My soap rack!

I have been testing my various recipes.  I gave each soap 2 showers before I moved on to the next.  These soaps had a variety of percentages and cominations of the following oils: coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, mango butter, lard, canola oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and rice bran oil.  My soap dish won't fit all of the soaps so I moved onto my shower doors railing. 

There are a few more soaps in the shower caddy off to the right as
well.  All of them except for 3 on the rail and 2 on the caddie were made by me.  All of them are cold process/hot process except for 3, the stripy one 4th from the left and 2 on the caddie, are melt and pour.  I used different fragrances and colors techniques for each of them.  I also experimented with different molds.  So, that's why some of the soaps are different shapes.  These are all the test recipes except for the 3 tallow recipes which are not ready to use yet.  I've pretty much decided that all the recipes pretty much feel the same to me.  So, for the future I'll just pick a couple of them and stick with them. 

Glow in the dark skulls and cross bones

I made glow in the dark skull and cross bones soaps using an ice cube
silicone mold.  I used some glow in the dark powder to mix in with some
translucent melt and pour soap, some black oxide into the same translucent M&P soap, and white M&P soap.  They are so cute!!  I fragranced them with star anise fragrance oil.  Ever since I started eating fennel I have really started to like the anise/fennel fragrance.  I was never a real fan of black licorice, but I find I really like the scent now.

  
And they actually glow in the dark!!

  
Oh what fun!!  Great for Halloween or anytime you want some spooky fun!

“Is there lye in your soap?”

Here is a great blog article on lye in soaps from the Sirona Springs Blog.  It's a really good read!
“Is there lye in your soap?”

Soap and lip balm

So, I tried melt and pour soap into a travel tube.  It really looks like a little deoderant.  I think it's a little tricky as a soap because it's so small.  I can rub it onto my palm, but I can't get it to lather very well.  Too small of a surface area I think; it would probably work better in a larger tube, more surface area to work with.  But if I need some emergency hand soap I'll have it!

I made some lip balm using extra virgin coconut oil.  Extra virgin coconut oil is good/tasty to cook with, so I hear.  It still smells like coconut.  In soaping I use coconut oil that has been processed so it doesn't smell like coconut anymore. The lip balm has a coconutty beeswaxy smell.  Kinda interesting.  I also got some oval shaped lip balm tubes to try out.  Interesting.  I'm used to the round one so the oval feels a little weird in the hand, but it's an interesting change. 

I've made some solid lotion in larger twist up tubes that I got.  I've been playing around with the percentage of oils and beeswax.  Oh, I also just got some candellila and carnauba waxes.  That way if I wanted to make vegan lip balm or solid lotion/massage bars I can use them instead of the beeswax.  I was also thinking that they may have less of a smell that will interfere with the extra virgin coconut oil in lip balms and other fragrances.

I also got some rendered tallow.  So last weekend I made some soap using it.  Batches at 70%, 50%, and 25% just like with my lard soap batches.  The lard soaps are in the queue to be tested.  I'm getting to the end of my tester batches, well, I've just added the tallow soaps to that list haven't I.  I am using my shower door railing as my soap rack.  It's quite an impressive railing of soap.  I'll have to post a photo when I get around to taking one. 

Now that summer is coming I'm going to have to think about how to store my oils and butters.  They are in plastic bags in cardboard boxes in the garage.  They will melt in the heat.  Not that it gets all that hot around here, but the coconut oil will melt at 76 degrees.  Some of the other solid oils will probably get runny as well.  Wouldn't want that mess even in the garage.  I'd store them in the fridge, but I don't have that much room in there.  The very lest I'll probably need to move them out of the cardboard box to plastic box, in case there is a melt down!  The oils and butters will be perfectly find and still be usable for soaping, but I don't want a mess.  Once I put them into plastic bins I might put them in the basement, it might be cooler there, and hopefully the plastic would keep away any bugs and critters.  It's all dirt in the basement so that's why I haven't put anything there.