Citrus and Honey with Oatmeal Here's another of the earlier creations. This one was all about the additives! I wanted to make something useful beyond a simple cleansing bar. I've heard, from where idk, that honey did good things for allergies or something. I guess that makes sense because bees deal with a shit ton of pollen, right? Like, I personally have NEVER seen a bee sneeze and I know they smoke cuz they're always buzzed!!! Is it true that honey never spoils? Naw son, I spoil all my honeys foo! Anyway, I found myself in a sticky situation. I was sapped! What oh what ever shall I do for aroma, exfoliant, or decor? To the pantry I go... When rummaging through the pantry in the early days of IJ I would basically build a flavor profile then turn that into my next loaf of soap. Oatmeal with a little citrus zest and some honey drizzled on top for sweetness... MMM!!! Why not just... make that a soap... pfft! Oatmeal is supposed to be good for itch and softening skin, I think. I used colloidal and whole oats here. That'll add some exfoliation to scrape off some of that dead skin and stuck-on stuff too was my guess. I didn't take the time to zest a billion and one damn limes. I just used some grapefruit and lemon essential oils. The scents obviously blend well as they are both basically the same sort of smells. This batch of soap ended up being one of the best soaps I've made for oily skin types. It's very cleansing and leaves the skin smooth and soft! I enjoy a harsher scrub but for those that only like a light exfoliant, this is it. The bar itself isn't very hard as the soap base is made of coconut, olive, sunflower, and castor oils. The lather has big fluffy bubbles that pop rather easily leaving you wanting to continue to rub yourself. That might or might not be a good thing, depending on how big your bee stinger is........ Brown Sugar and Honey The Brown Sugar and Honey bar was one of the earlier bars that I decided to stylize. Mica, multicolored, and a little texture on top that I thought would add some realism. "Mmm. Nature", I thought as I riffled through the spice cabinet and pantry searching for additives that sound "nature-y". I daydreamt of a all sorts of things that would cause my allergies to fire off like 4th of July. "IDK, honey? Milk? Sugar? Fuckin' grass?" At some point I realized that I might need to know a little bit about what happens to these things if I decided to actually use any of it. So, I sat down with my favorite smart device and attended what I call SearchEngine University. You know, when you quick study on a topic then pretend to be a pro at it online.... Yea, I do that! So, I did that. ...and here's what I ended up with. This is predominantly coconut and palm oils with sunflower seed and grape seed oils to add some luxury. Coconut oil is my goto oil for nearly every bar that I make. This is because coconut oil creates a really hard bar with a fluffy lather. Coconut oil will, however, dehydrate the skin due to its high cleansing properties. For this, I will always add superfats and additives to offset the dehydration. Multiple members of my household have eczema, so moisturization is almost always paramount. This oil has a bright white color which helps using colorants predictable. There's not much worse than batching a soap that you thought would be green and it turns out to be putty grey! Coconut oil also has a fantastic smell. This soap has equal parts coconut to palm oil. Palm oil will create a hard bar too but does have some color to it. I've used red palm oil too and I haven't noticed any difference between palm and red palm besides the aroma. I do enjoy that the palm oil melts at a much higher temperature than the coconut oil that I use but a lower temperature than say beeswax. As I said, the rest is made up of simply grape seed oil and sunflower seed oil. Both of which are divine in any soap or moisturizer. High superfatting this recipe should make for beautifully soft skin. Anyway, the fucking grass....... I didn't go with the grass I have in a wooden crate on the balcony for the cat to roll around in and feel all outdoorsy, it turns out. I did, however, select natural and real honey and pure sugar. Each of which adds to lather, as they add integrity to the bubbles, making it harder to pop them. More bubbles remain unpopped as more bubbles are being created; this increases lather overtime. Perfect! So, the more you play with it, the more it grows? Hm. I can relate! |
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