To continue with my latest hot process soap post, I used an empty juice container for my soap mold. Now I have little bars cut out of my hot process soaps. I imprinted them lightly with a leaf, it’s suppose to be an “olive leaf”. I call this my “Olive Leaf Luxury” bar since I used a combination of 5 very moisturizing vegetable oils (and no palm oil). I am trying to experiment without palm oil and see how the bars hold up. The basic recipe usually calls for 3 combination of oils. This bar also has goat milk powder and olive leaf extract.

Total amount of oils is 32 oz for my 4 quart crock pot. This was recommended as you do not want it to boil over if it’s too much for the pot. Or burn the pot if the batch is too small. I cooked my soap in the crock pot for 1 hr. You can tell it’s ready when it starts to look like Vaseline. Take a tiny bit between your fingers and rub it together, if it’s grainy then it’s not done cooking. But if it’s smooth, then you are finish. Start washing you hands and you will find tiny little bubbles.

Healthy looking green olives are used to make olive oil and the leaves have many health benefits. Photo by Gaia Herbs.

This bar has a very silky lather with lots of bubbles and slightly nutty aroma, plus my hint of peppermint essential oil. It’s still very soft now, but it should harden up by a week.

Percentage used:
Avocado Oil 15.38
Grapeseed Oil 15.38
Rice Bran Oil 23.08
Soybean Oil 30.77
Sunflower Oil 15.38

Sorry I won’t be adding any instructions here as I think there are many resources available in print and online. Some great soapmaking books are listed under my Resources page. Great pictures and tutorial from Zen Soaps here.  Thanks. Read the rest of this entry »