Batch #917 ~ Paradise Reef ~ born on Jan 4, 2013

It's been awhile since I've made a batch of cold process soap.......   I've been so busy making my various shaving soaps as well as scrubs and lotions and lip balms etc as of late for the Christmas holidays and I haven't had time or the energy to make more cold process bath soaps.  That and labeling the bath soaps that I had made up to give to friends and family as part of their holiday gifts. That was a lot of work, but I hope the gifts were appreciated by those that received.

So now I will need to replenish the bath soaps that I had given away this holiday season. So today I began the process of restocking with just one small test batch.  The scent I used was one that I bought a small 1 oz bottle of the scent to experiment and test the scent out.  But it was just a small batch making just 4 large round bars.

But I also had a specific reason for making that batch of soap as well.   I had formulated a recipe the other day and I posted that recipe to the blog that I created for the soap form that I run.   Today I made that recipe and posted pictures and described the process.

I wanted to post a recipe for others that would be great for dry winter skin!   But also for my customers to enjoy as well.  That is if I can keep my daughter out of them!

Going with the tropical theme of the scent that I used I also used coconut milk as the liquid.  Which is a non-dairy milk which is really nice on the skin and makes a wonderful soap. While the base oil of the soap is tallow, what can I say I'm a girl that loves her tallow!  But I also limited the use of coconut oil and palm kernel oil in this soap because while they add lather they are also drying to the skin when they are saponified with lye.  There are many soapers who don't realize this about those two oils.  But I also love my lather so I upped the castor oil in it like I usually do.  Castor oil is not just moisturizing but it also adds a wonderful lather to the soap.   Egg and lanolin was added because they both add moisturizing properties to the soap as do avocado oil and unrefined shea butter. 

The ingredient list looks like this.
Ingredients : Coconut Milk, Tallow, Castor Oil, Whole Egg, Sodium Hydroxide, Palm Kernel Oil, Unrefined Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Fragrance, Lanolin, Sugar, Sodium Lactate, Talc, Sea Salt, Titanium Dioxide, Electric Bubblegum Colorant, Fizzy Lemonade Colorant, Aqua Pearl Mica Colorant, Raw Silk Fibers

It's currently on my curing rack for awhile. 
 http://prairie-creations.com/pc/product_info.php?cPath=96&products_id=1979
Be aware when I offer it for sale, the curing rack listing is deleted and a new listing is created. 

But why not make a pretty soap, so it not only feels good on your skin but it is appealing to the eye as well.  I think I did a good job at turning it into a bit of eye candy as well.   

I just pulled the soap bars out of the mold, that is not long before I wrote this.  But I haven't taken pictures of it yet.  So this is what it looks like in the mold.  My teen daughter loves how it looks!

The inside of the bars will be a swirl of an aqua blue, pink and yellow.

The scent is............  Okay I'm sure you saw that already on the photo above since I add that bit of info to all my pictures.   But this is the description that is provided by the supplier where the scent was purchased.

Paradise Reef

Let's get away and go deep-sea diving at Paradise Reef. A popular vacation get away place. Paradise Reef is a sparkling fragrance with salt water and fresh air notes. This fragrance begins with notes of nectarine, bird of paradise, and water lily, followed by middle notes of passion flower, orchid, and hyacinth. A well-rounded fragrance empowered by fresh air and salt water notes. 

Batch #917 Born On January 4, 2013

Look for it in a couple of weeks in my store where it can be purchased.  The curing time allows the soap to harden more as the extra liquid evaporates out.   Even though it can be used right away because the saponification process that converts the lye and oil into soap is completed with 24 hours but it will be much better if it's given a few weeks to age.    


EDITED : January 9, 2013
I thought I would edit this post to add in that I took a photo of this soap after it came out of the mold.  It looks wonderful and smells awesome!   I did take a bar of it to use last night as well and while it's still fresh it felt wonderful on the skin, so it will only get better as it ages.  I can say the swirl on the inside looks really cool.  Later I'll take a photo of that to share as well.  The outside looks rather plain and you wouldn't guess it has an amazing swirl inside.   

 

UPDATED January 10, 2013
I took a photo of this soap to show what the swirl looks like inside.  Because of how it's poured the swirl does change every time the soap is used!  That's what makes this kind of soap so much fun, unlike soaps that just have the swirl what amounts to as being just painted on the top surface of the soap and the main body of the soap being a solid color.  This swirl goes through and through the soap and is always changing when the soap is used.