Dandelion/Honey recipe?

[Bamagirl]

Because dandelions are in bloom here, I am experimenting with them in soap. I have already made a batch of my favorite soap with dandelion tea substituted for the water. I also have some dandelion olive oil that is ready today so I went out and picked more dandelions and made tea to go with it. My idea is to use my favorite recipe tweaked a little. Also, my husband needed some beeswax for blacksmithing, so I grabbed some of that as well. Here's the plan

55% lard
23% olive oil (infused with dandelions)
15% coconut oil
5% castor
2% beeswax

with dandelion tea in place of water and adding 1 tablespoon of honey.

Does this sound ok? I was wondering if I need the castor since I will be adding honey, but then I thought "You can never go wrong with bubbles

 

[dixiedragon]

Sounds nice! I use I think 2 tsp - 1 TBSP per pound of oils. The only issue I see is that in order keep beeswax melted, you have to soap hot, and that might kill any goodness from the dandelion tea.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Is your goal to leverage the pain relieving properties of dandelion? Not sure that would work in a wash-off product like soap.

 

[Bamagirl]

Is your goal to leverage the pain relieving properties of dandelion? Not sure that would work in a wash-off product like soap.

To be quite honest, I am not sure what my goal is. My favorite bar is so very good for my skin, but I like to have plenty of bars that are unscented to wash my face. So, I was just trying to change it up a bit and play around to see what happens, and I was thinking I would still be able to use them as facial bars since I assume it is mainly the chemicals in fragrance oils that I don't like on my face. I use fragrance oils in our soap that we use for regular bathing, so I get to experiment with scents there and keep the same basic recipe that is good for my skin, but with the facial bar, I don't get to experiment so I was hoping by using honey and dandelion it would still be gently enough for my face, but something different. Does that make sense?

 

[Saranac]

Did you see aihrat's thread about 12% honey CP soap? www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=63192

They wrote:

I hope this will be useful for anyone who's disappointed with the 1 teaspoon ppo recommendation for honey usage in CP soap. I loooove the smell of honey and beeswax.

I was very curious about it and made a batch Friday, but "only" used 10% honey. I left if unscented and the honey (and beeswax) smells amazing.

 

[Bamagirl]

Did you see aihrat's thread about 12% honey CP soap? www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=63192

They wrote:


I was very curious about it and made a batch Friday, but "only" used 10% honey. I left if unscented and the honey (and beeswax) smells amazing.

I did see that one, it is one of the reasons I wanted to add honey

I am kind of scared to go that high % as I haven't made soap with honey yet and I know I wouldn't be able to pop it in the freezer. Maybe I will look back at the thread and think on it a bit.

 

[Saranac]

I did see that one, it is one of the reasons I wanted to add honey

I am kind of scared to go that high % as I haven't made soap with honey yet and I know I wouldn't be able to pop it in the freezer. Maybe I will look back at the thread and think on it a bit.

Honey isn't something I use often. Definitely look back at the thread, but some advice I can give from my 1 attempt:

-Use IrishLass' procedure for diluting the honey with water and adding that syrup to your lye solution. Use your dandelion tea to dilute the honey.
-Cool and chill your lye solution AND your honey syrup. Once they are both well chilled in the fridge, place them in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
-Slowly mix the honey into the lye and if it seems to be getting too hot, stop and put everything back into the freezer. Wait another 10 minutes and resume mixing.
-Based on what others were saying, I'd bump the lard up to 65% to counter the softness imparted by all the honey.

Contrary to what I thought would happen, everything went off without a hitch. Trace took FOREVER for me, but I do hand stir with a whisk. The batter always had a semi-translucent look. I used beeswax and soaped rather warm (125-130), and once the batter was poured, I wrapped the mold in a towel and put it into a 170 degree oven. I did turn the heat off, but I occasionally gave it a boost throughout the day to maintain the heat. It never cracked or gave me any other problems. I cut about 18-20 hours later and yesterday I planed the bars. Interestingly enough, one of the ends zapped. There were no signs of a partial gel, but for some reason, that one side didn't get enough heat. The bars don't seem any softer than my basic bars would at this point. It's been rainy here so they are slightly sticky, but no sweating.

 

[dixiedragon]

I really like to hot process my beeswax honey soap. I've never had a honey soap volcano - I have a theory that the notorious honey soap problems are a combination of honey + Honey FO or OHM FO. But I like the hot processing b/c I can soap hot so there are no solid beeswax bits in my soap. I add my honey at the end of the cook.

I describe my process here:http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57877

 

[Bamagirl]

Pics

Edited to add process, since it is much easier for me to type on my pc lol.

I cut the beeswax into small pieces and melted it with my lard and coconut oil. Then stick blended all oils a couple times. I mixed honey with a little bit of plain water (didn't have quite enough dandelion tea), then I added it to my dandelion tea/lye mixture, and got that gorgeous red color. It behaved nicely, no volcanoes or acting weird (I mixed the lye/tea/honey outside just in case). I wound up changing my recipe and increased the lard to 65% and decreased olive oil to 12%. I made a 1 lb batch and added two tablespoons of honey. My final recipe was

65% lard
12% olive oil
15% coconut oil
5% castor
3% beeswax

 

[CTAnton]

I've been harvesting dandelions all week with the goal of infusing oils at some point in the not too distant future...
There's also 2 quarts of dandelion infused water on my kitchen counter.I feel any of the benefits of the infused water won't survive the lye monster and I even wonder about the benefits of the infused oils. Like Brewer George said, what can be accomplished therapeutically from a wash off product?
With all that said, I'll still make a batch or 2 to get it out of my system. The only recipe I keep finding online is from the nerdy farm wife. A little rich for my blood with tamanu oil and jojoba oil in it. The current newer recipe is palm free now...I wonder how much more economical her OLD recipe was WITH palm oil...if it wasn't the height of gardening season I'd figure out a recipe on soap calculator but I can't justify that this time of year...

 

[Bamagirl]

I've been harvesting dandelions all week with the goal of infusing oils at some point in the not too distant future...
There's also 2 quarts of dandelion infused water on my kitchen counter.I feel any of the benefits of the infused water won't survive the lye monster and I even wonder about the benefits of the infused oils. Like Brewer George said, what can be accomplished therapeutically from a wash off product?
With all that said, I'll still make a batch or 2 to get it out of my system. The only recipe I keep finding online is from the nerdy farm wife. A little rich for my blood with tamanu oil and jojoba oil in it. The current newer recipe is palm free now...I wonder how much more economical her OLD recipe was WITH palm oil...if it wasn't the height of gardening season I'd figure out a recipe on soap calculator but I can't justify that this time of year...

I decided to make the soap because of her recipe, however, I knew I couldn't use the oils she uses but I still wanted to make it, so I decided to use my recipe but her technique.

 

[CTAnton]

OK...I'm inspired BamaGirl...I was looking to incorporate some red palm oil to color the soap as Nerdy Farm Wife originally did but you got plenty of color doing just what you did....awesome!
Well Friday is a no work day for me with rain all day so I might as well infuse some olive oil over low heat tonight and get to it on Friday morning...I'll be using my induction thermostatically controlled heater ...a nice thing to have...

 

[Bamagirl]

OK...I'm inspired BamaGirl...I was looking to incorporate some red palm oil to color the soap as Nerdy Farm Wife originally did but you got plenty of color doing just what you did....awesome!
Well Friday is a no work day for me with rain all day so I might as well infuse some olive oil over low heat tonight and get to it on Friday morning...I'll be using my induction thermostatically controlled heater ...a nice thing to have...

Unfortunately the color didn't stay :cry: It is now a tan color. I will try to get pics tomorrow when I unmold and see if there is any change.

 

[Saranac]

It looks like it went well--congrats!

 

[Bamagirl]

Here it is when I unmolded. It's a light tan color.