Before our move I purchased a few different kitchen spices and herbs to test in cold process soap. Ok, I purchased 10 total spices for testing purposes and I promise these were purchased in small quantities! I haven’t been able to get around to testing these spices until recently. You may be asking which spices I have in my collection, so I have included a list of the spices I have.
Cayenne Pepper Powder
Coriander Seed Powder
Curry Powder
Dill Weed
Garam Masala Powder (This particular powder contains: Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, black pepper, coriander.)
Kelp Power
Paprika
Red Chili Powder
Turmric Powder
Yellow Mustard Powder
Now I have made 10 test batches with the these ingredients that I had and I’m excited to share the results with you! We will start tomorrow with these fun experiments of mine by using Kelp Powder as our first soap.
Have you used different spices or herbs in your soap before? If so, what did you use? If not, what would you like to use?
Oh this sounds exciting! Can’t wait to read results. Yes, like just about everything else, I’ve tried various kitchen spices in CP. Paprika is one of my faves for the pretty peach-pink color plus “freckles” in the finished bar. That Garam Masala looks interesting and I’ve always wondered about kelp powder…
Cee
I’m excited to see the results, too! Especially the kelp powder.
There are the herbs I’ve sprinkled on the top of batches of soap: Peppermint leaves and rose petals, but I wish the peppermint leaves didn’t brown over time. Lavenders flowers, again they brown over time. Blue cornflowers are wonderful as they don’t lose their color, though they are a tad pricey, I think they’re worth it.
These are the herbs that have been incorporated into bars: Anise seeds in anise scented soap for a wonderful scrubby feel. Turmeric for a nice added color, cinnamon for added specks and color, ground lemon peel adds more yellow to a lemony soap. Ground oatmeal is great for some scrubbiness with whole oatmeal to top.
I’m really interested in herbs that can color soap. I’m really hoping the kelp powder makes a nice green bar!
~Robin
Until now I tried cinnamom powder, chamomile buds, lavander flowers. I’m planning some oatmeal soap in the next few days, and I have a large jar of olive oil infused with cinnamom, cloves, star anise and cardamom which I’ll use for a christmas-sy soap 🙂
I did 3 batches a few weeks ago and put dehydrated pumpkin and pumpkin Pie spice ( cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves) it looks cool and smells like pumpkin bread. I aosl did Rosemary and lime using dehydrated lime peel and ground rosemary and with citrus with dehydrated citrus peel. My first batch was made with ground lavender buds.
This weekend I am making Halloween soap with Anise Seed and Activated Charcoal for Black and Dehydrated ground carrot and Orange for Orange.
I love experimenting
I try to color the soaps as naturally as I can, my skin doesn’t like most Fragrances
I have used turmeric and annato for yellow and orange coloring, and cinnamon and cocoa powder for brown. I made a Mexican Mocha soap using cocoa and cinnamon for color, with coffee grounds for scrubbiness, and coffee instead of water. I also added brownie and coffee scent, and it is wonderful! I probably didn’t need the powders for the color, as the vanillin in the brownie scent turned the soap a nice chocolate color.
I have used a lot of these in my melt and pours soaps and they work great! I mainly use them for coloring of the soaps with out dyes.
I remember as a kid doing melt and pour in school. We coated pictures, leaves, petals (silk) in wax and then place them on the soap after taking it out of the mold. We put the wax coated item on the “top” of the bar and gave it one extremely light coat of wax (on one side only). As the soap melted from use, the wax coated side remained bright a long time. Could you do something similar with the peppermint leaves so they don’t turn brown?