Sunday, July 27, 2014

Saponification Sunday...It's About Time!

 


It's not that I don't make soap anymore, I do.
It's not that I don't want to continue Saponification Sunday, I do.
It's not that I don't want to share all the excitement that revolves around mystical magical lye, I do.
It's just THERE'S NO FREAKIN' TIME!!!!

Was I yelling? I didn't mean to yell.
It's late, I'm tired, but don't you worry. I have soap pictures, yes I do.


Charcoal was the drug of choice this week. Nice black, finely powdered, charcoal. I love coloring my soap with this stuff even though it can be messy. I feel it is worth the black lung you'll invariably concoct at the end of your saponification session.

I used to keep mine in a little baggy but I always felt guilty when I store anything powdered in a baggy and spent too much time looking out the window for Big Brother so instead I store my charcoal in a glass spice bottle with a shaker top which works much better anyway.  I generally add my charcoal to some of the olive oil from my soap recipe and then add it back to the traced soap I want to color.

For this bar I used just about  a 1/4 tsp to my main two pound soap batch to get that blue-grey color and then about 1 tsp to the smaller amount of soap I used to make the darker swirls. These swirls were a combination of in the pot as well as in the mold. I believe I even added and swirled some of the black soap into the pot WHILE I was pouring it into the mold.


Which is why when folks ask me to recreate a soap they liked I generally just look at them in a dull-witted way. I'm not one for repeating soap recipes 'cause I'm not one for remembering soap recipes.

Yes, I am aware there is such a thing as a pen and paper. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

This particular soap looks great wet. All sleek and shiny like a seal in Galway Bay I might say. It is scented with pure Eucalyptus Essential Oil.


I think it also looks nice on our bathroom sink just in front of the crazy faucets from IKEA no one wanted me to buy cause they had never seen such an odd design and besides everyone knows IKEA makes cheap crud and the stuff never lasts but I ignored them and I bought the faucets and they are still working five years later, so there.

9 comments:

  1. Striking! When your soaps I have in my drawers run out, I would love to try this one.

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  2. Thanks to you, we are spreading our wings and getting all fancy with our Lard and Lye soap. This time we added Lavender essential oil. ;-) Some day soon I need to get down there and see you two.

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    1. You really just don't need us anymore do you? Admit it. :(

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  3. Working with charcoal is so unique. We love experimenting with it. Your soap is gorgeous =)

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    1. Well hello Anne Marie! You've just reminded me to check out your site. And so I will! I always learn something new everytime I travel your way.

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