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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Soap N Stuff

First day back at work yesterday after my 10 days off. I always seem a bit out of sorts on my first day back after a break, no more sleeping in or lazy days.

I really didn't plan my return date well as we had stock take yesterday, on my first day back. What was I thinking! Thankfully the shop is not that big, but there's lots and lots of little things stuffed in there. Oh well we only have 4 large plastic containers of dog coats to count and the contents of the cold room (burrr) and then we're done for the year! Yay.

Last Monday I finally got round to making some more soap. This time I used old milk cartons as moulds, don't think I'll be doing that again. Great use of a throw away item, but I don't like the shape of the finished bar. I'll have to make some proper timber moulds for next the next batch.

They don't look very pretty I must admit. Luckily they're more for utility purposes than as presents.


Laundry soap - coconut oil and olive oil, I guess that's why it has a green tinge. Half left plain, the other half I added eucalyptus oil, for stain removal.

Rosemary and honey shampoo bar - I infused rice bran oil with fresh rosemary, also added some avocado oil and honey. On cutting it seemed a bit crumbly, hence the ragged look.

Goats milk soap made about 8 weeks age. We've just started using this, its lovely and moisturising.

Next planned batches are, gardeners soap with citrus infused oil and pumice for extra cleaning power, soap for my dogs and maybe something pretty with a nice smell.

This soap making malarkey is really addictive stuff!

Hope you have a lovely day
Lisa

5 comments:

make homemadesoap said...

I love to read about others soap making endeavours. I have just bought all my ingredients and they are sitting on the bench waiting for me to get up the courage to do my first batch and have just set up a blog where I'll share my experiences. The soap was going to be coconut oil, emu oil and olive oil. I got the push when a friend no longer needed to use expensive cosmetics when she changed to homemade soaps.

But I have a question that might seem silly - what is the difference in ingredients between laundry soap and personal soap?

Wendy.B said...

I am always interested in other peoples soap :-) I have just got all the ingredients to make my first lot of CP soap.. the goats milk soap looks great, do you use goats milk instead of water?

Lisa said...

Hi homemadesoap, the laundry soap is half and half olive oil and coconut oil, half was left plain and the other had 1 tablespoon of eucalyptus oil added, mainly for stains. Coconut oil makes a hard soap and olive oil gives a good lather. The personal soap I make has rice bran, olive and coconut oil. I use Rhonda's recipe from her Down to Earth blog.

Good luck with your soapmaking, it is a bit daunting at first, but very addictive once you get started.

Lisa said...

Hi Wendy, yes I replaced the water with fresh goats milk. Actually I froze it first, then let it partially defrost and then slowly alternated adding lye and more frozen/slushie milk.

IF you add all the lye at once it will burn the sugars in the milk, resulting in a very brown looking soap.

I used Rhonda's basic recipe just changed the water for milk. You could use coconut milk as well.

I would recommend making a plain batch to begin with, so you have a basic idea of what to expect.

Have fun with your soapmaking :)

Wendy.B said...

Thanks for that info .. interesting about the caustic burning the milk sugars. I am looking forward to experimenting, thing is I'm going to have more soap than I know what to do with..lol..