Spencer's Shea Soap

yahoo!!

got to soap again!!

Spencer wanted to make a soap... suddenly got interested in it and wanted me to show him how... so, this weekend we set off on making his dream soap...

he insisted on calendula flowers inside as well as crushed wallnut shell as an exfoliant... oh and shea... he wanted that in too...

the recipe was as follows: oil weight 2000 grams

castor oil - 10%
coconut oil - 20%
Olive oil - 60%
palm oil - 5%
shea oil - 5%

6% superfat
38% lye concentration

to this he added:

bentonite, kaolin clays...
some titanium dioxide...
some powdered oats...
some silk dissolved in the lye water...

oh and an odd handful of calendula flowers as well as 25g crushed walnut shells.

fragrance wise we went with ginger flower fragrance oil and lilac fragrance oil... 20ml each - we bought this in Taiwan.

the fragrance really sped up trace... soap raced to a thick pudding... we just managed to get it into the mold and even then it was a thick goop... I like the fragrance but next time i'd know to be ready for pour and not hang about... I'll use the combination again, smells nice...

I'll post some pics sometime...

we are gearing up for chinese new year and I hope to make a few recipes during this time...

We were talking about making a salt bar...

any recipe ideas?

oh... the soap was hard enough to cut and demold 10 hours after pour...

because of the thick pour it came out a little holey but it is lovely none the less...

I always can't wait and tried the soap this morning... the lather was amazing... compared to soap much older... big fluffy bubbles and loads of lather... it felt great and i am truly amazed at how the soap behaves for such a young one... can't wait for it to age... will try again tomorrow and every day after... I always keep an off-cut in the bathroom to test as it ages...

i think it was a great combination of clays... oils and ingredients...

will repeat this recipe...

I might have to make Spencer's soap!

Hmmmm... I can't wait to see how it cures...!!

Let me know if you tried it and what you thought...