Just like most things in life, you usually have to wait for the good stuff. The redeeming part of having to wait, is that it's worth waiting for! I've been promising soap for almost a year, and just recently I've been officially rolling the soap off the cutting block.
I posted before about two of the scents available, but I'm excited to share that there is a third! This soap is different from the others because it has less ingredients, making it more simple, but not lacking in cleansing power. Say hello to Patchouli & Vanilla soap! Made with coconut oil and aloe vera juice, it's a super cleansing bar that won't dry your skin out. Some single oil and fat soaps can be drying. For example, the soap I make to grind into the laundry powder is a pure coconut oil soap. It could be used for skin, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's too powerful for delicate skin, but it's perfect for soiled laundry.
Let's look closer at the Patchouli & Vanilla soap. The name might indicate just two scents, but I've used a few to make a well rounded, sweet, floral, and intoxicating scent. Vanilla is a hard scent to get when you're using only 100% natural ingredients. Most vanilla scents you find are fragrance oils, some are made with other natural ingredients, but most are lab creations. I prefer to use essential oils, but there's technically no such thing as vanilla essential oil. Why? Because, unfortunately, the vanilla bean doesn't allow for the steam distillation process most essential oils are made from. Since steam distillation doesn't work, the only natural solution is creating an absolute. While researching I found this explanation about what an absolute is, and I just cannot word it better so I'm just going to quote the Soap Queen, "To produce an absolute, the plant material is placed into a drum and introduced to a solvent along with gentle heat. The solvent is then removed, which leaves behind a resin known as a concrète or resinoid. This resin is then treated with alcohol to separate the aromatic compounds."
But vanilla absolutes are incredibly expensive, so I had to find a more affordable solution to still offer bars of soap at an affordable price. My solution? Vanilla smell-a-likes! I've used a combination of Vanilla Absolute, Ylang Ylang and Peru Balsam essential oils, to create what is the most lovely sweet vanilla combination. If you don't already have a bottle of Peru Balsam in your essential oil stash - go get some quick! It's like sugary vanilla heaven. When I mixed my vanilla blend in with the dark patchouli essential oil, it was magical. Now, you can sniff the magic with your own bar of Patchouli & Vanilla soap!
I'm excited to experiment with more scents, but for now I'm sticking to the three currently available: Peppermint & Rosemary, Lime & Basil, and Patchouli & Vanilla. Creating soap is an art, and I'm still in the beginning stages. Once I've become more of an experienced soap maker be on the look out for some funky colored soaps using natural micas, shaving soaps, and who knows what else. Help me learn and expand and order today - click here to see all three scents.
It's good to be clean!
References & Mentions:
Image credit: History of the World-Part I, Mel Brooks
Soap Queen - The Truth About Vanilla Essential Oil
I posted before about two of the scents available, but I'm excited to share that there is a third! This soap is different from the others because it has less ingredients, making it more simple, but not lacking in cleansing power. Say hello to Patchouli & Vanilla soap! Made with coconut oil and aloe vera juice, it's a super cleansing bar that won't dry your skin out. Some single oil and fat soaps can be drying. For example, the soap I make to grind into the laundry powder is a pure coconut oil soap. It could be used for skin, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's too powerful for delicate skin, but it's perfect for soiled laundry.
Let's look closer at the Patchouli & Vanilla soap. The name might indicate just two scents, but I've used a few to make a well rounded, sweet, floral, and intoxicating scent. Vanilla is a hard scent to get when you're using only 100% natural ingredients. Most vanilla scents you find are fragrance oils, some are made with other natural ingredients, but most are lab creations. I prefer to use essential oils, but there's technically no such thing as vanilla essential oil. Why? Because, unfortunately, the vanilla bean doesn't allow for the steam distillation process most essential oils are made from. Since steam distillation doesn't work, the only natural solution is creating an absolute. While researching I found this explanation about what an absolute is, and I just cannot word it better so I'm just going to quote the Soap Queen, "To produce an absolute, the plant material is placed into a drum and introduced to a solvent along with gentle heat. The solvent is then removed, which leaves behind a resin known as a concrète or resinoid. This resin is then treated with alcohol to separate the aromatic compounds."
But vanilla absolutes are incredibly expensive, so I had to find a more affordable solution to still offer bars of soap at an affordable price. My solution? Vanilla smell-a-likes! I've used a combination of Vanilla Absolute, Ylang Ylang and Peru Balsam essential oils, to create what is the most lovely sweet vanilla combination. If you don't already have a bottle of Peru Balsam in your essential oil stash - go get some quick! It's like sugary vanilla heaven. When I mixed my vanilla blend in with the dark patchouli essential oil, it was magical. Now, you can sniff the magic with your own bar of Patchouli & Vanilla soap!
I'm excited to experiment with more scents, but for now I'm sticking to the three currently available: Peppermint & Rosemary, Lime & Basil, and Patchouli & Vanilla. Creating soap is an art, and I'm still in the beginning stages. Once I've become more of an experienced soap maker be on the look out for some funky colored soaps using natural micas, shaving soaps, and who knows what else. Help me learn and expand and order today - click here to see all three scents.
It's good to be clean!
References & Mentions:
Image credit: History of the World-Part I, Mel Brooks
Soap Queen - The Truth About Vanilla Essential Oil
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