Soft Launch

I am sooooo excited..........Soaps By SanGi had its first ever public viewing last Sunday. I was so nervous! It is one thing to distribute your soaps to friends and family. Quite another to showcase it to complete strangers. There was a lot of curiosity regarding the process and the ingredients etc. I enjoyed sharing my journey of soap making with all those people.

I had included some lip balms made of Beeswax too. They were quite a hit as well. Especially with the kids. 

My helper for the morning. DD

SanGi from Soaps By SanGi - Me

And, I did manage to sell a few soaps too. And lip balms. I think I can totally get used to this. Interacting with new people, selling my soap, sharing my story. Here's to new beginnings..........

 I know it has been a while since I have posted here. It was sheer laziness that prevented me from writing. And a few disappointments. Yes, I have been making soap and not all the batches have come out the way I wanted them to. I guess I should take it in my stride. But, with the craft bazaar coming up in a month's time, I would like to have a lot more soap to offer. It will be the first time that I am going to exhibit my soap. The soap I was most looking forward to was the Tomato & Milk Soap which went wrong from the word 'Go'. I had made two similar batches, one with Tomato Puree and the other with Milk. The idea was to attempt a funnel swirl. But, I guess the fragrance I added took me by complete surprise and the mixes went into accelerated trace. So, I had to abandon the idea of swirling and decided to just layer the mixes. 

Soap after unmolding

But, I guess luck was just not on my side that day. It was too thick to even layer the soap! Everything seemed okay when I poured (put) the mixes into the mold. But, when I unmolded it the next day, I was shocked to find that the top layer of the Tomato soap had separated from the layer of milk soap, as you can see below. 

The centre though did not come apart. I decided to try the oven method and rebatch the tomato soap in muffin trays. And this is what I got...

Not the prettiest of soaps, but they are meant for personal consumption. They definitely have all the goodness of tomatoes. 

I decided I wanted to make a tomato soap because of all the skin loving properties that they have. Tomatoes are high in vitamin content and are a rich source of anti oxidants called Lycopene. Lycopene can counter the aging process on our skin by cutting out free radicals in our bodies. The tonic benefits of the tomato deep cleans and tightens pores. Alpha-Hydroxyl Acids found in tomatoes helps get rid of pimples and acne through its gentle exfoliating action. But, since tomatoes are an astringent, I decided to counter by combining a milk soap to add to its moisturizing properties.

I will definitely not be able to put it up at the stall. It looks quite ugly, I must say. So, I shall enjoy all the benefits of the tomato and the milk........

 

Ok......am back

My dad passed away on the 27th. So, I was away in Chennai for nearly two weeks with my mom and my sister.

Am back and have been restless to make some soap. I am kind of getting obsessed with this whole soap making……and so have just made a new batch of soap. I have attempted Milk Soap this time. Many soapers have warned about the milk getting burnt because of the heat it creates in soap. The sugars in the milk are the problem. After a lot of research, I decided to use the Half and Half method to make this soap. I divided the total amount of liquid required into half water and half milk. I mixed the lye in the water and when the oils and the lye mixture reached light trace, I added the milk in a slow stream. The soap mixture immediately started to heat up. I had very little time to add my FOs and a bit of colour. It really thickened up and when I poured (put) it into the mould, it was the consistency of thick pudding. Also, despite my best efforts to keep the temperature down,  it gelled on me. Am a bit disappointed as I was hoping I would have an ivory coloured soap. Have to wait and see how it turns out.

Soap going thru gel stage

 Adding fragrance oils instead of essential oils is another first for me. Thankfully, there was no issue when I added the FOs. I have scented the soap with a mix of Melon and Berry FOs. It will be interesting to see how the smell holds up after the soap has hardened and cured.

Since I wanted a really moisturizing soap, have added a good amount of cocoa butter. 

I bought myself one of those chocolate moulds so that I can make sample sizes of my new soaps. Aren't they cute?

The colour of the samples indicate that I could have ivory coloured soaps after all. Can you notice the hint of blue in them? I tried to swirl in some colour as it was thickening up pretty quickly 

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.

The smell of first rain......

Despite complaining about palm oil earlier, I decided to try it out again in this soap since I was superfatting it at 8%. Maybe it would not be as drying as I thought it to be. I must say the smell is absolutely divine. The combination of the Vetiver, Cedarwood and Petitgrain EOs gives it the smell of earth drenched with the first showers of monsoon. 

Vetiver, cedarwood & Petitgrain

This is the first batch that I have attempted without Olive oil. I like using Olive oil in my soap because of all its wonderful qualities. I have used Sunflower oil, Rice Bran oil, castor oil and of course, coconut oil. I substituted Olive oil with Rice Bran since it is very similar to olive oil in terms of its composition and also in what it contributes to soap. This was also my first attempt at doing the in-the-pot swirl. I must say, I am pretty happy with the results. The moisture that is visible on the soaps is due to the fact that we did have a bout of very heavy rains right after I made this batch. But they are all nice and dry now. Waiting to use it. Tomorrow I shall post about my two batches of soap using the clay that I ordered...........

Morning after

16.10.2012 - Update on my 8% SF soap
I turned the soaps out of the moulds this morning. They are still soft. But, firm. In fact, they have a jello kind of feel to them. Wonder if it is the 8% superfat or the other superfatting oils. Will wait and see. Hope they firm up and cure. I really do like the colour and the smell is divine...

Citronella & Eucalyptus soaps curing

The smaller soap did not gel

I am not a big fan of silicon moulds for my soaps. I have noticed that silicon tends to keep the heat in for far too long and hence the soaps in these moulds do not harden at the same pace as the ones I put into plastic. Has anyone else had this problem? Please share your experiences with me. The only thing that makes me go back to them are the wonderful shapes and sizes they come in. As you can see, the smaller cake on the left was in a silicon mould. It is still too soft to the touch.

Update on Salt Bars

As promised here are my salt bars when I turned them out of their moulds this morning. The spearmint smell makes me want to dig my teeth into them. Very refreshing smell. I should probably try it in one of my sugar scrubs. I have been wanting to make a chocolate sugar scrub. A mint chocolate sugar scrub would be nice. Will share if I do...

 Salt bars made with 70% salt

Having made at least a dozen batches of soap, I realise that I do not like working with palm oil or shortening. While soaps made with palm are hard and white, I do not think they are very moisturising. Maybe I should try using them at 20% of the total oil weight. I have tried 30% in my Carrot and Coconut Milk soap, and though it turned out very nice, I thought it could do with more conditioning. I do not feel the same when I make soaps without palm oil. 

My soaps....

My current crop of soaps

These are the current batch of soaps which have cured and are on sale. Left to right in the top row are clove & eucalyptus, cirusy green tea and yummy beer & honey soap . The second row has my carrot & coconut milk, olive & coconut oil with poppy seeds and lemongrass soap. The last soap is peppermint soap. The lemongrass was my first attempt and the peppermint was the second batch........not bad, right?

In the first picture the two soaps in the foreground are rebatched soaps in which I added jojoba and sweet almond oils. My DH loves them, so I have not distributed any of those and have kept them just for him. Though, he is yet to try my olive & coconut oil soap with poppy seeds for exfoliation and the beer & honey soap. I bet he will love those too.

It has been more than two weeks since I made my last batch of soap. I seriously need to make a batch today. I hope I can, considering it's a Sunday and the gang is at home. If I do, I shall try posting photographs of the process................

The start of the soaper in me

I came across soap making quite by accident, the way homeschooling happened to me 12 years ago. In my constant search for knowledge (ahem), I came across homeschooling when DH and I were toying with the idea of shifting curricula for our 3 kids. The more I read about the concept of homeschooling, the more I fell in love with it. We were away in the Middle East at that time and homeschooling was a very good option when we would eventually return to our country, India. One of the biggest drawbacks of education here has been the fact that children need to learn the state language as a compulsory subject. So, every time you shift a state, the child has to learn the language. For all those netizens out there who have quirked up an eyebrow at this bit of information, let me explain. (sorry for the long diversion from soap making). India is a very diverse country and each state has its own language. Much like you have very different accents across America or across UK. Whilst English is the most widely spoken language by far, our national language is Hindi, though Hindi is generally spoken only in the north of India and sparingly in the east and west. 

Anyway, back to soap making. So, as I was saying, soap making happened to me one night while surfing and I absolutely fell in love with the creations I saw in the different blogs. I wanted to recreate similar soaps. My first hurdle, which I realized was the fact that in soap making everything worked as per weight and not volume. Since I do not own a scale, I was wondering if it would be worth an investment considering this was only an early excitement and could fast die down. Then I came across a video on YouTube where the lady was making soap using measures instead of weights. That was all I needed to try out soap. Of course, it did not come out too well, as the lady had warned. But, that initial experiment was enough to motivate me to make some more. And off I went in search of a scale......

My first batch of cp soap