Citrus/Hibuscus Tea Soap

[Flutter]

Hi everyone,

I haven't done much with soap in a while, but tonight I made a batch of CP soap.

I used brewed hibiscus tea and orange extract for the water part and added some dried tea and bergamot EO at trace.

I was surprised the orange smell pretty much masked the lye water smell.

Anyway; I will post pics when I unmold it.

I was playing around with oils I had on hand, so here is the recipe I came up with if anyone is interested ...

3.20 oz lye
8 oz water (or in this case orange/hibiscus tea)

1 oz beeswax
5 oz canola oil
5 oz coconut oil
8 oz olive oil
2 oz grapeseed oil
2 oz shea butter

.25 oz stearic acid

The batch made 8 bars in the mold I have, so it was a good small batch for me. If this one turns out, I will use the same basic recipe for other scents.

I think I used too much stearic acid ... I forget where I got the idea to add .25 oz to the batch, but I just read another tip to only use it as .5% of your product. So will using too much make the soap too hard or too harsh on your skin or something?

I unmolded them today ...

They look nice and smell good still. I hope the batch is not ruined with too much stearic acid.

 

[kchaystack]

I think I used too much stearic acid ... I forget where I got the idea to add .25 oz to the batch, but I just read another tip to only use it as .5% of your product. So will using too much make the soap too hard or too harsh on your skin or something?

That is not a high amount of stearic acid. The risk is that you usually have to hot process using pure SA, it requires a much higher temp to stay melted, and almost instantly saponifies so can cause strange spots in the soap.

Your bees wax is about 4% - which many think is high, mostly for the same reasons - you have to soap hot and it can cause your soap to move really fast.

If you don't want to use lard, tallow or palm - I would drop the wax and the stearic and up your shea as your hard oil.

 

[Flutter]

That is not a high amount of stearic acid. The risk is that you usually have to hot process using pure SA, it requires a much higher temp to stay melted, and almost instantly saponifies so can cause strange spots in the soap.

Your bees wax is about 4% - which many think is high, mostly for the same reasons - you have to soap hot and it can cause your soap to move really fast.

If you don't want to use lard, tallow or palm - I would drop the wax and the stearic and up your shea as your hard oil.

Thanks! I will see how this one turns out and add more shea next time

 

[mommycarlson]

They look good Flutter! What are the specks?

 

[Flutter]

They look good Flutter! What are the specks?

Dried hibiscus tea

 

[kchaystack]

Dried hibiscus tea

Don't be surprised if you get a little odd discoloration around the leaves. Organic matter in soap usually does not deal well with the high pH environment and will turn an unpleasant brown.

 

[Flutter]

This soap is finally ready and I like it so far; it doesn't seem drying at all ... although, they don't smell anymore.

 

[0115d8cf]

No scent at all? You should post an updated photo if they changed at all!

 

[Flutter]

Yeah, not really much of any smell anymore, but they look the same.