Movin' on Up!

 

  

 

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I have moved web pages. I can now be found at

 

 thewanderinwoman.wordpress.com. 

This decision was not taken lightly, and has to do with the fact that I will be expanding my page into an online store for my sopas as well and felt that wordpress would be better suited for me to do that more easily.

I will keep this page open on blogger for about another month or 2, to ensure traffic knows where to go while I'm setting up wordpress to an acceptable level.  Ya'll know how my finances be, it may take a while.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me on this platform even though I don't post that regularly.

thanks for reading,

J.

It's Getting Hot In Here...

     This month's Soap Club Challenge was almost a reprieve from the disaster that was the secret feather challenge, from The Enemy from Within from last month. I still don't know what went wrong with that one, other than I got too cocky with all those past successes (in my opinion).
   
     I was determined to do better this time around. I was a little surprised when I realized that we could do hot process (HP) to make our soap this month, but I already knew what I wanted to do and what soap I wanted to use.  What is Hot Process you ask? Well, according to the Soap Queen, it is:

"hot oils and lye combined to begin saponification, and then introduced to heat via a Crock Pot or double boiler. The additional heat speeds up the saponification process and “cooks” the soap before it goes into the mold. This cuts down dramatically on the wait time! Make sure when making hot process soap, that your recipe does not fill up the Crock Pot more than halfway. Hot process soap tends to expand, and you don’t want it overflowing!"

     I put my oils in my crock-pot (note to self: making 1 lb of soap in a 6 qt crock-pot is laughable, don't do it again.) and forgot to take a picture of that disappointment. I did however take a pic of the burnt coconut milk and lye mixture. I had to warm up my lye, because it had a temp. below 80⁰ and the amount of HP YouTube videos I watched all stated that like CP (cold-process) soap, lye and oils had to be within 10⁰ of each other. So into the microwave it went, and my kitchen proceeded to smell like melted crayons, not the crayola kind either, the cheap rose-art or other bargain brand crayons you get at $1 stores and places like that (I LOVE $1 stores, they are the savior of many projects, meals, and life in general).

     Anyway, back to the burnt crayon smell now permeating my kitchen, I really hoped my soap wouldn't smell like that.

 

 The process of HP was way easier than I thought it would be and for a quick moment I did wonder what I was stressing myself over CP all this time. Yes, I'm aware that whenever I say/think something like that it comes back to bite me in the ass, no exceptions were made this time.

     Step 1: mix lye liquid (coconut milk) and oils  that are within 10⁰ of each other in a crock-pot set on low. Seems my pot is very warm and will have 1lb of soap ready to go quickly.

     Step 2: The separation phase right on schedule 20 min later. I stirred it back together till it was smooth.

 

      Step 3: The applesauce phase showed up 15 min later and it still had a whiff of melted burnt cheap crayon in the pot. I seriously hoped that my entire crock-pot wasn't ruined with that odour.

     Step 4: Again, like clock work the shiny Vaseline/petroleum jelly phase was ready in another 15min. and I actually had time in between all this waiting to set up my additives and scents without crying or wanting to cry.

     Step 5: Add the oatmeal, this is a mixture of a ¼ C. whole rolled oats and 2 Tbsp. oat bran for exfoliation and 'prettiness'

     Step 6: The raw honey was added next. I added 1Tbsp & 1 tsp to my batch, but I think you can add more if you want. I know I wanted to, but heard too many horror about exploding or seizing batches that I tried to stay cautious.

This is where it starts to go wrong. I read all I could about adding EO (essential oils) to HP and knew that they all had a flash point (FP) that the soap temp needed to be under in order to 1) not explode and 2) not cook off and have some kind of scent left for us lowly mortals to enjoy.  Apparently, rosemary EO has a flash point somewhere between 108⁰ -127⁰, what the hell kind of range is that? Why couldn't be like lavender which was listed at close to 140⁰ FP? So I sat and waited for my beautifully smooth(ish) HP soap to cool down enough to add my EO's. Do you know how long it takes soap to cool from about 160⁰ all the way down to 100⁰, with no mishaps? Me either.

 

I couldn't wait anymore, my soap was turning into chunks that weren't smoothing out easily. I added  my EO blend of rosemary & lavender at about 130⁰ and hoped for the best, it turned out fine and pissed me off that I waited so long to add the EO. Now, I had to get these chunks of soap into the mold with some semblance of order.

I got to pressing...and pressing...and pressing. So much pressing that I broke my spatula (thank god for $1 stores). I know it looks like those ones that the handle and spatula part comes apart for easy cleaning, and you would be right. So how did I break it you ask? See that tab attached to the handle that is supposed to keep the two pieces together...well that's only half of it, the other half in still stuck inside the spatula part.

I got it in though, using my trusty stainless steel pot spoon, and it looked soooo rustic and hand made in the mold.

24 hrs later I popped it out of the mold (ok it fell out) and it looked really old fashioned and almost what I would think Victorian era soap would look like.

 

I even got to use my new soap cutter, for straight even lines, with a wavy cutter (yes, there is irony in here). There is only so much rustic one can take, it already looked super handmade, it didn't have to look hand cut as well, cuz I can't cut a straight soap line for the life of me. 

Part of the challenge was to also create a rustic or more handmade looking packaging for your soap as well. I will be the first to admit that while I can dabble in the chemistry of making soap, creating things is not my forte, so I recruited my mother  (the closest thing to MacGyver I know) and my middle sister (the right & left brained one) to help me. We used parts and pieces from our collection of craft scraps and actually came up with something pretty cool, her fabric and grommets and my burlap.

We actually got along doing this project, I must admit if the soap challenges have helped with anything, it's getting my sister's and I to work together and not fight. A miracle in itself.



Thanks For reading

Jamila

The Enemy From Within...

This month's soap challenge from Amy Warden, really was a challenge. I strongly dislike secret feather, I'm not kidding this swirl can go live where the sun doesn't shine, one of those deep dark turd holes that my dog digs in the backyard. I did it 3 times 3! Do you have any idea how demoralizing that is to me? Yes, yes we all know I like to jump in at the deep end when it comes to things like this, but I didn't even try to do it that way this time. I honestly, just thought, finally, a simple swirl that I can bang out in a few hours and will look pretty. But, Noooo, this had to be the pain in the ass design that made me feel like a damn jackass about my skills. Seriously, I was doubting all my life decisions because of this stupid technique. How could something so simple be sooo hard?  I'm mean I did wood grain, tiger stripes, I even talked someone else through making soap and couldn't do this! Inconceivable! (lol, name that movie). 
 

This is what it should look like. By Handmadeinflorida

It all started with me trying to kill two birds with one stone. My cousin had a baby and I was making a few soaps and scrubs for her since I didn't even know abut the pregnancy till super late and didn't have time to make anything for the baby shower. Long story short, I was planning on making this soap for the challenge and for her. 

I actually, tried 3 different recipes, thinking it was something do with me. 

Recipe 1:

It all started with this jar of ground organic oatmeal sitting in distilled water overnight. I was gonna make oatmeal baby soap, but didn't want the exfoliation factor that whole oatmeal adds to the bar. So I made "oat milk" or at least my version of oat milk. Not sure I'm gonna do that again, it took another 24 hrs for it to filter out properly. I wasn't impressed with the payoff.

but it was just enough for what I needed, just enough. I replaced all the water with the oat milk 

Oat Milk - 38%    Coconut Oil - 35%

Castor Oil - 7%       Olive Oil - 58%

obviously, I figured that with all that Olive oil,  and a superfat of 6.3%, I'd have tons of time to work this soap. I even got fancy for my cousin and infused some olive oil with annatto seed for a little extra color. What was I thinking?

Everything seemed to be going well, as more insurance I soaped at a low 90's temp. I then added ¼c. of goat's milk powder.

I then did some fancy math, with the help of my mom. since we all know that somewhere in high school my math skills went out the door, strange i know. anyway, we figured that to get it right you have to divide the weight of the whole batch into 3 and then divide that number in ½ to get the right amount for the feather part. sorta like this:

   2.06* lbs × 16 = 32.96oz ÷ 3 = 10.98oz. ÷ 2 = 5.49oz.

I then added the infused Olive oil to the large batch along with a fragrance oil blend

 and mixed away

Somewhere around this time it all turned to pudding. Yep, pudding. One minute it was nice and liqud-y the next pudding consistency. But I persevered and kept trying to do the pour with my obviously hand made dividers 

did my alternating pour in the center, but it was more like plopping with some sort of grace and style.  It took almost 3 days to harden enough to even attempt to cut, thanks to all that olive oil and the superfat.

I wasn't sure whether to call it invisible grease stain or ghost in the shell.

Second try went much the same way. I thought hey, maybe it was the new recipe. So I went back to one I knew, KNEW was slow moving. I had used it for the tiger stripes challenge

Ghee - 33%         Olive Oil - 33%

Coconut Oil - 30%  Castor Oil - 4%

With a 30% lye discount and a superfat of 6%, I also decided that I wanted a darker color from the annatto, and by I, I really mean my mother. So I tried again and soaped at an even lower temperature (low 80's this time) added salt to harden and sugar to keep it fluid and changed the fragrance to a blend of patchouli, lavender and orange essential oils. I figured that maybe that was the reason it had gone all pudding-y on me the first time. But this time it wouldn't happen because I had a tested recipe, right? Wrong!

I set up my dividers again and even added rubber bands for more stability

 didn't help, just as I was ready to pour...PUDDING again! I mean COME ON!! this was a tested recipe why would it turn to pudding?! I really just wanted to cry at this point,

but I kept on and finished the swirl...

or so I thought...

I call this one secret bars. how do you miss the whole thing? THE WHOLE THING!!!!  I've never wanted to throw soap before, but I wanted to with this one.

They say 3rd time is the charm, I really, really, really hoped so. I was running low on lye, typical. I tried again. with a new recipe another that I was also sure would give me time to work, but my confidence was shot by this point. 

Castor Oil - 5%      Safflower - 30%

Coconut Oil - 35%     Grapeseed Oil 30% 

Super Fat - 8%

Turned out it worked, it was so fluid that I wasn't sure that there would be any differentiation in colors. I took all the fragrance out and stuck to Moroccan red clay and charcoal for colors, things I KNEW would work. The down side is that this recipe takes days to harden up enough to even think about taking out of the mold. So  I chose to do a CPOP to speed up the process. Warmed up my portable oven and stuck it in there overnight. 

The next morning, I took it out ready to cut. Guess what, it was still soft, of course it would be. So I heated up my oven again and stuck it back in there for a little bit. Bad idea. Thank god it only cost $1.

In the end, I've come to the conclusion that this swirl is just not for me right now, and maybe one day this the far distant future, when I've been soaping for 20yrs instead of 6 months I'll revisit it. I've called is one black coffee and milk.

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Safflower Oil (High Oleic), Distilled Waster, Lye, Castor Oil, Activated Charcoal, Moroccan Red Clay

Thank you for reading.


Jam


*made up weight for the sake of the math problem

U.N.I.T.Y.

* this post brought to you by: U.N.I.T.Y. By Queen Latifah



     I used melt & pour soap for the first time ever this month and I'm not sure how to react to it. It was super easy to use, almost too easy and set up really fast. Weird way to start off this post, I know, but the challenge for this months Soap Challenge Club was to mix cold process soap with melt pour soap. Your thinking, 'what the hell is the difference, soap is soap.' Not so much, cold process soap is waaay more involved than melt & pour. According to the Soap Queen: 
 
COLD PROCESS: 
 Is the act of mixing fixed oils (common oils include Olive, Coconut and Palm) with an alkali (Sodium Hydroxide or Lye). The result is a chemical process called saponification, where the composition of the oils change with the help of the lye to create a bar of soap. One of the main benefits of cold process soapmaking is having complete control over ingredients. Depending on the ingredients you use, cold process soapmaking typically yields a long-lasting bar of soap. A downfall is that due to the chemical process, there are serious safety considerations to take into account and not all fragrance oils, essential oils, and colorants survive in cold process, thus limiting design options. Plus, patience is a virtue as this process involves a 4-6 week curing time.


MELT AND POUR: 
   Is the process of melting a preexisting soap base, most often adding color and fragrance or essential oil, then pouring the soap base into a mold. Once fully hardened, the result is a bar that is able to be used right away. Benefits of melt and pour soap include not having to handle lye, the wide variety of color and fragrance options available, kid friendly process, and no curing time. One downfall is that because of the additives in melt and pour to make it easily re-meltable and the lack of curing time, melt and pour soap does not last quite as long in the shower as cold process can. Because melt and pour soap is already made and the process is relatively easy, users are able to focus on the design of the soap. Most novelty soaps are made using MP techniques.



    Seems like I should've started with MP when I got into this whole thing, but as we've already established, I never take the easy way of doing things, instead I get frustrated, cry, throw a tantrum and then realize there was an easier way the whole time. But, I digress, back to this soap challenge. First, lets just say, that I didn't have a clue what I was doing, not only was I gonna be using an unknown medium, I didn't have a clue what the design was going to be. I was so used to working with a design and then just figuring out oils and colours that I was thrown for a loop this time around. My sister reminded me that February is Black History month and that maybe I should do something that pays homage to that. So, now I had an idea, but still no way to execute it, I didn't even have the MP soap yet! Typical. 

     I also didn't have time to wait for an order to come in, since I wasn't sure how long it was going to take and if I would have to possibly remake my batch if it went wrong. So, I committed absolute sacrilege and blasphemy, that's right, I went against the die hard soap maker's mantra on where to get quality products and went to (gasp) that craft store that starts with an M. I know, I know, but I was desperate, I also committed some other forms of soapy sins as well, in the form of chemical colourants  (meaning they were not plant, mineral or organically derived, which is my usual way) and my MP was not organic or 'natural' in any way, shape or form. Nope, it was just flooded with everything most people who started making their own soap tried to get away from in the first place, unfortunately there was limited choice available at my store.

     Ok, now that you're all done chastising me about poor soap choices let's get on with what I actually came up with in the end.

 

I bought a simple clear MP to start with and cut out 4-5 chunks (or cubes or sections whatever you want to call it) and set it into the microwave on 30sec bursts. It took about 3 times in the microwave for it to melt completely.

Once it was melted, I added my first colour, red in this case and got it to the shade I wanted.

 I then poured it into my brand spanking new mould (shout out to my mommy for this) and waited for it to harden. I read and saw on YouTube that it should normally take about 30-45min to harden, but as you can see in the pic that it was hardening before I was even done pouring. I'd say these were ready to take out in under 15min. Not that I was complaining, since I had A LOT of puzzle pieces to make.

 They weren't all perfect, but I got better as I made more, I even remembered to spray the tops with alcohol to prevent air bubbles by the 2nd batch. Then, I decided to add a different scent to each colour: 

• Red - Grapefruit/Orange
• Gold - Patchouli/Bergamont
• Green - Mint/Lime

Did mention that I can't stand the scent of patchouli or mint, they mess with my sense of smell and tend to make me nauseous, but I did it and dealt with the headache afterward. 

 

     Now, it was time to move on to my CP part of the soap process. The part I was more comfortable with strangely (yes, I'm aware I'm weird). Some of you may remember, when I tried to make a perfectly balanced soap, with 50% saturated and 50% unsaturated fats in the bar. I went back to that recipe and tweaked it a little bit, mostly because I wanted to use cocoa butter, for a little bit of #blackgirlmagic in my soap. It was no longer going to be well balanced, but it would smell like chocolate, win! 

The new recipe consisted of :

Avocado Oil - 5%            Castor Oil - 5%

Cocoa Butter - 30%            Coconut Oil - 28%

Grapeseed Oil - 10%                  Olive Oil - 10%

High Oleic, Safflower Oil - 12%

 I also superfatted at 7% and did a water discount of 28%, I reasoned that this would make sure that it was a very moisturizing soap that would harden quickly. 

      Then it was time to start the saponification party. I mixed about 1½ tsp of activated charcoal with 2 tbsp of oil then added it to my lye and oil concoction (always wanted to use that word) and blended away.

     Once it reached about a medium trace I got ready to pour my design. First, I remembered to spray my MP puzzle pieces with alcohol, I used 91% rubbing alcohol, I read your supposed to use 99% rubbing alcohol, but you know I wasn't getting my hands on that in time. So I went with what I had, and it seemed to work well. Plus, I figured with the water discount I was ok with the tiny bit of extra water in the alcohol.

I poured about half of my CP soap into the bottom of the mould, connected and placed my puzzle pieces into it.

Then I covered them with the rest of my CP and then topped it with more interconnected puzzle pieces.

     I was a little disappointed with the way the black turned out to be more gray, but other than that, and the minty patchouli abomination (I mean scent) that is now wafting throughout my home, I'm very impressed with my growing skills.

      For those of you wondering why I chose these colours to represent Black History month, here is an explanation of the Black Power Flag colours. NO, I'm not a overly political person, but I am aware of the state of our nation right now, and believe that one day unity and open communication will prevail.

 

Thanks for reading