I'm Really Tired of Making Mistakes

Yes, we all do it. But it gets frustrating when mistakes are made a little too often.

I just finished a batch of soap: Shea butter soap with Lavender oil, calendula and ground Chamomile. Should be soothing and great for bothersome skin and eczema. Referring to the directions and tips in Smart Soapmaking by Anne Watson, making soap really is pretty easy, as long as you take the right precautions: gloves, goggles, prudence. And using stainless steel submerged in a cold bath to mix the lye in - SO much better then glass! It cools off in just minutes, verses what seems like an hour when using glass.

But i misread my recipe and put 14 oz of shea butter instead of 12. That's a big difference, and if i'd known it i should have upped the lye to about 5.83 oz instead of the 5.6 i used. Sigh.

But i just worked out the INS value of the ingredients, and got a value of 156. The ideal range is 145 - 160, so hopefully this soap works out after all. I'll know in about 3 weeks. Feel free to place your orders if you're interested, and i'll be sure and update then to let you know if it's viable and happy soap.

AND i realized in the middle of the night while being kept awake by a perpetually stuffy yet dry nose: i forgot to line my mold with freezer paper. What does that mean? It means i have no freakin' idea how to get the soap out of the pyrex. Big sigh number two.

Anyone know if i can freeze the mold without damaging the soap quality?

So now, what to do with this 1 oz of shae butter left over? Perhaps i'll go rub it in my hair while trying not to make any more mistakes.
Sigh.

*********Happy Update: i froze the soap in its mold (after cutting at the edges and making a mess of it) and it easily shrunk away from the sides of the mold and popped right out. Hopefullyt eh soap quality is unharmed, and at least it's out and ready to be cut into bars!

Second Batch of Soap

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that i don't always succeed and am happy (sad) to write about my failures as well as my successes. After the great success of my first batch of soap: happy friends, happy me-skin, happy customers - i got a little too confident and decided to add some goat milk powder to the recipe. I'm not sure if the milk messed up the recipe, if i didn't blend long enough, or if i started mixing at the wrong temperature or what. Whatever i did, it was not right, and the soap is not good. I'm very hopeful that in a day or so it will firm up and the ph will lower - but i'm not optimistic.

2 hours and $20 in supplies later, i sure hope it becomes usable.

My husband was nice enough to take pictures of "Beeker at work," so at least i have some documentation of the soap making attempt.

I'll give it another day to dry out, then i'll slice it and retest the PH. Right now the PH is at a high end of the safe zone, so i hope it gets a bit milder and firms up. We may have to wait the full 3 month curing time to get a good lather though - so hold your orders for this batch of soap until i'm sure it's ready to go.

Handcrafted Soap - Now Available!

My first batch of hand crafted soap is cured and ready for purchase. $4.99 (plus shipping if you're not local) will get you 4 plus ounces of homemade soap. Ingredients include organic alfalfa and basil from my garden, colloidal oats for skin moisturizing, calendula oil for skin soothing, and lemongrass and rosemary essential oils for mind invigoration. The aroma is light and soothing and the texture exfoliating without being harsh. This first batch made 1 dozen bars plus samplers that have proven well received by all. My next recipe will be a shea butter soap with more luscious essential oils and other botanical goodies from my garden.

You can shop in person tomorrow from 10 -3 at the corner of Jones and Manchaca in south Austin.  I hope to see you at the Urban Farmers Market! Feel free to email me and place an order if you'd like to get in on my next batch of all natural soap.

I'd like to invite a vote - what scent would you prefer? I use no perfumes, only essential oils and organic botanicals.

• Lemongrass
• Lavender
• Cloves and rosemary
• Eucalyptus and tea tree

Bringing it To The Public!

I have an exciting announcement to all my local readers - my husband and I will have a small booth at a new urban farmer's market in south Austin this Saturday.  You can get a preview of some of the things we'll have available at our joint website, The Relic Jar. I'll have some of those lovely multiplying onions for sale as well as some chives for cooking or transplanting and some freshly picked herbs. Pocket the puppy will be in tow - so don't miss your chance to meet her, me, my husband and our creative wares.

I hope to see you there! Parking will be dicey, so please find a side street perpendicular to Manchaca.

10 am to 3 pm, 5109 Manchaca Road

Homemade Dyes

In my recent venture, Tinctures & Tonics, i've been playing apothecary and creating potions and bath products using homegrown herbs and other various botanicals. But what about pretty colors? So far i've been relying on store bought turmeric and occasional use of regular old food coloring. I would prefer to make it all myself.
What i've tried so far:

• Dehydrated some dill and ground it for green dye. Haven't tested it yet, but i bet it will work for soaps and candles, unless it just floats. Perhaps if i rub it in some oil first and then mix it in.
• Dehydrated beet root. Can't beat this opacity! Dehydrated and ground, i'll have to use this sparingly to be sure not to 'stain' my product users (no one wants to wash their hands and have them come out pink!)
• Beet Root stain - boiled it down for a few hours. May just try and dye my hair with this, we'll see ;)
• Sage flowers - lilac purple. Not sure if these will work, but it's worth a shot.

Obviously, i haven't tested these things out. But soon, SOON! i'll make my first batch of homemade, cold processed soap (and hopefully not burn myself with lye repeatedly, as i did in some rather disturbing dreams last night). I'll report back then.

In the meantime: do you have any tips/recipes for creating homemade dyes and colorants, suitable for soap making and salt coloring?