Time for some Cold Process!
Batch #19 - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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My entrant for the
January Soap Challenge. Just sharing it here for continuity sake.
Batch #22 - 6 Oil Blend with Fermented Rice Water
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This batch is for a friend! They requested a specific scent and wanted a soap inspired by a fictional character. Said character has a white/black/red color scheme. I decided to try splitting my oils and lye and start with a textured AC layer and then do a OPW on top. I did add in a tiny gold mica line to represent the gold detailing on his clothing, but it wasn't enough to show up except in a few places haha. Now I know I need WAY more mica. My white got glycerin rivers and I DON'T CARE because it adds to the aesthetic. I love these so much. And the black is so luscious. I'm obsessed.
FO is Fastlane by Nature's Garden. Fingers crossing it doesn't fade on me.
Batch #23 - 7 Oil Blend with Apple Cider
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Decided to do a bit of a Zero Waste batch. I had a random assortment of stuff that needed to get used up. I did a full water replacement with some apple cider that I was... not impressed with the flavor of, so I froze it and decided to make soap with it. I also had a few bottles of FO that had very little product left inside of them, so I opted to mix them. Finally, I tossed in some of my scraps to make it ciaglia style. I think I overswirled a little, which is fine. I do like how nice and simple they are.
FOs are White Tea & Pear by NS and Fresh Picked Apple by WSP.
Test Batch - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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I'm not counting this in my batch count purely on a technicality
I decided to do something I probably should've done before... which is do some FO testing. Until now, I've just trusted the soap notes provided by the FO company and used well behaved FOs. But I got three FOs from a company that doesn't have testing notes.
I plan to use them in MP where that stuff doesn't matter, but I still wanted to get a frame of reference for vanillin discoloration. I know I'll use stabilizer for that middle right one now
FOs Used:
Peach Milk Tea by DOOP - Matcha Latte by DOOP
Sweet Vanilla Chai by WSP* - Ube Cake by DOOP
Control - Sunkissed Beach Grass by WSP**
(+A tiny mica drizzle just so I could tell the difference at a quick glance)
* Used as a "vanillin control" as I knew the vanillin percentage and knew that FO discolored the MP soap I used it in.
** Threw this one in as it's described as a moderate accelerator by WSP and I wanted to see that first hand. It's a discontinued FO now...
I really love the 3 FOs I picked up from DOOP.
The Peach Milk Tea smells EXACTLY like the peach iced tea I used to drink when I lived in Korea and it makes me super nostalgic.
Matcha Latte smells like a can of INOTEA Matcha Bubble Tea, which is a rather floral matcha smell with the soft creaminess of a little milk. I will say it didn't smell good in the bottle though LOL
Ube Cake is a nice balance of vanilla and sweet notes as well as the nutty depth of the ube.
Their shop is closed right now... presumably for a restock... but I'll likely pick more from them in the future.