This is the continuation of my previous post about making cream soap the first time. If you missed it, here's the link: Making Cream Soap
As I mentioned in that post, cream soap needs to "rot" for at least 6 months, almost like aging the wine. Since this is my first time, I'm curious on how fast (or should I say slow?!) the soap quality and feel changes over time in order to understand the need to "rot" that long! Here I am, 10 weeks later, checking up on my container I hide away in a dark cabinet.
My first impression is how dense it became, as if it got dehydrated. There is a pearl sheen on top, but the soap is turning a little translucent. It is very hard to scoop it out, almost bend my stainless steel spoon! It's not hard as rock or anything, just very sticky like chewy taffy. I went ahead and mix a bucket of aloe juice from my aloe 200x concentrate and kept on adding to the cream soap while attempting to whip it with my handheld electrical mixer. By the time it is fluffy just like the way it supposed to be I think I've added just about 1:1 ratio of aloe juice to cream soap base.
I have no idea if this much of liquid added would cause any volume collapse, highly likely. But it still got a long way to "rot", maybe it would get dehydrated again by the end of 6 month rotting period. We shall see. For now, I want to test it to see how it can perform. I scooped a small portion and added some exfoliants like sea salt, walnut shell powder, and jojoba beads.
Nice and thick and creamy. I used some right the way just to see how it feels. I was a little disappointed. It got the job done, exfoliated my hands and washed clean, but squeaky clean, which means harsh. No soap should be squeaky clean, that is a scam from big commercial companies who make chemical body wash. A good soap should clean but still leave your skin feel comfortable, not tight. I'm only a little disappointed because the result is expected, I knew it is too young still to judge it's full potential. Until next time, I have high hope still.
As I mentioned in that post, cream soap needs to "rot" for at least 6 months, almost like aging the wine. Since this is my first time, I'm curious on how fast (or should I say slow?!) the soap quality and feel changes over time in order to understand the need to "rot" that long! Here I am, 10 weeks later, checking up on my container I hide away in a dark cabinet.
My first impression is how dense it became, as if it got dehydrated. There is a pearl sheen on top, but the soap is turning a little translucent. It is very hard to scoop it out, almost bend my stainless steel spoon! It's not hard as rock or anything, just very sticky like chewy taffy. I went ahead and mix a bucket of aloe juice from my aloe 200x concentrate and kept on adding to the cream soap while attempting to whip it with my handheld electrical mixer. By the time it is fluffy just like the way it supposed to be I think I've added just about 1:1 ratio of aloe juice to cream soap base.
I made cream soap a couple of years ago. I found that it was like taffy when I went to stir it part of the way through the rot, at the time, it was kept at room temperature. I accidentally found that it was easier to mix when it was colder (I had thrown it in the fridge), apparently the high temperatures of Southern Louisiana gave it the thick, taffy like quality. When it was cooler, it whipped up just fine. Hope this may help, just an observation.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, you would think it's the opposite! It's too late for me to try your method since I already added all that liquid. I will definitely try if I make cream soap again!
DeleteThank you for sharing your observations with this new experiment in rotty creme soap! I appreciate you sharing that journey and also your description of the squeaky clean ad snow job.
ReplyDeleteAny new updates on this cream soap? How did the final product come out?
ReplyDelete