This week has been filled with making milk and honey soaps. I have been making smaller batches because I was testing out the scents and playing with some new techniques. I decided that I wanted to get all three of my different milk and honey (BooBees) soaps made this week.
My first two batches were wonderful. They did trace pretty quickly (I'm thinking a whisk will be used instead of a stick blender), but other than that, they were lovely. I used concentrated goat milk, so I mixed the water you would use to dilute the milk and mixed in the lye. I stuck that in the fridge. I mixed my oils and beeswax, melted it all together, and stuck it in the fridge. Then, I got everything else together. I poured out my fragrance, my honey, my very cold (not frozen) milk, I lined the mold with bubble wrap, and I put a little pink colorant in a squeeze bottle for some pink swirls. Remember, the BooBees Collection was created to donate money to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, read about it
here. I mixed the lye into my oils, mixed until it was just stable enough and then I put in my fragrance. I separated out just a few spoonfuls into my squeeze bottle and shook it really well. Then, I added my milk and honey to my main batch and mixed.
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| Ambrosia-Love the swirls! |
My first batch of Ambrosia soap was awesome! Read about it
here. The soap turned a beautiful honey color and the pink is so light, that I just adore it. My next batch was called Sultry. It is a spicy, tropical scent that I just can't get enough of. I really find myself going in and picking up the soap just to sniff it. This time I put some of the pink on the bottom and sides of the mold. This soap is darker because of the vanilla in the fragrance, but I love it anyway. Again, this batch traced quickly, but I kept it cool and stuck it in the fridge to keep it from overheating. It was ready to be cut sooner than normal, but that was okay because I check my soaps often. I can never just let them sit.
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| Sultry-Needs to be cleaned up, but it is lovely. |
My latest batch was made the same way. It is the same formula with a different scent. Celebration is a blend of fresh strawberries and bubbly champagne that I just adore. I even sprinkled a little glitter on top to go along with the name! Everything went along the same. The temperatures were kept low. I put the entire batch in the fridge to keep it from overheating. When I checked it, it was nice and hard, so I unmolded it. At first glance, it was just perfect! Sparkly, fresh, and golden!
The flip side is another story. Apparently, despite being in the fridge, it overheated anyway. So, that lovely brown goo is caramelized sugar! Good for peanut brittle and caramel; bad for soap :(
Here are my two positives:
- Because I did put this in the fridge, it did not get hot enough to volcano and make a big, hot, caustic mess.
- I might be able to rebatch this into something ugly, but usable.
Yes, I am still focusing on flipping my thinking!
