Rebatching Soap Ideas

 

  There are a lot of reasons to rebatch your soap.  Maybe you don't like the color or scent.  Maybe it separated into a greasy mess or is lye heavy.  I always end up with a lot of shavings & end cuts that are not usable as they are, but are perfectly fine soap.

Basic Rebatch

You want to grate up, shave up, or chop up your soap into very small, fine pieces.  The smaller they are the easier they will melt.  Coconut oil soap, & probably some other extremely hard oil soaps are really difficult to work with in a rebatch.  The fresher the soap is, the easier it is to rebatch.  So if you have some old coconut oil soap, you have a challenge.  If your soap is fresh & ground up finely you can dribble some water or spray some water on it to dampen it & cook, right away.  If it is old hard soap you may want to cover it with water & let it soak for a few hours or overnight.  Pour the water off.  You can save it to add back in later, if needed.  I like to rebatch in my microwave in a 2 qt pyrex measuring cup covered with cling wrap, on a low power like 2 or 3.  You can rebatch in a crockpot, in the oven, or even in a double boiler.  The idea is to dampen the soap to soften it, so it melts faster, & then apply enough heat to melt it.  Stir the soap up as it is melting to get a more even melt.  Continue to melt until smooth or as lumpy as you like.  If the soap starts to get thick before it is melted just add more liquid & stir it in until it is the consistency you want.  Then color, scent, swirl.  Beautify to your taste & mold.

You do not have to use water in a rebatch, you may chose instead, another liquid like aloe vera juice, a milk, or even a fruit or vegetable juice.

Dry Soap Rebatch

Follow directions for Basic Rebatch, but add a bit of oil, too.  This can also be done if you forget your superfat or didn't add enough, & have soap that is drying on the skin.

Oily Soap Rebatch

Check your recipe.  If you are sure you added everything correctly, then the soap may have been molded too early or too hot, or in the case of CP, got too hot in the mold & separated.  The oily part is part of your recipe so make sure you add all, or as much as you can, back into the rebatch pot.  Sometimes a soap will be made with too much superfat that needs to be corrected.  his can be done by adding a bit more lye solution.  If you know the amount of superfat or extra oils that were added to the soap.  Take the amount of lye you added and rerun the batch with a lower superfat in the lye calc to get the new amount of lye.  If you added 2 oz lye, and superfatted at 15% & the soap is way too greasy, you want to adjust this.  There are a couple different ways to correct this.

1.  Run the recipe back through the calculator  at the % of superfat you want.  Lets say you want 5% superfat.  As an example, 2 oz lye gave you 15%, 2.7 oz is what you need for 5% so... you need to add 0.7 oz more lye.  Dissolve the lye in at least as much water by weight & add to your rebatch.  Heat & stir until you have no zap or pH test is in the normal range for your soap.

2.  Make a new batch of soap.  Add the shavings of the oily soap to it.  If the old batch has a superfat of 15% and you want 5% superfat in the total batch (both combined), then you need to make the new batch at a SF of -5%.  You have 10% SF you need to use leaving 5% in the old batch.  So making the new batch at -5% will give you 5% in the new batch, too.  -5 + 10 = 5.  You can adjust the superfat on the new batch to compensate for whatever superfat you need to thin out.

Lye Heavy Rebatch

You will need to add oil and water to this one!  If you were unlucky enough to add a lye solution where the lye was not completely dissolved, your rebatch may not be successful.  Lye is not soluble in oil so you need water to dissolve the crystals.  Once they are incorporated in the soap batter, it can be really difficult to get them to contact enough water to dissolve, or tell they are dissolved, but you can always try.  Better than tossing it out!  If the lye was dissolved but somehow it is a lye heavy soap, then it needs more oil so that lye can react with the oils you add & complete the saponification.  You can add oil to the melted rebatch a bit at a time until it no longer zaps or pH tests safe.  Make sure you add even more oil so the soap has a superfat.  Unless you know how much additional oil you need, try 1/2 oz ppo (per pound of oil) at a time.  Stir it in, give it a few minutes & test, continue until soap tests safe.

 

Body Butter & Lotion Bars

Sorry, you don't get pictures with this one :/  If you MUST see the stages, do a search for Body Butter tutorial and I'm sure somebody has some pictures up on their site.

These are really pretty standard recipes.  The proportions are kinda important, but there is a lot of room to play, to make it your own.

Body Butter
3 oz coconut oil
3 oz shea butter
3 oz cocoa butter
3 oz Rice Bran Oil
a few drops of vitamin E oil

You can also add 1 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder to cut the greasy feeling, too.
If you have an organic coconut oil & an unrefined cocoa butter the smells come through wonderfully!  Keep that in mind if you decide to add an EO.  The EO seems to be nice at 1/2 tsp for this batch if you choose to add one.

Melt your oils & butters, you can leave out the ones already liquid & add them after the hard oils are melted & cooling.  You can add the cornstarch/arrowroot any time before it is done, but it incorporates well in the oils.

When the oils are around room temperature stick them in the freezer (or outside in the winter if it's cold).  The oils will start to firm up.  When the oils are getting solid around the edges, use a hand mixer (with beaters or whisk) to beat it like whipped cream.  If it doesn't want to beat, stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes & try again.  You can also put the bowl with your oils in an ice bath to cool & keep it cool.  I beat mine to the consistency of soft peak whipped cream & pipe or spoon into jars.  Now, wasn't that easy?  And oh, what a lovely product!  If you whip it too stiff, the consistency is more like hard butter from the fridge.  Makes it hard to apply.  You can remelt it & go through the steps again to get the consistency you want.  Another thing to remember is that by whipping it the oils increase in volume, so have extra jars handy.

You don't NEED to use Rice Bran Oil.  Check out my "Lots o Links" page for links to info on different oils to determine their qualities.  I have also made a real nice butter with all mango for the butter portion & canola & castor for the liquid portion.  It's heavier/greasier, but some of us NEED that in the winter.


Basic Lotion Bars

These are a solid lotion that when applied to the skin, melt for easier application.  I have given these out & people come up with all kinds of things to do with them.  They make great lip balm, heel softeners, cuticle conditioners. These really need some kind of container.  I usually use small molds that will fit in those 3 1/4 oz deli cup things that salad dressing comes in if you order a to go salad.  Of course, you can put them in fancier containers, or even a plastic bag.

4 oz beeswax (the yellow unrefined smells wonderful!)
4 oz coconut oil
4 oz Rice Bran Oil (or oil of your choice)
1/2 oz vitamin E oil

Melt beeswax & coconut, stir & cool slightly then add the liquid oil & vitamin E, mix well & pour into molds.


Salve Base

So many things to put in salves.  Making your own Vicks type decongestant with EOs or Infusing coconut or Olive oil with healing herbs.  I've even heard of people making pine tar salves.

Use 2 oz coconut oil  (or olive oil)
and 1-2 oz palm oil (or beeswax)

Melt together, stir, add your EOs stir & put in a jar.  The salve solidifies to a vaseline like consistency.  Leave the lid off until it hardens to avoid condensation.  Water or water based liquids make mold & bacteria & you do not want that in your salve!

You can make a Vicks like salve with Lavender, Camphor, Peppermint, and Eucalyptus.  You will have to experiment with the amounts to suit your taste.  I listed the EOs in order least to most drops I like in mine.

Jewelweed Soap

  I made this soap with the Hot Process method.  CP would work, but who want to wait for a cure?

The first thing you will need to do is locate some fresh Jewelweed.  If you are unsure what you are looking for, please google, "identifying jewelweed" or something similar.  You don't need a bushel basket of it.  Although some people disagree with me, there is enough evidence in book & on the internet to convince me that the weed HAS to be fresh.  When you cut it, you want to use it as soon as possible.  The weed contains a lot of juice.  I have infused other fresh herbs in oil & not seen anywhere near the amount of juice you get from jewelweed!  The juice is great as it contains the active ingredients to relieve itching, rashes, ringworm, etc.  The juice is bad as it does not want to combine in the oil.  Unless you use a very small amount in your infusion you will have juice pockets that can make your oil mold.  I didn't mind the juice pockets as I was going to make my soap right away.  If you are making this infusion to use in the future I recommend refrigerating or even freezing it to keep it mold free.

Rinse the jewelweed to knock off any bugs or dirt & chop or tear the whole plant into small pieces that will fit in your pan.  I used about 1 part weed to 2 parts coconut oil.... well, maybe it was closer to equal parts, lol.  Anyway, make sure the weed is covered with coconut oil.  (You can use any oil you want.  Olive oil may not be a good choice as it can burn).  I used coconut oil since the soap is good for cases of poison ivy & I figured the cleansing (oil stripping) properties of coconut oil  would be perfect to combine with the weed to get that nasty poison ivy oil off your skin.  Do NOT boil the infusion.  You can simmer it to get done faster but it turns brownish.  I brought mine just barely to a simmer & let it cook for at least 3 hrs with a cover on.  It may have been longer.  Strain & discard the weed.

You're gonna need a little more jewel weed :)  Rinse to clean & tear it up, again.  This time add distilled water & simmer until the water turns a reddish brown color.  I made some extra so I could put it in mason jars & stick it in the freezer.

Let your tea & oil infusion cool.  The hard part is over.  The following recipe is for 1 lb + 4 oz of the infused coconut oil.  So, you are going to need 20 oz of the infused oil for the recipe.

These instructions are for Hot Process Jewelweed Soap.  Just modify the recipe if you are more comfortable with Cold process.  For HP soap you will make this at 0% superfat so you can add more of the infused coconut oil after the cook for the MOST benefits.



Take 16 oz of the coconut oil to make your batter (reserve the 4 oz as superfat.  This will give you 25% superfat)
6.08 oz of the jewelweed tea to dissolve the lye in
2.93 oz lye (Sodium Hydroxide)

Cook till done & then add your 4 oz of infused coconut oil as superfat & mold.
Coconut oil soap gets very hard pretty fast.  If you overcooked the above batch, you already know that.  You can unmold & cut as soon as it is cool.  If you wait too long it may be too hard to cut.  If you are using a wire, you may have to find a knife.
Coconut oil soap cooks very fast, so when it looks done & you don't believe it, it really is, lol.

Understanding Superfat

Superfat is literally extra fat that you have in your soap recipe that does not become soap.  It is NOT saponified because there is not enough lye in the recipe to make ALL the oils turn into soap.  The oil is kind of floating in between the soap molecules, so when you use the soap, not only does it clean, but it also deposits a thin layer of fresh oil on your skin.

This is a great cartoon that helps explain superfat & what is going on in the bowl/pot while you are making soap.
Bunnies & Wolves

In a Cold Process (CP) recipe the lye is not finished working when you mold the soap.  Unfortunately, that means that the lye gets to pick which oils it will saponify.  Maybe you want to add a rather expensive luxury oil as a superfat.  There is no guarantee in CP that the oil YOU want to make the superfat will wind up as the superfat.

In Hot Process (HP), the lye is finished working, as a result of using heat to accelerate the reaction, when the soap is put in the mold.  You can test the pH of the soap or do a "zap test" to make sure the soap is "done", completely cooked, & no lye remains.  The zap test is where you touch the tip of your tongue to a small bit of cooled soap.  If it "zaps" you like a battery would, then there is still active lye.  If it just tastes like soap, then it's done.  I f you DO get a zap, make sure you rinse out your mouth with some water & spit.  When the HP soap is done, there is no further reaction taking place between the alkaline lye and the acids in the oils.  The soap has finished the saponification process.  Now, if you add your superfats, they will not be touched by the lye because there is no lye, anymore.  The oils & lye have all been turned into soap.  You can add your superfat & be assured that it will remain intact as your superfat.  Whatever oil(s) you chose to add as your superfat you can believe that it will remain your superfat.  In other words, if you make a soap out of lard, but want apricot oil as a superfat, if you add the apricot oil after the cook it will remain the superfat.  There will be no sneaky action from the lye to turn your apricot oil into soap & give you back some lard as superfat.

Most soap calculators have a space for you to put in the superfat % you want.  This is based on the weight of the oils in your recipe.  In CP soap if you are using 16 oz oils and set your superfat % at 5%, the calculator will deduct 5% (0.8 oz) of oils from your recipe which will not be saponified.  You can see the difference in the lye amount if you run the recipe through the calc at 0% superfat, then change it to 5% superfat.  Soapmakers used to believe that if you added the superfat at trace in CP then there was less chance that the lye would saponify it.  Unfortunately, this is not true.  The lye takes the easiest oils it can grab onto for the chemical reaction.  Whatever the most difficult oils to saponify in your recipe are, will most likely be your superfat.  If you are making CP soap just let the calculator figure your superfat.  Put the percentage you want in the clculator & follow the recipe it gives you.
If, however, you are making an HP batch, you will probably want to calculate the superfat on your own.  Using the same example of a 16 oz batch.  There IS a way to calculate this so you wind up with 16 oz oils total, but it is not very easy & may make your brain hurt.  Here is an easy & accurate way to do it.  Remember I said that superfat was a percentage of the oil weight.

16 oz X 0.05 (also known as 5% or 5 hundredths) = 0.8 oz

Ok, so is it really a big deal?  You wind up with 16.8 oz, not 16 oz exactly.  So if your mold only holds 16 oz, put the 0.8 oz in a yogurt cup :D

I am not trying to imply in this article that 5% superfat is ideal.  It depends on YOUR skin or hair.  I happen to like 3% superfat in my shampoo bars, (recipe in link, below)
Liz's Shampoo Bars

I have older dry skin & prefer 8-12% superfat in my body bars.  Coconut oil makes a nice soap but is VERY cleansing.  That means it strips all the oil off your skin.  I don't like it, but a lot of people find it a fabulous soap.  It is usually superfatted at 20-25% for body soap because of the high cleansing of the bar.  Coconut oil makes a GREAT laundry soap.  You don't want extra oil (superfat) on the clothes you are washing so it should be made at 0 or 1% superfat.  1% is just to be safe & make sure there is a pinch of extra oil for the lye to saponify.  A safety net, so you don't have any lye left over.

How to Make Soap

  There are a couple of things I would like to recommend to you before you make your first soap.  No matter what you decide to make, the quality of your first soaps will be a bit wanting when compared to soaps you make in a month or more.  Test batches are GREAT!  All my batches are about 1# of oils.  That makes enough bars to test & a couple to give away or save to see how they develop.  No need to make big 5 or 10# batches.  You won't have enough space to make more! :D  The more you practice, the better you get.  You can resize ANY recipe you find using soapcalc.  If you enter any recipe it will give you the % of each ingredient.  Write them down & put the % back into soapcalc with the weight of the batch size that you want in box 2?.  I think that's the right box.

  You don't need a collection of expensive, exotic oils to make soap.  100% coconut oil makes great laundry soap & a lot of people like it for body soap when superfatted correctly.  Lard, Olive oil, Shortening, Canola, Corn, Soy, Palm are other oils easy to get at your local grocery or Walmart.

  You need lye.  Lye & drain cleaner are not necessarily the same.  It needs to be ALL Sodium Hydroxide or NaOH (same thing).  It is available in different areas at different places.  Hardware stores are a good place to buy your first lye.  I can buy 1# of lye at Ace Hardware for $3.99.  Rooto Crystals 100% lye.  It's good stuff & since I make those small batches, it lasts me a while, too.

  The BEST thing to mix your lye & water in is stainless steel.  Some people use plastic & some use glass.  The heat generated & corrosive nature of the lye shortens the life of both of these materials.  As a result, they may crack at an inconvenient time.  My first batch of soap, I used a tall plastic pitcher that had a crack in the bottom of it.  I didn't know it had a crack.  I was kinda scared of what the lye was going to do so I had the pitcher inside a plastic bucket.  Some people mix their lye in the sink, just in case.  I like to mix it on my porch or outside.  There are fumes, but not like a big chlorine gas cloud.  Try not to breathe the fumes (that's why I like to mix mine, outside).  The fumes dissipate quickly.  ALWAYS add your lye to the liquid not the other way around.  Stir until dissolved.  If you have crystals in the bottom the lye has not dissolved.  If you have scum on top of the liquid, that can be contamination in your pitcher (I used to get it from washing my pitcher with soap), or contaminants in your lye.  Just run it through a strainer if it bugs you.  A little dust or scum isn't gonna hurt my soap, so I usually just dump it in the oils.

Make sure you wear your safety equipment!  Eye protection or face shield, chemical resistant gloves, apron, clean work space, no dogs or kids underfoot.

Making soap is not rocket science.  Ok, maybe making the BEST soap is, but don't worry about that, yet.  You don't need a fancy education or pricey soap making course to make soap.  The more you educate yourself the better your soap will be, however.  You find that there is a lot to learn about such a simple endeavor, but you can still make a good soap on your first try.

Keep it simple!  I have been on Facebook boards long enough to see all the new soapmakers that want to start off with milk & beer for their lye liquid, add their favorite medications, in other words, add all kinds of things that will mask the basic experience of making soap.  You really will benefit by making a plain soap as your first batch to see how the soap acts.  If you are making HP (Hot Process) you want to know about how long it takes to cook & what stages it is going through.  I recommend this, as a lot of times a fluid different than distilled water for lye, or an additive as simple as milk will make the whole batch temperamental.  You need to know what "normal" is before you deal with problems like seizing, separating, not tracing, so you are better able to recognize that you have a problem & how to deal with it.

Do not use aluminum when making soap!  You can mold in almost anything.  Plastic butter, yogurt, cottage cheese cups, cardboard boxes, wooden boxes, PVC tubes, silicon baking molds.  Remember you have to get your soap OUT of the mold, too.  Lining the mold (see video link below) will make that real easy.  Plastic is flexible & that usually helps, too.  One of my favorite molds is the end cut off of a medium priority mail box.  Of course, you can purchase professional molds made for baking or soap, too.

If I think of anything else (or you have any suggestions)  I will add it.

Getting Started

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2012/10/getting-started-in-soapmaking-without-spending-a-ton-of-money/

Soap Making Equipment, what you need to get started

http://bethannecreates.blogspot.com/2012/07/common-soap-making-terms-and-acronyms.html

http://saponifier.com/an-open-letter-to-new-soapmakers/

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2014/02/ive-made-my-first-batch-of-soaphow-long-until-i-can-sell-it/

How to Crock Pot Hot Process Soap

http://soapingforsanity.blogspot.com/2013/08/tutorial-red-eye-hot-process.html

Modern Procedures & Tips for Cold Process

Comparison of pH test strips used for testing soap

http://milesawayfarm.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/soaping-newbies-12-common-questions/

http://blog.thesage.com/2013/01/31/curing-soap-2/

Primitive Soap Making

"The soap making booklet was originally prepared for Christians in Burma living in mountainous regions who for one reason or another were cut off from being able to use industrial chemicals, and needed to make soap to help stop the spread of certain common and tropical diseases."  By Paul Norman
You can download this 24 page booklet or read it in PDF on the web
Traditional Soap Making based on old Pioneer Recipes

Making Soap from Wood Ash Lye

Soap Mold Info

Perfected Method for Lining a Soap Mold with freezer paper

How to Make a Soap Mold out of Coroplast

Soap Calculators

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html

http://www.saffireblue.ca/shop/liquid-cream-bar-soap-calculator.htm

http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/content/advanced-calculator-solid-cream-or-liquid-soaps

http://www.soapguild.org/soapmakers/resources/lye-calc.php

Soap Calculator Directions
If these pages don't help you understand Soapcalc, there are LOTS of tutorials on youtube.  One of them is bound to help you figure it out.  It is very important that you learn how to use this tool (or at least SOME calculator).  It helps you check recipes you find to make sure they will work.  It will help you resize a recipe, allows you to design your own recipe & gives you all the information you need to analyze the qualities your recipe will bring to a bar, things like hardness, cleansing, conditioning, bubbly, etc.

http://www.soapcalc.net/info/helptext.asp

Kim McNutt's video describing how to use Soapcalc

A Nice Simple Hair Conditioner That Works!

Unless you are making your own hair products (and even if you are) you are probably adding chemicals that cause buildup on your hair.  A lot of them are designed to do that.  For instance if you have dry damaged or chemically treated hair, you have probably been using shampoos & conditioners (and maybe other products) to counteract that.  It works!  At least, it LOOKS like it works.  Silicons in hair products are in there because they coat your hair.  All of a sudden you have sleeker, shinier, less frazzled looking hair.  It's kind of like putting make up on a zit.  The more you put on the worse it gets.  ANY film forming ingredient will cause some buildup on the hair.  See my post on making shampoo bars to see some of the ingredients that work really well in body soap you might want to avoid in hair soap.  I see a lot of posts on the internet about a period of adjustment your hair has to go through (where it just looks & feels like crap) before you start to see the benefits.  I believe that "period of adjustment" is not your hair getting used to the shampoo bar, but your hair giving up all the stuff that has been deposited on it that does not rinse off.  Seems like a nice clarifying shampoo before starting on the shampoo bar journey would nip this problem in the bud!  Hard water, or water with calcium in it can also cause buildup.  I have found that a diluted vinegar rinse (and rinsed OUT of your hair) can help combat the buildup problem.

I am going to recommend a simple, effective hair conditioner to you after studying everything I could find including Susan Barclay-Nichols of Swift Crafty Monkey fame's wonderful blog of highly detailed information.  She doesn't know how much she helped me, and definitely deserves some credit for this conditioner.   would also like to thank Evik at curious-soapmaker.com.  Both have wonderful resources!

BTMS-50 main ingredient Behentrimonium methosulfate is a cationic quaternary compound which is made from Colza, a rapeseed/canola relative.  It's form is flakes.  It improves the feel of the hair, controls static & makes it easy to comb.  It is positively charged & your hair is negatively charged, so there is an attraction.  There are other ingredients containing BTMS.  You can find BTMS 25 & BTMS 225 (one of them is exclusive to Canada, I think it's the 225).  They all have different additives to cut down the naturally stickiness of the BTMS itself.  BTMS 50 is 50% BTMS, the 25 & 225 are 25%.
Some technical info on BTMS from Susan's site:
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/07/cationic-quaternary-compounds-incroquat.html

I do not like preservatives, but they are a necessary evil if you are going to store or sell products.  You don't want your beautiful concoctions to form big globs of mold, or worse contain bacteria or mold you CAN'T see, but it's there, anyway.  Any product that contains water needs a preservative!!!  You are on your own there.  I make tiny tiny batches & store in my fridge.  This recipe does not contain a preservative but you DO need one if you make more than you will use in a couple weeks & don't mind storing it in the fridge.

For a thick, substantial conditioner I used 6% BTMS-50 and 94% distilled water
Put both together in a jar & place that in a water bath & heat to 180 deg F.
The BTMS will melt & stir, froth, beat so that the water & BTMS are thoroughly combined.  I found a frother works great after it's all melted.   The cooling is kinda tricky.  You can place in ice or cool water bath & keep stirring until cool.  I have never had it separate back out, but I guess that's why you are supposed to keep it mixed up while cooling.

This was too serious a conditioner for me.  I went down to 3% BTMS with 97% water.  It's still a lot of conditioning.

Since I have hard, nasty water I sometimes use a diluted vinegar rinse.  Hmm, vinegar preserves pickles, right?  I wondered if BTMS would have any problem being dissolved in vinegar.  I used 97% vinegar & 3% BTMS and it worked beautifully!  I can apply this directly to my hair (in moderation) or I can put about 1/2 to 1 tsp in a glass of warm water & douse my hair.  No more vinegar rinse!!!

I have to qualify this.  It is summer time & I do not really need a conditioner.  My shampoo bar is working well.  The BTMS-50 conditioner is not new or a new idea, the vinegar/BTMS IS a new idea.

You can add all kinds of things to this conditioner.  Some people like to add conditioning oils, but be careful.  You might want to try it plain, first.  It works pretty good!

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2010/06/conditioner-basic-recipes.html

http://curious-soapmaker.com/making-hair-conditioner-small-experiment.html#Basic_hair_conditioner_recipe

Lots o Links

Soapmaking Oils

Common soap making oil descriptions

Shelf life & description of carrier oils

Description and fatty acid properties of some soap making oils

Carrier Oil Comparison Chart by SwiftCraftyMonkey

Emollients - oils, butters & esters (lots of articles)

Fat content & composition of seed oils

http://curious-soapmaker.com/a-big-test-of-100-one-oil-soaps-after-15-months.html

http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

http://thesoapdish.com/oil-properties-chart.htm

aussiesoapsupplies.com.au/oil-properties & usage rates

gardenofwisdom Shelf Life of Oils

Grapeseed oil

Pomace Olive Oil Info

http://www.sustaincreateandflow.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-rosehip-seed-oil/

Shea Butter Information & Properties



Natural Colorants

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/07/color-soap-naturally-testing-herbs-and-spices-for-ph-stability/

http://crafty.dyskolus.com/coloring/coloring.html

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/07/natural-soap-colorants-gallery-spice-and-herbal-powders-at-trace/

http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/08/natural-soap-colorants-gallery-clays-added-at-trace/

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soaprecipes/a/claysoapcombo.htm

natural-colorants-for-cosmetics

http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/creative/november/naturalcolorantssoap.html

http://www.diynatural.com/natural-soap-colorants/

http://www.soap-making-resource.com/annatto-seeds-soap-making.html

http://www.azerbaijanrugs.com/natural_dyes_sources.htm
Not necessarily all soap safe



Fragrance Info

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/fragrance-notes.htm

Soapqueen Vanilla content chart of various FOs

http://roberttisserand.com/2011/06/essential-oils-in-soap-interview-with-kevin-dunn/

http://www.crunchybetty.com/21-things-you-should-know-about-essential-oils

Are Fragrance Oils Good for the Skin?

http://www.wingsets.com/blogs/blog/6161604-fragrance-oils-versus-essential-oils-which-is-better

http://blog.bulkapothecary.com/combining-scents-the-fragrance-wheel/

Blending Essential Oils for Beginners

Soapqueen on10x orange essential oil

Robert Tisserand on re-distilled essential oils

Robert Tisserand. How to extend the Life of Your Essential Oils

Give Your Essential Oils More Staying Power

Understanding Essential Oil & Fragrance Guidelines

Common & Uncommon Essential & Carrier Oil Questions



Make Ingredients & Tools at Home

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Aloe-Vera-Juice

Making Mango Butter & other things to do with the seeds

http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/09/do-it-yourself-homemade-rice-milk.html

Make your own Essential & Infused oils

how-to-make-bamboo-charcoal

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Soap-Stamp/?ALLSTEPS

Easy Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

How to Extract-Lanolin-from-Sheep's-Wool



Plants & Herbs

Multi Herb/Plant
http://www.herbs-info.com/list-of-herbs.html

http://varenya.hubpages.com/hub/Decorative-and-therapeutic-flowers-and-herbs-for-making-soaps

http://www.natural-soapmaking.net/natural-skincare/herbal_skincare_chart.html

A Modern Herbal by Mrs M Grieve (read online)

http://www.netplaces.com/soapmaking/herbs/common-soapmaking-herbs.htm

Drying & Storing Herbs

Infusing Oils & a list of herbs & their uses

Calendula

http://personalcaretruth.com/2011/02/calendula-in-skin-care/

Carrot
Carrots, Carrot Juice, Carrot seed oil, Carrot oil,

Chamomile
http://www.herbslist.net/chamomile.html

http://www.simplysetup.com/simple-living-2/wild-chamomile-finding-identifying-and-using.html

Chickweed
http://www.thepracticalherbalist.com/herbal-library/herbal-encyclopedia/chickweed-skin-rejuvenator/

Dandelion
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Dandelion.html

Health Benefits of Dandelion

English Ivy
http://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/english-ivy-herbs.html

Grapes
http://grapes.greab.info/useful-properties-of-grapes/remedies-of-oriental-medicine.html

Horsetail
http://wellnessmama.com/8592/herb-profile-horsetail/

Jewelweed
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Jewelweed.html

Lavender
Lavender, parts to use

Licorice
http://www.annmariegianni.com/ingredient-showcase-licorice-root-the-natural-option-for-treating-eczema-psoriasis-and-hyperpigmentation/

Ginger
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5107899_benefits-ginger-skin.html

Plantain
Plantain weed

Pomegranate
http://allusefulideas.com/top-powerful-health-benefits-of-the-pomegranate/

Rosemary
http://wellnessmama.com/5193/herb-profile-rosemary/



Skin Conditions

http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/problems/treating/uses-for-vinegar-beauty-and-relaxation-ga.htm

http://www.essenceofwellbeing.com.au/Essential-Oil-Selection-Guide

Acne

http://www.herbs-info.com/herbs-for-acne.html

Eczema

http://www.herbhedgerow.co.uk/20-best-oils-for-treating-eczema/

http://www.herbhedgerow.co.uk/20-skincare-herbs-for-treating-eczema/

http://www.aworldofaromatherapy.com/essential-oils-eczema.htm

http://www.bewellbuzz.com/wellness-buzz/essential-oils-for-eczema/

Ingrown Hairs

http://www.humblebeeandme.com/banish-ingrown-hairs/?ref=featured

Other Additives

http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/lather-lovers-additive-testing/

http://blueorchidbc.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/adding-fruit-to-soap/

Add Salt to Your Soap to Increase Hardness

Troubleshooting

http://cavemanchemistry.com/DreadedOrangeSpot-Dunn.pdf

candleandsoap.about.com on DOS

removing-soda-ash-efficiently

physicsforums on ash

http://millersoap.com/trouble.html

http://www.lovinsoap.com/troubleshooting/

Gracefruit Troubleshooting HP

So, you want to make a Bar of Shampoo!

I'm really not anybody special, but was driven to create a good shampoo bar for my personal use.  I knew I was going to make a lot of test batches so I limited my batches to 1 pound or less.  All the shampoo bars make good body soap, so nothing was wasted, but I recommend if you make a shampoo bar that everybody is raving about it, don't take it for granted that YOU will like it.  Make small batches & change things slowly.  One thing I have learned is that even 1/2% of superfat can make a difference you can feel, not to mention each different oil & combination.

Hair can be so individual even in the same family, so creating a shampoo bar that everybody loves is going to be elusive.

Commercial shampoos MUST contain preservatives.  They often also, contain silicones.

Preservatives are a necessary evil as you do not want a bottle of moldy, bacteria ridden product, yet they ARE poisons.  They kill bacteria & mold.  Bar soap does not need a preservative, as the pH of the bar is on the high side & the very texture of it helps prevent the growth of nasties in your product.

Silicons make your hair artificially beautiful.  Dry, damaged, color treated hair is usually quite porous & the silicon patches the damage on the hair like a plastic coating.  Looks great, feels smooth, but it's an artificial bandaid.  It's hard to rinse off, so it stays on the hair shaft.  If you have been using commercial shampoos, which are basically detergents and surfactants & switch to a "soap".  The "buildup" on your hair is not being reinforced & your hair starts to look like crap as the coating breaks down.  Several companies make shampoos that remove residue.  I used to like the Neutrogena one until I gave up commercial shampoos entirely.

Water, also, plays an important role in good looking, healthy hair.  You are very lucky if you are starting with nice soft water to wash in.  My water is a nightmare of hardness & has a very high iron content.  I was shocked to find the pH out of my tap was around 10.

I find that soap for hair is different than soap for the body.  I usually would want things left on the skin for more protection & moisture and less running for the lotion, like a nice light coating of oils, some ingredients like sodium lactate or glycerin to act as a humectant & draw moisture to my skin.  I like milks, clays, oils with lots of unsaponifiable components and a decent superfat %.  This is NOT what I want in a shampoo bar.  I do not want much of anything that will leave deposits or a film on my hair.  It makes it dull & often, sticky.  I don't want any exfoliants on my hair as I am confused as to why anyone would want to sand the hair shaft to make it weaker & more easily broken or damaged.  I don't want anything TOO cleansing either, to strip off all the oils it is going to produce all next week.  Some people have success with a 100% coconut oil bar superfatted at 20%.  I don't think this would work for me, but I have not tried it.  Coconut oil soap is a great cleanser & WILL take most, if not all, of the oils out of your hair.  I use it at 0% superfat for laundry!  The 20% superfat added to the bar replaces the oil that the coconut soap stripped off.  Not what I want.

Each oil is made up of a variety of weak acids.  Oleic, linoleic & linolenic acids are the conditioning ones.  Of course, the bar has to be balanced & make some bubbles & stay hard enough to last at least a couple showers.  A lot of people use lard in their shampoo bars & are very happy with it.  I should get off my butt & make some so I can talk about it with first hand knowledge.  It is fantastic in body soap!

My good FB friend, ByrdiJean Zoricic turned me on to Canola oil.  This is called Rapeseed oil outside of the USA.  It has some super qualities for both body & hair soap.  It is high in all 3 of the above conditioning oils & contains less than 1.5% unsaponifiables.  This means it is going to be a marvel on my skin or hair but not leave behind a lot of oils or "stuff"  that is going to weigh down or grease up my hair.  Excellent!  Castor oil is notorious for skin & hair repair & is a wonderful nourishing oil.  It is the only oil that contains Ricinoleic acid which is also a conditioning acid.  It only contains 0.5-1% unsaponifiables.  Saponified, it also increases bubbles in your soap.  Coconut oil is a serious cleanser.  It strips oil off your skin/hair when saponified.  It makes super bubbles, can't beat it.  It also serves to harden the bars. 0.6-1.5% unsaps, too.  Mmmm, butters.  All creamy dreamy but not all created equally.  There are butters that are made from the item they are called after, like cocoa butter.  This is NOT a butter made with a bit of cocoa oil added to a lot of hydrogenated soy.  Mango, shea, peanut are all butters made from the item they are named after (there are more).  Things like cucumber butter are not "real" butters (as I define them).  They consist of a little cucumber oil or extract added to a hard oil like palm or soy shortening.  They are usually very expensive & if you really want them, you can make them at home & save some cash.  Mango has less than 0.7% unsaps & cocoa less than 0.8%.  Shea is different.  Refined shea has less than 1% unsaps while unrefined shea clocks in at between 6-17% or 9-13% unsaps recorded at 2 different test sources.  I like unrefined shea in my products but decided the unsaps in it were way too much for my hair to handle.

Sodium Lactate, can I say enough good stuff about this ingredient?  I see that most people use it to harden their bars of soap.  It does a great job at hardening.  I made some mainly lard soap that the edges were actually uncomfortable they were so hard, lol.  I was discussing this with my friend Byrdi who asked why don't I just pare or plane them off, hee hee, I love that woman, lol.  The easy fix worked well, lol.   I like SL because it is a serious humectant.  That means it draws moisture/water to itself.  An oil on your skin will create a barrier so your moisture will not evaporate, a humectant actually moisturizes by bringing moisture to your skin.  This is also very nice for hair.  Moisture with no grease, yay!  What could be better?

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is lovely stuff.  Commercial vinegar is normally reduced with water to 5% acidity.  I make my own vinegar & have no idea what the concentration of acid is.  I have made shampoo bars using ACV for 100% of the lye water.  It is at room temperature & you must add the lye slowly as it has a tendency to foam up.  The lye dissolves & the solution makes good soap without any outlandish calculations to compensate for anything.  Thank you Amy Anderson for being the fist person I know of to test this out.  There has been some active discussion about how the vinegar (as an acid) cuts down the effectiveness of the lye solution & yields a higher superfat than you anticipate.  This sounds logical, but I have not been able to detect too much superfat in the finished soaps.  Vinegar cuts soap scum (important for us hard water beauties).  It helps get rid of dandruff.  It somehow makes the shampoo bar milder, too.

Beer is another great hair tonic.  If I use beer for lye water, I am impatient.  Some people just open it & let it set to destroy the carbonation & evaporate some of the alcohol.  I like to simmer it.  When the volume is reduced to about 1/2 of what I started with, it's done.  Cool it off, measure & you can use it right away for your lye water.  Add lye slowly.  Beer is full of vitamins & antioxidants.  It softens, enriches & shines.

Of course these items are not the only good things for hair, or good things for shampoo bars, but I am really trying not to write a book, lol.

About the superfat in your shampoo bar.  Before I discovered that shampoos were not all created equally, I had dry, thin, limp hair.  I decided to change from the chemical laden soup I had been putting on my hair for years & switched to what I figured were healthier alternatives.  My hair was still dry, but much thicker & started actually having some body.  Because my hair was dry, I was under the false impression that I needed a hefty superfat.  I was very wrong!  I settled on 3% superfat, much lower than anything I would have used for a body soap.  You don't want your shampoo bar to make you look like you just crawled out of a swamp, but you don't want your hair so full of static it stands up by itself, either.  I started using shampoo bars that I was formulating about 7 months ago.  Some were pretty good, some were total flops.  I am not saying that the following recipe is the greatest shampoo ever created, but it has been working really well for me for the past 4-5 months.  One of my very first bars of soap was a vinegar bar.  I did not use it for the lye, but discounted the water & added the discounted amount back in ACV after the cook.  That bar is really nice, has a slickness I have not been able to duplicate any other way.  My hair is no longer dry!  If I go out to get my hair cut (I cut it a lot, myself), I am always complimented on how thick & healthy & shiny & what great condition my hair is in & how gawdawful fast it grows.  I guess I must be doing something right!

Herbal additives can be a benefit for hair.  I have been using Rosemary infused oil on my hair for about 40 yrs.  I had hair long enough to sit on for most of my life & Rosemary oil worked as a super detangler.  Just work a bit through the tangles & on the ends.  Rosemary also makes your hair shine, fights dandruff, & stimulates growth.  I decided to use infused olive oil for my superfat in the vinegar bars.  If I had Rosemary essential oil, I would have added that, too!

A recent post on a Facebook group mentioned adding Bergamot EO to a shampoo, for scent.  I did some research to see if there were any benefits for hair, or maybe some drawbacks.  It appears to be of great benefit to thin, dry hair that breaks.  It increases shine & can help make a protective barrier if you style your hair with heat.  If you have curls or frizzy hair this is the stuff you should try!  My friend Anita tested it on her hair.  She has a beautiful head of long curls that I'm sure can get pretty unruly & the weather can frizz that curly stuff up pretty good.  It was quite a successful test.  She loved what it did for her hair & it really looked lovely!  Check this out for more info:
Bergamot for your hair

I found this article a while back.  It lists some herbs & oils that benefit hair.  You may want to check it out:
natural-ways-to-make-hair-stronger-grow-and-shine-cover-grays-too/

Lizardlady's ACV Hot Process Shampoo Bar Recipe

This recipe is for 16 oz of oils.  With the liquids & lye it will be about 22-26 oz soap batter.  You can make this CP, CPOP, I've made it in the microwave.

Canola Oil       50%           8 oz
Coconut Oil     33%           5.28 oz
Castor Oil        7%             1.12 oz
Mango Butter   5%             0.8 oz
Cocoa Butter works well, too
Sunflower Oil    5%             0.8 oz

Melt the above oils together & cool a bit

ACV                 6.08 oz      (divide in 2 parts A 4.08 oz, B 2 oz)
ACV is Apple Cider Vinegar
Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)      2.39 oz
Sodium Lactate  5%             0.8 oz

Slowly add lye to 4.08 oz room temp ACV (or colder, temp not critical).  Stir to thoroughly dissolve the lye. Cool a bit.  When cool add Sodium Lactate & stir.

Add lye mixture to the oil mixture & make soap!

Superfat (your choice)
I used Rosemary infused Olive oil  3%        0.48 oz

Right before molding soap add superfat, any scent (hope you stick to EOs good for hair) & the 2 oz of ACV you saved out of the lye liquid.  Stir it up good & mold.
I always zap test my soap before I mold it but some people like to mess with strips or phenophthalein.  (that's another blog, lol).  You can scrape up the scraps out of the pot & go wash your hands to check out what you made, but it will be even better in a couple days.  Cut it or unmold it when it cools off.

I have had many people write & let me know they like this soap & it was made successfully.  I have had 2 people who did not have success with this recipe.  Both said they had crumbly soap.  One was a very new soap maker & that could have been from a lot of things.  The other was from an experienced soap maker which kinda bugged me as I do not now what the problem was.  She said the batch came out crumbly & with powdery layers.  I didn't get much technical info from her like the brand of vinegar, whether she stuck to the recipe.  She was concerned about the amount of Sodium Lactate & thought that was the culprit.  She had read that 3% was the max to use.  I have used 9% in recipes & had no problems.  I have to admit, I am not real critical about measuring THAT ingredient so no tellin how big a % I have actually used.  I love the stuff, lol.  Thanks Byrdi!  What would I do without your great ingredient suggestions?

ACV Rinse may be necessary if you have hard water.  It cuts the soap scum so it can rinse clean(er).  Put a bit of ACV in a plastic cup, fill with warm water, pour over your hair after your water rinse.  Don't leave it in as some suggest, make sure you rinse it well.  Leaving vinegar on your hair is just as bad as leaving soap scum on it.  Some people do not like the final rinse with ACV but prefer another type of vinegar, lemon juice or even citric acid.  Whatever works for you is good!  Your hair will also benefit if you can stand to do your final rinse with cool or even cold water.

Lizardlady's Dark Beer Hot Process Shampoo Bar Recipe

This recipe calls for 16 oz oils

Canola Oil        50%          8 oz
Coconut Oil      33%          5.28 oz
Castor Oil           7%          1.12 oz
Cocoa Butter       5%          0.8 oz
Hemp Oil             5%          0.8 oz

Melt the above oils together & cool a bit

Dark Beer 6.08 oz  I use Leinenkugel Creamy Dark, but any dark beer will work
Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)  2.393 oz  (67.84 grams)

Open a 12 oz bottle of the beer & simmer for about 10 minutes until volume is reduced by about 1/2.  Cool & measure the beer.  Make the weight up with distilled water to 6.08 oz

Slowly add the lye to the cooled beer.
After it is thoroughly dissolved & cooled, add to the lye solution

Sodium Lactate       5%          0.8 oz

Add lye mixture to your oils and make soap!

After cook add your superfats:

Hemp Oil                 1%           0.16 oz
Apricot Seed Oil      2%           0.32 oz
1 egg yolk

Separate egg, we are only using the yolk.  Mix the yolk into the superfats with a frother, or some other method to really incorporate it well.  When the soap is done cooking & it's time to add the superfats to the batter... wait.  Add about 1T of soap batter TO the superfats to temper the egg yolk so you don't get scrambled eggs in your soap.  After you have incorporated the bit of batter & your superfats you may want to add a bit more soap batter, then add the tempered superfats to the main soap batter & stir well to incorporate.
You do not HAVE to add the egg yolk but it sure makes a nice hair soap with it in there.

I have to admit, I made these with no scent & they do not smell so great.  You may want to add some of the EOs discussed above or pick your own, but make sure they are good for hair.  I love BOTH of these shampoo bars & alternate them as the mood strikes me.  I hope you enjoy them!