# Fresh ingredients in CP soap



## hoegarden (Jan 23, 2013)

Hiyo to all soapers out there, have you ever try adding fresh ingredients to your CP soaps?

For example fresh strawberry puree that you blend yourself, fresh yogurt from the fridge etc.

My thinking is, will the fresh ingredients shorten the life of the soaps? Fresh things will spoil or go unfresh ultimately. I wanted to try strawberry puree to get the nice strawberry scent (that I saw on a youtube video) but hestitating as I am unsure of the ultimate outcome.


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## CaliChan (Jan 23, 2013)

No its completely fine. The food in the soap wont go bad as long as there is no chunks. Even if you wanted to add preservatives to make yourself feel better the lye would destroy it. So go for it! i used baby food because i dont have a food processor. Strawberry soap sounds really nice. But if you want it to smell like strawberries youll need to add a FO. The natural strawberry scent will not survive they lye. I do a water discount for the lye solution then add the puree at trace


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## hoegarden (Jan 23, 2013)

Hi Cali, Thanks!
You make me feel more assured. How much baby food did you use? would 5% of oil be too much?


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## CaliChan (Jan 23, 2013)

If thats what you feel comfortable with 
In my batch i did 22.5% baby food and 15.5% water.
There was a slight spottiness because i added 2 tbsp oat flour to these but i think they still turned out very nicely. Just make sure that you have enough water to dissolve the lye into.


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## CaliChan (Jan 23, 2013)

that picture also reminds me that i need to clean my camera lense haha


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## hoegarden (Jan 23, 2013)

The soaps are very nice. Hope mine will ture out will. Thanks Cali.


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## DWinMadison (Jan 23, 2013)

hoegarden said:


> Hiyo to all soapers out there, have you ever try adding fresh ingredients to your CP soaps?
> 
> For example fresh strawberry puree that you blend yourself, fresh yogurt from the fridge etc.
> 
> My thinking is, will the fresh ingredients shorten the life of the soaps? Fresh things will spoil or go unfresh ultimately. I wanted to try strawberry puree to get the nice strawberry scent (that I saw on a youtube video) but hestitating as I am unsure of the ultimate outcome.



Interesting idea.  I wonder how dehydrated strawberries would work?


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## hoegarden (Jan 23, 2013)

Hi DwinMadison, you can try it and share your experience here... I will try it maybe over the next few months..


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## Genny (Jan 23, 2013)

I've used fresh avocado, carrots, cucumber, yogurt, spinach, tomato paste successfully in CP.  I've found that a lot of fresh fruits/vegetables turn brown; like strawberries, pomegranate juice, cranberries and some turn gray, like blueberries.


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## chicklet (Jan 23, 2013)

I've used carrots in a few batches - one batch was with whole carrots that I cooked and smooshed into a thick paste, the other batches were made with baby food carrots.  I use yogurt frequently in soap.  I make my own using raw cow's milk, then I substitue some of the water called for in the recipe with yogurt.


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## CaliChan (Jan 23, 2013)

yeah foods when a high sugar content have a tendency to brown, I was surprised when the mixed berry kept some of its purple


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## Seventeen Soaps (Jan 23, 2013)

I love making my own pumpkin puree, I just use the stick blender to mash it all up after it's cooked as it's going in the soap anyway     And I have also used cucumber and blueberries too.  It's so much fun to experiment with food.  If the food you are using has a high sugar content just make sure the soap doesn't overheat.  Good luck!


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## hoegarden (Jan 23, 2013)

It seems like some of you cooked the food before making it into a puree. i guess is that the food itself is too hard to be puree when uncook. 

Other than pumpkin and carrot, anybody try papaya or spinach or maybe even more exotic food?

I getting so excited to start the soap earlier after seeing the responses. hopefully this weekend!


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## Paintguru (Jan 23, 2013)

Silly question....what is the point of adding the food purees?  What is it adding to the soap?  I could see some things like goats milk and yogurt....but strawberries???


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## Genny (Jan 23, 2013)

hoegarden ~ a lot of foods will be too hard to puree if uncooked. I've done spinach uncooked & pureed.  Somewhere at the beginning of the thread I wrote some of the pureed foods I've soaped.  

Chris ~ Some vegetables/fruits have sugars in them that add bubbles, some add some lovely natural color, some add a nice smooth lather.


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## hoegarden (Jan 24, 2013)

Hi Chris, was thinking about strawberris as I came across reading about people who are sensitive to synthetic fragrance and some essential oils will not be able to use soap containing such ingredients. Thus was thinking if it can be replaced by the actual fruits. Not sure if the scent will stay as Cali did mention that the scent will not seems to stay so I will experiment it out.


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## hoegarden (Jan 24, 2013)

Hi genny, yes, i saw your post. you really experiment alot. just wonder if there is even more possibilties. suddenly i think my dictionary is very limited when think about fruits and vegetables.


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## Seventeen Soaps (Jan 24, 2013)

I didn't "add" the food to the soap so to speak, I used it as the water portion of the soap.  Pumpkin and blueberries both add wonderful properties to the lather because of the sugars.  I didn't cook the blueberries though I just pureed them.  Blueberries will make your soap turn brown though but the pumpkin stays a lovely bright orange.


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## hoegarden (Jan 24, 2013)

Frankly, I didn't know that sugar will add lather to soap. Never knew that sugar will create bubbles.


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## Genny (Jan 24, 2013)

hoegarden said:


> Frankly, I didn't know that sugar will add lather to soap. Never knew that sugar will create bubbles.



Yep.  I add a TBSP of sugar to my water for almost all my batches.  Gives some lovely big bubbles


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## paillo (Jan 24, 2013)

Genny said:


> I've used fresh avocado, carrots, cucumber, yogurt, spinach, tomato paste successfully in CP.  I've found that a lot of fresh fruits/vegetables turn brown; like strawberries, pomegranate juice, cranberries and some turn gray, like blueberries.



i've used all these except spinach -- now THAT sounds interesting, genny! i've also used apples, pears, fresh tomatoes, fresh pumpkin (i put the pumpkin halves in a lasagna dish with about an inch of water and bake until soft, then just scoop out the pumpkin, easy peasy). yogurt in soap is totally lovely. i don't have a food processor either, but an old blender works wonderfully, just make sure your fresh stuff is completely pureed! i too always add a tablespoon or more of sugar to my batches for bubbles.


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## dudeitsashley (Jan 24, 2013)

On the topic of using fresh things in soap; how does one go about adding yogurt into a hot processed batch? Do I add it before I reach trace or maybe after the cook?


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## hoegarden (Jan 27, 2013)

I have tried adding the fresh strawberry puree + yogurt in a re-batch soap. This is my first time doing a re-batch. Not sure how will it turn out. I wonder how long the soap will take to harden.. Not sure if i cook long enough or not too.


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## Kersten (Jan 27, 2013)

dudeitsashley said:


> On the topic of using fresh things in soap; how does one go about adding yogurt into a hot processed batch? Do I add it before I reach trace or maybe after the cook?



I would treat it like adding milk-either freeze it in cubes and add slowly to a water + lye (taking a wazter discount) solution or I would just add it at trace, depending on preference. But I haven't used yogurt so I can only assume that it would be similar to using milk...


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## TangledFrog (Jan 27, 2013)

Oh, my!  Something else to get excited about with soap making!  So many ideas, so little time...

Can I ask, what fruit or veggies retain their colour the best?  It sounds like pumpkin works well.  I think I'll try butternut squash today, as I'm going to have some left over after making soup.  I'm a bit worried that might have too much sugar, though, and turn brown.

I've made a lovely coconut milk soap that produces a very white bar.  Any speculation if tomato paste might make it pink?

Thanks for all these great ideas!   -Lynette


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## sagehill (Jan 27, 2013)

Genny said:


> Yep.  I add a TBSP of sugar to my water for almost all my batches.  Gives some lovely big bubbles


Hi Genny! Is that 1 Tbsp sugar per pound of oils?


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## paillo (Jan 27, 2013)

sagehill said:


> Hi Genny! Is that 1 Tbsp sugar per pound of oils?



I use about 1 teaspoon per pound of oils.


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## dudeitsashley (Jan 27, 2013)

Kersten said:


> I would treat it like adding milk-either freeze it in cubes and add slowly to a water + lye (taking a wazter discount) solution or I would just add it at trace, depending on preference. But I haven't used yogurt so I can only assume that it would be similar to using milk...



That's what I was thinking but I wasn't too sure. Thanks for the input.


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## Genny (Jan 28, 2013)

I use 1 TBSP sugar per pound of oils.


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## sagehill (Jan 28, 2013)

I'll give that a Tbsp a try, Genny! I've always chickened out with a tsp.


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## gratia (Jan 28, 2013)

Looks like this topic has pretty much been answered but I will throw in my experiences with foods. :mrgreen:

I have a local farmer who purees tomatoes from his garden and has me make tomato soap with tomato leaf f/o and I have done pumpkin puree and puree carrots for my face soap.


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## lizflowers42 (Jan 28, 2013)

gratia said:


> Looks like this topic has pretty much been answered but I will throw in my experiences with foods. :mrgreen:
> 
> I have a local farmer who purees tomatoes from his garden and has me make tomato soap with tomato leaf f/o and I have done pumpkin puree and puree carrots for my face soap.



It's obviously lunch time, because I read "we make tomato soup with tomato leaf f/o" and thought uhhh, that doesn't sound tasty.


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## gratia (Jan 28, 2013)

lizflowers42 said:


> It's obviously lunch time, because I read "we make tomato soup with tomato leaf f/o" and thought uhhh, that doesn't sound tasty.



Haha yeah, yuck!


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## sagehill (Jan 28, 2013)

lizflowers42 said:


> It's obviously lunch time, because I read "we make tomato soup with tomato leaf f/o" and thought uhhh, that doesn't sound tasty.



That's what I read too... tomato soup! LOL


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## 2lilboots (Jan 28, 2013)

tomato soup and grilled cheese it is all the rage you know.


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## CaliChan (Jan 28, 2013)

2lilboots said:


> tomato soup and grilled cheese it is all the rage you know.



haha great now IM hungry!!!


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## 2lilboots (Jan 28, 2013)

Yeh I know right.  I can't imagine using tomato paste in my soap, let alone cheese.


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## Marieke (Feb 9, 2013)

TangledFrog said:


> I've made a lovely coconut milk soap that produces a very white bar.  Any speculation if tomato paste might make it pink?



I made tomato soap yesterday, using tomato puree, red clay powder and tomato leaf PO. Cannot tell you what color it would have had without the red clay though.


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## lizflowers42 (Feb 9, 2013)

Gorgeous! I love the stamp and the "leaves"....parsley???


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## Marieke (Feb 9, 2013)

Thyme :-D


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## DWinMadison (Feb 9, 2013)

Brilliant!!! When/how did you add the thyme leaves?


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## Marieke (Feb 9, 2013)

Thank your! I sprinkled them on after pouring and stamped them after 24 hours (a bit too early).


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