Aroma Shower Fizzies Out Of Control

My oh my, I recently made some shower fizzies for some friends using essential oils.  What I hadn't taken  into account was the change in the weather. With the rain and added moisture in the air, try as I might I couldn't get the fizzies to dry out.  I read several articles that you can dry out bath fizzies in the oven with the temperature set at 170 degrees.  Great, temperature set at 170 degrees fizzies in the oven, the end result was .......

They should have been the same size as the soap

Oh heck,  the articles I read were in degrees Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.   Two minutes in the oven resulted in puffed up fizzies the size of scones.  The reason?  The moisture and bicarb/citric acid mixture was activated with the heat from the oven.  Although unsightly,  they still work a treat and my kitchen smelt so lovely.

A few attempts later and a cooler oven resulted in some  fizzies fit enough to give to my mates.  I made three different blends which I adapted from the recipe kindly provided on Soapqueen's blog.

1. Energising - maychang & sweet orange essential oils

2. Soothing - lavender & ylang ylang essential oils

3. Clear the air -  peppermint, tea tree & eucalyptus essential oils

Packaged ready for my friends 

I love how you throw the fizzie down on the floor of the shower and let the essential oils waft up.  It is truly a spa like experience.

Honey & Oatmeal Soap, Yumm

I've just finished wrapping my natural honey & oatmeal palm oil free soaps ready to take with me to show my girlfriends next week when I catch up with them.  I hope they like the packaging.  I love this simple yet exquisitely moisturising soap made up of local Australian honey, oatmeal, saponified: olive oil; coconut oil; rice bran oil and cocoa butter.  It is not fragranced by any essential oils but I can definitely smell the cocoa butter and there is very light aroma of honey.  I first made a similar bar some 7/8 years ago for my husband to use with his dry skin.  I also suffer from dry skin patches and find this bar really moisturises  my skin.  Over the years I've tweaked and adapted the original recipe until I am happy with the one I have now.  Unlike many large companies that mass produce soap, I make my soap using the cold pressed method,  because of this, glycerin a natural by product of the saponification process is retained in my soaps and not removed to be used in other products.



This soap is good enough to eat so to be on the safe side I made sure I placed a label on the back clearly stating "Do not eat" :-)

Too Much Lye Is Never A Good Thing

It doesn't matter whether you are an experienced or newbie soap maker, what matters is how accurately you measure your ingredients particularly when making cold pressed soap.I realised after measuring some of my ingredients for my last batch of honey & oatmeal soap that my electronic scales were playing up.  I hoped for the best and chose to keep soaping.

Yuck, look at what my end result was.  Too much lye in the mixture resulted in something that was very brittle and unpleasant, definitely too harsh to use on the skin as it is.  My trusty old scales have now been sent to greener pastures and a shiny new set are waiting to be used.

Baby Shower Soaps All Wrapped & Ready To Go

Well the time has come to share pictures of the soaps and tea baths I made for my niece to give as thank you gifts for her baby shower..  I've been patient, truly I have and only snuck a peak at them once or twice while they were curing.  The cupcake soaps had a rattle stuck in the top and the bars of soaps were wrapped in 'nappies'.  All were made using vegetable oils, Essential Oils and natural colourants.

Infusing Oil - Natural Colourants

Ooh,  I'm very excited to share this photo of natural colourants infused in olive oil.  I love the range of colours and hues produced by a variety of herbs, spices and clays.

Later today I plan to test these in my basic soap recipe as I am curious to see if the colours will hold up during the soap making process.  So far I have infused the following colourants:  activated charcoal, ground coffee,  powdered rosehips, calendula petals, cocoa powder, French red clay, parsley, powdered indigo,  turmeric, paprika,  cayenne pepper,  spirulina & cinnamon.

Why I Choose To Make My Soaps Palm Oil Free

 To use palm oil or not is a debate that people in the soaping community have some strong views about, as I personally experienced whilst on holiday in Queensland a few months ago.  I was visiting a well known tourist area  in the tropical rainforest region and spotted a store that sold handmade soap and other toiletries.   I love trying other handmade and supporting small businessesproducts and I was looking at the products when the store owner approached me.

As usual they gave the usual spiel about how the soaps were made from hand etc and when asked what method was used to make the soap, I was promptly told "that it was by a little old method that I wouldn't know about called cold process soap making".  Now I was raised to be polite, but they really made my ears prick up and my nostrils flare at  the condescending attitude of store owner.  I thought keep calm and ask if they stocked any palm oil free soap.  Big mistake,  I was  subjected to another discussion about how cold process soap could not be made without the use of palm oil, how they use palm oil sourced from sustainable sources.  Great news that they use sustainable oil but no where did they have this advertised whether on their packaging or elsewhere.  I know it's not mandatory but if they are going to be passionate about using sustainable palm oil wouldn't you think they would advertise it?

 I couldn't believe how much ill informed information I was hearing. I had had enough and decided that it was time to tell  the person that indeed I did know about the cold process soap making and that it is possible to make palm oil free soap. The picture attached to this post is an example of a palm oil free soap I made using olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, rice bran oil and turmeric as a colourant.

 I have been making cold pressed soap since 2007 and started out using palm oil in my soap.  Over the years however,  I became aware of issues relating to the over exploitation of palm oil plantations in Borneo and Sumatra in South East Asia such as  mass deforestation,  species such as Orangutans and the Sumatran Tigers being  threatened with extinction.  Not to mention the exploitation of the indigenous communities and loss of their lands.

There are on the other hand, convincing arguments for using sustainable palm oil.  For example, that soap makers contribute to only 1% of all palm oil consumption and that per unit area, palm oil makes 10 times the amount of oil as soybeans,  grapeseeds or sunflowers, it is therefore in some ways more environmentally friendly.

So why use palm oil in soap making?  Not only does palm oil  add firmness to a bar of soap, it also contains conditioning properties for the skin.  These can also be achieved by using oils such as rice bran, and coconut oil.

Palm oil is now the most widely used vegetable oil and can be found in so much processed food As well as a plethora of other products such as shampoo.  Take a look when next out shopping at the ingredients label and see how it is used even in pastry products.  Can I make a difference? I hope so.  It  is for this reason that I have decided to make palm oil free products.

If you are buying hand made soap and other products, I encourage you to choose ones that are either palm oil free or at least ones that confirm only sustainable palm oil is used in the making of the products.

103 Years Young

Grandma & Granpa celebrating their 75th wedding anniverary, June 2013

 

I didn't get a chance to make any new  soap over the weekend,  but that's okay as I was visiting my granddad who has just turned 103.


 My grandparent's recently celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary and are such an inspiration to me.  Having been a military wife until my husband left the armed forces in 2011,  I have the upmost respect for the love and strength that my grandparents shared during the six years they spent apart. Read the article from the South Coast register via the link below.

Ernie and Dorothy Celebrate 76 years of marriage

It is humbling to think of all of the experiences they have shared and how many momentous events they have lived  through.  I am truly grateful to have had the privilege of having two such wonderful people guiding me in my life.

Grandad, a British World War II veteran participating in his local ANZAC Day parade

Soap To Swirl For

I really enjoyed making this palm oil free soap using a spoon to create the swirls.

It was fascinating to see how each slice when cut from the loaf came out slightly different.  Truly unique?

What's A Girl To Do?

Hmm, I had a little problem to solve today.  I had just unmoulded a batch of honey and oatmeal soap and wanted to try using an acrylic stamp to stamp into the soap.  I looked high and low for my stamp block to no avail.   I thought I would have to give the stamp a miss until I spied a small jar of vegemite on the shelf, which I promptly put to good use.  I think the stamp didn't turn out too bad.

In All Things Of Nature There Is The Marvellous - Aristotle

I just had to share this picture of a pelican I took locally.  Even though it is winter here in Australia, I was taken by the richness of the colour of the sand coming from underneath the crystal clear water at the Ettalong to Palm beach ferry wharf.  I would love to recreate the rippled texture on a soap that I would like to make.

Pencil Line Technique

This is the first time I  tried to make cold pressed soap using the pencil line technique.  what I envisioned was the bottom layer coloured with cocoa powder,  a thin line of activated charcoal with the  top layer being a pastel blue coloured using indigo powder.   Time will tell if the colours will settle down to how  I envisaged them turning out.

The soap has been scented using vanilla, lavender, chamomile and rose geranium essential oils.

Cupcakes Version 2

The second batch of soap cupcakes have been made using a round nozzle, hmm not sure which one works out best.

Caution, Caution, Caution

They say that accidents happen for a reason and I can't agree more.   When it comes to making cold pressed soap, it is crucial to take care and weigh your ingredients carefully and  be stringent in making and handling the lye solution in a safe manor.   I am careful when using the lye solution but will put my hand up to say that I was very complacent when mixing my colourants  when I  prepared them.  Why I thought a plastic cup could hold up a mini frother is anyones guess.  Needles to say, the cup tipped over and colourant spilt over the floor, on the fridge and on me.  My saving grace is that I hadn't added to colourant to the lye solution.

Cupcakes Galore

 Whew, my first attempt at making cupcake soaps, 24 are happily sitting in my spare room hopefully going through the gel phase.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they have turned out.  A few are a bit wonky, but overall I think they have turned out okay.  

As they are for my niece and her baby shower, the top has been coloured using powdered indigo and the bottom using powdered Dutch chocolate.  The essential oils blend is: Rose Geranium, Ylang Ylang and Vanilla.

What's In A Name?

Where does a name come from and how do we know if it is right for us?

I have always been drawn to use the of botanicals to make products.  Even as a young child there was something about plants and trees that was alluring to me.  One of my earliest memories was being caught making a 'witches brew' in the bathtub using rose petals and other flowers from the garden plus unfortunately my fathers pot of black Indian ink.

Blue wrens are one of my grandmother's favourite birds even now at the tender age of 97 she recently painted this gorgeous picture of a pair of them..

 Growing up, I was always my grandparents jennywren and now like my beloved grandmother, I have grown to be attached to these flighty little birds.

Baby Shower Soaps

I'm excited about the idea of making soap as thank you gifts for my nieces upcoming baby shower in August.  I'm planning to use a combination of Rose Geranium, Ylang Ylang essential oils as well as vanilla thrown into the mix.

Extra supplies have been ordered. My thought is to make half as cupcakes and the other half using a swirling technique in a loaf mould.  Fingers crossed this will work .