First Cream Soap - first whip

[reinbeau]

I made this cream soap 2/26, whipped today, with no water - I am absolutely amazed at the consistency! It's silken. I put it back to rot more. I am very curious to see what I'm supposed to do with this stuff! This was made with tallow stearic and lard. I'm planning on leaving it be for a good six months to rot but I wanted to just see what happened if I whipped it now. When I first made it it was so hard I had to chunk it out of the crockpot! I think I'll make another batch and let it rot for a good long time also.

 

[Dorymae]

Anne it is looking beautiful! When your ready to try something with it, try this.

Take 1 oz of cream soap and mix in 5 oz of sugar and about 15-30 ml of fragrance (I use the pipettes to measure it). Mix well and put it in a jar. This makes a wonderful foaming sugar scrub, with a very creamy consistency and just the right amount of soap to cleanse and rinse clean.

If you are using it yourself you can use it will no preservative if you scoop the amount you want to use before entering the shower. If you want to bring it in the shower where it may get water into it I highly recommend a preservative - all that sugar becomes a breeding ground when water is added.

 

[reinbeau]

Awesome, thank you so much, Dorymae, I will definitely give that a try! I have Optiphen MIT Plus to use as a preservative when I formulate.

 

[Dorymae]

I think you will fall in love with it. I now use it every 3 days to exfoliate, whether I need it or not! There is nothing quite as luxurious as cream soap, and it is very versatile!

 

[DeeAnna]

Ooh, I have to try this too! Thank you for sharing this, Dorymae.

I made my first cream soap the first part of January with the intent for it to be a cream-style shave soap. It was awfully hard and difficult to mix at first but since I managed to get it mixed and loosened up (thank goodness for my KitchenAid mixer!), it has not hardened up again -- it's more of a sticky marshmallow fluff consistency.

I've been playing with it off and on since then to see how the texture and lather changes with time. As a shave soap, it lathers well and has reasonably good "cushion". As a body soap, it's a wee high for cleansing (21), so I don't think I'd want to use it as an everyday bath soap. But for occasional use as an exfoliant, I think it would be fine. I'm gonna see if it works for me, anyways!

 

[reinbeau]

This recipe is from a Facebook group where we're supposedly going to learn how to add things to it for various products (as Dorymae graciously shared above).

 

[DeeAnna]

Cream Soapmakers? https://www.facebook.com/groups/CreamSoapers/ I see your post there, as well....

edit: I see the moderators are now allowing new people to join this group again. There's a lot of interest by newcomers to learn to make cream soap, but not a lot of experienced folks to teach and guide.

 

[Obsidian]

reinbeau, what did you use to whip your soap? I used the regular beaters on a kitchen aid and it whipped way too much bubbles into it. I'm looking for a nice creamy texture like yours.

 

[reinbeau]

I just used my hand beater, the old fashioned one with two beaters. It stayed nice and creamy.

 

[abc]

Cream Soapmakers? https://www.facebook.com/groups/CreamSoapers/ I see your post there, as well....

edit: I see the moderators are now allowing new people to join this group again. There's a lot of interest by newcomers to learn to make cream soap, but not a lot of experienced folks to teach and guide.

Looks like a secret group. The link doesn't work for me and it doesn't come up in a Facebook search.

 

[doriettefarm]

That is some luscious looking cream soap reinbeau! I've only made one batch but wasn't super happy with the recipe because it was way to cleansing (Catherine Failor's recipe #4). After seeing your pic, my next batch will definitely be lard/tallow because that's what my skin prefers in CP soap.

And thank you so much Dorymae for sharing your soap to sugar ratio! I tried adding sugar to my first batch of cream soap but don't think I added nearly enough. It almost seemed to liquify in the cream soap so looking back my ratio was probably too low.

 

[doriettefarm]

Looks like a secret group. The link doesn't work for me and it doesn't come up in a Facebook search.

The FB link doesn't work for me either and doesn't come up when I search . . . bummer!

 

[reinbeau]

No, it's called Walking Dead Soapmaking Group 1 (don't ask me why). It's a secret group, won't come up on a search, I think, it's an offshoot from Soapers Voice. We could get into a huge discussion of the politics and drama of FB soaping groups, but I'd rather not, it gets old That's my own little digression, sorry!!

 

[DeeAnna]

Sorry, folks. I didn't realize Cream Soapmakers was "secret".

If you PM me with your email address, I will send you an email invitation to join this group if you would like to become a member. I'm only a regular member of that group, not a moderator, so I can't actually approve or deny your join request, just so's you know, but I will be glad to create the invitation.

edit: Yeah, FB groups can have quite a bit of drama. I also don't like how good information disappears on FB. People have a tendency to ask the same question over and over and it can be tough on FB to find information already shared in older discussions.

"...what did you use to whip your soap?..."

Not Ann, but I found the dough hook on my trusty KitchenAid did a nice job of breaking up and loosening the texture of the cream soap without beating in a lot of air. I suppose you could switch to the paddle or regular beaters after a bit, but I stuck with the hook and a low to medium low speed. I am thinking it can take quite a bit of time, possibly spread over 2 or 3 sessions, to break up the firm bits in an infant cream soap and get a really smooth consistent texture.

 

[Dorymae]

reinbeau, what did you use to whip your soap? I used the regular beaters on a kitchen aid and it whipped way too much bubbles into it. I'm looking for a nice creamy texture like yours.

I get bubbles in mine too. I just leave it to cure and when I want to use some, either straight soap or mixed into a scrub or whatnot, I put the amount in a ziplock bag, add whatever I'm going to add and squeeze the bag until smooth. Cut the corner and squeeze it into the jar. It will come together and be creamy smooth. I never worry about what it looks like in the pail, only what it looks like finished.

 

[reinbeau]

Regarding information disappearing on Facebook groups: I wish the search function worked on the app as many people use their mobile devices more than the desktop. I use the latter more and save all kinds of info to it, always with credit and links. I far prefer forums like this, but sadly dedicated forums seem to be less popular these days.