Rose Water Experiment

So I have a lot of scrap soap from the Bay View Sunset batch that I want to try adding a scent to. Right now it looks like Mac & Cheese but after it melts down I'm going to add Rose Water mix it together and pour it into molds to cure again.

In the book it suggested 2.5oz on average for adding essential oils (that's for a full recipe) I'm going to see what 2.5oz looks like but I'll most likely use that much with this first trial because essential oils are so much stronger... I'll need more rose water to make the finished bar of soap smell. So I think, so far success comes in two's:)

We checked out high quality organic essential oils at Future Green today and also took a look at their soaps ($7.50 for 4oz!) to get some ideas. We smelled and tested them but none seemed to have scents that would go with our "flavors" of soap. So we'll have to see how this rose water trial goes there is also orange blossom and lavender water we could use if this goes well that way we can stay away from the essential oils.

First Batch of Home-Made Soap!!

OLIVE BAR #1 was born in our kitchen this afternoon!

We used the slow cooker method... so we mixed the lye & water let it cool to 100 degrees and also at the same time heated the olive oil in the crock pot to 100 degrees. I expected it to be really smelly but it wasn't so bad at all pretty mild smell. The vinegar & water solution for safety smelled stronger. We combined the lye/water solution & olive oil and stirred it for about 10 minutes with the immersion blender. It then took about an hour and 45 minutes of cook time for it to get totally saponified.

Then we cut our PCV pipe down to 1 foot sections and covered one end of each with wax paper... securing it with multiple rubber bands. Then we poured the saponified soap into the molds. We cut down 3 molds and only filled about 1 and a half. It said to let cool for 4-6 hours then possibly cure for 2 weeks. I guess the curing for 2 weeks makes the soap lather more. It starts to cool and harden fast so when we were done pouring it into the molds we used a little excess to wash our hands and it lathered... not real well but it was white and soapy:)

It doesn't smell like olive oil but it does have a mild scent but It doesn't smell like anything in particular.