# African Black MP



## allinalather (Jan 31, 2016)

Has anyone else tried this?

I made a couple of bars, no fragrance or colour, just to see what it was like.

This is made with just 5% African Black, I have a bar of the real stuff on order to compare.  The soap base is brown and translucent but after use the edges look grey and not terribly pleasant.  The lather is nice enough, it is just the appearance.

I think I will remelt the unused bars and add a bit of colour and fragrance and see if it improves.

I am new to soap making, if anything looks odd, I assume it is me!

When I was heating the base (double boiler), I had what I thought was an awful lot of bubbles on the surface.  They would not go away and I used a spatula to move them from the surface of the base.  It seems that they were a paler wax, I put them in a small mould with the left over soap base.​


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## allinalather (Jan 31, 2016)

I have taken a photo for anyone interested.

The big block on the left is the MP as delivered.  The next block is the left over soap after melting, this has the blobby bits in it.  The next soap is one of two bars that I made without the blobby bits.  The soap in the dish is similar to the bar without the blobby bits, but as it looks after it has come out of the shower.  Not pretty.

Husband tried it and said "You are never going to sell that...", in reality, I am about a year away from being ready to sell anything, but I can see what he means.

I am away from home tomorrow, but during the next few days I will melt down the other bar, maybe add a bit of colour and fragrance and see how that turns out.


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## JayJay (Jan 31, 2016)

Hi there! I'm not a melt and pour woman (yet) but I am interested in what you are doing...if you care to explain a bit more to help me understand.

What makes this soap African Black Soap? Is the soap base African Black Soap base? Are you saying that you used 5% of the soap base?


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## allinalather (Feb 1, 2016)

Hi JayJay

It is made by Stephenson.  This is a quote from one of the websites:

*Description: **Crystal A**frican Black Melt & Pour Soap** is a vegetable based, sulfate free soap made using 5% natural African Black So**ap.  This innovative soap is designed to cleanse, hydrate, and refresh the  skin, balance and revive complexions, and produce a smooth, creamy  lather. While not identical to traditional African Black Soap, this is  the only African Black melt & pour soap base on the market and the  easiest way to make African Black Soap at home!


*


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## JayJay (Feb 1, 2016)

Cool! Thanks for sharing. There are some threads on here about black soap. They areen't on M&P but reading them may be useful for you to learn about that type of soap (if you don't already know how it is made). 

Good luck.


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## allinalather (Feb 1, 2016)

My bar of "real" African Black arrived today.  Interestingly, it looks a bit like the bar with the blobby bits in!  Husband is not keen on the smell of it so I am probably backing a loser on this one.  I am still going to try and remelt the bars, add colour and fragrance and see what happens.  I will post pics as and when I can.


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## JayJay (Feb 2, 2016)

allinalather said:


> My bar of "real" African Black arrived today.  Interestingly, it looks a bit like the bar with the blobby bits in!  Husband is not keen on the smell of it so I am probably backing a loser on this one.  I am still going to try and remelt the bars, add colour and fragrance and see what happens.  I will post pics as and when I can.



Sounds like you got yourself a traditional bar of ABS. If I understand the process correctly, those bits are smushed soap curds with bits of other organic matter from the process mixed in. 

Maybe someone else who knows more will chime in.


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## lisamaliga (Feb 5, 2016)

allinalather said:


> I have taken a photo for anyone interested.
> 
> The big block on the left is the MP as delivered.  The next block is the left over soap after melting, this has the blobby bits in it.  The next soap is one of two bars that I made without the blobby bits.  The soap in the dish is similar to the bar without the blobby bits, but as it looks after it has come out of the shower.  Not pretty.



Thank you for taking a picture of it and sharing it with us. I was going to buy some & I might in the future, but for now I really prefer 100% ABS as opposed to 5%!

Lush made a soap called Pineapple Grunt which smelled SO good. If you add some plain white bits of soap, & some delicious smelling pineapple FO, you might have your own version of it!


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