Dawni
Well-Known Member
Yep. That's what it smells like in my son's room where I cure my soaps.
Our conversation about it:
Him: why does my room smell weird?
Me: that's your soap, coz your current batch is running out
Him while lifting an eyebrow: that's gonna fade to nothing right?
I didn't tell him that his previous batch, made about 11mos ago, still has a veeery faint neem scent and I used more neem this time hahaha
I shared a bit of history in the old post (click link above) but I wanted to share that - OMG - lard and neem combined at this amount took forever to trace! None of my previous recipes took this long. SB and hand stirring til medium trace took all of 12 minutes, and that's while everything was in the pot, on high.
That surprised me. I was told neem accelerates trace and it did, in the previous batch, at only 10%. That soap didn't have lard though...
It also took forever to cook. I kept checking after the 20 minute mark, coz that's usually just how long my other soaps take (even less most times), and I was getting worried I'd overcook it.
I don't usually zap test once they're obviously gelled. This one I did, maybe 3x and gosh was it bitter. Probably the most awful zap tests ever - you get the zap plus the bitter taste, and a whiff of burnt garlic combined with rotten egg smell lol. I turned the pot off at 40mins.
To make things worse... I layered my three colors - original neem brown (you'll see it in the link above), black with activated charcoal, and lighter tan with zinc oxide - and realized I forgot to add my EOs. I didn't have enough leftover batter to mix my scents in so I dumped everything back into the pot.
Upon hindsight I should have just left the whole things unscented but then I needed something to cover the neem smell. The whole thing turned a dark chocolate brown, from the addition of charcoal, and I ended up with only a mini swirl just towards the top.
But hey, it'll be good soap, so I'm ok with this. I wish I had a before n after pic of my teenager, coz since he started using this and only this soap, he does not get awful breakouts, and when he does get a pimple it's never huge like before. His pores have also gotten smaller hence, fewer giant blackheads. On a side note, either his hormones have calmed down, or his pits like my soap more than commercial soap lol
I will not ever claim that this cures acne and other stuff, but if someone asks me what we use for it I'll say we use this, but there's no guarantee. On another note, a cousin of mine who tested this for me for about 6mos now claims that he no longer gets whatever rash he does on his legs. He now refuses to use anything else so for Christmas I gifted him several bars.
Now, onto the soap, yes? Lol
This soap has 15% each neem and grapeseed oil, 10% each cocoa and shea, 5% castor, 17% coconut and the remaining is lard. It's a tweak of my second soap posted here, for which I got help from our lovely forum members. It's scented with anise, cedarwood, lemongrass, sage and tea tree.
Sorry for the long read lol
Our conversation about it:
Him: why does my room smell weird?
Me: that's your soap, coz your current batch is running out
Him while lifting an eyebrow: that's gonna fade to nothing right?
I didn't tell him that his previous batch, made about 11mos ago, still has a veeery faint neem scent and I used more neem this time hahaha
I shared a bit of history in the old post (click link above) but I wanted to share that - OMG - lard and neem combined at this amount took forever to trace! None of my previous recipes took this long. SB and hand stirring til medium trace took all of 12 minutes, and that's while everything was in the pot, on high.
That surprised me. I was told neem accelerates trace and it did, in the previous batch, at only 10%. That soap didn't have lard though...
It also took forever to cook. I kept checking after the 20 minute mark, coz that's usually just how long my other soaps take (even less most times), and I was getting worried I'd overcook it.
I don't usually zap test once they're obviously gelled. This one I did, maybe 3x and gosh was it bitter. Probably the most awful zap tests ever - you get the zap plus the bitter taste, and a whiff of burnt garlic combined with rotten egg smell lol. I turned the pot off at 40mins.
To make things worse... I layered my three colors - original neem brown (you'll see it in the link above), black with activated charcoal, and lighter tan with zinc oxide - and realized I forgot to add my EOs. I didn't have enough leftover batter to mix my scents in so I dumped everything back into the pot.
Upon hindsight I should have just left the whole things unscented but then I needed something to cover the neem smell. The whole thing turned a dark chocolate brown, from the addition of charcoal, and I ended up with only a mini swirl just towards the top.
But hey, it'll be good soap, so I'm ok with this. I wish I had a before n after pic of my teenager, coz since he started using this and only this soap, he does not get awful breakouts, and when he does get a pimple it's never huge like before. His pores have also gotten smaller hence, fewer giant blackheads. On a side note, either his hormones have calmed down, or his pits like my soap more than commercial soap lol
I will not ever claim that this cures acne and other stuff, but if someone asks me what we use for it I'll say we use this, but there's no guarantee. On another note, a cousin of mine who tested this for me for about 6mos now claims that he no longer gets whatever rash he does on his legs. He now refuses to use anything else so for Christmas I gifted him several bars.
Now, onto the soap, yes? Lol
This soap has 15% each neem and grapeseed oil, 10% each cocoa and shea, 5% castor, 17% coconut and the remaining is lard. It's a tweak of my second soap posted here, for which I got help from our lovely forum members. It's scented with anise, cedarwood, lemongrass, sage and tea tree.
Sorry for the long read lol
p), you've convinced me to make a batch (CP) for my teen!
