Last week, someone posted and asked if there was a way to make cream soap without going through the long process in Catherine Failor’s Making Cream Soap book. I didn’t think so. It was worth a try, though I created 6 different recipes to try and mimic Catherine Failor’s Cream Soap. The next few days on the Soap Queen blog will detail the project, steps, and outcomes of some of the experiments.
What You’ll Need:
Fragrance Oil
Bottles
Labcolors
Clear Melt and Pour Soap Base
White Melt and Pour Soap Base
Handmade Lotion
store bought lotion
Sweet Almond Oil
one soap-only blender
When you make melt and pour soap, it’s best to chop up the soap into small chunks. This helps the melt down process and enables a more smooth, even melt. Cover your heat-safe container with Saran wrap to help keep in any moisture that may evaporate during the melting. Melt the soap in the microwave on short 30 second bursts, taking care to not boil or overheat the soap.
For the first experiment, we used handmade lotion in a 10% addition rate and a 25% addition rate.
Melt and Pour soap is well balanced in its natural state. Additives such as oils or lotions weigh down lather. With normal stirring, oil additives over about 3% – 5% will not stay in the soap. Instead, the extra oil typically rises to the surface of the soap, producing an unattractive oil slick.
The way to get around this tendency is to use a blender. The photo above is showing the melted soap after 30 seconds in the blender. A blender helps to emulsify theoils or extra additives into the melt and pour soap base. Remember that the blender may take on the scent of the fragrance. Only use your blender if you are okay with not using it again for food.
Check back tomorrow to read about the results of the 10% and 25% handmade lotion additive soap.
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