Another recent project we tackled was to create our own version of peppermint soap. I was given a bare minimum of guidelines and turned loose to have fun with this project. It was requested to use real peppermint as much as possible in the soap itself but not to leave any leaves in or on the final bars, make a strong scent with a light touch of sweetness using either essential or fragrance oils, to create a blend useable by the whole family, and use only natural or no colors at all. I couldn’t resist!
We have grown peppermint in our garden for a few seasons now and I’ve made many other soaps from our herbs there. Making a soap that would bring out peppermint’s zippiness but could be used by the whole family was an intriguing idea. Peppermint essential oils are known to be both stimulating and antiseptic at the same time; they’re wonderful for a pick-me-up or get-up-and-go in the morning. However, they can create an overwhelming scent very quickly, not to mention quite a tingle on the skin if overdone! And no, I don’t mean a good kind of tingle either. They are wonderful to use but I was concerned about the strength to use without being above levels I would ever want to expose mature skins or children to. Some people have also complained to me over the years about running into the problem of the “toothpaste smell” that is quite common with peppermint products. Lastly, I haven’t found as much of a sweetness in the scent when using the real leaves as I had expected. So after a little brainstorming, we decided to combine the real peppermint leaves with a fragrance oil to reach a workable middle ground.
I kept the leaves out of the finished product by brewing a strong peppermint tea with my soaping water and letting it steep before adding the lye. After the lye cooled and I made doubly sure it was strained, I soaped as usual with one of our “family soap” recipes. No extra colors were added so we were anticipating some browning from the vanilla in the fragrance oil and a possible light green from the olive oils. By the time it was molded, my entire person and house smelled of peppermint! Hubby didn’t have to ask what it was I just made that time. I planned to let it rest overnight as patiently as I could before cutting it open to try it out but I will admit I was worried when I finally crawled into bed late that night. It was still so strong-smelling to me! Morning came as it usually does and I made a beeline for the mold to see how it turned out. I did a happy little dance after getting it out and started cutting it. It was going to be a solid tan color it appeared and had a great texture. The smell was still way stronger than I can personally take but in line for the project. (I’m one of those people who are sensitive to strong smells too. Peppermint is one of those smells I encourage everyone to try but I’ve found it will give me headaches when too strong. Even worse than going thru the cosmetics area of a store or locked in an elevator with someone who marinated in their cologne!) I reluctantly set it aside on the curing rack for a few days to watch and wait.
As some of you have witnessed over the years of this blog, sometimes I just won’t leave a soap design alone. The peppermint was doomed to be messed with. Since it was admittedly stronger than we had aimed for in the beginning, it was fair game to tone it down a bit. As it sat, defenseless and strongly smelling on my curing rack, I plotted its reincarnation. I left it alone for a whole week before chunking it into smaller bits. I made another batch of plain base soap and imbedded the peppermint chunks into it. After this sat overnight again and got cut into, we knew we had hit the mark. This was one keeper of a design! I’m happy to announce it was such a success that we are keeping this bar in our regular stock. There will be an initial short supply since there were only a few extras from the project but they will be for sale in our catalog by the end of February. After that, I should have enough in stock for everyone to share. Give it a spin in your shower and let me know what you think! Does it remind anyone else of cowhide or am I just nuts?
Happy Washing!
Dorothy
