Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Another batch of soap


I promised to share my clay soaps with you today. But, I just whipped up a new batch of soap and want to share that first. A month ago, I had infused some olive oil with thyme and have been wanting to use it in soap. Thyme is said to have antibiotic and anti-bacterial properties. In fact, it is believed that Thymol, which is extracted from the oil of Thyme, was used as an antibiotic before Penicillin was invented. The Egyptians discovered that it helped in preserving mummies. 


Lotion Bar
Two days ago, I had attempted my second lotion bar and used a bit of  the thyme infused olive oil. I was surprised at how nice it smelt and decided to use it in soap.  It had developed a nice green colour. Though I filtered the oil, I left a little bit of the thyme as a mild exfoliant. It would also give the soap a nice speckled look. I decided to stick to a woody smell and scented it with Juniper Berry, Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang and some Vanilla. It smells very nice. Will need to see how it turns out once it has cured. 


At light trace. 
Kept the oils simple. Apart from the olive oil and coconut oil, I added palm oil (i know, i know...palm oil again) and Rice Bran oil. The reason for these oils was to try and keep the bar as white as possible, except for the thyme. I hope I have achieved it. Tomorrow will tell. I have superfatted it at 7% and hope it will be mild. I wanted to add a couple of teaspoons of Castor oil. But, as I was clicking the photographs, it came to thick trace pretty quick and so I had to pour it into the mould. It is also my first attempt at a water discount.

In the mould
Decided to leave the top simple instead of the usual swirls. Have covered it with towels and hope it reaches gel stage. I know a lot of soap makers do not like their soaps going through the gel stage in order to maintain the opacity, but I like my soaps going through the gel stage because they add a nice translucent look to the soap. I shall post photographs of the soap tomorrow after I have unmoulded it.


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