Fragrant Orange

Soap no 10
made 11/10/215 ready no sooner than 7/11/2015

I intended to make a plain white soap today. My Granddaughter came to visit just as I started to warm my oils so I felt the need to brighten it up just a bit.

I already had my fragrance, orange and patchouli essential oils mixed with kaolin clay, so I quickly mixed up some jaffa orange mica and had some TD ready for the topping...

Test 1, I was trialing using a silicone oven liner in my wooden mold for the first time
Test 2 Not wrapping the soap but intentially keeping it cool to stop gel phase.

I didn't take many photos of the process but the final results were lovely, the orange colour could have been stronger but at least it turned orange on contact with the air and during the drying/curing process. Orange and gold mica swirls with gold glitter, the fragrance of this soap is wonderful, and still is, after two weeks the room is still fragrant when I walk passed the door.

Soap no 11
made 12/10/2015 ready no sooner than 7/11/2015

 I was so pleased with the fragrance of the above orange patchouli soap, I made another batch the next day with the same fragrance but allowing gel phase as a test, only difference is a bit of steel grey mica to change the appearance a little, it actually looks camoflaged.

There is definitely a difference between the fragrances of the two bars, one is more gentle than the other, it will be interesting to see if the fragrance is still there in the second soap after curing and during use.

First time using an FO!

Fragrance Oil that is.....seems simple at first but anything you add to your soap can change the texture, colour or fragrance in ways that you would never initially think.

Soap 9.... made 10/10/2015, ready 10/11/2015

The Fragrance oil I used for this soap is named Irish Cream, reminiscent of the famous Bailey's! It really does smell like that, there is also a creamy sweetness there too and although I didn't really read up on the contents of the fragrance I knew there had to be vinallin/vanilla in there that would probably morph the colour of the soap anything from a dark cream to a dark brown so I thought I would play with that concept and see where it would lead.

 In the bowl are my hard oils, (left to right around that) water, lye, fragrance oil sample, colloidal oats, titanium dioxide and soft oils.

Water and lye mixture added to the hard oils and melting....

                             

Apart from the oats, these are the only additives, fragrance oil and titanium dioxide then for the top, gold mica and glitters.

After adding the soft oils and splitting off into three sections, jug with spatula has only TD, no fragrance, jug on the right has only fragrance, first layer in the mold has the oats and the fragrance, take notice of the colour of the soap batter.

In the mold top decorated with swirls and some extra bars on the left.

After 24 hours I unmolded and left to dry for another 24 hours

Cutting the bar, the first slices show the colour inside....I would have loved if the soap had stayed that colour....

But look what happens when the bars are left to dry....remember the only 'colour' addition is the TD which is actually not a true colour but white to make a distinction in the creamy white colours and swirls.

The bottom layer of colloidal oats for exfoliation can also be clearly seen...

I like the effect, shame I only had a sample size fragrance to play with and I used most of it here , maybe I'll get some more and play a little more with different percentages of fragrance in the layers next time.

So many soaps so little time.....smells good enough to eat too, even though it's dark I still like it!

Session 4 Still learning...

I've been cleaning out some cupboards and came across a box of essential oils that I previously used for making 'buzz off' spray for the horses, to keep those pesky horse flies at bay.  There's tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender, citronella and emulsifant, I could make 'buzz off' soap but that time of year has passed for us, so I guess these oils can be moved to the soaping cupboard to flesh out my soaping resources.

Being of frugal mind I reheated some planed and end pieces from previous clean up soaping sessions, I love the resulting two small bars they remind me of natural marble or granite. I had the notion to replicate these bars in a soaping session sometime soon. 

Soap 7...First Batch 29/09/2015

In session four my soap recipes included Coconut oil, Cocao Butter, Olive oil, Palm oil, Castor oil and the added luxury of Avocado oil and Mango butter along with Tea Tree and Lavender Essential oils.

 My soap top had mica dribbles and textures in silver, purple, white and black.

 In the end this batch accelerated quickly so I didn't get to play too much but it smells devine

I did mange to achieve a great texture to the top of the soap and also made blue cheese, that's really cool now I just wish I hadn't sectioned off the batter and had the blue cheese right through the bar, that would have been interesting...

Update 24/10/2015
Min net weight 130gms


Soap 8....Second Batch 03/10/2015

I let the lye mixture melt the solid oils this time, it's actually quicker than melting the oils in the microwave as you don't have to wait for the lye and oil to come to the same temperature.

Just need to cut the cocao butter into smaller pieces next time as that one oil is harder and takes longer to warm up.

All melted and smooth, photo after adding the liquid oils....

Colours used, titanium dioxide, purple, tropical green, silver and black along with Eucalyptus and Orange Essential oils blended with Kaolin clay.

Sorry, photos are a little shadowed, it was late Saturday night, I ended up rushing a little to get it done....

After around 18 hours I unmolded and left to dry off and cure for another two or three hours before cutting.

These are heavy bars weighing between 185-200grams (6.5-7oz) before curing, it will be interesting to see how much weight is lost through evaporation.

I made confetti soap and mixed it throughout the top layer.... my drop swirl in the bottom looks a little muddy but that was maybe the eucalyptus oil or the added Kaolin clay causing acceleration, which in turn made me a little flustered and rushed....

Used one of my new stamps from Omar Lopez, but only on one side.

Of course this is still not the marble colour or texture that I was talking about so I guess I will have plenty more opportunities to play again when I have more time to follow my plan....that will be fun...

I was given a lovely new soap display stand for my Birthday, it's just perfect to allow soap to carry on and cure....

Update 24/10/2015
Min net weight 175gms