The makings of some SoAp

I was having such a blast last night making some new soap I thought I'd write up a blog post about it AND I actually remembered to grab my camera.  I thought I'd try something a bit different and do a master batch of oils with each batch having their own lye solution made.  I have four wooden molds.  Three of my molds I like to use a 44oz oil recipe and the other I use a 40oz oil recipe, but I was going to superfat that one soap with some Calendula (from my garden) infused oil so I only calculated 35oz for that one.  I had a huge pot of oils all mixed and ready to go and then I separately measured out on the scale enough for each batch.  I thought it would save me some time and happy to report it did!  I just had to spend a bit of time figuring out each batch beforehand and prepping the other additions.  I grabbed my camera to document my evening adventure.  The four batches I made are...Calendula, Chocolate Mint & Cinnamon, Almond Milk & Oatmeal, and a scented batch of Ombre Charcoal.  Here are some pics.... 

The molds all wrapped and ready to go

Chocolate Mint herb from my garden which I dried and then put in my spice grinder 

Here it is ground to a fine powder

The Sunflower Calendula infused oil which was infusing for weeks in the Mason jar

The lovely orange color of the infused oil

Some dried flowers to decorate the top of the batch

I tend to use my washer and dryer as additional space while soaping.  Here are the other additions I needed.... to make the Ombre Charcoal I used Bamboo Activated Charcoal Powder & Lavender & Tea Tree Essential Oils.  The Almond Milk & Oatmeal ready for soaping ( I always use the 50/50 lye/milk method for my milk soaps) and some cinnamon and cocoa powder for the Mint & Cinnamon soap.  I ended up not using any cocoa powder.

And an in process shot of the Ombre Charcoal.  If you look closely you can see the tape I used as my 'precise' measurement for the gradient layers.  I started with the darkest layer of soap on the bottom, used half of the container, filled it with uncolored plain soap to lightened it a bit, filled half of this into the mold then repeated the process for the additional layers with each getting slightly lighter in color until I ran out of soap.  I think I got 5 or 6 layers.  It was a SLOW tracing mix so it was a bit time consuming since each layer had to harden slightly so I wouldn't lose the effect.  I ended up shaving other soaps and doing lots of clean up while waiting between each layer.  This one took a while!

That is it!  I'll post soon with some snaps of the cut bars.   Happy soaping!!