Lost in the Woods handmade soap

maandag 28 januari 2013

Just poured: goatmilk soap with honey

Ingredients: olive oil , coconut oil, palm oil, wheat germ oil, shea butter, goat milk, honey, TD, white clay powder, unscented

Pristine white: nailed it!

The beer soap came out lovely this morning. The white is actually white, just as I hoped.

zondag 27 januari 2013

In a village near us, there's a local brewer called Kasper. His brewery is called Kasparus and they make the best beer. I don't like to drink beer but I love making soap with it. Something I tried before with his beer but I forgot to add scent and it did not smell good.

This one has a bottom layer of yellow (with yellow claypowder) and (what hopefully will stay) white soap representing the foam. The top layer I made without beer to keep it as light as possible. I used only coconut, palm and sunflower oil and added titanium dioxide and white clay powder. So fingers crossed for a pristine white!

Red clay soap, stamped

Castille soap

I made these the CP method and put them for about 24 hours in the oven (70 degrees Celcius) two days later. It cerntainly speeded up the curing! Some tiny bubbles formed though but they don't really bother me that much.

Ghassoul clay soap

Currently curing.

Oils: olive, coconut, palm, castor and shea butter
Additives: ghassoul clay powder, thyme leaves
Perfume: essential oils juniper and a hint of eucalyptus

vrijdag 25 januari 2013

Overheated soap

I made honey soap and wanted it to cure fast so I put it in the oven on 50-70 deegrees C. Bad idea, I should have known. The honey made the soap heat up too much. I still like it though, the swirl and colors are nice.

zondag 20 januari 2013

Just poured: castille soap

Castille soap with green clay and lavender + lemon grass essential oil.

Impatience

The most difficult part of cold process soap making is the waiting. Waiting for the lye to cool down, for being able to take it out of the mold, for the curing... This soap was not hard enough to be stamped, I bearely got it out of the soap. But I do love the effect of the thyme leaves combined with the tree stamp. It's quite close to how I planned it.

zaterdag 19 januari 2013

Little soap embellishments

This was some left over rhassoul soap which I poured on baking paper. After 3 days it's ready to cut out the shapes.

I use them to embellish soaps like this:

maandag 14 januari 2013

Soap in a jacket, tutorial

There's description in English underneath each step.

I made this tutorial about 2 years ago, before I knew of handmade soaps. And I never want to go back to mass produced chemical "soaps". So please forgive me the use of Dove in this tutorial.

Een heerlijk scrubzeepje kun je heel makkelijk zelf maken met gekaarde wol. Het ziet er leuk uit, werkt heel goed (ik gebruik het zelfs om m'n gezicht te scrubben) en je houdt niet zo'n vies klein restje zeep over. Het jasje krimpt tijdens gebruik met de zeep mee. Wol is bovendien schimmelwerend dus je kunt het gewoon in je vochtige badkamer laten liggen. Laat wel tussen elk gebruik de wol opdrogen, anders wordt de zeep zacht.

Soap in a jacket is wonderful for exfoliating your skin. Just hold it under running water and gently rub the soap on your skin. Will leave you with a beautiful soft skin. I even use it to scrub my face! It's also great for removing garlic and onion smell from you hands.

Make sure you allow it to dry after each use, otherwise the soap will get too soft.

Benodigdheden:
stuk zeep dat goed schuimt
gekaarde wol (www.meervilt.nl)
zijde
heet water

You will need:
soap that foams well
carded wool
silk
hot water

Stap 1.
Giet heet water in een kom. Het moet zo heet zijn dat je er nog net met je handen in kunt. Pak een streng wol en trek daar plukken uit tussen de muis van je hand en je de toppen van je vingers.

Poor hot water in a bowl. It should be as hot as your hands can bear. Take a string of wool roving and gently pluck pieces from it between your fingers and the ball of your thumb.

Stap 2
Leg de plukjes wol dakpansgewijs naast elkaar in 3-4 lagen. Wissel per laag horizontaal af met verticaal. Je kunt eventueel wat strengetjes pure zijde toevoegen.

Lay the pieces down like roof tiles overlapping each other. About 3-4 layers is enough. Vary horizontal and vertical layers. You can also add some silk if you like

Stap 3
Je wolmatje moet bijna tweeëneenhalve keer zo groot zijn als de omtrek van je zeep. Dat ziet er ongeveer zo uit:

Your wool mat should be about 2.5 times the size of the soap, like this picture shows (definately not bigger than this picture shows). It's not exact science, a few cm's too much is no problem.

Stap 4
Wikkel de wol nu losjes om het zeepje heen, vouw de randen naar onderen toe.

Place the mat on top of the soap and loosely wrap the wool around it.

Stap 5
Leg het op een diep bord en sprenkel er heet water overheen totdat hij rondom nat is.

Put it on a soup plate and use the spoon or your hands to sprinkle hot water on it (the hotter, the better but not boiling hot!).

Stap 6
Neem het zeepje in je hand en begin heel voorzichtig te kneden. Haal nog niet je handen van de wol af want de wol plakt nu nog aan je vingers. Dompel hem af en toe in het hete water terwijl je het zeepje met twee handen omsluit om de wol op z'n plek te houden. Knijp overtollig water er uit (de wol mag niet te nat zijn). De zeep komt door de wol heen sijpelen en de wol begint te vilten. Je kunt nu voorzichtig beginnen met wrijven over de wol. Wrijf niet alleen boven- en onderkant maar ook de zijkanten.

When the wool is wet, take it in your hands and very, very gently start squeezing it. Try to keep the wool in place as much as possible. The soap will work its way through the wool. After about 2 minutes start gently rubbing with small movements.

Wool starts felting under influence of water, soap, warmth and pressure.

Stap 7
Hoe vaster de wol begint aan te voelen, hoe meer druk en wrijving je kunt uitoefenen. Begin de zeep tussen je handen te rollen alsof je je handen wast met de zeep. In dit stadium kun je ook de wol over een sushimatje wrijven, dat gaat sneller dan alleen je handen gebruiken.

As the wool starts to felt, you can make bigger movements. Roll the soap between your hands like your washing your hands with it. Also apply more pressure. Soak it in hot water every now and then and squeez out excess water. What a nice soapy mess!

To speed up the process you could now start rubbing it on a sushi mat but it's not necessary. Not using it just takes a little bit longer.

Stap 8
Je zeepje is klaar als de wol vast om de zeep heen zit. Spoel hem af onder de koude kraan en dep hem met een droge handdoek. Zijn je handen ooit schoner geweest?

You're done when the wool has shrunken completely around the soap. Rinse it under cold water and dab it with a clean dry towel. Have your hands ever been cleaner?

zondag 13 januari 2013

Coconut milk soap with calendula

Ingredients:
olive oil, calendula infused
coconut oil
shea butter
palm oil
castor oil
coconut oil
water
NaOH
titanium dioxide
calendula petals
kurkuma powder
perfume oil bergamot

Made yesterday evening, using a recipe from Soap Making Essentials. Right after pouring I put them outside on the veranda to cool down. It was freezing so it worked really well. This morning I took them inside and popped them out of the mold. When frozen they were quite firm but now they've warmed up to room temperature, they're quite soft. I should have waited a bit longer before I took them out.

Right after pouring:

12 hours after pouring:

zaterdag 12 januari 2013

Anise soap with Heilaarde

Ingredients
olive oil
coconut oil
palm oil
hemp oil
green tea
NaOH
Luvos heilaarde
activated charcoal powder
sesame seeds
essential oils anise, ginger and juniper 3:2:1