Does it Lather?

That's a common question I get when people are checking out my booth. I think I need to set up a portable sink so I can give them the answer to their question with a demonstration, because look at this stuff!!

Mosaic Soap for Spring

My latest Mosaic soap, each tile placed by hand. These bars are a bit thicker than my usual bars, a very generous 6oz, and are the perfect fragrance for spring - a blend of bergamot & chamomile.

Sweet Lavender For Mother's Day

When I was a little girl, someone gifted me with a bar of Yardley's English Lavender soap. It was a special treasure that I kept in the box and savored before I finally brought it to the tub. Now I can make my own lavender soap anytime I want! Here's yesterday's new listing, a lavender bar that would make a sweet Mother's Day gift or a special treat for yourself.

Soap Gem

I played around with some soap yesterday and came up with this:




They are fun to make but more time-consuming than making a regular batch. I'm trying to decide whether to list it at my shop and make more... I'd have to list it at a higher price point than my regular bars. What do you think?

It's a Keeper

Today I have a helper to present the latest soap on the curing rack:

Sock Monkey presents to you his favorite soap -

This bar is scented in pure almond, yum!

Waiting is the hardest part

I've made four kinds of soap this weekend and if I could I'd list them all now!! But they must cure, so off they go to the curing shelves. I can, however, give you a sneak peek. For right now, here is my favorite of the four, a jasmine-scented pink soap with a bold black swirl.

The Lowdown on Lye

I've often received the question, "Does your soap have lye in it?" from potential customers who worry that soap made with lye may be harsh and unpleasant to the skin. In the past, lye was made from wood ash and the strength of the solution was variable, so that the soap maker could not measure precisely how much to use. Grandma's lye soap was remembered by generations as being awfully harsh. Now of course we can measure quite precisely, and research has been done to determine exactly how much lye it takes to saponify each unit of every type of fat a soap maker might use.

So what was that word, saponify? That is what happens when you mix a fat or oil with an alkali or 'base'.(lye is an alkali). As explained at Wikipedia: "The fats and the bases are hydrolyzed by water; the free glycerol heads bond with the free hydroxyl groups to form glycerin and the free sodium molecules bond with the fatty acid tails to form soap".

Huh? All that means is the chemical reaction breaks up all the molecules of the lye and oils, and they go back together in different formations. The newly formed substances are glycerin and soap. No soap can be made without an alkali like lye, and no lye is left in properly made soap - it has all been used up creating the soap and glycerin molecules.

So no, there is no lye in my soap. :)

Shea Butter musings

I have been enjoying my shea butter Body Scrub Bars so much, I got to thinking about why for the past three years I have kept some unrefined shea butter on hand at all times.

I started out with shea by purchasing some refined shea butter to soap with. It was pure white, smooth, odorless and, well, an awful lot like shortening. I couldn't see what the fuss was all about. So for my next purchase, I chose the unrefined version. Then the light bulb came on - this was totally different.

The unrefined shea tells you that it is a product derived from nature. Pale greenish tan in appearance, it has an earthy look in contrast to the factory-uniform refined shea. The nutty, almost smoky scent gives you a hint of the manufacturing being close to the land.

Using the unrefined shea was a different experience as well. When applied to a rashy area, the redness and itchiness diminishes significantly within a few minutes. The creamy butter softens any scaliness and helps stop peeling. It is so soothing, there are clearly active constituents within the butter of which I know little - what I do know is that they work!

I normally like to use shea straight as a balm because I feel that it is most effective when it is not diluted with other ingredients, but I'm glad I decided to use it in my Body Scrub Bars. Besides being just plain fun and decadent to use, it's an easy way to moisturize with Shea Butter. I like not having to get my hands all lotioned up after I step out of the shower. I think a few tweaks of the recipe to help increase the longevity of the bars, and these might make it into the permanent recipe file.

Rebatch Tutorial

Sometimes the "soap fairies" show up and get their sticky little fingers into the process of creating your latest masterpiece, and the result is, well, entertaining (as in the case of my famous ham colored soap, lol) or just plain disappointing. Or, maybe your flurry of soaping activity has resulted in a bin full of trimmings, scraps and end pieces. Whatever the reason, every soapmaker finds themself facing a rebatch now and then. I happen to enjoy the opportunity that a rebatch presents, so I thought I'd share my method of reclaiming those bits and nibs of soap and turning them into something entirely fabulous and interesting.

1. Choose your scraps - select compatible colors and shades.



2. Weigh it all out so that you will be overfilling your mold by about a quarter inch.
   
3. Have your mold lined and ready.
   
   
4. If your scraps are not all mixed, you have the choice of selecting which will become part of the background blend, and which will be more prominent. Separate the color/s you want to be more distinct, and save them to add at a later step. If the soap scraps are older or very dry, you may want to mist them with water til they are just damp. Newer, softer soap doesn't normally need any water to start.





5. Begin melting the soap. Some use a double boiler, but I prefer to microwave the soap. Keep a spray bottle of water at hand and mist the soap after stirring every few minutes.



6. Continue melting and misting and stirring til the soap slumps off your spatula like thick oatmeal.





7. Now you are ready to add any colored shreds that you left out earlier. This is also the time to add fragrance oil if you need to. When you mix in your shreds, they will cool and thicken the soap so it will need to be heated and stirred again.
   
8. As soon as the last shreds are well mixed and any fragrance oil is fully blended, drop by spoonfuls into the lined mold. Push it into the corners with your gloved hands. If the soap seems dry when you glop it into the mold, you can mist it a little with water before the next scoop and that will help prevent the individual scoops from creating a seam that separates later. It may help to bump the entire mold on the counter a few times to get the soap settled. Smooth the top as best you can with your hands. It will look very rough.





9. Allow the soap to cool overnight.
10. Unmold and cut the rough top off the loaf, then cut into bars.

Here are a few different rebatch soaps I've done:

Selfish Tinkering!

Well, in honor of spring and the March theme for the Etsy SoapDish street team, "green", I was playing around with green for my latest batch of cocoa butter scrub bars... except that, after all the other ingredients were measured out I realized... no cocoa butter!! Ack. So, rather than order more and wait, I subbed in some shea butter, knowing they'd be softer than normal but with an ulterior motive, considering how much my skin adores shea butter.... the stuff I buy is unrefined, free trade shea - creamy, thick and super active with good things my skin responds to with joy and comfort. Selfishly, I determined if they are too soft to put in my Etsy shop, I'll just have to keep them all, muwaaahaahaa!! No, I'll keep a couple and hand out the rest to friends, lol. If you made it this far reading all my evil musing, here is a meager photographic reward. Don't drool on the screen. I promise I will order some cocoa butter and make some pretty, yummy smelling scrub bars for my shop, really.

Blackberry Sage scented Shea Butter Scrub Bars