Adventures With The Sage

If your soap looks like this, STOP! Go back to your recipe and re-work it through your mind. What happened? Did you weigh the lye twice? Go to 2.4 instead of 2.2? You need to review, step by step, what happened in the soap and making process.

Overall, I don’t recommend this book. There is no point in reworking soap unless you have to. Want proof of our reasoning? Please give us ONE example of a cake that gets made twice before you serve it. Not formed into another dessert like tiramisu, but a cake that is baked, wetted, remixed, and rebaked. We can’t think of a single one.

A cake? A cookie? Not even biscotti has a double mixing. A salad?

Our feeling is: if you can’t do it right the first time, why waste your time doing it over? You will never get those life minutes back.

Call Now! Support the “I will never rebatch again” fund. Operators are standing by!

ROFL! It is Monday. I lost my mind for a moment.

Next week is all about making the home air smell good. We are going to make room sprays and linen sprays! Don’t forget about the Monster Away Sprays for Kids!

No sweets: if your fruit item is sugary sweet it will probably cause problems in your soap. If you must add a peach puree to your soap, then use a teaspoon per lb of fats. Your soap will turn out much better with less sugars going into the pot.

No sours: consider adding any juice you like to the mixture but remember the above rule. Lemon juice certainly isn’t sugar sweet, but the pH is too low to be a good addition to your soap.

Juice and tea: If your chosen fruit or vegetable has a high water content (like cucumbers) then consider adding this juiced material to your soap. It will work far better than adding cucumber shreds.

As with any item you desire to add to soap, the first test batch should err on the side of caution. Increase your chosen additive with each successive test batch, until you hit a limit of tolerance. Test batches are certainly usable, and can often be great for test marketing purposes, but failure to make test batches is just asking for trouble.

What plant materials do you like to add to soaps? Which have you considered, but haven’t yet tried? I would like to see your list of items and we can review them together. Send us your comments.

Next week is all about the face and nails. We are going to make a mask, a lotion, an exfoliating soap, cuticle jelly and a cuticle oil. I’m so excited for this! Lots of this next week will end up in the Mother’s Day Gift Baskets! Don’t forget about the drawing!

Our basic test batch from last soap week. 6 ounces Hydrogenated Soy, 5 ounces Coconut Oil, 4 ounces Olive Oil, 1 ounce Mango Butter. The scent is Blackberry Sage. This scent is noted to make great room sprays, lotions, liquid soaps, shampoos and more, it just doesn’t work in cold process soap. We will add about 1/3 fluid ounce fragrance to our test batch.

Prepare your tea kettle before you collect your soap supplies. Set it on the stove to heat. Collect your soap supplies. Once the water comes to a boil, pour the water in a cup over a tea bag, and set aside. Put the kettle back on the stove, you need to maintain at least a simmer.

Weigh the fats. Weigh the sodium hydroxide. Measure the cold water and add your weighed amount of lye. Stir well. When you add the lye solution to the fat mixture start blending with an immersion blender. Take the soap almost to a trace. If you can’t remember the definition of trace, go back to the previous blog posts and catch up to today.

Add the fragrance oil, first in a few drops. See the white change in our soap where the fragrance oil was dropped? This fragrance will accelerate trace. We are going to go from liquid, to mashed potatoes, to concrete in less than 30 seconds. Quick! Get the tea pot! A dose of boiling water over the top, about ½ cup, then stir it in, and blend if possible. Pour into your mold. The boiling water does the trick to thin the soap so it is fluid again, or at least fluid enough to pour.

Your brow probably has beads of sweat. Now, you can be relieved that you use a mold that has some extra height (the additional water takes up space) and you have mastered saving a batch. Once you have cleared the counter of your work you tea is the perfect drinking temperature.

In all the years we have made soap, there was only one batch that couldn’t be saved by this method. We discarded it in the trash. You might wonder why we don’t save each of our test batches when we make soap. The reason is we want to see the results of the soap through normal processing. Certainly we could wait to rebatch later, but it just isn’t worth our time for these test batches. Rebatching is only a way to save a batch of soap you would otherwise discard. It will compromise the soap shelf life, makes the soap cosmetically challenged and isn’t the cleanest task to ever undertake domestically.

Even if you don’t think you will need the tea kettle, put one on anyway. The worst thing that can happen is you have the water left in the kettle when you are done. The hot water in your kettle is the perfect excuse for making tea, cocoa or another hot beverage.

Next week is all about the face and nails. We are going to make a mask, a lotion, an exfoliating soap, cuticle jelly and a cuticle oil. I’m so excited for this! Lots of this next week will end up in the Mother’s Day Gift Baskets! Don’t forget about the drawing!

Once the soap is cut into bars, stack the bars Stonehenge style. This will allow a lot of air to circulate around the bar. Turn over every few days if the surface you are curing on is solid. I really like ribbed shelf liner materials, but this can leave lines in the soap. If you don’t mind a few lines, try the ribbed shelf liner. If lines bother you, turn your soap more frequently.

If your location is very humid, use a dehumidifier in the room where you cure your soap. The removal of water from the air will help the soap dry sooner. As soon as the soap is cut into bars it is safe to use. Yes, you read that right. Curing will help the bar last longer, but does not fix the problems of a poorly made soap.

If you live in a humid environment, we suggest using shrink bands instead of bags. This will allow some moisture transfer while the soap is in storage awaiting sale. If you live in a dry environment, go ahead and bag your soap. The caution for bagging is when the soap will be in direct sunlight. Moisture beads will form inside the bag if you store any sealed soaps in direct sunlight. This isn’t a pretty sight and will certainly be a distraction to active purchasers.

While curing we don’t suggest storing dis-similar scents together. The subtle scent of Cotton will absorb the Potent Peppermint without your permission. It happens. Now, which is which? Avoid this confusion and fragrance migration by storing similar soaps together.

If the soaps are for your use only (friends and family too) and you aren’t labeling, then just store the dried bars in a cardboard box which is labeled on the outside. The cardboard will keep things from getting too moist and won’t allow significant fragrance transfer between boxes.

Tomorrow I will cover botanicals and saving a batch. They both start with great teas! So, get out your tea pot and let’s save a misbehaving batch of soap.

Next week is all about the face and nails. We are going to make a mask, a lotion, an exfoliating soap, cuticle jelly and a cuticle oil. I’m so excited for this! Lots of this next week will end up in the Mother’s Day Gift Baskets! Don’t forget about the drawing!

Still, how do you choose what oils you think are best for lip balm? First, collect the oils that you think you will want in the lip balm. Once the oils are collected, choose an oil and rub it into your skin. This is where we highly recommend a notebook to record your notes about oils, fragrances, recipes, etc. Remember, if you like an oil in the winter, you may not enjoy the oil so much in the summer and vice-versa. Some questions that you may want to ask yourself are: Do I like the feel? Does it last on the skin? Does it have an odor or taste? Neem may be fine for your feet or hands, but intolerable right under your nose!

Once you have tested the different oils you are considering you are ready to start creating a formulation. Still stuck? Check out our Make Your Own Lip Balm and test the recipe. You don’t have to follow these percentages exactly. We give ranges so you can try a few new ideas. If this makes a lip balm that is too soft, increase the waxes and decrease the soft butters or liquid oils. If you formulate with a recipe that is the same size each time (say 20 grams), you will find the small changes are easier to make. In other words, you will see, feel and taste the changes more easily.

Rarely does a formulation come together, and is perfect, on a 1st though 5th attempt. Lip balm is the same way. Testing gives answers to questions, sometimes the questions are ones you didn’t know you had! If you get stuck, send us and email with your formulation and what you like, and dislike, and the finished product.

We’ll help you find the answers.

Next week is our Cold Process Soap Follow Up Week! We are going to cover botanicals, milk soaps, curing, saving a batch, Lye Heavy Soap and Using the Lye Calculator.

Question:

Can I use any oil I want for a lip gloss as long I have enough wax?

Answer:

Yes. You can use any oil you want as long as the lip gloss you make isn’t so fluid that it will just flow out of the pen. We recommend using at least some Castor Oil to give the lip gloss viscosity and a substantial feeling. For example, if you use only Sunflower Oil, the lip gloss will feel too oily.

I’m going to make the a lip gloss similar to the Light Sunflower Lip Gloss, but there is more Carnauba Wax.

Items to be collected:

Castor Oil
Sunflower Oil
Carnuaba Wax
Flavor of your choice (I’m going to use Honey Flavor Oil)
Oil Soluble Lip Balm Color if you want (I’m going to use Yellow and Coral)
Silver Mica
Small transfer pipettes
Lip Brush Pens
Scale
glass beaker or jar
Microwave

Recipe:

50 grams Castor Oil
50 grams Sunflower Oil
6 grams Carnauba Wax
2 grams Honey Flavor
Touch of Yellow Oil Soluble Lip Balm Color
Touch of Coral Oil Soluble Lip Balm Color
Touch of Silver Mica

Weigh Sunflower Oil, Castor Oil, and Carnauba Wax into beaker and microwave in short bursts to melt. It took me about 3 minutes to melt the Carnauba Wax because of the high melt point of this wax. Once melted, add flavor and color. Fill the Lip Brush Pens and allow to cool. Once the Lip Gloss has cooled, cap the pens.

Aren’t these gorgeous Lip Brush Pens? I’m so excited for the labels the Graphics Department designed for these pens.

For those that are wanting to win one of the Mother’s Day Gift Baskets, these Lip Brush Pens will be included in the baskets.

Notes:

At the time I started testing the different oils, I didn’t understand why Castor Oil was so predominant in Lip Gloss recipes. I made a batch of lip gloss with only Sunflower Oil and the lip gloss was still fluid in the pen after it had cooled! I sat down with Stephanie and asked why Castor Oil was used in lip gloss. I learned that the Castor Oil gives both viscosity and a slightly tacky feeling that is a common element in various lip glosses across the market. After I looked at different lip glosses in the a pen, I noticed that most had a similar ingredient. Can you guess what it is? If you guessed Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, then you are right! Castor Oil was the similar ingredient.

Next week is our Cold Process Soap Follow Up Week! We are going to cover botanicals, milk soaps, curing, saving a batch, Lye Heavy Soap and Using the Lye Calculator.

Collect needed items:

Jar of Lip Solutions of your choice (I’m using the Shea Lip Solutions)
Lip Balm Tubes and Caps or container of your choice
Beeswax
Coffee Butter
Scale

To be added to the Lip Solutions:
1 oz Coffee Butter
1 oz Beeswax

Place the jar of Lip Solutions on the scale and tare. Add the Coffee Butter and Beeswax to the jar. Microwave in short burst to melt the Lip Solutions, Coffee Butter and Beeswax. Once the lip balm is melted completely, fill lip balm tubes.

Notes:

The Coffee Butter adds a great scent to the lip balm. You can add Sugar Kisses Flavor Oil to sweeten the lip balm if you don’t want to add any other flavors. If you would like to add more flavor, you can add Coffee Flavor Oil for a Java Java Lip Balm, Vanilla Banilla Flavor Oil for a Vanilla Cappuccino Lip Balm, or any other flavor you would like to add. It’s your imagination and you are the barista, so have fun!

Next week is our Cold Process Soap Follow Up Week! We are going to cover botanicals, milk soaps, curing, saving a batch, Lye Heavy Soap and Using the Lye Calculator.

Collect needed items:

Beeswax
Refined Shea Butter
White Cooca Butter
Avocado Oil
Peppermint Essential Oil
Spearmint Essential Oil
Blue Oil Soluble Lip Color
Yellow Oil Soluble Lip Color
Scale
Measuring Bucket or beaker
Microwave
Containers (I’m using white lip balm tubes with white caps.)

Recipe
60 grams of Beeswax
75 grams Refined Shea Butter
45 grams White Cocoa Butter
120 grams Avocado Oil
0.5 grams Peppermint Essential Oil
0.5 grams Spearmint Essential Oil
Touch of Blue Oil Soluble Lip Color
Touch of Yellow Oil Soluble Lip Color

Makes 200 grams and approximately 60 tubes.

Weigh all ingredients except the essential oils and colors into a microwave safe container. After all the ingredients are in the microwave safe container, melt ingredients using short time bursts in the microwave. The beeswax will be the last item to melt, but you can stir the lip balm to help the beeswax melt. Add the essential oils and colors. Once the lip balm has been flavored and colored, you can fill the lip balm tubes.

Aren’t these cute? I love the labels the Graphics Department designed for this lip balm.

Next week is our Cold Process Soap Follow Up Week! We are going to cover botanicals, milk soaps, curing, saving a batch, Lye Heavy Soap and Using the Lye Calculator.