Super soothing soap: super calming & moisturizing

So, I think I should have started with an easy recipe, but I have had this in mind for two weeks and I decided I would give it a go, even if it was my first experience with making soap. I have to say I am pretty satisfied with how the process went, now we are just waiting to take the soap out of the mold and let it cure... and then of course use it!

I still have to think of a name for this, so ideas are welcomed. Making soap is a very creative process and each recipe is quite unique, so I am definitely going to name this! I basically wanted to combine the benefits of four basic oils with some calming and highly moisturizing additives.

I started with a small batch, which finally resulted in 5 molds (you'll see it in the pictures below). I did a bit of research on SoapCalc.net (check my blog post on how to use it, I will be updating that regularly). I was using olive oil (I wanted to find pomace, but living in Italy I have to say that the cheapest option is extra virgen, believe it or not!), sweet almond oil, coconut oil and shea butter.

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Benefits of....

• Olive oil: highly moisturizing, leaves a light layer of oil on the skin, making it smooth and soft and it protects it thanks to the high amount of antioxidants.

• Almond oil: it helps the skin retain moisture and it protects your sking from UV rays. It also helps irritated skin and thanks to the vitamin A helps fight acne.

• Coconut oil: this intense moisturizer helps your skin reducing inflammation and healing wounds. it also has antimicrobial properties that keep your skin from bacteria and blocks 20% of UV rays.

• Shea butter: this is also moisturizer and helps reduce irritation of the skin, restores skin elasticity and helps with itchy skin. It's also used for its anti-ageing properties.

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Apart from these basic oils I was planning to add a bit of honey (got an organic one made by black bees here in Sicily), oats (typically calming for itchy skin and eczema) and turmeric/curcuma (which apart from giving an intense orangy color, offers anti-inflammatory qualities). On the same line I infused my carrier oil with chamomile which I am hoping added some benefits and gave the oil a nicer smell (I have been told that olive oil slows the trace, which I can see after having tried, but what I find most distinctive of olive oil is the fact that it has quite a strong smell...)

I already know this is going to be one of my favourite recipes. Do you want to go through the process with me?

In the pictures you can see the oils I used and the measurements (I forgot to take a picture of the coconut oil! Oops!). Since some of the oils are liquid (almond and olive) and the coconut oil and the shea butter were in solid form, I melted these last two. This was done using the double boiler method. Basically I put the oils in a pyrex container, and put this in a pot with some water. Boiling this took me only a few minutes.

While I waited for the other oils and butter to melt, I infused the oil in chamomile tea.

Once the coconut oil and shea butter were melted I mixed all the oils together and used a hand whisk to do this.

Next I decided to add my oats, I measured 7 grams and decided to add it to the oils before adding the lye. I was hoping this would help to avoid having pieces here and there. Seems it has! For this I used the stick blender and mixed for just a few seconds.

Once the oils were ready I prepared the lye solution (maybe it's better to do this first since adding lye to water creates a chemical reaction that produces heat -also a good idea is to use a container that would support heat! - and it takes a while to cool down. Both oils and lye solution should be around the same temperature, some people use a thermometer cause a big difference of temperature can create problems in the saponification process). The I added the lye solkution slowly into the oils and mixed a bit before using the stick blender to eventually get trace.

Once I got a light trace it was time to add the other products to my soap. I started with the honey, just a tea spoon seemed enough since it very rich, and I also added the curcuma (this time is from some capsules I had, I used three and I am quite pleased with the intensity of the final color which you can see in the pictures below). I blended it all a bit more to incorporate the ingredients and then added the essential oils. This time I used ten drops of lavender oil and a few drops of chamomile oil I had left. Honestly I think this was very little and I will be using more in the future to add parfum to the final product.

After adding all my ingredients I had to keep blending until I got a medium trace. From this experience I think my trace was too light and I could have continued a bit to obtain a thicker texture. The final product is ok but this could be necessary if I am going to be working with desings and swirls (playing with trace can help create interesting designs in soap, for swirls a lighter trace is better, but if we are creating layers, as I did in my second trial, maybe a thicker trace would help keep layers separate when pouring the oils into the molds).

Finally, it's time to pour the soap into the molds, this time I got 5 decent sized molds. As you can see the color is quite pretty.

When the molds are ready it's important to insulate it and let them dry in a room that it's not too hot or too cold, away from direct sunlight and wind. The soap is going to go through the gelling phase and it's important that it's not cool.

Soap is ready to be left alone for 24 hours.

Now.... 24h have passed and it's time to take the soap out of the mold and let them sit for 4 to 6 weeks in order to cure and let them be ready for use.

Want to see how they came out? I am quite proud of the final product and can't wait to use them. I have done these for my personal use since I hate washing my hands with comercial soap, it hurts, it leaves my hands dry and cracked.

After making this soap I did a bit more research on the consequences of adding sugars into the mix since I had used honey in my soap. I found a lot of information of how would it affect the gelling process which is what happesn in the 24 hours the soap stays in the mold. So apparently adding sugars, which would also include goats milk and different fruit purees, makes the soap become really really hot and this means the result is different. I took a picture of one of the soaps I cut in the middle so you can see the results. I quite like it, seems almost like sugar, it's not that easy to see, but the borders are more opaque, and that's where the geelling process occured, while the center is more crumbly and sugary. The properties of the soap are not affected, and since these were made in individual molds is not a problem at all, but making soap in a big bar using this recipe could be a problem, especially considering the designs.

So... now just time to wait and try them!