[donotprint] While our basic soap is still curing, Dave and I decided to make another batch of cold process soap. With one success under our belt, we ventured away from the basic bar to add some of our favorite ingredients. This is our new soap. [/donotprint]
(Adapted from soap-making essentials.com)
Shea Butter – 90 grams
Coconut Oil – 270 grams
Olive Oil – 360 grams
Palm Oil – 180 grams
Distilled Water – 326 grams
Lye – 124 grams
1 tablespoon of honey (warmed and added to a small amount of the distilled water, then added to the lye water once the lye water has cooled so both liquids are about the same temperature.)
1/4 cup of ground oats (added at trace)
1 teaspoon of peppermint essential oil (added at trace)
1 1/2 teaspoons grapefruit extract for preservative (add to base oils)
Makes 2 lbs – 10 bars
Please go HERE for the actual cold process tutorial. I would recommend printing it out so you can work from it as you are making soap. As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of great soap-making resources online, but this site is my favorite. Since I changed her basic recipe, I also consulted our two books: Soap Naturally and The Natural Soap Book to make sure I didn’t use too much honey for this recipe.
After we poured the soap in the mold, we sprinkled on whole oats. This gives the soap a neat look and is also good for exfoliation. However, I’m not sure I like the way the sides of the bars look. These bars were softer and easier to cut than the basic bars, but due to the whole oats on top we didn’t get a clean cut. I think we’d leave them off the top next time. The honey gives the bars a warm color and the oatmeal adds a nice speckled effect.
We added the honey, as noted above, by warming it and mixing it with a little of the distilled water, then after the lye water and honey water cooled down to about the same temperature we added them together. The site I recommend adds her honey at trace. In the Soap Naturally she recommends adding it with the lye water. She warns that added to trace or with the oils, the honey may not get completely integrated into the soap. While curing it will sweat dark brown droplets of watery honey. This doesn’t affect the quality of the soap, but might make it prone to rancidity.
The total time to make the soap is an hour. I spend about an hour setting up, getting everything ready so once we start we don’t have to stop. Then it takes about a half hour for cleanup of the kitchen.
These bars smell so good! Now to wait 4-6 weeks!
Dave has requested our next bars involve chocolate. Stay tuned!
This is a little more complex than my bacon soap (which I’m still working the kinks out of), but my friends at Fish Creek Soapworks make an Oatmeal Lavender bar which is my favorite. Thanks for sharing! I may have to try this once I figure out my basic soap.
Angela, Thanks for dropping by. Oatmeal Lavender sounds wonderful. I’ll have lots of lavender this year so I’ll be sure and keep that one in mind. You might check on the essential oil you added. Seems like that was a lot for that batch and they can tend to make the bar unstable. However, crumbling can be due to too much lye and/or using hard water. Good luck! I look forward to seeing your next batch.
I am currently using a natural soap with dried lavender blended in. The soap was a gift from my mother and I tossed out the covering which was in a recycled and open carton-style wrapper. It is an excellent soap because the lavender is a rough scrub. I am in love with the feeling it leaves when I use it, bare-bar as I always do. I’ll have to ask her about it and send her on a mission to get me another one! lol
I think you are going to appreciate the texture in your soaps — Like giving yourself a real scrubbing!
And DUH — forgot to also mention how excited I am to see that you are a full month ahead of us with soap making. I will follow your blog entries so that you 2 can teach me more!
Lynn, I am looking forward to putting lavender in our soap. Can’t wait to try this oatmeal one. I will be following you to how you make the lye from scratch. What an adventure!
Love your oatmeal soap! To avoid the dragging of the oats (or anything else sprinkled on top of a soap log) while cutting, turn the log on its side and cut down that way.
Ruth, Thanks! Gosh, never thought about that. Also, thanks for dropping by.