Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Scented or Unscented… why not both?

Some people love fragrance oils and some people prefer a more natural option. I made a 6 pound batch of oatmeal, milk, and honey soap to please both. I was a little shy about using milk, so I used more water than buttermilk for this attempt.

Ingredients
30 oz canola
30 oz shortening (Crisco)
30 oz coconut
6 oz olive oil
13.8 oz lye
24 oz water
1 Tablespoon un-iodized salt
1 cup buttermilk
4 oz oatmeal
2 oz honey
2 oz rice bran oil
8 grams vitamin E
1 oz oatmeal, milk, and honey fragrance oil

First I dissolved the salt into the water. Then I mixed the lye into the water. I weighed out the canola, shortening, coconut, and olive oils and put them in a large enamel pot on the stove on low heat. While the lye solution cooled and the oils melted, I ground the oatmeal into a fine powder with a coffee bean grinder. I mixed the rice bran oil, vitamin E, oatmeal, honey, and buttermilk in a small bowl. When the lye solution and the oils were both at about 110 degrees, I mixed them together with a stick blender. When the soap was almost to trace, I blended in the buttermilk mixture. I poured about 2 pounds of this soap into a 6 cavity silicon muffin pan, creating 5 ounce bars of unscented soap. Then I blended the fragrance oil into the remaining 4 pounds of soap in the enamel pot. I poured the scented soap into a loaf mold, creating 4.5 ounce bars of scented soap. I sprinkled oatmeal on top of both bars for a decorative touch. Best of both worlds! I got 6 unscented bars and 15 scented bars.

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