A SOAP WITH NO NAME

I made a new soap this weekend.  I have enjoyed the teal green color lately, so I had to add 2 of those colors and some soap shred which is blue-green in color.  On the top I added a little oatmeal for decoration.

I also added a secret ingredient.  Can you name it?  Here is the hint:

The fragrance will probably make the soap a little darker after it cures.

The soap lightened after it was cut.  The one on the right was cut first.

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FOX NEWS FEATURE ABOUT SOAP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stf8QC4cE6c&feature=youtu.be


Do you give up yet???  Well here it is:

I have been making soap since the 1980's.  I haven't used colloidal oatmeal until now?  I hope it is a great addition to my soap.  I also used tallow, raw cow milk, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, sunflower oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, glycerin, fragrance, soap shreds, titanium dioxide, coloring, and oatmeal.

So far, the soap has no name, but it has great texture!

The fragrance I used was oatmeal, milk, and honey.  The soap shreds contained another fragrance and the fragrances blended a little.  It still has a great smell.  

Please view my web store at:

http://www.custercottage.com

And visit my Etsy shop at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

 

I hope you had a good weekend!  Thank you for reading my blog!  Dawnie

Titanic Soap or Vanolia soap and Recipe

I have researched Titanic soap.  This soap was advertised to be a cold cream soap named Vanolia.  It was a  nice sized oval bar wrapped and placed into a decorated box of purple and gold.  Vanolia was also advertised at the soap for the first-class cabins on the Titanic.  It was made originally in England.  Even though the soap is still made since 1912, it has gone through a few changes.  One  change is the fragrance which is more of a spice fragrance now where it originally was a rose fragrance.  Many soap makers of today are adding rose and lemon  together trying to duplicate this soap fragrance.  I found the original (or close to original) ingredient labels which shows the following ingredients.  I broke the ingredients down for easier reading and understanding.  (Keep in mind that I am bot a chemist.):
1.sodium tallowate--tallow or rendered cow fat
2.sodium cocolate--coconut oil--it is one of the few oils that will suds in salt water
3.aqua--water
4.glycerol--glycerin--automatically made during the manufacture of true soap.  Glycerin attracts moisture through the air.
5.perfume--a fragrance, rose otto--1/8 of an ounce is $29.99 on Amazon. Most of us can not afford this essential oil.

6.sodium chloride--salt
7.mineral oil--a byproduct of petroleum and commonly used to remove make up
8.tetra-sodium EDTA--it is a cleating agent that neutralizes the metal ions in hard water and makes  water softer
9.edidrontic acid--also a cleating agent which enhances the cleaning power
10. boric acid--a mild antiseptic/anti-fungal/antibiotic  "Borax, also known as borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid,"  Wikipedia
Much of my information came from Encyclopedia Titicaca. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/forums/personal-hygiene/4975-soap.html

To duplicate this soap, I would start with tallow, coconut oil, water, lye (sodium hydroxide), and rose fragrance.  If the soap could turn dark due to the fragrance I use, I would then use a little titanium dioxide to help keep the soap white.  Many of the soap makers of today are placing a rose bud on the top of each bar of soap, making each bar truly upper class..

My version of this soap is:

Titanic soap

30 ounces tallow

20 ounces coconut oil

19 ounces water

7.3 ounces lye

3 ounces veg glycerin

1.5 ounces Save on Scents eternal roses fragrance oil  

2 tablespoons titanium dioxide

Optional:  18 decorations for the top such as dried rose buds or tiny pink rose erasers like mine.

Follow normal soap making rules to make this soap using the above recipe.

Yield:  Makes 18 bars of soap.  I used Crafter's Choice oval molds.  Oval which was the shape of the original Titanic soap.

Notes:   *I refrigerated this soap for one day.  It did not gel and it came out of the molds perfectly.

*This soap is snow white!  The titanium dioxide was probably not needed with this fragrance oil.

Vanolia/Titanic Soap  I used little erasers for the center rose.  Not as nostalgic as a dried rose bud.
A friend told me that it would erase the wrinkles away.  LOL

I hope you found this an interesting read.  Have a great week!  Dawnie

Please view my web store at:

http://www.custercottage.com

And visit my Etsy shop at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

Soap Contest---with updated photos

I joined a contest at Great Cake Soapworks. http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/  
I usually pay my dues to join, watch how Amy performs the technique on video, and then I don't make the soap for the contest.  The first time I joined, I panned to participate.   I changed my soap formula to meet the criteria giving the soap a longer time to set up.   I made a huge batch.  Why not?  I had visions of sugar plums in my head.  I seldom use the same exact formula twice, so a little difference is OK with me.   After I made the huge batch, which riced on me, (I used a different brand of fragrance oil and it caused the soap to rice, or become grainy looking like rice) I decided to make smaller batches for future contests. LOL   Instead of sugar plums, I got prunes!  Yes, the soap can be re-batched, and some has been, but there is still a chunk of it on the shelf.  

This contest is to use an alternate liquid, other than water.  I usually use raw milk and a tiny amount of water.  My first thought was lemonade.   Many will use tea, green tea, or something like that.  Maybe a can of Dr. Pepper would work in soap, like in a dump cake.  LOL  Well, Why would someone want Dr. Pepper soap, unless you could manufacture that smell and this contest requires no artificial colors or fragrances.    

I eventually decided to make a lemon-limeade.  I made it the normal way you would make lemon-limeade, except I pulverized the whole lemon (seed, rind, and all).  I added water, sugar, and lime juice.  In the oils I used the zest of a lime.  The oils/fats this time was tallow.  The lemon-limeade was a little tart, but I did add sugar.  Some people swear that sugar and salt make a soap harder.  Too much sugar can make a soap volcano.  I added one teaspoon of powdered annatto seed to make the soap yellow.  I probably did not need to.  The soap looks a more pumpkin color.  I used pink grapefruit and lime essential oils.  After texturing the top a tiny bit, I sprinkled a tiny amount of organic lemon peel powder and salt.  I can't use glitter this time so I hope the salt aids in sparkle!  

Fat, lime zest, and essential oils.

Ready to pour into the mold.

In the mold.


 

The batter did not get very hard, so I had time to try this tool.  I bought this hair pick several years ago and put it away.  I stumbled on it again and decided to give it a go.

This side gave me quite a few ideas.

I had a little extra.  These set up faster.  I used the end that is in my hand in the above picture.

Just out of the mold.  I cut it a little early, but I wanted to see how it looked.  The lime zest does stay green. 

Part of the contest is to explain why we used the liquid.  Is it the novelty of the liquid, or is the liquid great for nourishing your skin?  What are the qualities of the alternate liquid?   Lemons have been used for centuries as beauty aids.  Lemons can lighten age spots, remove black heads, the citric acid exfoliates, etc.  Elbows and knees are darker on most people.  Lemon juice can aid in bleaching elbows and knees to match the color of the surrounding skin.  When I was in high school, I used an astringent with lemon juice in it.  I was told by a teacher that my skin looked too pale.  She wondered if I was feeling well.   Don't over do it with the bleaching.  LOL  One source stated that the PH balance would be altered with the use of lemon juice and if you go out in the sun, your skin could be more irritated.   The links below are great places to read all about lemons.

http://naturalbeautytips.co/apply-lemon-juice-on-face-skin-benefits/

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/uses-for-lemons

http://www.xovain.com/skin/4-diy-beauty-ingredients-to-avoid

Lime benefits on the skin are more controversial since lime oil can burn the skin.   As diluted as the lime is in my soap, it is not going to burn skin.  Lime is also used as a fragrance in cosmetics.  Lime is a great fragrance for men.  Lime also kills germs on the skin. The nutrition in a lime is very high, so put it in your diet.  You can read about limes here:

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-548-lime.aspx?activeingredientid=548&activeingredientname=lime

I will try to come up with a name when I post the cleaned up soap pictures.

I have a second idea for making another batch of soap using an alternative liquid.  Who knows, it may be my entry for the contest.  I hope you had a great week!

Please view my web store at:

http://www.custercottage.com

And visit my Etsy shop at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

Thanks for viewing!  Dawnie

P.S.

I found that this soap does not lather very much.  I personally prefer more lather.  It also takes a while for this soap to get hard.  It initially gets hard enough to un-molded, but it takes a while to get harder.

Granny Soap

When you want to use your handmade soap for laundry and cleaning, or you have allergies and want to keep the ingredients simple, you could make soap like grandma did.  You only need three ingredients; water, lye. and fat.  I added lavender essential oil for a little fragrance.  No coloring, glitter, herbs. or additives were added.   Since I was making grandma's type of lye soap, I used a cardboard box as my mold.  This is the what I used when I started making soap, but I lined the boxes with wet flour sack tea towels back then.  I used rendered tallow from cows as my fat.

I was inspired to make a small leaf face cloth with green cotton yarn.  There are free patterns to use for making leaves on the web, see below.
http://www.tricksyknitter.com/pages/posts/new-free-washcloth-knitting-pattern-coming-soon-159.php?g=6
or
http://wibbo.typepad.com/wibbos_words/free-patterns/

I hate to follow directions, but the leaf is made with three knit stitches on the left and the right sides of the leaf and a stockinette stitch is in the center.  Increase the stitches or decrease the stitches right before or after the three beginning or ending stitches.  Make the leaf the shape you wish to have.  I don't think both sides should be the same, especially when leaves come in all shapes and sizes.

The old fashioned grandma type soap is very bright white.  Isn't it beautiful!  May God Bless You and Yours!  Dawnie