Lavender & Tea Tree Soap

How do you feel about tea tree oil?  I think it really stinks! 
However, some people dearly love the fragrance.  A friend of mine used it in her hand made baby wipe formula since it is good for minor skin irritations and it has antiseptic properties.  Tea tree essential oil comes from the leaves of the tea tree which is grown in Australia.  This has nothing to do with the green or black tea we drink.  Tea tree is placed on the skin (topically) and used as an antiseptic for minor cuts, burns, skin irritations, eczema, and many other things.  I am camouflaging the smell of tea tree with lavender in this batch of soap.  My home smells heavenly!  Aside for a little color, everything in this soap is natural.  Since there is no real definition of natural in soap, it may not mean much to you. lol  When I mixed the lye, I added the sea salt.  About 1/3 does not mix totally.  This does not pose a problem for me.  I use salt totally mixed into the water and the opposite way where the soap is crunchy and needs to be cut right away. As the soap cures, it will have a white film on it due to the salt. 

I visited with a lady not long ago that had a son with eczema.  She said that his eczema (on his neck) cleared up when they were on vacation and he was in the salt water at the ocean daily.  That healing could be a result of many things other than salt, including stress, food, clothing he wore, soaps and shampoos he used, laundry soap and fabric softeners, etc.  The mother thought it was the salt and salt makes my skin feel awesome.  I am not a doctor and I can't tell you what does or does not work, but I have skin issues and so do many of my friends and family members.  I would like to say that my soap is used because everyone that uses it loves it and wants his or her skin to feel great!  Unfortunately I am realistic.  Many of my friends and family members use it because it is free.  LOL

Soap Ingredients:  Coconut oil, Tallow, Water, Lye, Sea salt, Shea butter (Unrefined and organic), Sunflower Seed Oil,Cocoa butter (unrefined and organic), Grapeseed oil, Colloidal oatmeal, Lanolin,  Purple and lavender oxide

Every once in a while, handmade soap may have a problem setting up.  With this soap, I had lye pockets.  This is something that I rarely ever have.  I noticed a small hole in the soap when I cut it.  I also noticed a little hole/pocket in the bottom of the soap, almost at the bottom of the mold in another loaf of soap.  There was some liquid in these holes.  I usually cut out these areas of the soap and the bad areas become family soap, or scraps used to re-batch.  This is what lye pockets look like:

I have been spinning a little.  I will keep you posted in case I make anything with the yarn.  I am intentionally making it look like tweed.

 

Have a great weekend!!!  Dawnie

PS  Don't forget to go to my website at: https://www.slipperywhenwetsoaps.com or my website at: https://www.custercottage.com or my Etsy shop at:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

Laundry and dirty laundry

I was almost out of laundry soap, so I made some laundry soap bars. This is the soap I use to make my laundry soap/laundry butter.  I decided to try the new "Fluid Acrylic Pour Technique done in soap," to make the soap more decorative.  I began using the top of plain coconut oil soap and two colors of purple since I used lavender fragrance oil in the soap.  This is a new technique we learned about in The Soap Challenge Club.  I only did a small amount on the top of the soap to practice.  Once you put small amounts of colored soap on the top, you blow air out of a straw into the soap making it fray out as a decoration.  This can be done one time or many times.  It is easiest to use in a tray mold since it gives it more space to spread out.  The number of colors can vary from 2 on up.  It works best if you use contrasting colors. 

Since I was talking about soap and dirty laundry, I am going to air some of our dirty laundry.  

Don't you just love the words that come out of the mouths of children? When my oldest grandchild needs to be held and given attention, she says, "Grandma I need you."  Not very often in this life do we get told that we are needed.  My son never could say the word comforter.  He always said he wanted a comfortable for his blanket. When we sing the song Baa Baa Black Sheep, my granddaughter sings Baa Baa Sheepies. There are a few other words that have been repeated and should have not been repeated.  Most of them have not come from my mouth.  Mother Ducker has just become a repeated word combination.  YIKES!  That is the word combination she says, but it is not exactly what the adults said.  Occasionally she likes to be funny and repeat another phrase that I actually said.  It came from her mom first in a similar phrase, so I blame her part way.  LOL  I said I needed to get my ass up and get something done.  Now my granddaughter teases me and tells me to get my ass up.  Then she giggles.  She knows it is not a nice word, but she loves to tease me.

I made a strawberry soap with a lot of cocoa butter, shea butter, lanolin, colloidal oatmeal, along with other ingredients.  The first batch contained raw cow milk.  The smell changed and it was no longer strawberry.  It smelled good, but not a fruit.

How was your week ?  I hope you are well.  Dawnie