I’d like to share a few interesting handmade soaps I’ve discovered from various shops. Not only do I make soaps, but I also like to collect other soaps too.

This is one of the first handmade soap I came across from Pier One Imports. It’s made in Thailand by Bath & Bloom.

The dark chocolate soap smells yummy! And the tumeric honey is a neat combination. Except when I think of tumeric, I think of the yellow stains it will leave behind. But this doesn’t do that as it’s blended very well into the soap.

It’s a fairly small square bar that weights close to 3 oz. And cost about $2.50 to $3.00. Pier One has many interesting soaps from around the world. But I don’t think they carry this brand anymore.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been brushing my teeth with my handmade soaps for a while now.

It all started when I read about Dr. Gerard F. Judd, a professor, chemist and researcher. Dr. Judd is not a fan of fluoride in water or commercial toothpaste. Especially since toothpaste contains addition glycerine and other abrasive additives.

Dr. Judd also states that glycerine does not come off your teeth easily, it leaves a film.  With handmade bar soap, there is naturally occurring glycerine and it rinses off clean and easy.  If you brush before bedtime, it would allow your teeth to re-enamelize while you are sleeping.

If you search online you will find many tooth soaps in the market. The basic ingredients are the same as handmade soap. Except some companies charge so much for it!

Pictured here is the “tooth savior”.  Photo from Olive Barn $18 at 1 oz.

Ingredients: saponified organic extra virgin olive, organic coconut, and organic palm oils, organic aloe, wild white oak bark, french green clay, sea salt, peppermint, spearmint & tea tree essential oils, chlorella, vanilla, stevia.

With the soap shreds, you simply place one little soap shred on the back molars, bite down, and then brush thoroughly. The shred will dissolve while brushing with a wet toothbrush.

“Contains no toxic fluoride, harsh abrasives, added glycerin, petroleum dyes, refined sweeteners, sodium lauryl sulfate, unsafe preservatives, or other harmful ingredients found in most commercial toothpastes that actually damage your teeth, your health, and the health of our planet!” - the makers of tooth savior.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since I just love the creaminess of milk soap, I decided to make another goat milk soap, but this time adding wine. I was inspired by the wine soaps of Napa County.

Instead of California wine, I used sangria. This was a bottled sangria from Spain. I also added sweet orange essential oil to enhance the citrus factor of the sangria.

Photo: My handmade sangria wine soaps posing along with two pretty snapdragon blossoms. The little speckles are from beet root powder. It’s another ingredient to add to the antioxidant mix.

Before adding the wine, many soap maker would recommend cooking out the alcohol part of the wine. But I just pour the wine and let it sit for a while.

The steps are like making regular CP soap. But near the end, I added 2 oz of wine. The mixture started heating up really fast. Even after I poured into the wooden mold, it stayed warm for some time. Because of this, you don’t have to insulate the soap mold. Just let in sit (in the closet) undisturbed for 24 hours.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few years ago everyone wanted to use “antibacterial” soaps.  I was one of them too, until I found out that the antibacterial stuff was actually doing more harm to both your body and the environment.

Especially the very popular “triclosan” that is still widely used today in soaps and deodorants.

The main reason you don’t want to over use the antibacterial stuff is that your body will build a resistant to the bacteria.  And that could lead to new super bug, the antibiotic resistant strains such as MRSA.

In 2003, Researchers at the University of Minnesota (Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology) found when triclosan in water was exposed to sunlight, it converted into a dioxin. Dioxins are a group of chemicals that have been linked to a variety of health problems including respiratory to neurological conditions.

Because the dioxins do not degrade over time, they can accumulate in body tissues and cause a larger effect over time. Researchers say even low levels of this highly toxic chemical would become a problem because of its tendency to accumulate through the food chain.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been on the curing rack for 3 weeks now.  And I finally got to use this soap.  I love the natural smell of almond and the slight hint of floral beeswax and honey too.

That’s a jar of German cream honey.  I didn’t use it, but had the jar around while I took this photo.  I actually used local honey from Northern California.

This is the same batch from the Loofah bars I made, except I added almond meal to this one. The almond meal gives off a nice brown (tan) color and a stronger scent of almond too. I cut them in small hand size pieces.

Cambree’s Honey & Almond soap recipe for 2 lb batch:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is from my notebook on soapmaking. I forgot to write down who suggested it, otherwise I would give them credit.  But I guess this type of information can also be found here too.

In soapmaking, once you get comfortable with the properties of each oil, you can always start to come up with your own recipe. It’s personal preferences as well.

This is the sunflower oil I use for soapmaking.  I like that it’s high in vitamin E - as that helps protect against going rancid.  But I’ve made soap without this oil and there are no signs of rancidity either.  But extra vitamin E is extra good anyway.

Properties of Oil:

Palm, Tallow, and Lard gives a hard, stable, and long lasting bar of soap.

Coconut, castor, and palm kernal oil lends lathering (lots of good bubbles).

Olive oil, canola, sunflower, and soybean are moisturizing and conditioning.

Cocoa butter, shea butter, almond oil, hemp oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, sweet almond kernal oil: These are considered to be the luxury super moisturizing oils. It’s best to use 1 oz per 1 lb batch at trace. This is called “superfatted” soap. The extra oils will not saponify, but will add extra moisturizing ability and more.

A good soap recipe usually consist of these percentages of oils:

25 % Palm oil, 25 % coconut oil, 25 % olive oil, 15 % canola oil, and 10% sunflower.

Commercial soap maker user 80-90% tallow or palm oil and 10-20 % coconut oil.  I think that makes it more drying as well.  Adding more soft oils give the soap a more creamy finish.  Btu soap looses it’s firmness as larger percentages of soft oils are used.

Read the rest of this entry »

I had initially wanted to make a bar of handmade “Gardener’s Soap” with oatmeal or almond meal with my dried Calendula petals.  But was then inspired by Gianna Rose “From the Garden French Soap Cubes”.  They were triple-milled vegetable based soaps with essential oils of Citrus and Lavender plus crushed Sunflower petals.

I am not a fan of Lavender, so I skipped that.  I also added organic orange peel for an extra scrubbing effect.  Also added a few drops of lemon essential oils for the citrus factor.  Then topped it all off with crushed and dried Sunflowers and Calendula petals.

Gardener’s Sunshine Handmade Soap Recipe by Cambree:

6 oz Soybean oil, 6 oz Palm Oil, 3 oz Olive oil, 2 oz coconut oil.  6.3 oz distilled water, 2.3 oz lye, 5 drops of Lemon essential oil.  A couple more drops of grapefruit seed extract.  1 tbsp of organic citrus rind, and some crushed organic Sunflower and organic Calendula petals.

Note:  measurements of oils are weighted on scale (not by volume).

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always admired T.S. Pink’s collection of pretty glycerin soaps.  They are called Soaprocks since they are made to resemble the naturally occurring rocks and gems found in the Earth.

So I finally got my hand on one of them.  Amongst the gem stone, Citrine is one of my favorite.  But the turquoise Soaprock looked so much better.  It’s a glycerin based soap and colored to look like turquoise with little gold streaks inside them.  It reminds me of a quartz crystal too.

The celebrity of precious stones, Turquoise is recognized by everyone after its 6,000 years as a decorative and spiritual talisman. Formed only in parched terrains, the mineral is rich with water, and Turquoise SoapRock quenches your skin.

I don’t know if I’ll be using it soon since it’s so neat looking.  As you can see, I haven’t even unwrapped it yet!  But T.S. Pink claims they light up when immersed under water.  So I may just cut them into two pieces and use half of it to see if that’s true.  And I’m sure most soapmakers would prefer to see people use their stuff anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Lately I’ve been really interested in making my own soaps. The process sounds simple, but the steps have to be taken with due consideration. As some of the ingredients used (such as lye) can be dangerous. So the next best thing for me now is to just buy the handmade stuff.

PACIFICA Hawaiian Ruby Guava Bar Soap

The company I really like is Pacifica. They first started out with lovely soy candles. And now they have soaps for about $7. The company is based in Portland, Oregon. They are also a great company that stands behind their products. Fine ingredients and care for Mother Earth. My favorite soap is the “Hawaiin Ruby guava”. The smell bring up stories of my mother’s childhood of growing up in a guava orchard in Asia.

Image source:

Beauty Center - PACIFICA Hawaiian Ruby Guava Bar Soap $6.99