Raspberry Swirl CP Soap

 I wanted to make at least one batch of Cold Process soap before January was over and I managed to do it at the very end of the month. This soap was made Friday the 30th and cut last night on the 31st.

I didn't try anything new, I used my usual recipe with some Pink Ultramarine Colourant made darker with some Pink Mica and Sweet Raspberry fragrance. I used my trusty hanger to swirl the soap, the hanger is pictured at the bottom of this post.

Receipe (for 3 lbs)

340 grams Coconut Oil

298 grams Palm Oil

75 grams Coco Butter

370 grams Olive Oil

 

156 grams Lye

404 grams Distilled Water

 

I coloured a little less than half the soap, I actually had one container with medium pink and another container with a darker pink but it all turned out about the same shade. The layering went white, medium pink, white, darker pink and then white.



 I swirled my hanger a little differently this time, kind of looping it up and down across the  soap. I thought I would get loops of colour but it didn't really happen. I like the way it turned out though.

And below is the hanger I made. I have some wooden skewers taped to the bottom. If you're interested in swirling with a hanger there are lots of great videos on You Tube.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Minty Fir Soap

Here's a soap I recently made with my son in mind. His favorite candle is a Minty Spruce fragrance and sadly has been discontinued. I don't have any spruce oil for fragrance so I've done a Fir plus Spearmint scented soap instead. The recipe I used is the same one as this post, only I adjusted it for a 3lb loaf mold.(divide by 4 and multiply by 3). In the picture above you can see how uneven  my layers were and you might me able to pick up that there are two different greens. Both green layers are coloured with chromium green oxide and the bottom layer also has some dark green mica thrown in. The top is a mish mash as usual.

Here's what the end piece of a soap looks like with a hanger swirl.

And here it is cut. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, originally I thought I didn't have enough white, there's not much you can about that once the soap is coloured:) Anyway, considering the crazy day I was having - I measured everything out then went to work for an hour that turned into four hours due to a power outage- I'll take it. Thanks for stopping by.

Pumpkin Soap 2011

Here are pictures of the Pumpkin Soap from the October newsletter. The picture in the back is the soap after I had remixed it - it was originally three layers but the bottom layer overheated. The front left (darker) soap is the colour the second layer would have been, the lighter part in the corner on the same bar was the colour of the very top layer. The soap on the right is the same soap that gave me trouble in the slab mold, the layer that had the cinnamon e/o in it. It was fine as smaller bars because it didn't get as hot. The individual bars were poured from excess soap that didn't fit into the big mold and they ended up doing much better because they cooled faster. The darker bar and the bar at the back have gotten even darker since I took this photo because they have Vanilla fragrance ( and Irish Creme). The Vanilla will eventually turn the soap a dark chocolate colour. It would have looked really cool in layers :(

Pumpkin Soap 2006

From our Oct 2006 newsletter. We no longer carry Avocado oil but most health food stores do, or you could sub with more Olive oil and run it through a lye calculator.
We’ve brought in some pumpkin oil for those of you who want to try incorporating it into a pumpkin soap recipe. This recipe is for semi-experienced soapers. Here’s our new version of Pumpkin soap:

200 grams Avocado Oil

300 grams Olive Oil

100 grams Pumpkinseed Oil

396 grams Palm Oil

454 grams Coconut Oil


202 grams Lye

338 grams Distilled Water

100 grams each of canned pumpkin & cream mixed together


When your lye solution and your oils are both at 100 degrees, gently warm the pumpkin and cream solution to around 90 degrees. Add your lye solution to the oils and begin to stir, then add the pumpkin mixture. Bring to a medium trace and fragrance as desired.

(The Pumpkin Soap above is pictured with a couple of bath bombs.)

Pumpkin Soap 2004

Here's a rerun of a newsletter from 2004. Included is a basic recipe for Pumpkin Soap.
We’ve got some fun Pumpkin recipes in this newsletter for you to try. If you don’t make cold process soaps give the face masks a try. Both masks should make enough for you and a buddy- just make sure you have someone else to answer the door.


Pumpkin & Whipping Cream Soap (for those already familiar with making CP Soap)

This recipe is a variation of Cavitch’s Soap Essentials Bar from “The Soapmakers Companion”.

201 grams Sodium Hyroxide

269 grams distilled water

595 grams olive oil

454 grams coconut oil

397 grams palm oil

100 grams canned pumpkin

169 grams cream or milk


Mix sodium hydroxide solution and set aside to cool. Melt Coconut & Palm oils, add olive oil. When temps are just below 100F, mix the cream & pumpkin together & gently heat to around 90 to 95F. Add sodium hydroxide solution to oil, and begin to stir. Then get your warmed pumpkin/milk mixture into the pot and bring the soap to a medium trace. Fragrance as desired. We used Pumpkin Pie Fragrance (5 tsp) plus 2 tsp of Cinnamon Bun Fragrance. This soap takes about 4 weeks to cure.



What to do with the leftover pureed pumpkin- how about wearing it? Pumpkin contains enzymes that dissolve dead skin cells, and combined with an acidic fruit makes a great face mask. As with all face masks, please do a patch test before using.

Pumpkin & Honey Exfoliation Mask

2 tbsp pumpkin

2 tsp drained pureed pineapple (or papaya)

1 tbsp honey

4 tbsp cornmeal

Mix together and thin with approx ½ tsp of green tea or oil (sweet almond, apricot kernel, sunflower or sesame)

Add 2 or 3 drops of essential oil if desired

Massage into clean skin using circular motions gently buffing away dead skin cells. Leave a thin layer of the mask on the skin for 20 minutes. Rinse with warm water and gently pat skin dry. Apply a gentle moisturizer ( I don’t like applying creams with Alpha Hydroxy Acids etc right after using an exfoliating mask).



Pumpkin & Egg White Mask

For a gentler mask, wisk together 2 tbsp of pumpkin with 1 tbsp of pureed pineapple or papaya. Add 1 egg white and continue to wisk until well blended. Apply to clean skin and leave for 20 minutes before rinsing. Apply a gentle moisturizer.

A Work on Progress

Thanks to everyone who read our recent newsletter and checked out the blog. Here's the soap that was pictured at the bottom where we posted the store hours. I'm hoping in a future newsletter to have a better example to show you with a recipe and more yada yada about the soap. I was trying for a much finer and straighter line of dark brown between the layers but I think I firstly let the soap (this is CP) get too thick before I poured the 1st layer and then secondly used too much cocoa powder for the stripe. So I will be trying again and will let you know how it goes :)