After my somewhat successful first attempt at soap-making, I decided to tweak my recipe and give it another shot, so yesterday I cooked up an eucalyptus soap (or a "croap," since its a soft soap). I just shaved with it this morning, and holy cow it is good!
The soap was made using a hot-process mixed with oven process: the oils were melted in a bain-marie, and the KOH+water was poured in and mixed until a medium to heavy trace was formed. At that point the soap was poured into a pyrex dish and put in the oven (pre-heated at 150F). After one hour, the oven was turned off and the soap was left in over night.
A quick tongue-zap test showed that saponification was done, so I used it to shave this morning. I thought my first soap was good, since it lathered more easily and robustly than the Kell's Original soap I was previously using, but this one blows them out of the park. I finally understand what people mean by "lather explosion!" After a few seconds loading the brush, I proceeded to face lather and had a full, fluffy white beard in under a minute. The lather was nice and slick, and provided good cushioning too.
In case anyone is interested, my recipe was this:
I was worried that the eucalyptus oil would burn off, so I waited until the trace was cooler than 110F before adding the fragrance. Although the oven would bring the oil above its flash point, my hope was that enough scent would be left in the soap. That was indeed the case, as the lather had a very pleasantly and mild eucalyptus aroma (as opposed to the incredibly strong smell the oil put off when mixed in to the trace last night).
The main question for me now is "what do I do with my first attempt?" -- I doubt I'll use it again, and it feels wasteful to throw it away. Maybe I'll give it away to someone...
The soap was made using a hot-process mixed with oven process: the oils were melted in a bain-marie, and the KOH+water was poured in and mixed until a medium to heavy trace was formed. At that point the soap was poured into a pyrex dish and put in the oven (pre-heated at 150F). After one hour, the oven was turned off and the soap was left in over night.
A quick tongue-zap test showed that saponification was done, so I used it to shave this morning. I thought my first soap was good, since it lathered more easily and robustly than the Kell's Original soap I was previously using, but this one blows them out of the park. I finally understand what people mean by "lather explosion!" After a few seconds loading the brush, I proceeded to face lather and had a full, fluffy white beard in under a minute. The lather was nice and slick, and provided good cushioning too.
In case anyone is interested, my recipe was this:
- 40 g Stearic Acid
- 30 g Olive Oil Pomace
- 20 g Castor Oil
- 18.8 g KOH
- 10 g Coconut Oil
- 10 g Glycerin
- 1.35 g (1/4 tsp) Bentonite Clay
- 1 ml Eucalyptus Essential Oil.
I was worried that the eucalyptus oil would burn off, so I waited until the trace was cooler than 110F before adding the fragrance. Although the oven would bring the oil above its flash point, my hope was that enough scent would be left in the soap. That was indeed the case, as the lather had a very pleasantly and mild eucalyptus aroma (as opposed to the incredibly strong smell the oil put off when mixed in to the trace last night).
The main question for me now is "what do I do with my first attempt?" -- I doubt I'll use it again, and it feels wasteful to throw it away. Maybe I'll give it away to someone...
