My 2nd Flea Market

My stall at Royal Orchid, Bangalore

This was my 2nd Flea Market presence. Actually, it was my 3rd. I had another one on the 2nd of March. But that turned out a dud. Everyone was disappointed and surprised at the total lack of visitors. I left early. I heard the poor organizer had to shell out a hefty amount from her pocket to compensate for the loss she had incurred. I guess we all have our bad days.

Anyway, the one on Sunday, 3rd March was a lot of fun. I managed to do more sales and attract more visitors to my stall than the first one. That reminds me to send out those thank you mailers to all those nice folks who stopped and smelled my soap and also to those who picked a few bars up. I had one customer, who had come all the way from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and picked up 10-12 bars of soap and a couple of my Lip Butters. Hopefully, I will soon develop a profitable client base in the Middle East!

A pretty little girl was so exhausted at the Flea Market that she stopped at my stall and announced to her mom 'Can we stop now and have something to eat'. Her mom had to tell her that what I was selling was soap and not candy.........Should I take that as a compliment or.......?

Suddenly I seem to be busy with Flea Market attendance. I have one this Sunday and one the following Sunday as well. Love to meet so many new people. 

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..........

Cucumber & Yoghurt Soap

I made some Cucumber & Yoghurt Soap. We all know the skin loving properties both these ingredients possess. Cucumber is very good for acne prone skin as well. Since it is highly astringent, I wanted to add something that would balance it out and make it moisturizing as well. There is a generous helping of Shea Butter. I love the feel of Shea Butter in soap. It gives the soap a silky feel. Since Shea is high in unsaponifiables, which means that a lot of the fat in it does not get converted to soap, we get the true benefits of this butter. My Red Clay soap which I made earlier is a hot favourite with all who have bought it.  

Red Clay Soap with Shea Butter

Frozen cucumber puree

I was hoping I would be able to maintain the lovely green of the cucumber. I pureed the cucumber whole, skin et al. But as you can see in the photo below, the lye did manage to alter the colour a lot. That was disappointing. Next time, instead of substituting the water with the cucumber, I shall add it at trace. Maybe that would help maintain the green colour.

Lye & Cucumber mix

My new molds being put to good use

I <3 soap

The soaps turned out pretty big, weighing roughly 125 gms each. That is way above the size of my normal bars, which are roughly between 70-80 gms each. This lot produced just 12 soaps. I made a few sample soaps as well. Cute little pumpkins!

They smell lovely with a blend of Rose, Vetiver & Cedarwood EOs. The Rose though seems to come out more strongly right now. 

 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........

 

Carrot, Coconut & Honey Soap

I made another batch of soap. An improvisation of my earlier Carrot & Coconut milk soap. This time I made Carrot, Coconut Milk & Honey Soap, superfatted it at 8%. I used 50% each of frozen carrot puree and coconut milk. No water at all. Went very slow while mixing in the lye, so as to not discolour the carrots. As you can see, it kept the lovely orange colour. Was praying that the colour would not change during the saponification process, like the last time.

Mixing the lye

The lovely orange of the carrots

The soap turned out wonderful and I could also cut it smoothly the next day. I love the way the carrot puree shows through the soap. I scented it with orange EO.

As you can see below, the vast difference in colour between my last batch and the current one. Wonder if the honey had anything to do with it. Also, will the colour hold through the curing period. Updates shall follow.........

Soap for Eczema

My DD has suddenly developed a form of eczema and is very upset about it. She suffers from a lot of allergies, especially asthma, which she has had since the age of 7. It had settled down a couple of years ago, but has been acting up again. Unfortunately, Bangalore is not one of the best places to live in for asthmatic people because of the high pollen in the air. We plan to put her through an allergy test to help us identify which allergens are causing this problem. In the meanwhile, I started searching desperately for a soap I could make for her which would help relieve some of her symptoms.

One of the things I found during the course of my research and reading a lot of blogs of people with similar problems was that oatmeal is very beneficial in cases of eczema. Apparently, it is due to the high protein content in oats. So, I decided to make her a plain & simple soap with just olive and coconut oil, and put in finely ground oats. Kept it clear of essential oils, though I was tempted to put in some Tea Tree oil for its anti-bacterial properties. Nor did I put any colour. It is currently curing. I can’t wait to see if it helps her. Shall post an update once she starts using it.

Can you see the specks of oatmeal?

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. 

First attempt at Salt bars

Enough is enough........I had to try out the salt bars that I had ogled at on the net. Notwithstanding the different opinions that were out there. I would never know till I had tried it.....So, today I did my first batch. A small batch with 100 gms oils. I added 70 gms of normal every day salt. Really excited and can't wait to try them out. One month seems so loooong..........

Salt bars in moulds. Coconut, grape seed,castor 

& rice bran oils

I shall post pictures tomorrow after I unmould them. The colour in them is because I used my previously frozen carrot puree as the liquid with the lye. I have scented them with spearmint and ylang ylang(wierd combination, i know). I have superfatted them at 12% and have also added a couple of drops of almond and jojoba oil at trace. My greatest fear is not to have a soap which is suitably moisturising in the extremely dry weather we have here. So, I have learnt to be a little too cautious. My first couple of batches were with 5% SF and the familly is not very happy with the moisturizing..........

Finally......I made 8%SF soap

Finally, I got down to it. After nearly a fortnight, I did make a small batch of soap, about a pound and a half. I have been wanting to try out soap with 8% superfat. The ones I made with 5% superfat have got great reviews, and friends and family love the way it leaves their skin moisturized. But, it still does not do away with the need to use lotion. I wanted to attempt a soap which would do away with the need to use lotion. Here, in Bangalore, the weather is extremely dry. So, here goes ...........

Base oils, superfatting oils and EOs

You can see my base oils, which are paprika-infused olive oil (hence the colour), rice bran oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil and castor oil. This is the first time I am working with sunflower oil. In the foreground, on the left are my superfatting oils and honey and on the right are the EO blend of lemon grass, citronella and tea tree. 

The oils and lye at light trace

I normally mix my oils and lye at a very low temperature because I don't want to panic  with the soap coming to trace very quickly. I added by EOs first and then my superfatting oils. Since I was using honey, which accelerates trace, and Evening Primrose oil for the first time, I did not want it to either seize or come to trace quickly. Thankfully, neither happened. It was smooth sailing.  

Ready to pour into the moulds

Once I added the EOs, it did get to trace pretty fast. But, that was fine.......... I decided to use individual moulds instead of a block since it was such a small lot.

Into the moulds...........

As you can see, I managed to get only 8 square cakes (3in square) and a small silicon mould.  I absolutely love the colour. It is such a rich orange. I wish my carrot and coconut milk soaps would have turned out this colour. But, carrot goes through a colour change after saponification and that lot of soap was more yellow than orange.

6 hrs later.....

After 6 hours, I was surprised to see that the soap had got to the gel stage despite being in individual moulds and having covered it loosely with a cardboard. If you look closely, you can see the gelled soap underneath the top layer in the mould in the centre first row. In fact, I think it had a minor volcanic eruption if I am to go by the stain on the cardboard. Honey was the culprit. And expected. I can't wait to see what it will look like tomorrow. It is currently very soft. I hope I did not superfat it too much. Tomorrow will tell.

Anyway, goodnight every body. Been a fruitful day today................

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................

Love my soaps

My current collection of soap

Well, continuing on my soap journey, let me tell you, I have not bought commercial soap/detergent in more than 3 months. And the results are phenomenal. Apart from being absolutely economical, especially when it comes to dishwashing and laundry, it has helped in a lot of other ways too. The pigmentation on my DH’s face has nearly vanished (which is pretty common on dark Indian skin), the hard dry skin on his knuckles has a lot diminished. He does not need to use moisturizer on his hands like he used. My second daughter had developed a skin allergy all over her left leg roughly 4 years ago. Multiple visits to the dermatologist and several tubes of skin ointments did not yield results. She just about gave up and sacrificed short dresses, much to the chagrin of all the boys in this city. Last week I noticed her dark spots had faded quite a bit. In fact, she had a burnt mark on her calf and that too seemed lighter. I wonder if many of the current skin ailments prevalent could well be the result of commercial soaps. Is that why doctors are forever recommending us to change our soap? Hmm... Even my laundry is looking far happier and brighter in the last couple of months. Not to mention that the clothes do not have the over-powering fragrance of detergents which often makes you sneeze. Instead, they have a lovely mix of orange, lemon and tea tree smells. Boy, am I glad soap-making found me………. 

A slight correction..........

My first attempt at soap-making was not the bar of cold processed soap that I mentioned in my earlier post, but was laundry soap.

Laundry Soap

One of the very first websites that I came across was Rhonda's fantastic site on not just soap making but a lot more. And there I learnt how to make laundry soap. I was really thrilled at the end product. Not only did it do a good job of cleaning my clothes, but it was a lot less expensive than the commercially bought ones. I chose to make the liquid version since we have hard water and I wasn't sure if the powder would effectively dissolve. The washing soda did help soften my water. How do I know? Because my clothes stopped having that dingy grey look, especially the whites.Since I had not yet begun to make my own soap, I had to rely on Sunlight, which middle class India has long forgotten what with all the Surf, Tide, Ariel invading the market. My first batch of 6 ltrs lasted me a month and a half. I have a larger capacity front loader and needed a bit extra. I was also a bit unsure of the cleaning properties, so would invariably put more than necessary for each wash cycle. I am currrently into my second batch of laundry soap.  My recipe is as follows:

Laundry Soap

1 cup of grated Sunlight

1 cup of washing soda

8 ltrs of distilled or filtered water

I heat 1 1/2 ltrs from the 8 ltrs of the water and add my grated soap gradually till it is completely dissolved. Do not over cook it as it will begin to coagulate. Turn off the heat source and add the washing soda and mix it with a whisk till it is all well mixed up. Pour this mixture into a bucket which contains the balance 6 1/2 ltrs of water and mix thoroughly. You can add any essential oil now or leave it as is. I add about 10 drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil for its anti-bacterial properties and of course its woody scent and 10 drops of Lemongrass Essential Oil. Allow it to sit overnight, covered. The next day it would have gelled up, which is normal. Again, whisk it thoroughly and pour into your storage jars. If your bucket has a lid, then you can leave it in the bucket and use it from there. It will have the consistency of a thin pudding. Normally, 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup per load works just fine. Whilst Rhonda's recipe calls for a cup of Borax as a fabric whitener, I have had problems finding them in any of the stores here. Will continue to search for it and see if it makes a difference to the wash. So, there you have it my first attempt at soap. The earlier post was my second attempt. Hopefully, my next batch of laundry soap will be out of my handmade soap which I have just made with 0% superfat...........

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