Adding Additives

I will admit, this is a very late post, and this time it was not the internet's fault. I worked a lot this week and I was just plain tired. On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a little time to try some new soap!

I decided to finally do something with my lavender. It has always been a favourite of mine and I know is a staple among soap and scent lovers. It's calming, of course, by nature and I decided I needed a little of that in my life. I also wanted to give additives a try so I settled on lavender and oatmeal. Simple enough for a first try and it sounded like something I really wanted to use. Oatmeal has been something I came across in looking for an answer to a terrible little stress rash I get on my hands and insides of my elbows. It would be nice to be able to make something as simple as a soap myself to soothe it just a little bit. Either way it interests me and is something I could find at home.

In searching how to add it to the base I turned to the internet and the books I have here at home. I was looking for a cut and dry 'here is how you add oatmeal to soap' but of course I never really found it. What I actually left with was an idea of how much to put in but confusion over whether I should grind the oatmeal or not. Some recipes said do and some said don't but neither said either way was fine. All I really found was recipes and no straight answer so I decided to pick my books that left the oatmeal whole. Another bit of confusion I found myself with was over how exactly to add the oatmeal to the base. I was told to remove it from the heat and add it but no more was really specified. So this time I closed the books and moved into the kitchen to figure it out on my own.

I started by, of course, melting my base. (My little brother decided to watch and was very interested in how quickly it went) Still stuck using the microwave I moved the bowl to the counter and added a few tablespoons of oatmeal first. I stirred it only a few times, trying to avoid air bubbles and it separated perfectly, swirling around the bowl and looking very pretty. I then added (maybe a little too much) lavender then poured the whole mix into a bread pan for a mold. This is where I know I went wrong. The second the mixture poured into the pan all of the oatmeal settled to the bottom and no matter what I did would not swirl back around and stay. I already had too many air bubbles and knew I couldn't mess with it anymore so I let it be. After a little when I knew it had set just a bit I sprinkled a pinch more oatmeal on top. It only just barely sunk, some poking up on top and stayed in place. It wasn't exactly what I was going for but at least I had salvaged a bit.

Impatiently my brother and I left the soap in the kitchen to set and waited about an hour and a half before we just had to poke it. It had solidified perfectly. Even with the bit of heat in the house. (I don't know how I have ever had the patience for the candy making I do.) But then I had the trouble of figuring out how to get it out of the deep pan. I had read couple of ways that included dipping the pan in hot water as well as using a hair dryer. They sound logical and next time I will probably use one instead of trying to pry it out with a knife that doesn't fit in the pan. However, after I ruined the first two pieces a bit the rest came up in one very easy to lift out piece.

Overall it is not the perfect soap. Next time I am going to let the base sit a bit before adding the oatmeal which seems to be the consensus on fixing the sinking problem. I will also try using water or a hair dryer instead of prying. Next time I think I may buy a white base instead of a translucent one. Translucent looks amazing in the cute mold but for the bars I want something that looks a little more solid. Eventually when I get some recipes worked out I would definitely like to make it in a loaf and see how that works out.

Even with its imperfections, however, the soap feels and smells amazing and I am very happy with it. A few tweaks and a little more time and it could end up being a favourite of mine. I wonder how it would look shaped like Hello Kitty...

♥ Amanda Leigh

Could it be... a success?

I wrote this blog yesterday. But, because the internet was down all over Washington state the last couple of days I am putting it up now.

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Remember that cute little idea I said I would come back to..? I MAY have gone with that instead of my original plan..

I got home from work today and wasted a lot of time being exhausted and hungry. It took a long time of pining after the internet and something warm to eat before I realized... I was complaining yesterday because I didn't have the time to get this started and now, with all the time in the world (or five or so hours behind I had to be in bed) and I was just sitting around feeling bored. I got up, grabbed some books for reference, all of  my supplies, a clean spot in the kitchen and... got scared. What if I messed up? Then I had wasted all that money and ingredient. How much was I supposed to use? I don't have a scale yet. I didn't even know if I wanted to add something to the lavender like salt or oatmeal. And even if I did how would I know if I was doing it right?! ...Then I saw my toasted rice fragrance oil sample. The one so nicely hidden in my package. And my roommate's Hello Kitty silicone ice tray.

I decided to start simple.

Toasted Rice Fragrance Oil Sample. 17 cent dropper I bought with my lavender. Soap Base. Silicone Hello Kitty ice tray. ...bowl. (My mother thinks I'm going to ruin her pans so no double boiler for me. I get to use the microwave.)

It was surprisingly easy to cut! I don't have a scale so I decided to break it down into general pounds to remember how much I used instead of just winging it with ingredients. I was worried it was going to be brittle and break but it had more the consistency of really dense butter.

I decided to use half a pound. I cut it into cubes and put it into the microwave. I was worried it would be difficult to melt and that I would stir it too much or it would take to long or anything I could possibly do wrong.

But it was so easy! It only took about four 20 second intervals and I barely had to stir it at all. It came out smooth and lovely.

I added about ten drops of the fragrance oil and it was plenty. My hands smelled like it all night. It was very strange eating food later...

I also added one drop of yellow. Just to make it pretty. Sadly food colouring is all I had so I made sure to use just barely any at all, so it wouldn't run on anyone's skin.

A bit messy... but my roomie enjoyed picking the excess off after it solidified a bit.

Then I just had to wait! I watched some cartoons, helped make dinner, stared at it for a while... I left it out on the counter, afraid to touch it to move it. I was pretty much afraid of doing ANYTHING so I had to cook around it. We picked at the excess, cleaned up a bit and argued about putting it in the fridge or not. I had some left over in a bowl that I poked at for a while, seeing how long it took to solid up. It went pretty quick but I made myself wait. I manged an hour before attempting to pop the first cute little hello kitty head out of the mold.

It came out perfect~!

Every single piece was solid and beautiful! They all came out so easily with the very minimal amount of air bubbles I had been so nervous about. (I have nothing to spray them down with like all the books keep telling me. More supplies in time!) My roomie oo-ed and ahh-ed my little brother and his friend NEEDED to touch and I am just so beyond proud of myself. Everyone in my family thinks they're adorable and I think so too. They look right, they smell right, nothing exploded and I had so much fun. It was like baking cookies but instead of sugar and butter I mixed oils and base and got cute little soaps instead. Roomie was the first to try it and I used some a little bit later.

I loved it. Sure I still have a lot to learn and this was the very basic of recipes with only the utensils I have around the kitchen but I can't wait to try some more. Looks like my blog isn't going to be only three posts long! That in itself feels like a victory.

I hope everyone's ready for some great smelling gifts!

♥ Amanda Leigh

Ingredients!

My soap base arrived last night!

I ordered two pounds of organic melt and pour soap base from Bramble Berry after, I will admit, not too much shopping around for a supplier. I wasn't looking too hard for anything beyond organic and ingredients I understood. I will probably play around with other suppliers (and of course ingredients) once I get a little more used to all this but for now I am very happy!

The site was very easy to navigate and  gave me all the information I needed. (Like in depth ingredients, which a few sites decided I didn't need to know.) The prices were better than the others I had found and the company is even just about an hour from where I live! I had my order within the week.

It arrived while I was at work. It's always nice to come home to a package. Just seeing it in person has gotten me all excited again.

And, while I was digging through the padding to get to my actual soap base...

I found a gift! A Toasted Rice Fragrance Sample. It smells delicious and I was so surpised it just made my day! It's given me an idea for some really cute little soaps that I will get back to later.

My lavender oil I bought a few weeks ago at Cornucopia, a food co-op in the city nearest mine. It has been waiting very patiently for me in my room.

Simple ingredients for a simple recipe (that keeps changing in my head as I look around my home) but we'll see what happens!

♥ Amanda Leigh

I can't back out anymore...

Alright. I've done it. Essential oils bought, soap base on its way. I can't back out anymore.
Somewhere along the line I realized I wasn't doing anything in my life I enjoy anymore. All I do is work and try to sleep. Repeat, seven days a week and have become tired at the age of twenty-one. I don't write anymore, I don't sing anymore, I don't read anymore. It wasn't until (back to living with my parents) both of the cars we own broke down simultaneously, and us, thirty minutes out from civilization are back to the mercy of the bus system with no end in sight. (Lucky for us Island County's buses are free.) I was sure this was the beginning of even harder times but what I hadn't realized was that sitting on a bus there is nothing I can do but sit. Sit and relax and breathe and even finish a book. Halfway through my trip I found fifteen minutes to spend at the library. I am singing at the end of my street, waiting for the bus, even at five in the morning, I have read five books in the past month and sometimes even bring along a notebook to write in. While at the library last week I found a book on organic gardening and a few on soap making.

I'm excited. I'm ready to start doing the things I tell myself I am going to. Someday. Well, I'll have my supplies in a few days.

♥ Amanda Leigh