RobsCreations

Last time I wrote about soap making , I’ve talked about ‘water discount’ (See HERE ) and how reducing the amount of water in the lye solution has solved many of the problems I’ve been facing over the last months ( soda ashes , soft   soaps   etc). This time I’ve used the same water discount as the last time, but I’ve stick-blended the batter a little longer to get something thick enough I could pipe on top of the soap. Total oil weight: 800 gr Water as % of oil weight: 28.17% Superfat: 7% Water:Lye Ratio 2:1 Essential oils: myrtle (23 gr), juniper (5 gr) and rosemary (12 gr) Soaping temperature: Oils @ 52 °C, Lye @ 50 °C Micas: Candy Pink and Plum Purple  Activated charcoal OIL/FATS Olive Oil (pomace) 28 %  Coconut Oil 32.5%  Palm Oil 22.5% Shea Butter 10%  Castor Oil 3.7% Sweet almond oil 3.3%

I have mixed two techniques in order to obtain different patterns , one on the inside of the soap bar and one on the top. Here you have the links to the original videos showing the techniques: 1)  Tilted tiger stripe swirl 2) Multi-mica Taiwan swirl Since  I run out of castor oil,  I had to modify the recipe shown in video 1) as follows  😅 Recipe (slow moving trace): Olive oil (pomace)  70% Coconut oil  22.25% Palm oil (organic)  7.75% Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Scent:   O range  EO ...

This soap was supposed to be something totally different... 😲... anyway, it didn't turn out to be so ugly, did it? 😢 ... the day after...   I had plenty of soda ashes, but I think that this time they came in handy! The top looks foamy and the white and blue curls look like sea waves 🌊🌊🌊 Recipe: Olive oil (pomace)  30% Coconut oil  30% Palm oil (organic)  30% Canola oil  10 % Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of PalmOil).' Colours:  orange  and  violet  liquid soap dyes. Liquid dyes can be a bit of a pain bec...

To cut a long story short, last August I've participated to a design competition for soap moulds organized by the fantastic  The Soap Kitchen  on-line store and I won  (see Facebook  and  Twitter )! My designs have been transformed into real moulds after a process including 3D printing of the models, silicon mould creation, resin forma production and final creation of the plastic moulds (production and manufacturing have been done at The Soap Kitchen, THANK YOU Colin and the whole team). Moulds are made from food grade PETG and each cavity of the set measures approximately  75 mm x 50 mm x 25 mm . If you need more details on the moulds, including how to use them, you can find them  HERE When I was preparing the sketches for the competition I gave each single mould a name (see picture ⇩), but they are sold as a set under the name of Four Seasons   I have been looking forward to testing this set and here...

This is rosemary soap   I had a request from a friend for a very simple soap, with no colourants of any kind and scented with only rosemary essential oil (EO). I didn't know what to expect from rosemary EO... but I have to admit that after 2 weeks of curing, I'm amazed by the balsamic and warm scent that this soap has! <3 Recipe: Olive oil (pomace)  25% Coconut oil  30% Palm oil (organic)  20% Canola oil  20 % Castor oil  5% Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Scent:   rosemary essential oil from the Soap K...

This is DOUBLE ELLE   Recipe: Olive oil (pomace)  26.50% Coconut oil  29.75% Palm oil (organic) 19.50% Canola oil  20 % Castor oil  4.25% Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Scent:  Lemongrass + Lavender essential oils from CEVEN'Arome Colours : 1)  Chromium oxide green (hydrated) powder  2)  Ultramarine violet powder   Note: I've only used a pinch of ultramarine violet powder just to 'buffer' the yellowish colour that palm oil can sometime give to soaps Mineral pigments are from  The Soa...

This is  SA VA GE LA UR EL   Recipe: Olive oil (pomace)  40% Coconut oil  25% Palm oil (organic)  20% Bay laurel berry oil 11 % Castor oil  4% Note that the palm oil I buy from  The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Bay laurel berry oil is from  A roma Z one Scent:  naturally coming from the bay laurel berry oil Colours : 1) arctic pearl metallic mica 2) silver grey metallic mica  All micas are from  The Soap Kitchen 2 days in the mould + 1 day as whole bar outside the mould before cutting!

This is the first of three short posts about the last soaps I made! This is GO LD EN CI TR US Recipe: Olive oil (pomace) 50% Coconut oil 25% Palm oil (organic) 20% Castor oil 5% Note that the palm oil I buy from The Soap Kitchen   'carries Organic Certification and comes from Columbia. It is not produced on land that has been taken from the Rain Forests, nor are there any Orangutangs made homeless. Our suppliers do use 'ethical' methods in their production (we have actually visited the site). Our Columbian suppliers are members of the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Production of   PalmOil).' Scent: grapefruit + tangerine EO from CEVEN'Aromes   Colours : 1) gold sparkle metallic mica + buttercup yellow mica 2) copper metallic mica + c lementine orange mica  and 3) deep bronze metallic mica  All micas are from  The Soap Kitchen 2 days in the mould + 2 days as whole bar outside the mould before cutt...

I had some oil left overs and I wanted to try my first swirled soap! This recipe contains Olive Oil (44%), Palm Oil (28%), Coconut Oil (8%), sweet Almond Oil (13%), Castor Oil (5%) and Avocado Oil (2%). Because of the low content in coconut oil and high content of liquid oils this soap bar should be quite soft and not too aggressive in terms of cleaning properties. The fragrance  ' limeflower & fig '  is from The Soap Kitchen (ref: 13730pmd). I've used 1.5 gr of fragrance for 1.127 Kg of total material (oils + water + NaOH). The amount of fragrance is fairly small but it still provides a  pleasant scent . Mica: blueberry from The Soap Kitchen (see  HERE  for a complete overview of my pigments' list) Dried flowers: cornflower petals and white rose buds warning: cornflower petals discolour in CP soap (see 'before and after' pictures below) while they retain their vibrant blue in M&P soap (see  HERE  and...

You can refer to my previous post  (here)  if you want to know more about the amazing properties of the bay laurel berry oil and in general on Aleppo soap. Today's post is about cutting and testing the soap I prepared few weeks ago ( here )!  Let me remind you that I've used an olive oil-rich recipe in which I've also included ~15% of bay laurel berry oil, some coconut and palm oil, as well as a bit of shea butter. Soap was still slightly soft after 4 days (1 day in the mould + 3 days outside, as a whole bar) but that's pretty normal in soap bars with high olive oil content. Anyway, the smell is incredible , the colour (coming from the bay laurel oil ) is delicate and the texture is not bad at all!  There are at least two more weeks to go before it's fully cured, but I had a leftover from the slicing process that I've tested for you...  The soap is great : not slimy at all (read my comment about soap bars with high amounts...

Last, but not least, batch of Melt & Pour soap for this month!  I like to call this soap bar Emerald soap or 50 Shades of Green! Aahahahahahaah :-) I'll try to give you an idea about how I've obtained the different colours in the layers. From bottom to top: 1) Green liquid colour (few drops),  1 mini-scoop of  titanium dioxide and of Clementine orange mica, 2) Green and violet liquid colours (few drops of each), 3) 1 drop of yellow liquid colour, Aqua green mica and Chromium oxide green pigment (1 mini-scoop of each), 4) 1 drop of  Green liquid colour.

Half with embeds, half without! Scented with lavender fragrance, coloured with blue liquid colour from The soap Kitchen and sprinkled with dried cornflower petals.

What a cookie cutter can do... I've melted the Stephensons soap base, coloured it with a bit of clementine orange mica, pour it in a rectangular container and, once solidified, I cut the cute cats out by using  this amazing  cookie   cutter I just received for my B-day! Swimming cats... ahaahaha!  If working with embeds, ALWAYS  check the temperature of your melted soap before pouring!!! ...and the slices... Meow!

I received a fairly big  request   (at least from my point of view) of M&P soap from friends, lately! The SLS- and SLES-free Stephensons Clear soap base had a great success among my friends! It's highly rich in glycerine and it is made from vegetable-derived ingredients (no animal-derived oils/fats). The problem with this material, is that each time I have to order it from the UK I pay a lot of money for the shipping...after some research (and with the help of people from The Soap Kitchen ) I found a distributor in France ( soapbox-shop ) that accepts both bulk and small orders. For the moment, I cannot tell you if I really like this company, because on one side they've been very proactive and useful when I was about to place the order and I had a problem with the TVA and the delivery address, but on the other side one of the product I've ordered, and paid for, was not in the package I received... In addition, it's some days that I'm trying to contact them ...

I will be making some Melt&Pour soap bars (and possibly one Cold Process soap too) in the forthcoming weeks and I was trying to get my head around the behaviours of soap colourants in different soaping processes.  Some of them are alkali-resistant while some of them are not, some can bleed through soap layers but some don't...  I now have a fairly good number of colourants (liquid dyes, micas, oxides and ultramarines) and I keep forgetting which, among them, is suitable for Cold Process soap making, which works better in Melt&Pour and which, on the other hand, gives great results in both processes... For my own sake, I decided to go through all the colourants I currently posses, to create swatches for each of them and to generate a table with all their features and behaviours. Definitely useful

This soap contains equal amounts (~30% of total oils) of olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. It also contains 5% of canola oil and 5% of castor oil. The lye solution has been prepared in distilled water. The raspberry fragrance comes from the Soap Kitchen UK and it has been used as less than 0.5% of the total weight. I believe the stick blender really made the difference this time: I've reached the trace in less than 2 minutes ... It has been probably a way too fast and that's why I couldn't play around with colours as I wanted... but I'll do better next time. The soap hardened in the mould after an overnight only and I managed cut it straight away. I measured the pH which is around 8.6 and the small bit of soap that I rubbed on my hand produced a nice fluffy lather . Now curing time for four long weeks!

As promised, here you have my summary on the last soap I made... yes, the one with coffee and a really weird texture ! Soap unmoulding: 48 hours after pouring. Soap cutting: 2 days after I removed it from the wooden mold... 4 days in total and...   Soap slices do not look good...at all! :-/ The lower layer appears to be very soft and sticky (my fingerprint is well visible in the lower left corner)   ...and the upper layer is even flakier than 2 days ago (below you see the result I got after having gently squeezed a bit of soap between thumb and index finger). Soap facts: - very poor lather with any of the two layers - layers' weird consistency does not make the usage of the slice easy - pH of the two layer is pretty different: well below 8 for the white layer and higher than 8.6 for the brown one. GUESS WHERE IS THE SOAP NOW???   In the bin!