Tea soaps

[Cuckoo Bananas]

What's the A-Z of doing tea soap please. I would like to make a Green tea soap and also a Chamomile one.

Would I just make the tea as normal one bag per one cup of water amount and then let it all cool and just sub it into the usual recipe instead of plain water?

Are there any tricks to it all and also has anyone tried it with chamomile tea already? Does it get a bit of a chamomile smell?

Also how would tea soaps go with castille? My first one will just be mostly palm oil based but I'd like to do a green tea castille one at some stage.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I made one with chai tea (you know how good that smells) and not a bit of scent came through so I don't like your chances. :wink:

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I actually made a Green Tea soap this morn. It's one of my faves to use.

I brew 4 teabags for a 2kg batch the night before and let it cool in the fridge. It doesn't matter how much water you add to the tea bags, less is prob better because you will get a bit of nice strong liquid that you top up with extra water as you need.

You could prob soap with a stronger tea solution, but I'm happy with amount I use, it gives a nice light colour.

I don't think any of the fragrance from any tea will stick. I add green tea FO to mine

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I made one with chai tea (you know how good that smells) and not a bit of scent came through so I don't like your chances. :wink:

I did too, one of my first tea batches, I also added heaps of extra spices that were included in the chai - no smell at all.

 

[Sunny]

What's the A-Z of doing tea soap please. I would like to make a Green tea soap and also a Chamomile one.

Would I just make the tea as normal one bag per one cup of water amount and then let it all cool and just sub it into the usual recipe instead of plain water?

Are there any tricks to it all and also has anyone tried it with chamomile tea already? Does it get a bit of a chamomile smell?

Also how would tea soaps go with castille? My first one will just be mostly palm oil based but I'd like to do a green tea castille one at some stage.

I just use tea in place of water in any recipe. Should be fine with castille if you want to do that! The soaps tend to be tan or brown depending on the tea you use and no scent from the tea will stay.

 

[tlm884]

I make a soap using green tea in place of water and use tea tree oil in it.

 

[LauraHoosier]

Try treating tea like you would if using goat's milk ie ice water bath, pour into mold and refrigerate. Might lessen the browning and maybe a hint of smell will still come through. Not sure how long it will last

 

[herbaliser]

I've done a green tea soap with loose leaves. Steep the tea for a while, take out the leaves, let them dry, run it through a coffee grinder or just use the leaves as is.

One thing to note is if you steep the tea for too long, the tea will be rather dark. Once you add that to lye, it becomes even darker and changing the color with titanium oxide or kaolin clay will be hard. My green tea soap turned out to be black tea soap.