Saturday, August 28, 2010

Fading fragrances and room fragrance

So, some of my soaps have been in use for months and some of the fragrances have started to fade on some of the soaps.  It's really good to note these changes over time.  Some fragrances do tend to fade with time.  In particular the anise and peppermint essential oils have faded.  I only used 0.5 oz per pound of oil for each because I read that they are pretty potent fragrances.  Now I'm thinking I'll just use a full 1 oz per pound of oil the next time I use them. 
Other things I've found with my soaps.  The ones with higher pomace olive oil content at 60-70% to be too soft for my taste.  Although it may be worth it to experiment with the higher pomace olive oil and adding sodium lactate which adds hardness.  Or else don't use pomace olive oil and instead use regular olive oil.   The castile/bastile soaps I made with regular light olive oil made a much firmer bar while the pomace oo soaps were kinda squishy. 
I might take a little break from bar soap making for a little while so I can make a dent in my soap bar collection.  Might…
Although I still want to make some more liquid soap.   
I'm also experimenting with some room fragrances.  I purchased some sachet beads which absorb fragrance oil which I then parcel out into organza bags and hang around the house.  So far they seem to be doing well.  I've also purchased those glass bottles with the sticks.  I haven't actually used those yet, but I have them!  I just have to think of a way to place them out of the reach of the cats.  I don't want spilled fragrance oil somewhere because the cats wanted to play with the sticks.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Bunch o' photos

OK, I haven't posted photos lately, so here goes.
Here's what my liquid soap looks like:
So 1.5 lbs of oil made about 3/4 of a gallon of liquid soap.  It's a really liquidy soap.  I didn't use anything to thicken it up so it's pretty runny.  But look how clear it is!  Yay!

  
And in case you ever wondered where I put all this soap:
Most of it is in the garage.  All the fragrances combined can be quite heady so they live mostly in the garage.  I have a small metal mesh drawer unit which holds most of the soap that have cured and many are packaged.  The green baskets on top which are re-purposed flower baskets used at flower markets I use to cure the soaps.  I do have a smaller stash in the house which are unfragranced or naturally fragranced with oatmeal milk and honey.

Bottom, middle, and top drawers


   
Here's a peek into the curing baskets.  The soaps are all cut up and resting.  Before I use the soaps I give them at least 4 weeks of curing time to evaporate moisture and get harder and longer lasting.

   
The plastic baggies contain trimmings from various soaps.  I can reuse these trimmings and shreds for confetti soaps.