Acai Superfruit Soap 3

Completed soap.

With all the cold winter weather lately, you can be sure to find a warm cup of tea on my desk. As I was drinking a cup of Acai Green Tea from The Republic of Tea, I wondered what would happen if I used this tea in soap. Naturally I had to test this out. I decided to also use the Acai Butter for this soap because I thought it would be really cool to have both the Acai Green Tea and the Acai Butter in a soap. I decided that this soap needed just a little more of acai, so I decided to use the Acai & Mangosteen Fragrance Oil to scent the soap.What can I say? Acai is inspiring!

Collect needed items:

Fixed oils are ready to be melted.

This soap took two days to make since I started making my tea as I would normally make it for drinking. I measured 13 oz of water and heated it until almost was boiling. This took about 2 minutes in my microwave. I removed the water from the microwave and added two tea bags to it. Most of the time you will want 1 bag or 1 teaspoon of tea for 6 ounces of water. You can always add a more tea for a stronger infusion if you would like.

Completely brewed Acai Green Tea.

As I was not going to drink this tea, I allowed the tea to steep for about 45 minutes. I wanted to be able to have a strong tea that was at room temperature. Due to my not so great timing the tea had cooled by the time the day had ended. I removed the teabags and then placed the tea in the refrigerator so I could come back the next day to make this soap.

The Acai Green Tea after adding sodium hydroxide.

First thing the next morning I removed the tea from the refrigerator and allowed it to come back to room temperature. I left the tea for about 90 minutes while it came back to room temperature. After the 90 minutes, I checked the temperature of the tea and it was warm enough that I could begin making soap.

Measure the fixed oils on your scale. Warm on the stove or in the microwave. I melted the fixed oils in the microwave. It took about 2 minutes in my microwave to melt all of the oils.

The Acai Green Tea after adding sodium hydroxide.

While the oils are melting in the microwave, add sodium hydroxide to the tea. Mix well. This will drastically change color, so don’t be alarmed. When I first added the sodium hydroxide to the tea, there was a color change to brown where the sodium hydroxide settled to the bottom. Then as I began mixing, the solution turned a rotten green and then brownish-orange! At this point, I started feeling as if this soap might actually be a bad idea. I decided since I had already mixed my lye solution and my oils were melted, that the only thing I could do was to continue making my soap.

Stirring the lye solution.

Combine the fixed oils and lye solution. Stir until thin trace. For me, this took almost 2 minutes to reach the thin trace. I had to wonder about that because I felt like I was making a Castile soap just for the long time that this soap took to reach thin trace. At this point I added the fragrance and mixed well. Once the fragrance was completely mixed into the raw soap, I poured the soap into the Guerrilla Soap Mold. I allowed the soap to sit until was firm.

The next morning cut into bars. Stack to allow good air circulation. Allow to cure for several days before using. Longer curing will result in a harder bar.

Wow! What a color change!

Notes:
This soap was firm when I removed it from the mold after 24 hours. I sliced the soap into bars and was very surprised to find that the brown soap had light swirls in it. I was perplexed, so I wandered over to Technical Support to ask why.

The lye solution as it cools.

It turns out that this will happen when the stearine parts of the oils (most likely from the Palm Oil) were not completely melted and mixed. The soap is poured into the mold with these parts making a swirl. While the soap loaf goes through gel phase and completes the saponification, these separate oil components turn to soap and leave a decorative swirl pattern to the soap. These swirls are easily seen when the rest of the soap is a darker color.

Adding the lye solution to the oils.

I’m glad to know that my soap is just fine. I asked if this was easily duplicated and to my surprise, I was told yes. When making a batch of soap, have lower temperatures that are around 110° F and add partially melted Palm Oil or sprinkle Beeswax into the soap, lightly mix and promptly pour into the mold. I think I’ll have to try this purposely to see if I can make a tutorial for that!

Mixing the raw soap.

This soap smells awesome, so I would highly recommend giving trying the Acai & Mangosteen Fragrance Oil for your next batch of soap. Definitely a sweet and fruity way to enjoy a shower!

Tomorrow I’ll share the Blueberry Soap that I made right after this one. I think you will enjoy it!

Enjoy!

Adding fragrance to the soap.