Category: Soap

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Zombies in the soap

I had planned a regular posting about some of the soaps that are curing right now but, as is normal around here, something came along that cracked me up.

This week I’m writing about the straight Olive Oil Castile soap that was made about three weeks ago. We used a blend of regular and pomace olive oils and avoided any scents or colorings this time to create a clean, gentle soap. (This was part of my inspiration from our brand new nephew Lex and my cute-baby-obsessed brain.) It is very mild, moisturizing, and is as well-loved by sensitive and mature skins as it is by the wee ones in our lives.

I had made a large batch this time in hopes that I might be able to stash some away for the holidays but was really, really unhappy with the texturing of the top when I unmolded it. Now, if you are a new reader, you may not know that I am one of those soapers who owns a block grater and is not afraid to use it. Luckily, this soap was still very young and I was able to chop it up quickly with my favorite big knife. Lots of little olive oil bits went back into the soaping pot for another round until they melted into submission. I remolded the entire batch and was very pleased once it came out the next morning. These were cut into large bars with a few sample scraps so I made them a home on the curing racks. Sure that I was once again the queen of my soapy domain, I lined up all my beautiful soap bars to cure. I admired their greenish gold tint and made myself swear I wouldn’t start putting any of them to use until they were fully cured, or maybe three weeks, or maybe just one for now…… I mentioned I can be impatient about waiting to quality control each batch, right?

I promise I behaved and left them alone until hubby came home that night. He was checking out everything I had cooked up that day and was intently staring at the olive oil soaps. Confidant I had totally rocked that batch, I waited to hear any questions, comments, or praise he might have. No worries, right? He floored me completely with his reply: “You know, this looks like zombie soap.” Huh?!?! It still makes me laugh but I had to agree once I heard him out.

Soapers can tell you how colors will morph some as they cure and certain oils will give you certain colors in your soap. This olive oil blend has a light green gold hue but as it was curing it made some slightly darker spots that had a brownish tinge too. Dunno how much your family is into zombies but this batch provided us a few giggles for about a week as it settled itself down. I am sad to say that I no longer see the zombie resemblance but now I have some inspiration for another batch of soap. If I can get it to work, we will add “Zombie Soap” to the silly soap line along with the “Cow Pattie” and “Mud Balls.” I’ll make a blog post about those another time; let me find some good pictures of them so I can put it in there, ok?

This batch of no-longer-zombie-looking soaps will be ready to go to new homes around September 25th. I hope to have some good pictures up soon of everything on the rack for all of us who enjoy staring at soap pics. If you are in the Houston area, you can catch us at Donna’s Market on October 13th. Please stop by and say hello, tell a good joke, or just have a chat! I shall sign off here for the week as the sky’s just opened up and the rain is pouring down. Time to go get dirty for an excuse to try out the new experiments!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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Nominated!

Some of you might have spotted in the comments last week when Alia told me she had nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award.  I was stunned, humbled, and speechless (hubby liked that part best of all) at the idea of someone wanting to nominate me for my writing.  I am still kind of dazed at the thought to the point it has taken all week to try and write this simple post.  Please accept my sincere thanks to all of you for occasionally stepping into my little soapy corner of Texas to hear my thoughts and follow my adventures with soapmaking.  Now, please follow me thru this as I try to obey the award rules.  I’m sure Mom will be amazed if I follow all of them…

First, I am supposed to thank the person who nominated me.  Alia, are you reading this?  I’m still thanking you again and again!  I am then supposed to reveal seven things about me that most of you would not know before nominating my favorites.  This should be entertaining, right?  Here we go:

1.  I absolutely love food.  I don’t have one favorite thing that I love most of all because there are too many great things to eat.

2.  I have a lot of books at home (more filled bookshelves than I really want to admit) but still max out my library card almost constantly.  Our library has a limit of 75 books checked out at once on one card and that actually became a major problem in my house.  We opened a card for my son and still regularly max out both but somehow don’t incur a lot of late fines at all.  Knock on wood.

3.  I would rather scrub all the floors in the house with a toothbrush than to dust.  I avoid ironing if there is any way I can.  Seriously.  I iron quarterly if I’m forced, twice a year if I can get away with it.

4.  I’ve had gray in my hair since I was in my teens but do not dye it.  It’s still spreading all over my head but that’s life.

5.  I was not a well-behaved teen.  I spent most of high school grounded for one reason or another but mostly because I was hard-headed.

6.  I prefer barefoot or flip-flops.  Drives hubby nuts.

7.  You know that censor in your head that keeps you from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time?  Keeps the inappropriately timed comments from leaping out of your mouth or reminds you to act your age?  Yeah, mine went on vacation years ago and never came back.  Didn’t even send me a postcard or one of those t-shirts.

Now the other hard part.  I enjoy many blogs and tend to wander around them.  I am including AuNaturalEssence in this list even though she nominated me because her blog rocks.  I thought it before she ever did this and I will still send people her way.  In no particular order, I would like to nominate these great blogs and I will hop to notifying them.  Please make some time to stop by their sites as I think you’ll enjoy them too.  I enjoy them for their style, artwork, ideas, outlook on life, and/or hope to be like them one day if I ever finish growing up.

ahardyperspective-

Jennifer’s Handmade Soap-

Sirona Springs Blog-

Neecy’s Necessities–

Au Natural Essence–

Positive Energies-

Damsels in Regress-

Thanks again both to Alia for nominating me and everyone who stops by to visit us here on the blog, on Facebook, or real face to face.  We enjoy having real conversations with everyone and making people laugh a little along the way.  I am still amazed at this honor although I did recover my ability to talk.  (Sorry, honey.)  I will return next week to continue the posts of what treasures are on our drying racks.  Have a great weekend all!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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Green Tea Sand Soap

Green Tea Sand Soap

For this week, we’re highlighting the Green Tea Sand Soap I made last week.  Sand soap is very popular around here for cleaning off the dirt and grime we cover ourselves in while playing in the gardens, repairing the homestead, and working in the garage.  The picture above was while the bars were being cut and you can still see the swirling from when it was poured into the mold.

What on earth would possess me to add sand or green tea to my soaps?  Well, I don’t do it for all the soaps and I can’t honestly claim the idea of either to be my own invention.  I know a few mechanics and construction workers and they know I make soap.  One day during a conversation, someone brought up the old Lava soap hand scrub they used to use and how they’d had problems with finding it or a good replacement.  The substitute ones used at work weren’t doing the job anymore.  My gardening friend also lamented about the ground-in dirt from her spending all day working hard.  Long story short, I was fascinated with the idea of making a mechanic’s scrub for them that was gentle enough for the gardener’s mature skin.    I have mentioned before I’m a researching geek, right?

I spent a bit of time pouring over old recipes I could get my hands on, info on degreasing skin without stripping or destroying it, and testing different recipes built from my notes.  I created a soft scrub like they asked and I was on top of the world.  My hubby here discovered it also removed the mess off of him he had made while doing home repairs.  I was a happy girl!  Then came the best sand I had ever felt from a fellow local soaper named Denise.  She had the finest, softest sand I had ever played with and she had made her sand soaps into hard bars.   (Yeah, I played in the dirt as a kid.  Occasionally still do as an adult!)  It meant tweaking the recipe for me to do it but it was so worth it.  Now, we offer both a soft scrub and the firmer bars for you to choose from.  Denise, thank you again and again!

I do use real green tea in this soap, as usual for any of our tea soaps. The water for the lye solution was replaced with extra-strong tea that had been brewed the day prior and allowed to cool overnight.  The tea provides a little color to the soaping pot so I didn’t add any more color to this batch.  It has also added a light scent that the boys here deemed “manly enough” to pass muster.  These bars are a minimum of 6oz each and there are a few still available that are over 7oz.  Email me soon if you want them though because these are going fast.  I do get asked about the health benefits of using green tea soap and I have to be honest in my answer.  It is widely known that green tea is awesome for your body- as a drink.  How much of the antioxidant power survives the soaping process is still being debated.  I would love to think that washing in this soap will provide all the same benefits but the jury is out still.  To be safe, I have to say that it won’t cure those health problems you might want addressed any more than sleeping with your calculus book under your pillow allowed you to absorb everything for midterms in school, you know?  I will say that I do love how it feels on my skin though!

I will now sign off for the week so that I can go clean the soap pot.  Up next week will be some of the other soaps that are on the rack with many more pictures.  I hope that you and yours have had a safe week and enjoy your Labor Day weekend.  For our readers who are military, both active and retired, I wish to say thank you.  For our parent readers, especially the moms who understand that some labor never ends, may you enjoy at least a few minutes of peace and rest!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy