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.

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...........