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 been recently writing a guest post  about water discounting in soap making for  the American blog Lovin soap .   CLICK HERE  to read the full story and to find the recipe of my Cobblestone soap. You will also find two videos ( courtesy of my husband 😄) with the techniques I used for this soap (in-the-pot swirl and piping). I want to thank again Amanda for hosting me on her wonderful blog.

In my recent  Review of the Aroma Zone (AZ) soap making workshop  I've been complaining about a peachy fragrance I bought on the day of the workshop. Before buying it, I've asked if the fragrance was going to work well in Cold Process and the alleged expert said "YES, sure!"  When I got back home, I read on the AZ's website that this fragrance is not great for CP and got quite p****d off. Needless to say, that there's no explanation concerning this statement (does it fade over time? does it affect soap color? Does it ACCELERATE trace?!?) and therefore I had to find out myself... I didn't have much choice in terms of raw materials and I didn't want to invest in new stocks in case something went wrong. Few precautions: 1) I scaled down the amount of total oils in the recipe (325 gr instead of 800 gr) 2) I used silicon moulds (didn't want to spend time lining the wooden mould) 3) I added the fragrance at the very last moment...