Soap Made with Lots of Salt

Salt soap is soap made with high content of salt, usually range from 50~100% of soaping oil.  It can be done in cold process and also oven process.  The first time I tried making salt soap I did it in oven process, meaning using oven heat to force it to saponify in 90 minutes then cut right the way when it's cool enough.  If it's left uncut for hours you won't be able to cut it anymore, it would turn rock hard, that's the salt working.  Since then I've been soaping salt bars cold process.  I make my salt soap the same way I make all my other soap, cold process, because I use milk to soap.  Without using the oven heat to force saponification I need to avoid cutting because that high of salt content would harden the soap and make it too crumbly to cut.  My solution is using individual silicone molds.  My favorite shape is oval, easy fit in my palm and easy to tumble under water.

Besides being rock hard, another obvious characteristic of salt soap is it doesn't produce bubbly suds.  It makes rather creamy lather almost lotion like.  What's salt soap good for if it doesn't lather well?  High concentration salt is very effective in exfoliating dead cells off your skin leaving you clean but smooth after shower.  Think about the reason why people take bath with salt soak, it softens your skin and exfoliates away dead skin cells.  If you don't have time to take a long luxury bath or simply don't have a tub at home, using salt soap in the shower would be the only alternative.

I have tried a few different salt to soaping oil ratio in the past, and finally settled with 80%, meaning if I use 100 g oil to soap, I would add 80 g of salt.  Almost any kind of salt can be used to make salt soap, even table salt.  The only salt that's not good for salt soap is Dead Sea Salt.  Dead Sea Salt has a property of attracting moisture in the air, if used in big quantity it would cause the soap to sweat and weep if it's at a humid area.  I like using sea salt and Himalayan pink salt for their richness in mineral.  I love using salt soap to wash my combination skin type face.  It is not suitable for sensitive skin or wounds, think about how much it hurts when your wound touches salt... ouch.

Making Cream Soap

What is cream soap?  It is not solid bar soap most of us use daily, not liquid soap either, rather in between, more like shaving cream but it is soap!

How is cream soap made?  We use sodium hydroxide to make bar soap, potassium hydroxide to make liquid soap.  Cream soap is a hybrid of the two, made using both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, together, to make soap staying at cream consistency.
Making cream soap is more complicated than making bar soap and liquid soap.  I have to admit, after researching on and off for a year, I'm still pretty confused and cannot in the life of me figure out how to formulate by myself.  But with help from one of my soapy friends, I took the plunge and made my first batch, a small one, just too experiment.
It took quit a while to get traced then it got sticky, like thick caramel, the kind that always get stuck in your teeth when you eat the chocolate.  So glad I took the stick blender out earlier or it would get stuck in the mixture, that's how sticky it got.

After the sticky caramel stage it took very little time to turn into dry mashed potato.  Then I put it to cook for 2 hours and mixed every 30 minutes while cooking.  Gosh it got so hard to mix my hand hurt so badly after cook.

After adding the super cream I let it sit in the pot over night to rest.  The next day it relaxed a bit.  I broke the mess into little portions and attempted my first whipping.  Oh boy, I almost burned my hand held mixer, it's too sticky and hard!  I then mixed in aloe juice little by little and it finally got loosen up, it turned white and had this pearlescent appearance on top.

The one thing I don't like about cream soap, the one thing that made me so hesitated to try in the first place, is the fact that it needs to "rot" for a long time, 6 month in average!  What's rotting?  It's not going bad or growing nasties or fermenting.  It is a process to break down and transform to final fluffy cream soap it's meant to be.  Don't ask me why people call this stage "rotting" stage, we the soapers have weird terminology I guess, LOL.   It has been only 4 weeks since but I already peeked more times I can count!  I need someone to hid it where I can't find it or the curiosity is going to kill this cat here!

If you are interested about the result, look out for another post few month from now.

Feather Swirl Finally!

Very rarely can I perform a whispery feather swirl as delicate as this one!

My recipes trace at average speed, perfect for someone impatient like me.  To make feathering swirl requires very thin and slow trace soap recipe.  Rule of thumb  is to use high contain of olive oil in the recipe, but I dislike the slimy feel and the long cure time.  I like hard bars of soap, decreasing saturated fat is not an option for me either.  The only way I can achieve this is by using beef tallow in the recipe.  I know quit a lot of people find soap made with animal fat to be considered not environmentally friendly.  On the contrary, as a meat eater, I feel it is actually greener to use animal fat for soap.  If you would like to know more about using beef tallow for soap, here's my old blog post: myth about Beef Tallow Soap

This is Ume Blossom Soap, Ume means plum in Japanese, it's the first bloom of the spring followed by Cherry blossom.

 

I used a small cookie cutter to make these tiny flower using melt and pour soap base ahead of time then "glued" some sugar pearls with cold process soap in the center of each blossom.  It is time consuming and detail oriented but it's worth the effort, don't you think?

Mix and Match - Lavender Musk

What do you do with the little left over from every fragrance after you are done soaping it?  For some reason I just can't use up exactly what I purchased!  So what do you do with a little left over here and there?!  It's not enough to make even a smallest batch but enough to make me feel bad by throwing it in the trash.  I gathered a few left over lavender fragrances from different suppliers and thought maybe I should just mix them all together!  Different suppliers have their own interpretation of what lavender should smell like, some more herbal, some more floral, some with other notes.  To add another layer of depth, I added some Egyptian Musk which is way too light by itself.

This is my Lavender Musk:

Color inspiration by:

Just thought I should make rope soap again, it has been awhile since my last one.  I rather prefer soap on a rope because you can wear it around your wrist to prevent slippery and dropping it in the shower, then hang it to dry much faster.  But why don't I make every soap on the rope?  Because it's more preparation work and I have to sacrifice fancy soap top. 

Natural Blue Colorant - Indigo

I usually use artificial colorants for my soap because I can achieve so much more design wise with the vibrant colors synthetic micas can offer.  I'm not opposed to using natural colorants but the problem is they tend to fade in time.  It's fairly easy to find natural colorants for the color of red, yellow and green, but it's hard to get a good blue.  Indigo has long been used in Asia as a natural blue dye, it produces an earthy muted blue instead of vibrant eye catching blue.  It's more like a pair of stone washed dark blue jeans.

This is my first soap of the year 2014, after not soaping for more than a month.  I thought, why not start with something new too?!

 

The Indigo I got is not the typical powder form, it has been pre-treated with lye water then dehydrated to crystals.  Typically if you get Indigo powder you have to infuse it in oil and strain it out to prevent speckles, or if you like the speckle look add directly into soap.  Pre-reduced Indigo crystal is more concentrated than Indigo powder.  It had been reacted with lye water already, meaning what you see is what you get after adding it to soap batter.  All you need to do is dissolve it in a little water then add it to the batter.  I have to say it is very potent.  I only used a pinch and after forcing gel, it is as dark as my jeans!
Side note: it really stinks when adding to water... but no smell after saponification, phew~

Uchikake Kimono Inspired Soap - Cherry Blossom

I know it's a bit early but can you tell I want Spring to be here already?!  When you think of spring the first flower that blooms is probably plum blossom then closely followed by cherry blossom.  This year's cherry blossom soap is inspired by the uchikake kimono which is a formal kimono wore by a bride.  If you google uchikake kimono images you will see loads of jaw dropping photos.  Most of the uchikake kimono are made with contrasting colors of red, gold, black, and white and each can easily cost more than $10,000!

Alright, back to soap business, I wanted a more elegant subtle look instead of look at me bold statement all over.

I decided to make a majority white base with soft pink and black swirl in side then spice it up with bold shinny gold mica and hot pink soap bits.

Aren't these uchikake kimono pretty?!  I wish I have the money to own one, like an art piece!

2013 Soap Collage

Happy New Year everyone!

I made a photo collage of some soap projects I did in 2013, enjoy!