhhhh dont tell him). Then vaguely followed the directions on that gradient tutorial (without looking and with a cocktail for courage!)
I got it all in the mold, with the overage in a standby round thing because I wasn't sure how much space the salt would take. I was told to cut early because they can get so hard to cut, but they weren't ready after 2 hours so I wrapped it up in saran and towels and left it on top of the floor heater that has the pilot light on. And wandered off to bed.
Heres what it looked like in the morning with my highly professional drawer divider mold lined with saran wrap:
And then unmolded:
As predicted it was quite hard, and I learned that the thick cleaver is a bad choice because it is too thick - my first cuts were crazy split crumbles. Hubby elbowed in and and proved it was better to use the thin large sharp knife, which worked a treat.
Im really pleased with how the turmeric colored the soap, and have a better idea how to make the gradient now.