Soap Bar #3 Milk, Oats & Honey

I was inspired one morning as I sat and ate my oatmeal to make a Milk, Oat and Honey soap bar.  I have seen many beautiful photos online of this kind of soap and even a few recipes that I may someday try.  For this bar I stayed with my fabulous recipe base I learned from the soaping class I took from Quiet Creek Herb Farm.  When you sign up for the class there not only do you get detailed instruction you also get a little booklet written by Rusty Orner himself.  I refer to it each time I make soap.  He mentioned making a Milk, Oat and Honey bar and the fact that it reminds him of breakfast and could easily be called a breakfast bar.

One thing I have learned from parenting my twins with Autism and Down Syndrome is that I cannot label anything something it is not.. (ex. breakfast soap... they would eat it)

This particular soap is very good for people with sensitive skin.  I added no essential oil scents to it yet it smells amazing.  I love the coloring that came out and the oats you can see throughout.  They are ground up organic oats so you shouldn't end up with a bowl full of oatmeal at the end of your shower.

This is still on the curing rack and I am anxious to give it a try soon. The recipe is as follows:

Milk, Oats & Honey Bar

32 oz Organic Palm Kernal Oil
30 oz Coconut Oil
25 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil
11.75 oz Sodium Hydroxide
32 oz water
1/3 c ground organic oats
1/3 c powdered milk
1/3 c local raw honey

Already have a few of these babies reserved for sale when they are done curing.  I think this will be a good seller!  You can get your bar for only $4.00, just shoot me an email at soapsudstacy@gmail.com.

Soap Bar #2 Mint Chocolate Mocha

This is the soap that I have pictured in my header currently.  I love mint, I love chocolate and I love my coffee so this was a bar I selfishly did for ME.  I used a bit of a different recipe as far as the oils I used and I got the base ingredients and measurements out of a book I borrowed from the library called "Clean, Naturally - recipes for body, home and spirit" by Sandy Maine.  This is a really good book worth checking out.  There are several soap recipes as well as cleaners and creams.  I literally read this book from cover to cover.

These bars are still curing and will be ready for sale the first week of April 2014.  I can honestly say that they have my house smelling so wonderful just by sitting on a rack curing on my counter.  I personally can't wait to use it.  I keep thinking that this would be a great kitchen sink soap.  There are actual coffee ground in the soap so it will be a little exfoliating and the mint smell would  help wash off any stinky onion or garlic smells from your hands after cooking.  I of course will be using it in the shower to help WAKE UP in the morning.

I just love the looks of it:

Mint Chocolate Mocha Recipe:

24 oz Olive Oil

24 oz Coconut Oil

38 oz Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)

12 oz Sodium Hydroxide - lye

32 oz water

2 tablespoons cocoa powder for coloring

1/4 c expresso coffee grounds and juice squeezed through coffee filter

3 oz. Organic Peppermint Essential Oil

Soap Bar #1 Orange Cinnamon Spice

What a better way to track the soaps I make than to blog about each one.  This will show my readers what I have been making and it will help me to document what I used in each recipe for future bars if they become favorites.

The Orange Cinnamon Spice is already one of my favorites.  I am using it right now in my shower.  The lather is perfect, not to little, not to much.

Currently I am making Cold Processed Soaps.  I really like this method and I am becoming more comfortable making soap this way.  Through some trial and errors I am figuring out how to make my soap get to trace a little quicker.  I started by hand stirring with a spoon and it literally would take me an hour and a half of constant stirring and stirring and stirring....ugh!  Who has time for that??!!

I found an ancient hand mixer at Goodwill one day for $3 so I bought it to give that a try.  When I say ancient, I mean it:

So far I can honestly say that has been the best $3 I've spent.  Only thing is, I'm not sure how much life it has in it.  It seems like its overheating after about three minutes of use.  So I usually pulse and turn off and stir, then pulse and turn off and stir.  My trace time has pretty much been cut in half so for now this works for me!!

The Orange Cinnamon Spice soap turned out really nice.  I felt inspired to add some real orange peels to it since there just happened to be a big ole bowl of oranges sitting on my counter at the time and I thought it just might make the soap look pretty.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I was pleased.

You will notice that my bars are all different shapes and sizes.  I cut my bars of soap by hand thus giving it that made at home look even more, which I love!

Orange Cinnamon Spice Recipe:

32 oz Organic Palm Kernal Oil

30 oz Coconut Oil

25 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil

11.75 oz Sodium Hydroxide

32 oz water

3 oz  Orange Cinnamon Essential Oil

1/3 c of dried orange peel finely chopped