Today I made another batch of soap, four pounds for this one. I used olive, lard, coconut and Castor oils. I scented it with lavender and Lemongrass and colored it with a small amount of alkanet root.
This time I did something I have not done before, in melting my solid oils. Rater than melting my lard and coconut oil on the stove for this batch, I made up my 40% lye solution as the very last thing I did and used the heat of the solution to melt my solid oils. The coconut had been sitting out at room temp, so it was half way there already, but the lard had come straight out of the refrigerator, so it was nice and solid. I first hand stirred the lye solution around in the oils/fats with my large plastic spoon and broke up the lard mass a bit with the spoon. Then I took my stick blender and went to town mixing and melting the oils all together without any heat other than that generated by the lye solution and the saponification reaction. It traced fairly quickly to a medium trace in about five minutes. I stopped and added my lavender and lemongrass and then my alkanet root and hand stirred all that in with my spoon again. By this time, it was at a medium-heavy trace. My mold had been sitting lined and ready to go for a week already so I just poured my soap into the mold, sort of glopping the very last of it and then smoothing the top with my silicone spatula before placing the lid, wrapped in plastic wrap, on top of the soap. I placed the molded soap into my oven, a gas oven with a pilot light, with no heat other than that generated from the pilot. It will come out of the oven in the morning and I will probably cut it into bars tomorrow afternoon or evening.
One confession about my coloring is that I did not dilute my alkanet root in oil or water before just sprinkling it into the emulsion. So, I could see dark speckles in the emulsion. Since I only used about 1/3rd of a teaspoon of the powder, the color was very faint when I placed the lid over the top and put it to rest to gel. I understand that the alkanet root is highly affected by the pH of the lye and the gel process, so it will be interesting to see what color I find tomorrow when I remove the lid from the mold. If I didn't use enough powder, it will probably be "battleship grey" from all accounts that I've read. I know that if too much is used, it will be a deep, brownish maroon color, and not anything close to lavender or purple. But since I did not pre-mix the alkanet with oil or water and I could see speckles in the emulsion, I may have battleship grey with lavender speckles, lol :). My plot develops . . . :D, just like my color (or lack thereof).
But this was an experimental batch anyway. I do not routinely use lard in my bar soap, other than bars I make for laundry stain sticks. My favorite bar soap formula is the "Holy Trinity" of soap making oils plus two others.
Over the weekend I did another, smaller (2 lbs) experimental batch with eight different oils/fats/butters. I scented it with a Coriander Bergamont FO and really like the fragrance, but am not crazy about the formula. It is rather soft and when I cut the bars, the edges of the soap lost that sharp edge that my usual formula keeps. So, I'm a bit disappointed with that batch. I even used a strong lye solution (40%) so that I would not have a high volume of water to evaporate during cure, but that seems to have made little difference to the softness. I used a high percentage of "hard" oils so I'm not sure what is going on. I did not "color" this batch, as I used "red" palm oil, which has all the beta carotene still in it, so my soap is a nice medium orange color, which does go nicely with the fragrance choice. I have used a small "scrap" of the soap in my kitchen and it lathers very nicely, but the scrap was about 1/3" thick and 3 inches long, and it "broke" in half due to it's softness as I was rubbing it between my hands under the water. I am very curious about what will transpire with this batch as it cures. It will obviously need a longer cure time - I'm thinking eight to 12 weeks. Hopefully in that amount of time it will harden up considerably and be more to my liking. I have already beveled the edges, so the lack of corner sharpness is a relatively minor issue in overall presentation, but . . . it certainly was an immediate indicator of the lack of hardness in this formula as compared to my typical formula. I'll just keep checking in and updating as it develops during its curing process. A good long one never hurt a bar of soap!
Lastly, I need to find my digital camera and take pictures of these experimental batches. If I can only remember where it got stuffed when we moved here two months ago!
Blessings,
Rebalspirit-robi
Thor's - Leader of the Pack Bath & Body
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