Other than colorants and fragrance or essential oils, there are many of cool stuff you can combine to your homemade soap. Among my most favorite is honey (which is a humectant), but there’s also milk, glycerin, tomato paste, shea butter, silk, fruit juice and pulp, cocoa powder, flowers and dried herbs, finely chopped oatmeal, cornmeal (for an exfoliating bar), poppy seeds, wine and beer, finely ground coffee beans, citrus zest, berry seeds, yogurt, natural aloe vera gel, Vitamin E capsule contents (2-3 per pound), seaweed, uncooked adzuki beans or almonds ground right into a fine powder, and embedded objects. In cold process soap making, whisk in these additives once you have combined to an appropriate trace. For liquids, add at a light trace. For anything you want halted evenly throughout the bar (seeds, oatmeal), add at a heavy trace or else the additive will drain to the bottom level.
As far as milk goes, it is possible to really use any type of milk-cow’s, goat’s, cream, buttermilk, half and half, plain yogurt mixed with water, even powdered milk. Use the milk straight in place of the water your recipe requires. Nevertheless, I once used Egg Nog, and it turned dark brown and lost its rich smell. No matter what milk you use, freeze it before you use it. It should be “slushy” when included with the mixture. Milk soaps usually tend to overheat, as do honey soaps.
Moreover, when you work with alcohol in a recipe, allow it to go flat or boil it to free up the alcohol, then chill it before use. If you don’t even a small 1/2 pound batch will begin explosively boiling when the lye is added.
As far as honey goes, add about 1/2 ounce per pound of soap. Make sure to spray the honey measuring spoon with non-stick cooking spray to so you don’t have honey remains sticking to the spoon and changing your measurement.
To embed objects as part of your soap, place, say, a little plastic toy, rope for soap-on-a-rope, or similar item into the soap mold then pour the soap batter into the mold. However, this is most effective with see-through or glycerin soaps, that are generally “melt and pour” projects-not handmade cold processed soap.
When attaching dried herbs or flowers, sprinkle them on top of soap just put into the mold or mix them in with a whisk right before pouring into the mold. Most herbs will turn brown in your soap over time. Dried herbs often bleed a brown color out into the soap surrounding it as well. Many people find this unsightly, although some feel it is beautiful and a soap mark being handmade from organic ingredients.
For more info on this and other handmade soap topics, go to purehandmadesoap.com. This website also offers free soapmaking video tutorials, pictures of the how to make soap process, free beginner soap recipes, and a 50-page soap “how to” ebook. The ebook includes 39 one-pound soap recipes, 60 soap making pictures, and details on how to make your own soap recipes.
RSS FEED
