What is Bathy Taffy? I'm not sure yet...

Love buds!

I can't even describe the fun I'm having creating yumminess in my soap lab!

I decided to try out a few things other than cold process soap.  Most of us use handmade soap because we are looking to use more natural products.  The level of adherence to the natural ingredients runs the gamut and each person feels.  Personally, I definitely want to live a healthier life and minimize my carbon footprint, but I consider products on a product by product basis, if it looks interesting, I'm not bound to a code that would make me not use a product just because it is not 100% natural.  I do know that some ingredients cause irritation for me and those I do try to avoid.

That was a ramble for what, I think I'll get back around to it...I go off topic often.

In bringing Bathy Taffy to fruition, I wanted to create a new lather experience for myself.  Most liquid, cream  or other types of soaps irritate my skin.  Many have quite a bit of proplyene glycol which I am pretty sure is the culprit.  It is hard to find natural liquid or other forms of non-bar soaps mainly because they do not lather well.  When you add things to a soap that are non-lathering (extra glycerin or butter or other moisturizing additive) it greatly affects the lather.  Proplyene does not, so it is added as a humectant to many of these products.  For product makers who chose not to use it, the result is good soap but not great lather.

Recently, as I have gotten back into creating soap, the desire for a different soap texture arose again.  My attempt was to create a kind of cream soap and I tried by making a butter and adding liquid soap first, but I never achieved the lather I wanted and still had some level of skin irritation.

With some research, I found that adding sugar to your lye water really boosts lather in the final soap product.  Seasoned soapers know that dodium hydroxide is used to create bar soap and potassium hydroxide is used to create liquid soap.  When I combined the two with my process, an elasticy soap was the result, even when fully diluted!


Bathy Taffy Recipe 

I apologize, I did not take pictures of this process, I wasn't sure it would work out.  I am really trying to do better at that!
If you are unfamiliar with cold and hot process soapmaking, please do not proceed.  Find a local soapmaking class or find some video tutorials.  Working with lye can be hazardous if you are unfamiliar with how to maintain safety while doing so.

TOOLS:
Crockpot (Some people make hot process soap on the stove or in the oven, if so, you will need the essential tools for heating your soap via that method.  I used a crockpot)
Stirring utensils
Stickblender
Safety googles
long rubber gloves
apron
thermometer
Stainless steel pot (to heat glycerin and lye up)

INGREDIENTS:
I will share my ingredients by percentage of batch.  I did a 16 oz batch with a 10% superfat.  The key to this is the use of glycerin instead of water to create the lye bath.

Use a soap calculator to figure the amounts of lye, lye bath glycerin and dilution liquid amounts.

You will need:
LYE WATER
.87 oz Sodium Hydroxide (40% of calculated lye amount)
1.84 oz Potassium Hydroxide (60% of calculated lye amount)
5.75 Glycerin (36% of the weight of oils)
2 TBSP Sugar

OILS
2 oz Castor Oil (12.5% of oils)
2 oz Olive Oil (12.5% of oils)
4 oz Coconut Oil (25% of oils)
4 oz Palm Oil (25% of oils)
2 oz Rice Bran Oil (12.5% of oils) 
2 oz Shea Butter (12.5% of oils)

DILUTION
2 oz of additional Glycerin for dilution bath
11 oz of liquid for lye bath (I used coconut milk w/aloe vera)
2 oz of additional butter (shea or mango) I used shea for after dilution

DIRECTIONS
Warm oils in crockpot on high.  In the stainless steel pan, add glycerin and dissolve sugar in it.  Once completely dissolved add Potassium and Sodium hydroxide.  Continue to warm until all lye is dissolved.  Solution may be cloudy, no need to warm until clear.

Once oils and lye are within 20 degrees of each other (between 130 and 160 degrees), add glycerin/lye to oil (never add oils to lye) and stick blend to a heavy trace.  Turn the crockpot down to warm.  Let sit about 10 minutes and stick blend again.  Repeat until you can no longer stick blend and then continue to cook batter until translucent, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes.  Once translucent, test via your chosen method to ensure it is fully neutralized.

Add 2 oz of additional butter and stir in until melted.  The batter should start to have a taffy-like consistency.

Add dilution water to batter and gently stir to incorporate.  Try to ensure all of the batter is covered with solution and let it warm for 4 to 6 hours stirring occasionally.  

Once all of the batter is incorporated, it will have the consistency of thick shower gel and may develop a layer of foam.  At this point turn off the crockpot.  Let set at lest 24 hours.  It will then take on a taffy consistency again, just stir in the foam and it is ready to use.

Carefully add the fragrance oil of your choice.  You could probably do this with the dilution bath.

I am considering adding a little color to make it look a little more palatable.  

If you try this, tell me how you like it.  I took a shower with it last night and my skin felt great, though the lather is not as great as bar soap, I felt it was a bit more than most handmade cream soap options.

Until next time Love Buds,

Peace, Love and lots of gooey, bathy taffy Bubbles!

A.
 

Pink Ginger Lime Salt Bars - Recipe

(reposting, had some technical issues with my blog)

Hey Love Buds!

The July challenge in my DIY Facebook group is to make a detoxifying scrub.  Really simple, for this challenge you can pick any ingredients and any type of scrub the only requirement is that at least one of the main ingredients is a detox agent.

Now I know, you can't make claims about a product actually changing the condition of your hair, skin or body without FDA certification, but these detox items are not being made for the retail market and therefore, the challenge is proceeding with the creator's own research and understanding of this criteria.

courtesy www.helloglow.co

 Hello Glow has a bunch of brilliant DIY recipes and one that caught my eye as an example for this challenge was the ginger detox scrub. 

I will also participate in each challenge and send the chosen winner the product I created as a prize.  However for this month's challenge, I'll be sending up to 3 participants my entry for this month's challenge!

What did I come up with for the July Challenge?

Pink Ginger Lime Salt Bars!

The detox ingredients for this recipe include pink himalayan salt, grated lime and ginger.  Usually fresh food additives are not recommended in soap recipes because they may cause the soap to develop Dreaded Orange Spots (DOS), which is a sign of rancid oils - the soap is still ok to use, just doesn't look as nice and if there is enough DOS it may change the smell.  However, the high salt content of these bars acts as a preservative to the very small amount of shredded ginger and lime.

This is a cold process soap, if you are unfamiliar with how to make cold process soap, please check out this free beginner's guide to soapmaking from the Soap Queen that introduces cold process soap making or try to attend a soap making class locally.  Safety is paramount when working with lye.

RECIPE:
I'm sorry I did not take any pictures of this process, I will do better next time!
Yield about 25 ounces of soap which fits in a one pound soap mold with extra to make sample bars in 2 to 3 individual 3 oz molds.

12.80 oz Coconut Oil
2.4 oz Olive Oil
.80 oz Mango Butter
4.8 oz distilled water
2 oz coconut milk
2.36 oz Sodium Hydroxide (lye)
1 oz ginger lime fragrance oil
14 oz fine grain pink himalayan salt

Soapmaking tools (bowls, spatulas, swirl tools, scale, thermometer, rubber gloves, goggles, apron, closed toe shoes)

OPTIONAL ITEMS
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp grated lime peel
1 tsp aloe vera 100x powder
1 tsp sodium lactate
pinch of silk fiber
tsp of chromium oxide dispersed in a tablespoon of thin oil (green)
tsp of bright yellow raincoat mica (from Mad Oils) or other bright yellow mica dispersed in a tablespoon of thin oil (yellow).

If you know anything about soap making, too much coconut oil can be irritating to skin and there is not a lot of other moisturizing oils to help this batch.  However, salt is a lather killer and coconut oil creates lots of bubbles, so the coconut heavy recipe helps to maintain some lather.  While the silk, coconut milk and aloe vera provide some skin conditioning properties.

Step 1: To use coconut milk, I freeze it in ice cube trays, then put them in a bowl and add the lye to create the lye solution.  But, to decrease scalding of the milk (some is needed to superfat the soap after trace), you can use 4.8 oz of water to make the lye solution.  I also add the silk fibers to the solution and stir ensuring they have all dissolved and set aside.  

Step 2: Combine and warm oils and butters in a separate bowl until everything is liquid.

OPTIONAL STEPS: While you wait for the next step to happen, here are some optional steps.  Warm the coconut milk a bit and add the aloe vera powder and sodium lactate.  Prepare your colors if you haven't already.  Make sure to have a separate container to mix each color into your soap batter.  I used 3 one for some uncolored soap, one for yellow and one for green.

Step 3: When both the lye water and liquid oils/butter reach between 90 and 105 degrees (and are within about 10 degrees of each other) Add the lye solution to the oils (never the other way around) and stick blend to a THICK trace.  Thick trace is necessary to keep the salt suspended.  

Step 4: Once you reach thick trace, add 2 oz of liquid coconut milk and mix until incorporated.  Add fragrance oil and mix until incorporated.  Using a spatula to mix, slowly add in your pink himalayan salt and optional grated ginger and lime.  Once fully mixed in, separate batter into containers for coloring.  Add the colors and mix well.

COLOR/MOLD/SWIRL: For my color combination, I poured the uncolored batter in the mold first.  Then I poured the 2 colors in simultaneously down opposite sides of the mold until full.  I used a gear tie, which is great because you can bend it to fit the mold, to do a hanger swirl.

Sodium lactate really helps to have them come out of the mold smoothly.  I did not include it in my first batch and I tried to unmold too soon....too, too soon...

That was a lot and pretty complicated for a non-soap maker.  But this month's challenge does not have to be soap - it just has to be an exfoliant with a detox ingredient.

To qualify to win one of my Pink Ginger Lime Salt Bars, there's still time to participate in the July challenge.  The rules and details are in the Facebook group, just send a request. to join. 

That's all for now Love Buds.  Until next time ~

Peace, Love & Lots of tangy exfoliating Bubbles!

A.  

Recipe: Ginger Detox Bath & Body Scrub

Hey Love Buds!

The July challenge in my DIY Facebook group is to make a detoxifying scrub.  Really simple, for this challenge you can pick any ingredients and any type of scrub the only requirement is that at least one of the main ingredients is a detox agent.

Now I know, you can't make claims about a product actually changing the condition of your hair, skin or body without FDA certification, but these detox items are not being made for the retail market and therefore, the challenge is proceeding with the creator's own research and understanding of this criteria.

courtesy www.helloglow.co

 Hello Glow has a bunch of brilliant DIY recipes and one that caught my eye as an example for this challenge was the ginger detox scrub. 

I will also participate in each challenge and send the chosen winner the product I created as a prize.  However for this month's challenge, I'll be sending up to 3 participants my entry for this month's challenge!

What did I come up with for the July Challenge?

Pink Ginger Lime Salt Bars!

The detox ingredients for this recipe include pink himalayan salt, grated lime and ginger.  Usually fresh food additives are not recommended in soap recipes because they may cause the soap to develop Dreaded Orange Spots (DOS), which is a sign of rancid oils - the soap is still ok to use, just doesn't look as nice and if there is enough DOS it may change the smell.  However, the high salt content of these bars acts as a preservative to the very small amount of shredded ginger and lime.

This is a cold process soap, if you are unfamiliar with how to make cold process soap, please check out this free beginner's guide to soapmaking from the Soap Queen that introduces cold process soap making or try to attend a soap making class locally.  Safety is paramount when working with lye.

RECIPE:
I'm sorry I did not take any pictures of this process, I will do better next time!
Yield about 25 ounces of soap which fits in a one pound soap mold with extra to make sample bars in 2 to 3 individual 3 oz molds.

12.80 oz Coconut Oil
2.4 oz Olive Oil
.80 oz Mango Butter
4.8 oz distilled water
2 oz coconut milk
2.36 oz Sodium Hydroxide (lye)
1 oz ginger lime fragrance oil
14 oz fine grain pink himalayan salt

Soapmaking tools (bowls, spatulas, swirl tools, scale, thermometer, rubber gloves, goggles, apron, closed toe shoes)

OPTIONAL ITEMS
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp grated lime peel
1 tsp aloe vera 100x powder
1 tsp sodium lactate
pinch of silk fiber
tsp of chromium oxide dispersed in a tablespoon of thin oil (green)
tsp of bright yellow raincoat mica (from Mad Oils) or other bright yellow mica dispersed in a tablespoon of thin oil (yellow).

If you know anything about soap making, too much coconut oil can be irritating to skin and there is not a lot of other moisturizing oils to help this batch.  However, salt is a lather killer and coconut oil creates lots of bubbles, so the coconut heavy recipe helps to maintain some lather.  While the silk, coconut milk and aloe vera provide some skin conditioning properties.

Step 1: To use coconut milk, I freeze it in ice cube trays, then put them in a bowl and add the lye to create the lye solution.  But, to decrease scalding of the milk (some is needed to superfat the soap after trace), you can use 4.8 oz of water to make the lye solution.  I also add the silk fibers to the solution and stir ensuring they have all dissolved and set aside.  

Step 2: Combine and warm oils and butters in a separate bowl until everything is liquid.

OPTIONAL STEPS: While you wait for the next step to happen, here are some optional steps.  Warm the coconut milk a bit and add the aloe vera powder and sodium lactate.  Prepare your colors if you haven't already.  Make sure to have a separate container to mix each color into your soap batter.  I used 3 one for some uncolored soap, one for yellow and one for green.

Step 3: When both the lye water and liquid oils/butter reach between 90 and 105 degrees (and are within about 10 degrees of each other) Add the lye solution to the oils (never the other way around) and stick blend to a THICK trace.  Thick trace is necessary to keep the salt suspended.  

Step 4: Once you reach thick trace, add 2 oz of liquid coconut milk and mix until incorporated.  Add fragrance oil and mix until incorporated.  Using a spatula to mix, slowly add in your pink himalayan salt and optional grated ginger and lime.  Once fully mixed in, separate batter into containers for coloring.  Add the colors and mix well.

COLOR/MOLD/SWIRL: For my color combination, I poured the uncolored batter in the mold first.  Then I poured the 2 colors in simultaneously down opposite sides of the mold until full.  I used a gear tie, which is great because you can bend it to fit the mold, to do a hanger swirl.

Sodium lactate really helps to have them come out of the mold smoothly.  I did not include it in my first batch and I tried to unmold too soon....too, too soon...

That was a lot and pretty complicated for a non-soap maker.  But this month's challenge does not have to be soap - it just has to be an exfoliant with a detox ingredient.

To qualify to win one of my Pink Ginger Lime Salt Bars, there's still time to participate in the July challenge.  The rules and details are in the Facebook group, just send a request. to join. 

That's all for now Love Buds.  Until next time ~

Peace, Love & Lots of tangy exfoliating Bubbles!

A.  

Recipe: Homemade Lavender Coconut Oil Salt Scrub

Love Buds!

I previously gave you my recipe for a homemade sugar scrub that I make all the time.  Recently, I have really begun to enjoy salt scrubs too.  Looking around I found this amazing salt scrub featuring coconut oil (have I said that coconut oil is good for EVERYTHING?), lavender oil (one of my favorite natural scents) and ordinary epsom salt.

While sugar scrubs are great for exfoliating skin to reveal healthy, glowing skin, salt scrubs do the same thing with the added bonus of helping to draw out toxins and providing some additional nutrients to skin like magnesium. 

Click on the picture below to get the details on this quick and simple recipe by One Good Thing by Jillee 

 

Try adding some Pink Himalayan Rock Salt for color and additional nutrients.  I wonder how a black salt would work in this?

Tell me what you think!

I know, I know... I have giveaway winners to announce!  I will do that tomorrow along with my Feature Friday post.  

 

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love & lots of skin softening bubbles!

A.    

Recipe: Easy Creamy Sugar Scrub

EASY, CREAMY SUGAR SCRUB

(Citrus Lavender Edition)

Exfoliating skin is the best way to experience the maximum from your bath and body products.  As skin ages, the top layer dries up and dies (sad, but true).  This dead layer of skin is unable to absorb vital nutrients, conditioners and lipids (fats) that help skin to be healthy and glowing.  By scrubbing this layer of skin off you reveal healthy, young skin that will readily accept all of your awesome body products and put them to good use!

If you happen to be without a good sugar scrub or would like to save a little money, I'm going to share a very simple sugar scrub recipe that you can make in about 10 minutes and you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now!  

As far as scrubs go, I prefer a creamy texture versus those with the sugar and oil that separate, that way, I don't have to mix up the scrub each time I want to use it.  So, for my favorite creamy body scrub basic recipe you will need:

 

1 cup white or brown sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup Crisco (which is pretty much just hydrogenated vegetable oil and palm oil - you can substitute one or the other if you prefer)

1/4 cup olive oil (grape seed, sunflower, safflower, vegetable or any combination of these is also acceptable)

That's pretty much it for the base formula.  Simply mix them together until well blended and there you have it!  You can always add more or less of each ingredient to get a firmer or thinner consistency.  This recipe yields about 2 cups of scrub. 

I make a double batch and separate into jars then add different fragrance oils/EO's to have a variety of different scents.  For my personal use, I use simple deli containers to hold my scrubs - but you can dress them up to give as gifts.  There are tons of cute ideas on Pinterest for mother's day scrub gifts!

This recipe does not include preservative - so I wouldn't suggest keeping around for more than a month.  To help with shelf life, use a scoop or spoon to put scrub in your hand to avoid water getting into the jar.  Vitamin E or Grape Seed Extract ARE NOT preservatives and will not extend the shelf life of your scrub.  If you would like to add a preservative 4 or 5 drops of Liquid Germall Plus mixed in with the other ingredients can extend the shelf life for up to a year.

But wait, you say - what about the Citrus Lavender??!?!?!  Easy Peasy.  Simply add a few of drops of lavender essential oil and a drop or two of lemon, lime, orange and/or grapefruit essential oil and mix in well (Total drops of EO should be no more than 5).  Start with a few drops and mix well to test fragrance.  With essential oils, it will not take much to get a nice scent. I adore this blend it is very invigorating and great for the Spring and Summer.  If you have some dried lavender buds and/or dried citrus peel, add a bit to the scrub for extra exfoliation and they make it really pretty.

This simple recipe can be used as the basis for any fragrance of scrub with any additives you can think of (just remember if you're not using a preservative, do not add anything water based to the scrub).  Let your imagination go wild!  

What kind of scrub would you make?