View allAll Photos Tagged soapmaking
Three of my most popular soaps all in one sweet package! From left to right, we have Creamy Lavender, Oatmeal, Milk & Honey, and Chocolate Peppermint.
This soap is made with real cream and lavender essential oil, which makes it a rich and mildly scented bath soap.
A few of my vintage Ball jars, holding soapmaking herbs, on driftwood shelves made from wood I found on the beach, and quince branches being forced in a beautiful vase from lurearts' etsy shop which was a Christmas gift from my sweet husband.
"The common name glasswort came into use in the 16th century to describe plants growing in England whose ashes could be used for making soda-based (as opposed to potash-based) glass.[1][2] The glassworts are succulent, annual "halophytes", or plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. While the original English glasswort plants belong to the genus Salicornia, the term has been extended over the years to halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems, such as mangrove swamps, never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.
The ashes of glasswort plants, and also of their Mediterranean counterpart saltwort plants, yield soda ash, which is an important ingredient for glassmaking and soapmaking. Soda ash is an alkali whose active ingredient is now known to be sodium carbonate. Glasswort and saltwort plants sequester the sodium they absorb from salt water into their tissues (see Salsola soda). Ashing of the plants converts some of this sodium into sodium carbonate (or "soda," in one of the old uses of the term). The sodium carbonate can be purified by washing ("lixiviating") the ashes and boiling the solution dry." From Wikipedia.
Finally, the weather today was forecast to only reach 23°C, quite a bit cooler than what we have been experiencing. At 10:00 am, it is 16°C (feels like 14°C). Sunrise was at 6:03 am and sunset is at 9:20 pm. Going to be hot tomorrow. Just as I was going to bed around 2:00 am this morning, I happened to catch an endless stretch of strange lightning, which filled the night sky with orange flashes. Took a bit of video, but I don't know yet if it has worked - no, it didn't.
This evening, 2 August 2022, I added another five photos taken on 28 July 2022. On that day, I went for a drive out of the city. Having stayed home for eight days because of an extremely painful infected tooth, I just needed to get out for a few hours. It got up to 33C when I was out that day. For some reason, my tooth and jaw are almost as painful today as at the beginning. The antibiotics are finished, so I am obviously going to have to phone my dentist and make an appointment to get a root canal done as soon as possible. Just under two weeks of this pain has been more than enough! Later: going to get a root canal tomorrow, 3 August.
My trip on 28 July started with a visit to the Saskatoon Farm for a late breakfast. I knew that the Farm was going to get busier than ever and I wanted to take a few bright, colourful photos while I had the chance. Every time I go to the Farm, new things have been added. Hard-working, creative owners and staff! Everyone is so friendly there.
From the Farm, I drove further south-east and quickly checked out Frank Lake and area. It was too hot for me to do more than a very short walk just as far as the American Pelicans. Driving a back road or two, I only saw a few small birds. Maybe it was just too hot for them. I did see a Yellow-headed Blackbird at the lake, standing on a rock with its wings slightly open and its beak open, in order to cool down a little. I was also very happy to see a beautiful adult, dark morph Swainson's Hawk perched on a fence railing along one of the roads.
LATIKAsoap's are handmade in Israel, using natural vegan oils such as Israeli olive oil, coconut and palm oil, along with high quality essential oils and more local ingredients (like excellent honey and goat milk)
PRISON STRIPES Handcrafted Anise Soap
Anise with Midnight Australian Black Clay
This is my Folsom Prison Blues salute!
Do you like the smell of black licorice? Well that’s exactly what anise oil smells like. It's used to make candies and liquors... These are a few of my favorite things!
Made with natural oils, butters, clay and essential oils this is a very nice bar of soap. The black stripes in this soap are loaded with Australian Midnight Black Clay, which is said to have high iron and oxygen properties and nourishing to the skin.
To the white stripes I've added mango butter and lanolin. Mango butter is famous for many, many reasons. People have said it to be healing, good for wrinkles, and even creates a nice shave! You can read more about the wonderful benefits of mango butter here: www.botanical.com/products/learn/butter/mango.html
Lanolin is made from sheep wool. It's a hypoallergenic and bacteriostatic. It’s also said to be good for shaving as well. Wikipedia has a short, informative read on lanolin if you're got a couple of minutes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin
::Ingredients::
Black:
Coconut Palm Olive Soybean Oil
Black Midnight Australian Clay
Anise Extract
Ground Star Anise
Sodium Hydroxide
H2O
Superfat Blend of:
Cocoa Shea Avocado Almond Mango Butters
Olive Hazelnut Walnut Sweet-Almond Sunflower Safflower Avocado Rice-Bran Castor Grapeseed Oils
White:
Coconut Palm Olive Soybean Oil
Mango Butter
Lanolin
Anise Extract
Sodium Hydroxide
H2O
Are you pregnant? Congratulations! But please don't use anise oil when you are pregnant. It's bad.
Maybe you are wondering if essential oils are right for you. Please use your best wise judgment and research essential oils, their properties, effects, benefits and cautions when using them. There's a great wealth of information online and it's just a click away :-)
The black & white portions both poured into the mold, but before I run a bamboo skewer through it to actually swirl it.
@Regrann from @hisandherswoodworking - Picture sent in today of her shelf hung!😊 Wood shelf shown in distressed turquoise perfect for nail polishes, essential oils, craft paints & more! It can say what you like! #hisherswoodworking #etsy #woodworking #farmhousedecor #nailsalon #doterra #youngliving #spa #yloils #soapmaking #aromatherapy #massage #dayspa #homedecor #edensgarden #oillover #younglivingessentialoil #doterraessentialoils #turquoisedecor #yleo #husbandandwife #nailspolish #nailpolishjunkie #essentialoils #apothecary #essentialoils101 #essentialoil #eos #oilgoals #handmade100 via Instagram ift.tt/2a7D5BD
I've often read that soap made with sodium lactate is easier to cut, crumbles less and lasts longer in use because of the hardness imparted by the additive. I've never bothered to use it, I'll be honest. However, the sample does seem SLIGHTLY harder than the other samples (but not by a ton.) and it did up the lather factor a bit.
Considering how sorbitol and sodium citrate performed on their own, I expected slightly better lather here. But it's still pretty impressive.
Another that I'm sure I dropped some suds in the sink around the 20 second mark.
Part of my soapmaking process.
In this photo I am making cold process shea butter soap scented with Red Currant fragrance oil and colored with natural iron oxide pigment.
Here I am mixing the lye with the water. The fumes are NASTY. I have the fan on high and once mixed, I step away until the fumes have cleared out. These get set aside to cool once they no longer are letting off fumes and I'm ready to weigh my butters and oils.
You can see a photo gallery of the entire soapmaking process from start to finish here.
About Julie...
40-something mother of two grown boys with three cats and a husband. I have an MS in Science and worked many years as a lab tech, most recently at Harvard Med in genetics but am now a stay-at-homer.
I like:
cats
cooking
blogging
knitting
spinning (yarn)
gardening
origami
soapmaking
sewing
travel
writing letters
I will love any sort of postcard you wish to send.
Coffee Soap & Stamp
Need a super simple gift to make? This homemade soap turns out to have a nice coffee scent.
This natural homemade coffee soap recipe is made using real brewed coffee and the cold process soapmaking method.
The caffeine in this soap will help cellulite and bring blood to the surface of the skin. a perfect morning shower soap!
Natural homemade handmilled facial soap with rosehip seed and sea buckthorn oils! It’s perfect for dry and maturing skin and it’s easy to craft! DIY H
andmade Soap Recipe blogged here.
Another additive I've never tested on my own, Tetrasodium EDTA counteracts the defoaming action of hardness ions, reducing soap scum and improving lather according to Lotioncrafter. I've read something along those lines about EDTA many many times. Seems it works!
Gigantic round of applause for the soaper who made sample #6. Rosin is notoriously known for being a pain in the butt to soap. But look at those bubbles!
The downfall? It's drying. Really, really drying.
I don't often use Olive Oil in soapmaking (I know, gasp!) and it's been years since I soaped this simple holy trinity formula that is so popular in soapmaking. All it took was this little reminder why: scant lather and a slimey feeling.
To keep everything fair, all samples were soaped between January 1, 2012 and January 7, 2012, so this bar has some age on it. I'll definitely be retesting again in several months.
Many soapmakers add various clays to their soaps to increase slip and glide, to make shaving soaps. It also adds a nice creamy touch with an increase on lather. The biggest thing I learned from this sample testing is how quick the lather started up and levelled out - there isn't much difference between the 10 second and 20 second marks of use.
It's a no brainer that lowering your superfat leaves less free oils in the soap, which therefore should increase your lather. I was actually a little surprised as to how much it increased lather!
This bar is a 5% superfat versus our control is 8%.
I was a little taken back that this sample was powdered GM - I washed while Brian took photos, and he was the only one who could check what a sample was. I remember specifically asking him what this was as I washed as it smelled off and was scant on lather. Once the lather built up, it got thicker and creamier but never bigger. I really didn't notice too much of a difference between this one and the control besides the lack of slime in the GM soap's lather.
The swapper who made the Coconut Milk samples used both canned and powdered coconut milk because she found the ingredients differed. Canned coconut milk also contains guar gum and it seemed to make a small difference between the two.
I was actually a little surprised at the difference here. The honey made the lather creamier and silkier in feeling, but not much more abundant.
These shaving kits turned out really well - I'm delighted with how they look. The soaps are Chocolate Peppermint and Simple Simon, both of which are perfect for a nice, smooth shave.
The difference between the fresh goat's milk and the powdered goat's milk is pretty obvious. This is what I expected from both samples!
I use PKO a lot because I love what it does in soap. I think the difference of using it versus Coconut Oil is pretty statement worthy.
Oftentimes, people tell me that PKO will not increase lather more than CO, that it will be creamier than CO lather. Substituting PKO for CO in this formula resulted in more lather, I'd say double the lather of the control (however, the control was so scarce when it came to lather for me!) I would agree that is SLIGHTLY creamier, but not by much.
This was my sample, and I was thoroughly excited about it. Love the results, and will be incorporating it into a couple of my soaps in the line. It was the perfect balance of increased lather - not just creamy, not just bubbly, but a little of both.
An all natural deodorizing soap cream and green colored soap bar. DIY Handmade Cedarwood & Baking Soda Soap Recipe with an exfoliating walnut shell powder strip! DIY blogged here.
I didn't really know what to expect here, as it never crossed my mind to use canned evaporated milk in soap. Buttermilk? Sure. Coconut milk? Sure. Goats Milk? Sure. But this? Well, you can't say soapmakers aren't a creative bunch. I didn't like the look or feel of this bar, but the lather speaks for itself.
Quite a difference between the clay samples! Kaolin clay was slower to lather up, but stabilized at a much thicker abundant lather than bentonite clay did.
First things first, DOS. For some odd reason, this little guy had a few spots of DOS. And we all know how I feel about DOS - ew, ew, ew, ew. I'm not sure if it was the additive that caused this, the curing conditions, the oils, or what...
That being said, a very minute difference on the lather from the control. A consumer wouldn't notice the difference, I don't think.
Oat milk! The lather felt just as silky and creamy as other milks, and produced about the same lather as the pure GM sample.
Everyone should recognize Sorbitol from an ingredients list of melt and pour soap. My understanding is that it's usually used in transparent soap to keep it clear, as well as to improve lather and conditioning. Looks like it does that, to me. :)
I had a hard time keeping all the lather in my hands, it was just that abundant.
This is me preparing for my first soap batch after getting burnt with lye. The next dozen or so batches were graced with this outfit - I can make soap in a tank top now but the goggles, mask and gloves still remain!
I can't describe the smell on this one, but I didn't like it.
Slightly creamier lather, but not a huge difference in abundance than the control. Slightly better, in my opinion - not worth the trouble.
Most often used for the same reason Tetrasodium EDTA is: to cut down on soap scum. But holy moly, look at the lather.
Another sample I had a hard time keeping control of the lather, I'm pretty sure my the 20 second mark I had dropped some of the lather in the sink.
More lather than the control at first, but not much more at the 20 second mark. However, it is creamier. :)
I have always used my handmade soaps for shaving as well as bathing but these cute little lemony cubes are great! As moisturizing as my regular bars but with the added slip and slide that silk peptide and kaolin clay will give.
Scented with a complex blend of 15 fragrance and essential oils that include citrus, herb, spice, rose, milk and honey. The best I can describe it would be a warm, slightly sweet, lemon herb blend. This is not a sharp, crisp lemon but more of a softly femanine, floral lemon.
For best shaving results use a sharp razor and scrubby gloves or poof to increase lather.
Ingredients: Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Water/Aqua, Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Coconut Milk (Organic coconut milk, water, guar gum), Iris germanica, Mica, Kaolin, Silk Peptide, Oxide, Ultramarine, Parfum.
Lemon Legs Handmade soap is a 2 cube set. Each cube weighs approximately 3 oz / 85 grams and come wrapped together in decorative paper with a label. Total weight = 6 oz / 170 grams.
A simple yet enticing homemade glycerin soap recipe that contains whole peppercorns, orange zest and clove, basil and lavender essential oils. Recipe blogged here.
This handmade soap was created by special request for a friend of mine who suffers from seborrheic dermatitis to use as a shampoo and body bar. This shea butter soap is scented with a rosemary mint fragrance but also contains rosemary essential oil, peppermint essential oil, and tea tree oil. Specifically I recommend this soap for those suffering from dandruff and acne or for normal to oily skin.
Rosemary essential oil is used often for aching muscles, arthritis, dandruff, hair care, and poor circulation. While tea tree oil is great for acne, oily skin and even athlete's foot and cold sores. It's touted as being anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Peppermint essential oil is often used for skin irritation and itchiness as well as dermatitis and acne.
This handmade soap is a decorative green bar that also contains natural, cream colored soap balls of my handmade unscented goat milk soap embedded throughout. It produces a rich, luxurious lather and is made with rich, natural oils and butters as well as a special blend of essential oils for happier, healthier skin. You'll find this soap rinses cleanly away, while still leaving skin smooth and soft. Use it as a body, facial or shampoo bar. This soap is all natural except for the fragrance and color.
Kush Dead Sea Salt Beeswax Spa Bar
This dead sea salt spa bar is loaded with many, many oils and has a strong, sweet, earthy smell of kush fragrance oil. Your skin drinks up the oils and I could feel the difference after just one shower. Ground dead sea salt provides a gentle exfoliation. This bar slides on like a lotion, but you can obtain a lather with a washcloth or netted scrubbie. I would also cut this bar into quarters for ease of use and long life, as it is a dead sea spa bar and is very hard. I'll be happy to do that for you before shipping - just let me know.
You will receive 1 bar approximately 4+ ounces. Some bars weigh as much as 5.5 oz and these bars will go first. I am a terrible cutter, but I try...
It's a must to let your soap air out between uses for a longer lasting bar. Store your handmade soaps in a cool dry place letting them breathe. I cut mine in quarters to make them last longer :-) and this way I can use a different soap everyday - yay me!
Hand crafted soaps are so good for your skin. No added chemicals and all the natural glycerin is retained. I'll never go back to buying store bought chemical laden soaps.
::ingredients::
Coconut Olive Palm Soybean Oils
Castor Jojoba Avocado Sweet Almond Hazelnut Walnut Rice Grapeseed Oils
Shea Avocado Almond Butters
Dead Sea Salt Emu Oil Beeswax
Kush FO
Lye
H2O