OO, Lemon, and Deer, Oh my...

[mbaldwin]

here are the soaps I have done this past week with some new toys, I mean tools.

Wife did the pictures so I hope they are fine. First is just a pic of all of them.

Second is a soap with deer tallow instead of lard. First time soaping with deer. I used the Santa spruce FO mixed with some Sandalwood FO from BB. There does not seem to be any gamy smell to the soap what so ever.

next is a lard soap I used some lemon powder and lemon peel in. I was hoping for a lemon scent, but I am getting none of that right now. I love the smell of lemons. Almost has a burnt kind of smell that seems to be faiding a little as it sits. Stuck it in the garage to help keep it cool while in the mold.

Then just a plain 100% OO soap. this has to be the hardest OO I have ever done. It is even harder then my other two for some reason. I used OO A from WSP, and this is my first time with their OO.

I bought the 16 inch and 7 inch acrylic molds from Soap Making Resource. Every batch had to go in the oven to get them out, and two of the batches chunks of the soap came off when taking off the bottom. The soaps were also cut with the loaf soap cutter from Soap Making Resource. I am not real impressed with that. One of the wires broke when cutting my OO, and there were no replacement wires with it, like I am suppose to get. I thought it was going to break apart while cutting my soap, it took a lot more pressure then I figured it should, or would. Did not make smooth cuts, and often would take extra chunks off at the bottom instead of a clean cut.

If I can figure out how to make the top of my soap real smooth, and smooth up the soap from the cutter, and bevel the edges, I'll have a pretty nice looking soap I think.

I am probably done soaping until the new year.

Michael

 

[Obsidian]

They look nice. If you want a good lemon scent, try some lemongrass EO. It smells really good and sticks well.

 

[boyago]

next is a lard soap I used some lemon powder and lemon peel in. I was hoping for a lemon scent, but I am getting none of that right now. I love the smell of lemons. Almost has a burnt kind of smell that seems to be faiding a little as it sits. Stuck it in the garage to help keep it cool while in the mold.

I had to prove to myself that all the advice people had about citrus scent being difficult to hold on to I made a double fold lemon infusion where I zested the rinds of a half dozen lemons and infused OO with the zests for two days with heat and then removed and replaced the zests with fresh for another two days. The oil was absolutely reaking of lemon before I made soap with it. When the soap was ready to cut a day or two later the scent was totally gone. nada.

 

[cmzaha]

I find lemongrass will hold much better with Litsea added and really makes the lemongrass pop

 

[mbaldwin]

I'll add some lemongrass EO to my New year wish list. I should at least have a nice exfoliating bar with the lemon powder and ground lemon peel in it. Some of the reviews said the lemon smell comes through and some didn't, so I was not real sure on what would happen. I might try batches with the lemon peel and lemon powder separate as well, might not change the lemon smell, but might change the look. got lots of ideas and not enough time/money.

Michael