Spa Day

I've been wanting to try making soap from scratch for a long time and so finally, this past weekend, I finally got organized and Brianna & I had a crafting "spa day". Brianna made 2 kinds of hand-milled soaps. She made small molded Lavender Fairy soap by grating a block of plain Goat's milk soap, melting it and adding lavender essential oil and a little bit of blue and red soap dyes. She also made 2 Citrus soap balls with the same block of grated Goat's milk soap with sweet orange and lime essential oils. They smell really nice. They are drying for about a week before we can try them out. She made Ocean blue bath salts which she has been enjoying adding to her bath water.


She helped measure out my ingredients for making a big batch of moisturizing soap base (coconut oil, sunflower & olive oil and lye water). I was stirring it for hours and only poured it later that evening, because I wasn't sure when it was ready and "trace" had occurred. I realized later that it was likely ready within the hour. I poured half of the batch to make plain soap (to be milled later) and to the other half I added honey, oatmeal and vanilla essential oil to make a Honey & Oatmeal soap bar. A day and a half later, I unmolded them and cut them into bars to dry and cure for over a month. At that point I will check for optimal pH. Its a long process of waiting, but I'm hoping I will love the results. The Honey & Oatmeal bars don't smell good yet because they have to cure and the lye is strong and overpowering it at the moment, so I'm hoping it will have the scent I desire when its all cured. I have plans to make more varieties in the meantime and continue experimenting. I will also try making massage bars and homemade lip balm, which are ready for use much more quickly than the soaps.

One word of caution: Don't allow dogs access to the area where soap bars are curing...Clio got a hold of 4 of my Honey and Oatmeal bars and chewed off large bits. Amazingly, she hasn't suffered any ill effects...must be all that nice healthy oatmeal!!