Previously on A Handcrafted Life: I was in the midst of making a whole lotta soap. I tried a bunch of different oils and some new techniques I recently learned at a fantastic workshop with Alicia Grosso.
The soap is out of the molds and on the drying racks. We had to unmold and cut them all up within about 24 hours after making the soap. All the soap was really very firm with the water discount. The hubby and I made seven batches of soap this past Saturday and Sunday (June 14 & 15).
My husband took them all out of the drawers, peeled off the freezer paper and cut them in to individual bars. We have them on trays and drying racks and we’re still trying to figure out where to put all this curing soap.
I had read that using 100% coconut oil was very drying to the skin, unless you used a very high superfatting percentage. This is my 100% Coconut Oil soap. I made a 2 lb test batch. It was superfatted at 20%, scented with 40/42 Lavender and colored with Ultramarine Violet. It lathers like CRAZY.
It’s only been curing one week and my hands are not dried out at all from testing the soap, it’s amazing! But I will still let this and all my other batches cure for at least another 3-4 weeks before using them in the shower.
This is one bar from a 4 lb batch scented with a essential oil blend called Honey Almond. I added exhausted vanilla bean seeds (this what is left after the vanilla extract has been made) and oat flour. The vanilla bean seeds at some visual interest and along with the oat flour, some very gentle exfoliating properties. It’s got tons of lather and the vanilla bean seeds feel really cool in the bar.
I’ll give another update on the other soaps we made in another post this week!
