Adventures With The Sage

I was asked to show my recipe for a salt soap. My original recipe calls for Beeswax, however I reworked the recipe and removed the beeswax, to allow for time to work with taking pictures for the post. To my surprise……well you will have to wait to the end for that answer. I made this batch a very tiny 5 oz. total weight in size.

Collect needed items:

First step I like to always take is mixing the sodium hydroxide and water together, so it can start cooling. However, when working with such a small batch I will weigh out my oils first, as you can melt the oils in the microwave. Also the smaller amount of Lye water cools faster than a large batch.

Weigh out oils, mix your lye solution, and bring both to approximately 125 degrees F. I work with temperatures of either mixture to be within 5 degrees of each other. Exact temperature is not critical.

Combine oils and lye solution. Stir until thin trace. This step for this small of a batch took less than 30 seconds. Add your fragrance, stir thoroughly, stir in your sea salt, pour into your selected mold. My trial size mold is a silicone cupcake pan from Wal-Mart, it does impart a little bit of a pinkish tint to the bottom of my soaps, but I am the only one using the soap so I figure it does not hurt anything.

After 12 – 24 hours unmold and let cure for several weeks before use.

Observation: The bars are solid, but sweating a bit. The white that is seen in the finished soap is the salt evaporating out of the bar and then drying.

My surprise: the surface of the soap is smoother than when I have beeswax in the recipe.

Thank you,

Crystal
Dirty Water Soap Works

A pail wrench is easy to use as well as efficient with the energy used to open the pail. Did you know that a pail wrench is a simple machine and is classified as a Class 2 Lever? This allows us to multiply the force exerted and open the pail easily. You can find pail wrenches in our catalog under the Equipment category.

To use a pail wrench, place the pail on a work surface that is at a comfortable height. You don’t want the top of the pail to be high, otherwise you can stress your shoulders just trying to take the lid off. I like to place the pail on the floor and kneel down if the pail is a large pail, but usually I can work with a small pail on the counter tops.

Take the claw end of the wrench and fit it over the lip of the pail lid. The handle will point down toward the counter or floor. You do not want the handle of the wrench to be over the lid or you will put more force into taking the lid off than is necessary. It is best to have the pail wrench on the opposite side of the bucket so you can use a pulling motion to lift the lid.

Lift the handle of the wrench until the lid begins to lift. Turn the pail slightly, about 1/8 of a full revolution and repeat until you have loosened the entire lid. Now you should be able to lift the lid and pull it off.

When you are ready to close your bucket again, simply press the lid back on. It will require some pressure to press the lid back on but if you don’t want to use your hands, consider using a rubber mallet instead. We use rubber mallets to hit the lids and seal a bucket without damaging the lid. You can usually purchase a rubber mallet at a home improvement or hardware store for under $20.

Isn’t that easy?

Now before you wonder if a pail wrench is required to open buckets, it isn’t. You can open a pail with your bare hands. A pail wrench may be faster, but it is not required.

Place the bucket on a counter or other work surface that is at a comfortable work height. Set your hands on the opposite edge of the bucket lid. This will cause your arms to form an upside down “V” with your forearms resting on the bucket lid. Slide your fingers between the lid and pull the lid up. Turn the pail slightly, about 1/8 of a full revolution and repeat until you have loosened the entire lid. Now you should be able to lift the lid and pull it off.

I personally love salt bars, and make a lot of them. They’re fairly simple to make, and this is my current favorite recipe:

Ingredients in %

* Coconut Oil (76 degree) 93%
* Shea butter 7%
* Salt (sea salt or ordinary table salt work fine) to equal 80% of your oil weight

Since it’s such a high amount of coconut oil you want to use a large lye discount/superfat, I typically use 20%.

The exact amounts I use for a 18 bar batch in my molds are:

* 44.64 ounces Coconut Oil (76 degree)
* 3.36 ounces Shea Butter
* 38.4 ounces Salt
* 18.24 ounces water
* 6.88 ounces sodium hydroxide
* 2.7 ounces fragrance oil (this will depend on the FO you use, be sure to check the IFRA usage guidelines for your particular fragrance oil)
* small tuft (about fingertip size) of tussah silk (optional)

1. Weigh out your oils, fragrance, water, and salt. Having things neatly laid out and ready to go makes the experience so much easier and more enjoyable. Have any other additives or colorants measured out and at hand before you start.

2. Add the tuft of tussah silk(if you’re using it) to the water and carefully add the sodium hydroxide to your water, wearing the appropriate safety gear. Stir well, then set aside in a safe place to allow it to cool.

3. While the lye solution is cooling, warm your coconut oil and shea butter until just melted (I use a large stainless pot on the stove over low heat) and remove from heat, then set aside to cool.

4. Exact temperatures aren’t critical, I tend to soap with both the lye solution and butter/oil mixture at 90-100 degrees F, but precision isn’t necessary. Combine the lye solution and oils, mix to a very thin trace. Add your fragrance and colorant at this point, then continue to mix until you’re at a medium trace.

5. At medium trace, start stirring in your salt. The soap mixture will become more difficult to stir as you add the salt, so be mindful of the strain on your immersion blender if you’re using one. I typically switch to a soap spoon at this point. Continue to stir vigorously until you’re sure that the salt is adequately mixed in, then pour into your mold as usual.

**Note** Salt bars can be tricky to cut, if you wait too long, they’re cement-hard and impossible to cut. Ideally, they’re cut within hours of pouring into the mold, sometimes when they’re almost too hot to comfortably handle with thin gloves. After botching the timing and cutting too soon or late one time too many, I started using individual cavity molds for my salt bars and completely avoid the crumbling corners and assorted other pitfalls. Just be sure that your mold can withstand heat, these puppies can get hot.

6. If you’re using a traditional log or slab mold, see the note above and keep a close eye on your soap, you can’t wait until the next day to cut your bars or you’ll need a chisel and hammer and will most likely end up with a big mess. Watch for them to gel, then cut as soon as they’re cool enough to handle with gloved hands. If you’re using cavity molds, you can tuck them away and leave them until the next day, I typically leave them in the molds for about 24 hours and then pop them right out.

This recipe makes a little over 5 pounds of soap, but I also included ingredients by percent if you want to make a smaller or larger batch. Check a lye calculator if you change the size of the batch for the liquid and lye amounts.

Ingredients:

21 ounces liquid (made up of 16 ounces frozen half and half cream ice cubes, 4 ounces distilled water and 1 ounce aloe vera gel)
8.3 ounces Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)
10.8 ounces Coconut Oil
4.8 ounces Rice Bran Oil
15 ounces Soybean Oil (Vegetable Oil) *minus 1 oz for color
21 ounces Lard
8.4 ounces Palm Oil
3 Tablespoons of Wild Strawberry Fragrance Oil
4 teaspoons of Strawberry Seeds.

Ingredients by percent:

18% Coconut Oil
8% Rice Bran Oil
25% Soybean Oil
35% Lard
14% Palm Oil

Prepare your molds. I just bought new molds and even though I didn’t have to line them, next time I would oil them for easier removal.

The following describes my path to making the carrot infused oil and then onto making my new lip balm. I have tested this lip balm…it was on my lips continuously for 3 days of planting my garden in the Western Colorado heat wave we just had.

I knew I wanted to infuse the oil with carrots but I know that using fresh produce or herbs can cause the oil to go rancid or grow fuzzy mold. So I knew I had to dry the carrots first. I took two hands full of baby carrots and added one mango that was sitting on my counter that most likely would not have been eaten anyway. I put the carrots and the mango into my juicer.

And the results are pulp separated from the juice.

Knowing that I wanted all the benefits from both the pulp and the juice I then mixed it all together.

After mixing it up I took out my trusted food dehydrator and placed the liner in the tray. After pouring the carrot/mango mixture onto this tray I then placed another tray on top of that one to keep the heat farther away from the juice as I didn’t want to take a chance at getting it too hot.

I put this under the dehydrator for about 3 hours. The mixture went from a beautiful, bright orange to a dull, brittle dirty orange! I gently pried all this from the liner and put it into a coffee grinder and ground it into a soft powder.

From powder form to oil form…I used 120 grams Rice Bran Oil and 45 grams of powdered carrot/mango. I placed this combination into a sterile canning jar and placed the jar into my crock pot for three hours. I used the “Keep Warm” setting, without the lid, and the temperature held at a steady 115 degrees. I used the crock pot this time as the weather in my part of the world has been rather odd for this time of year…40 mph winds with clouds, rain and even snow…in MAY!!!

I strained the oil through my trusted knee high hose and came out with a most gorgeous oil! The dried carrot/mango bits that were left over I have given to my sister at Dirty Water Soap Works so she can use them in a soap recipe or perhaps a scrub. No waste there.

I know this sounds like a lot of work but it really wasn’t. And in the end I have found it to be beneficial for my lips.

I then took out all my ingredients and tools to make the lip balm. I measured out my ingredients and put them all into a 4 cup glass Pyrex Measuring Cup.

After taking this melted mixture out I let it cool just a little and added the Vitamin E oil and some Honey Flavor Oil and a mint essential oil blend called Candy Cane for flavor. My sister gave me an awesome tip. Place a table knife in the freezer for a few minutes and then place it in the melted balm for just a second. The balm sticks to the the knife, you can then take a bit of the balm off, place it on your lips and see if it “feels like it should” and if the taste is what you are looking for. Four knives later I had what I was looking for! A lip balm that sticks to my lips nicely, does not cake or melt too fast, and taste good. It tastes of Honey but has a tingle from the mint in the essential oil. I used plastic pipettes to transfer from the cup to the tins.

I took a recent recipe on the The Sage and tweaked it. A few months ago I infused some healing herbs into some fractionated coconut oil. The herbs I used in this infusion are Calendula, Chamomile, Comfrey, Rose Hips and Marshmallow. I also put some Spirulena Powder in there, which gave it a very green color.

The final ingredients in my lip balm ended up being Tamanu Oil, Castor Oil, my Herbal Oil, the Carrot Oil, Bees Wax, Candelilla Wax, Acai Butter, Cocoa Butter, Macadamia Butter, Aloe Extract in an oil base, Vitamin E Oil, Honey Flavor Oil and the mint essential oil blend called Candy Cane.

I know this sounds like a lot of work but it was actually fun taking ideas from other people and coming up with something that I have found to be so soothing to my lips. If I were to narrow down the time it took me to make all this I would have to say, from start to finish, it took about 7 hours, including the drying and infusing time.