Homemade soaps and salve

I made some herbal healing salve the other day. Zinnia (new goat mama with twin doelings), had a sore cracked, bleeding, scabby teat- (sorry if that is more info than you needed). I started off putting bag balm on it, which is what I had on hand. I wanted something more healing and nourishing. I usually keep a healing salve on hand, but the tins I rummaged up all had little bits of rancid salve in the bottoms. I did have a jar of fresh calendula infused olive oil and a jar of dried comfrey root olive oil. Comfrey use to be known as "knit bone", it has that kind of super healing powers. I also had a couple teaspoons of Vitamin E oil which I added for moisturizing and nourishing oil.

I put three parts of a combination of the two oils in the saucepan above. Then I measured one part beeswax into the oils and gently warmed it up till the wax was melted. I measured a fews drops of various essential oils and tinctures into the bottom of each tin. I used lavender essential oil for soothing and calming properties, tea tree oil/antifungal and rosemary for healing, red thyme for purifying. I also put just a few drops of goldenseal tincture for antibacterial use and st. johns wort tincture for pain relieving properties- I didn't have st. johns wort oil otherwise I would have used that. I keep all these ingredients on hand and close by, so while it might sound complicated, I spent twenty minutes making the salve, and most of that was spent gathering supplies from different corners in the house.

Finished salves cooling. Should be enough for all the cuts, scrapes and bug bites for the next year- for both the goats and we humans as well. I've got tomake these things now; salves, lip balm, lotions, bug spray and sun lotion. Helps me feel prepared for summer. While they don't take long to make- I don't want to spend any more time than necessary indoors during the summer.

A girlfriend and I recently shared a soap making spree. We made four soaps in an afternoon. It was a bit of a soap making fiasco. In the past we've been content to make simple soaps with no more decoration than some lavender or calendula petals. This time I'd been looking up some professional soap maker sites and was inspired to raise the bar to the next level. I had great hopes and ambitions for layered and swirled soaps. I knew exactly what I wanted our soap to look like, and that is why I'm disappointed. I'm a little embarassed  of  the appearance of the following soaps. The bars I've used so far do have a nice fragrance and lather- so thats something. At first I thought about cutting them all up and making cobblestone soap, but I'm running out of soap making days- and they work. Should be enough soap to get us to next fall when the days slow down again.

                      Both above and below are lavender soap. Lavender essential oil and lavender buds.

                 Above is goat milk soap with cedarwood, eucalyptus and lemongrass. Great fragrance.

Soap Making from Scratch

Today was soap making day. It had been so long since I'd made soap from scratch (a year and a half), that I'd forgotten the steps involved and had to thoroughly re-read the instructions more than once. There is only one store in town that sells Lye or Sodium Hydroxide, as far as I know of and that is Samson's Hardware. They recently moved locations and during the meantime I couldn't find lye anywhere and it is not one of those ingredients that you can just get online and order. I do have a recipe for making lye from wood ash but that is one of those projects that I wouldn't undertake just for the fun of it, although I feel prepared having the printed recipe stashed away. Over the last few days I've been looking at recipes and taking stock of what I have on hand. Fortunately between my friend and myself we had most of what we needed. Unfortunately it had been so long since we'd made soap together last that I'd stored away some of my supplies so well that I couldn't find them. In the past my girlfriend and I have made soap together as well as lotions, lip balms and candles. We both stay fairly stocked on supplies so it was nice not have to buy much, er anything. Last time we made soap we got together at my house where we had both kids here and Avery was only a couple months old at the time. D had been here to watch the kids but needless to say our four batches of soap took us late into the night whereas today we made the same amount of soap in five hours and that included lunch and cookie breaks.

The most dangerous part is measuring the lye and adding it to the water. It is recommended that you wear safety goggles and gloves, I've got my eyes protected at least. I was relieved not to have to worry about pets or kids under foot. Once the lye is added stir carefully and don't splash! The temperatures rise quickly into the high hundreds. After stirring for a minute set the bowl somewhere safe, in our case we'd set it outside to cool and then check it every so often with an instant read thermometer. The temperature has to come down to between eighty and a hundred for most recipes.

Just when you are starting to take a breath the fumes blow your way and should not be inhaled if possible. Can't be good for you.

Next step is measuring the liquid or solid oils. Liquid oils go into the mixer. An accurate scale is a must. Liquid oils can include olive oil, wheat germ oil, almond, avacado, and castor oil just to name a few.

Solid oils get measured into a saucepan and heated until liquid then cooled to between eighty and a hundred depending on the recipe. In most of our recipes coconut oil and palm oil made up the bulk of our solid oils. Although we also used cocoa butter and vegetable shortening. Other solids may be shea butter, mango butter etc.

Once the lye and oils are cooled to the appropriate temperature, carefully add the lye to the oils while mixing at low speed. Mixing takes anywhere from ten to twenty minutes or more. You know it is finished mixing when a spoon dribbled on the top leaves a trace. In this picture you can see that the spatula drippings are still melding back into the mixture, that is the trace, and it is ready for the goodies. Then you add extra ingredients that you wouldn't have wanted to evaporate or cooked off like essential oils, honey ( if you want the raw properties of the honey) colorants, oatmeal, herbs, flowers etc.

Then it is time to pour your soap into a mold. This time we just used boxes lined with waxed paper and some greased pyrex pans. Previously we've used pvc pipe for round soap bars, soap molds, loofahs and we've rolled soap into balls once it has cooled overnight. The soap sits covered overnight and continues to heat up and saponify, or in another word; cook. The following day, take the lid of and let the soap sit undisturbed in a not too cool or drafty location until it is hard enough to cut, anywhere from a couple days to a week. Don't wait too long, or it will be too hard to cut, luckily we haven't had that problem yet but I can imagine. After that you lay the bars onto paper bags to cure for a few weeks. It gets milder and gentler with curing. At some point flip the bars over so both sides get air.

All four soaps look and smell beautiful. You can see that the green soap has a textured surface because it finished mixing and cooling quicker than the others and took us by surprise so when we poured it in we had to try and smooth the top with the spatula.  The recipes we used are out of Susan Miller Cavitch's  The Soapmaker's Companion. On a side note, if you are buying a book on making soap make sure that the recipes are actually from scratch, at least if that is what you want. I once bought a book on how to make soap and when I got home and started reading the recipes they just called for plain soap which you then dressed up with extras and molded to your fancy.

The top recipe is a rich white soap with rose petals and scented with jasmine, ylang ylang and bergamot essential oils. The peachy soap is colored with annatto seed oil and specked with safflower threads. It is scented with Bergamot, Grapefruit, Lemon and Orange essential oils, very fruity and citrusy.

The Green soap is in two containers, making do with what we had. It is colored with spirulina and scented with Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Cedarwood and Rosemary essential oils, invigorating and refreshing. And the pinkish looking soap is called EIEIO. We had made it before using goats milk and farm eggs. This time I forgot to take goats milk so we had to use store bought milk that my friend had in her fridge, dope! But we did use my own calendula flowers, along with lavender buds, oatmeal, bee propolis, honey, local eggs and we scented it with lavender, lemongrass and orange essential oil , (mostly smells like lavender which is what we wanted with a hint of citrus). Can't wait to check out the bars once they are cut and curing. Should be enough soap till fall, as long as I don't give away too much. The problem with making several different types is you never can decide which type to give someone and end up giving away too much. Soap making is time consuming and expensive when you use quality ingredients. I'll be treasuring this soap, and it was a fun day too boot!