ADVENTURES IN SOAP MAKING: FRENCH GREEN CLAY AND LAVENDER CASTILE SOAP

Today I overcame a huge fear of mine.....making soap!  Sounds absolutely ridiculous, I know, but I have read way too much about the dangers of lye.  So I dedicated the day to overcoming my fear and make my own soap.

For some time now I have become aware of the dangers of chemicals in body washes and commercial soaps and have sought to purchase hand made soaps from local farmers and artisans.  That can be very expensive with many artisanal soaps starting at $5 per bar.  So I decided that I would like to make my own.  Then I could control the ingredients 100 percent and save some money.

I purchased a book, "Soap Crafting" by Anne-Marie Faiola to learn how.  The book is great!  Good detail with lots of pictures and great recipes that seem easy enough for a beginner.  I of course never want to do things the easiest way, and decided to make a Castile soap with lavender (a little more complicated than basic beginner soap).   I viewed a few You Tube videos and reviewed various recipes on the web.  I finally combined what I learned and came up with the following recipe that I tried today.  I decided to add coconut oil to the soap for better cleaning properties so it is not a pure olive oil castile soap.   I went to Brambleberry.com to calculate my lye and water portions as well as the essential oil quantity.  I based the recipe on Anne-Marie's main recipe for Basic Cold-Process Soap.  The set up was the part that took the most time as well as formulating the recipe.

FRENCH GREEN CLAY AND LAVENDER CASTILE SOAP RECIPE:

4 oz  organic coconut oil
18 oz  extra virgin organic olive oil (Costco has it in large containers at a good price)
2.968 oz  Lye
7.26 oz  distilled water
6 tsp lavender oil
2 tsp French green clay
dried lavender buds to sprinkle on top (optional)

First, I set out all my ingredients along with the tools that I have dedicated to soap making.  Glass heat proof pitchers and stainless steel measuring cups and mixing spoons.

I set up everything outside.  I have a plug on my porch, which was very handy to plug the immersion blender into.  I wore long pants, a long sleeved shirt, and my lovely onion goggles to protect my eyes (tres chic look).

I measured everything on my postal scale inside my kitchen then brought it out on the porch to mix.   I added the lye to the water and put it in an ice bath to cool a bit.  The chemical reaction caused the mixture to heat up dramatically so an ice bath brought it down to a temperature closer to the oil temperature which is better for mixing.

Then it was time to add the lye water to the oils....

I mixed it with an immersion blender to cut down on the saponification time.  By hand that can take a long time.  It took about 5 minutes with the blender.

When the mixture starts to thicken you add the lavender oil that has been blended with the clay....  Mix again, but not too much as it will be too thick to pour into your mold.

 My mold was a washed milk carton.  It can be cut away easily from the soap once it hardens.  As you can see the soap is green.  This is from the olive oil as well as the green clay.

For an extra special finishing touch I sprinkled the top with dried lavender blossoms.  I placed the container on a cookie sheet with books to help keep the carton from bulging as the soap hardens.  I then covered with parchment paper and wrapped a towel around it.  There it will sit until it hardens.  I suspect this will take a day or so.  We will see :  )

Resources:

brambleberry.com

Soap Crafting by Anne-Marie Faiola