We - Annaleise and I began making soaps with a pre-made base of soap called Melt and Pour or MP in soaper's language. It allowed her to melt the base, add color and other ingredients and then pour into different molds. We started on a shoe string budget so we used what we had in our kitchen cabinets to find additives that are healthy and wholesome.
It is amazing at what you can find inside your cabinets. Starting with herbal supplements, crushed and ground up we were able to find some wonderful colors from cranberry supplements, papaya digestive aids and spices such as tumeric.
Coffee, honey, sugar and a variety of milks including coconut, almond, goat and buttermilk work wonderful in soaps adding bubbles, texture and skin nurturing.
Annaleise began making her soaps at the age of 7. She basically likes to play with the color and scents and create different shapes with molds and cookie cutters. We have used Pringle cans, ice cube trays, cookie cutters and vegetable peelers to make curls and confetti. I quickly became obsessed with learning all there is to know about making soaps and creams. Long after Annaleise got bored and went off to play I sat and watched video after video, read book after book and began to test every type of food we had available to determine what works well in soap and how it performs on our skin.
It is amazing at what you can find inside your cabinets. Starting with herbal supplements, crushed and ground up we were able to find some wonderful colors from cranberry supplements, papaya digestive aids and spices such as tumeric.
Coffee, honey, sugar and a variety of milks including coconut, almond, goat and buttermilk work wonderful in soaps adding bubbles, texture and skin nurturing.
Annaleise began making her soaps at the age of 7. She basically likes to play with the color and scents and create different shapes with molds and cookie cutters. We have used Pringle cans, ice cube trays, cookie cutters and vegetable peelers to make curls and confetti. I quickly became obsessed with learning all there is to know about making soaps and creams. Long after Annaleise got bored and went off to play I sat and watched video after video, read book after book and began to test every type of food we had available to determine what works well in soap and how it performs on our skin.
The fascinating part of making soap is understanding the chemistry of what actually happens to transform oil and other food items (eggs for example) into soap. All real soap has to have soda ash or lye as a catalyst to turn the oil into soap. Some oils work better than other's. For example, corn oil will make soap when combined with lye but it also has a very short shelf life and is prone to going rancid fast. On the other hand, Olive Oil alone when combined with lye will last for a hundred years and is known to be the hardest soap after it has cured (it is soft so it takes about 6 months to a year to cure). Combining oils like Olive, Coconut and Castor Oil produces a fantastic soap and is called Bastile - a bastardized version of Castile. All of the soaps we make start as a combination of the Bastile oils but we add shea, cocoa and other butters and oils to formulate a beautifully balanced recipe.
What does it mean to be balanced? We will go into that in another blog but there are certain values of oils and the combination will determine the amount of cleansing, bubbles, creaminess and hardness among other qualities. It can take years to find the perfect combination of trial and error. That is why most soap makers refuse to give out their blend and amounts. It is Hard Work and involves years of study to come up with a perfect recipe. I feel my combination so far has been superior to most any soap I have tried. That is not to say that I am THE BEST it is just that I have not used anything better. If I ant to make sure I can cut off my cuticles I use a local farmer's market soap just once and my cuticles are hardened and easy to trim - sorry I just had to say that because it is true. I also actually buy that particular soap so I can make laundry detergent! I just won't use it on my body. Take a look at my lather. I love a bubbly creamy lather!
What does it mean to be balanced? We will go into that in another blog but there are certain values of oils and the combination will determine the amount of cleansing, bubbles, creaminess and hardness among other qualities. It can take years to find the perfect combination of trial and error. That is why most soap makers refuse to give out their blend and amounts. It is Hard Work and involves years of study to come up with a perfect recipe. I feel my combination so far has been superior to most any soap I have tried. That is not to say that I am THE BEST it is just that I have not used anything better. If I ant to make sure I can cut off my cuticles I use a local farmer's market soap just once and my cuticles are hardened and easy to trim - sorry I just had to say that because it is true. I also actually buy that particular soap so I can make laundry detergent! I just won't use it on my body. Take a look at my lather. I love a bubbly creamy lather!
Well, that is just a bit about us! Until next time...Stay Clean!
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