Eva's Soap Basket ~ Large Double Batch of Lavender and Peppermint!

February 26th Fresh made Soaps!

Lavender & Chamomile + Juniper Berry

&

Peppermint, Orange & Patchouli

 I started with a Large 8 pound batch of Oils. My recipe included: Pomace Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Shea Butter. 
Colors in both batches were made using Oxide colorants ~ these are skin safe, 'Nature identical' color powders.
 I combined my Lye solution and Oils at 105 degrees.

First batch was a Lavender Soap. I used 3 oz scent total for a 3.5 lbs batter. 
50% Lavendin EO, 1/4 Lavender & Chamomile EO/FO blend, and 1/4 Juniper Berry EO.

Here it is after the pour and dressed up with Lavender flowers on top!

It smells wonderful!

Here are some of the cut bars! Some Glycerin rivers developed in the pattern, but they flow with it. Glycerin is a natural part of Handcrafted Lye soaps. Most of the time it is not visible.  Sometimes it develops Glycerin 'rivers' like seen in these bars ~ the faint, more translucent swirls. It is just proof of the Handmade nature, and uniqueness between each batch ~ different temperatures, oils and techniques contribute to each Soaps individuality!
 These smell so wonderful!!

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 Then I made my Peppermint Soap ~ Peppermint is a favorite for many ~

I combined Peppermint, Spearmint, folded Orange, and Patchouli.
4 oz EO for 5 lb batch of soap batter.
Dried Peppermint leaf powder.
1/2 Peppermint, 1/4 Orange, 1/8 Spearmint & 1/8 Patchouli.  ( I fogot the Spearmint bottle in my photo).

This smells fresh and bright!

I hope you have a great day!

: )

February Soap challenge - Winter Wonderland - natural colors

Great Cakes Soap Challenge 

 February 2016 Winter Wonderland - hosted by Amy Warden

Winter Wonderland theme using Natural colors!

Dreaming of a walk in the Sunshine on a Snowy day : )

Colors used: Anatto (orange/yellow), Kaolin clay (whitish), Brown clay, Alkanet (pale blue in embeds), Activated Charcoal (Black).

I had researched colorants, and experimented well in advance. However, due to a busy month I felt that I had to force this project for the challenge for some reason. There were just other things I preferred to do when I had time. So I did not try to have this entered. It was too soft to cut on time, and i feared it wouldn't be worthy of swapping. 

 I still enjoyed this so very much though! I learned bunches actually using natural colorants I had never used. I learned not to try using Pomace Olive oil ( tooo green) but it was all i had on hand. I wasn't able to whiten the batter to my liking for snow. I took a small portion and 'overdosed' it with Kaolin clay for white accents.

 Here are some photos of my experiment and steps i took! 

I chose to experiment with extraction of colorant with 3 liquids. Water, Glycerin, and Sweet Almond Oil. I had read recommendations for some colorants as far as if they dispersed best in water or oil, but wanted to actually see the difference for my personal education.

I had imagined a person skiing or walking down a snowy hill. I used Activated Charcoal for the legs, and connected them while soap was soft. The pale pink was to be arms, and the Orange heart a Sunloving face/head. A simple stick figure type of person.

 I had experimented with the Madder and Anatto 2 days prior and used this to create twirly pieces as embeds to create sunny inflections. 

 Scented with folded Orange, Peppermint, Bergamot, and Patchouli. It is fresh and outdoorsy!

 How my colorants looked in the batter prior to pouring. 

And, the final bars after cutting! 
Can your imagine what a dream of walking in the Sun on a snowy day would look like? (It might take alot of imagination here!!! : ) )   The scene is pretty abstract as it turned out!
They smell great!

 Even though I did not enter the Challenge this month, as always, I learned tons of valuable information from everyone else's experiences! 

 It is truly awesome how creative each of the other entrants are - Thanks to everyone for sharing, and Thanks most of all the Amy Warden for all the hard work that goes into this fantastic challenge!

I wish all a wonderful day!

Eva