*When making a specialy soap from the basic soap, grate bars of the hardened soap and then heat it slowly with water. Then you can add the extra's to your soaps.
*When mixing herbs or other ingredients into your soap, you want it to be in very small, tiny pieces. If you have too large of pieces in the soap, it will end up very scratchy!
*Be creative, but be sure to use only Pern-grown ingredients in your soaps!
Chamomile - Chamomile soap is a pale yellow color and has tiny, darker specks throughout the bar. You can use fresh chopped or dried powdered flowers. It is very soothing for your skin and has a unique fragrance.
Rosemary - Rosemary makes a light orange soap, it is astringent, and makes your skin feel smoother. When using Rosemary, it's best to use dried Rosemary, or finely chopped leaves.
Lavender - Lavender makes a pinkish-purple soap which has a strong fragrance. Fresh or dried lavender flowers can be used if finely chopped.
Aloe - Aloe makes a greenish, swirly looking soap that has a soothing effect on skin. Aloe soap should be made with a gel.
Goat's Milk - Caprine milk is a great cleanser and makes a creamy, off-white bar. To make caprine milk soap, you need to use the freshest milk you can find. This soap is very good for sensitive skins because of it's soothing effect on skin, and for the smoothness of the bar.
Mint - Mint soap is white and has green spots all over. It's fragrance is sure to impress and is best used in soaps if it finely chopped, fresh or dried. Mint is a gentle cleanser.
Clove - Clove produces a yellow soap that, when used, cleans your skin and gives it a tingling sensation. Clove should be used finely ground.
Sea Scent Soap - Sea Scent Soap is made from kelp from the ocean, and smells like the sea. It is green and, because of the kelp, is slippery.
When fats, oils and lye are mixed, the by-product is glycerin. For the chemists among you, the reaction can be summarised as follows:
COOR OH C(3)H(5)COOR + 3NaOH-> C(3)H(5)OH + 3NaCOOR COOR OH triglyceride + sodium hydroxide -> glycerin + sodium soap
During the manufacture of commercial soaps, glycerin is produced and is either washed away with the other waste products, or it is separated out and sold on to the cosmetics or food industry. This is an enormous loss - glycerin is a natural moisturiser for the skin, and the removal of glycerin during the commercial production of soap is one of the reasons why commercial soap can be so drying. In my cold-process soapmaking method the basic mixture of vegetable oils and fats, sodium hydroxide, water, natural nutrients and essential oils is stirred together. No additional heat is supplied and the glycerin is stirred back into the soap as the saponification reaction takes place. This means that my handmade soaps retain all the glycerin, making superior and gentle bars of soap.
I use simple, everyday ingredients in my soaps. Depending on the type of soap I want to make, my soaps will contain a mixture of ingredients drawn from the following list: purified water, BP (British Pharmacopoeia) grade olive, coconut and palm oils, tallow, other fixed oils such as apricot kernel, avocado, jojoba, hemp or sweet almond, nutrients such as shea butter, beeswax, cocoa butter, essential oils for their glorious scents and a range of pigments for colour. Often I add other ingredients, such as powdered flowers or leaves, oatmeal, honey, kaolin or fullers earth.
It is the coconut oil in my soaps that produces the luxurious lather. When you're washing, turn the bar a few times in your hands to release the lovely, soft, fluffy bubbles that are the hallmark of coconut oil in a soap - you'll find they are softer and smoother than those of a typical mass-produced soap.
Last update: April 15, 2000