Friday, August 31, 2012

Saturday & Sunday = Soaping Days

As usual I always try to make soap, a batch or two on the weekends.  Last Saturday & Sunday, I made three batches.  Unfortunately all three came to a terrible end result.  All three did not even took few minutes to trace.  I couldn't figure out the cause of the acceleration.....

First batch, I infused green tea & lemon balm leaves, mix lemon peel powder at trace (it only took me few minutes to trace).  Because of the infused liquid, the color turn out a dark dark brownish green with the burnt lemon peel......  Ooooh...  =:(   Toss it into my insulated box.  The next day, I got a crack right in the center.   Note: Infused tea+Lye solution 105°F   Oil 100°, only few bursts to trace!





Sunday morning, out of a whimsical thinking (an article about the benefits of raw brown sugar),  I add brown sugar at trace (stupid, isn't it?!) and poured into a new column mold just bought from Brambleberry.  10 minutes later this is what I found out, the tearing syrup overflowed from the mold. 







That reminds me of my terrible scores in chemistry & physics back to the old school days.  The next day, though feel bad, I still unmolded it and randomly cut it.  Here is how it looks, by the way, with a sticky feel when you pick up the soap, like a sugar gets moisture....

By the time I got the bleeding sugary soap, I was so frustrated and cannot help myself but just rushed picking up all my tools.  Oil that I've infused for a couple of months, containing Annato Seed Powder, Calendula Flower & Chamomile Flower petals.  The soap mixture got to trace fast and I still cannot figure out why.  I took out a small portion of the soap mixture, added Titanium Oxide powder trying to do frosting top on the soap.  The mixture looked all right until I add the EO.  Suddenly the soap curdled, kind of like separated from the water..... yaik  (Is the EO, or th EO+Titanium Oxide).  Because the majority of the mixture (without Titanium, only EO) was all right.

Couldn't believe what I saw, I quickly pour them into my caking bag and squeezed them on some of the soap.



They looked so horrible and I have to give up.  This is the leftover of that curdled mixture:
Fortunately the soap came out really nice (without the curdled frosting top of course).  It's a golden orange vivid color I've been dreaming of for a long time.  My poor photography would not show its yummy luscious look.  The natural yellow colorant from Chamomile just enlighten up the Annato Seed orange to a next level.  I know I'll be making more. 



5 comments:

  1. Oh, I've had days like that where my soap just seems to get worse than better. I've never had soap curdle after adding EO--that's so strange!!Hopefully next weekend will be completely different. The color you got with the annatto is absolutely stunning, however. I hope it doesn't fade.

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    1. Amy, to be more precise, I'd say it's "Titanium Dioxide+EO". The majority part of the mixture has EO in it too but it did not curdle on me. That small part, with TD first did not make it curdled. It happened after the EO. Maybe it's something else? No idea. Thanks God I only scoop out a little portion!!

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  2. Which EO was it? I do love the orange color of the final soap - it is beautiful!

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    1. I love the color very much, the orange becomes very alive with the help of calendula yellow tone.... the EO's are: Geranium, Peru Balsam, Rosewood, Palmarosa, Sweet Orange, Ginger & Patchouli. What do you think?

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  3. Gorgeous,gorgeous orange my friend. You did a fabulous job.

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