Fresh Aloe

[cmzaha]

How exciting, just kidding, I get to clean a huge amount of aloe today. I had a customer bring me two hugh aloe plants he cut down and now I get to clean it all. I love fresh aloe in my soap because you can actually see the aloe specks and it become a great selling point.

 

[robnbill]

Sounds wonderful. How do you process the aloe from the plant to soap ready? Do you freeze the aloe or do you need to? Do you replace an equal amount of water with the aloe in the lye?

 

[seven]

i love aloe vera too. and yes, my customers like it as well. it is not that hard to process the plant, i simply take the skin off with a knife, then with a spoon take the meat. put it in a food processor with a dash of water and put in a fridge till time for soaping. i like mine fresh though, so i usually don't leave it in the fridge for more than 48 hrs.

 

[cmzaha]

I do the same as seven, but I do mix in some citric acid to keep it from turning color. This I am going to measure out in baggies and freeze it since I will have about a gallon and a half. This way I can thaw it out and toss it in the blender when I am ready. I do not add mine to the lye since I always soap with a 50/850 lye solution. I use the aloe for the balance of the liquid. I also love avocado & aloe soap

 

[seven]

^^
Carolyn, i might try your tip with adding citric acid to the aloe. thank you

 

[cmzaha]

You are most welcome Seven. The actual way I clean mine is to cut the skinny part of the leaf off, then split the leaves down the middle lengthwise after which I peel them from the inside section of the leaf. That will need a nice filet of aloe that I filet off with a thin filet knife. After I have the filet off I scrape each remaining piece of leaf with a spoon onto my cutting board and can then scrap it off with a pastry scraper into the bucket. Bucket and HDPE cutting were both sanitized with bleach before starting. I ended up with 1.75 gallons of aloe today. Downside is, I now have dry itchy hands. My skin does not love aloe! Pesky allergies

 

[robnbill]

You are most welcome Seven. The actual way I clean mine is to cut the skinny part of the leaf off, then split the leaves down the middle lengthwise after which I peel them from the inside section of the leaf. That will need a nice filet of aloe that I filet off with a thin filet knife. After I have the filet off I scrape each remaining piece of leaf with a spoon onto my cutting board and can then scrap it off with a pastry scraper into the bucket. Bucket and HDPE cutting were both sanitized with bleach before starting. I ended up with 1.75 gallons of aloe today. Downside is, I now have dry itchy hands. My skin does not love aloe! Pesky allergies

How much citric acid do you add?

 

[seven]

Wowza! That is a lot of aloe! I dont think i can survive cleaning and scraping that amount of aloe vera. To be honest, i hate the smell of fresh aloe. I'm just glad it goes away once in soap, otherwise i might think twice about using it.

 

[cmzaha]

Wowza! That is a lot of aloe! I dont think i can survive cleaning and scraping that amount of aloe vera. To be honest, i hate the smell of fresh aloe. I'm just glad it goes away once in soap, otherwise i might think twice about using it.

I am fortunate that I happen to love the smell of fresh aloe and would love the fragrance to stick, just hate what it does to my hands.
Robnbill, I don't measure the citric acid I just sprinkle it on and mix it together with the aloe

 

[CaraBou]

What a neat opportunity to work with this material. Not gonna happen in Alaska. But I do have gel and have been thinking of trying it in a facial bar recipe. Do you think it would maintain its 'cooling' properties? I have rosacea and am always looking for this effect (or at least anti-inflammatory/non irritatating). I was kind of surprised to hear you say that the raw form is drying and would like to know more about what it brings to a soap. I love it for burns but know nothing of how it soaps. TIA for your knowledge.

 

[cmzaha]

What a neat opportunity to work with this material. Not gonna happen in Alaska. But I do have gel and have been thinking of trying it in a facial bar recipe. Do you think it would maintain its 'cooling' properties? I have rosacea and am always looking for this effect (or at least anti-inflammatory/non irritatating). I was kind of surprised to hear you say that the raw form is drying and would like to know more about what it brings to a soap. I love it for burns but know nothing of how it soaps. TIA for your knowledge.

I honestly do not think it brings much to the soap other than label appeal. I am sure many will disagree, but I am pretty skeptical about how much liquids offer to soap, possibly some benefits stay behind. If you are not allergic to aloe I cannot see what you have to lose by trying it in a small batch. For my daughter I make a very low cleansing soap with some neem, carrot infused sundlower, avocado oil, avocado puree infused with mallow root, lavender & Lemongrass eo's. It at the least, seems to keep her rosacea from flaring to bad when using soap. She also does okay with a tomato and neem soap I make. What about shea or are you allergic to it? I recently burned a place on my hand and after I iced it it was still burning like crazy so I decided to try shea, I have read that it is used for burns but did not expect much relief from it, and was extremely suprised that it quit burning after applying a thin layer of shea. Go figure, I am deadly allergic to latex and shea does not bother me unless I use it on my lips.

 

[honeysuds]

Talk about timing, I have an aloe plant in my yard that is finally big enough for me to cut some and use in soap. Now I have a general idea of how to process and use it in my recipe, thanks!

 

[jade-15]

I have a plant growing as I want to try an aloe soap too - found the recipe on here:

http://www.soaprecipes101.com/homemade-soap-recipes/aloe-vera-soap-recipe/

Beneficial or not? Only one way find out...

I have made a soap using pureed cucumber and I was astounded at how that felt to use. So smooth and beautiful. I was unhappy with the shape (mold inssues) so foolishly rebatched it - now I have nice soap shaped bars but have lost the amazing feel of cucumber. (They are still nice bars to use though.)
So I am looking fowards to trying aloe!

 

[neeners]

we have hundreds of aloe plants.....guess i'll have to try this one day (sigh....yet ANOTHER soap on the ever growing list!)

 

[cmzaha]

we have hundreds of aloe plants.....guess i'll have to try this one day (sigh....yet ANOTHER soap on the ever growing list!)

LOL, can't believe with that much sloe you have not made aloe soap!! Hopefully all your aloe is the real big thick aloe with the thick slimy gel. Some aloe is smaller and the gel is much more watery. But being one not to descriminate I use it all, but do prefer the thick slimy one. Some call it the medicinal aloe

 

[neeners]

yep, we have that. it's so huge it flowers all the time too. we have some that are as thick as your forearm. I banned myself from making soap over Christmas time until my soap stash got smaller. now I have about 190-something sample size soaps curing for my friend's wedding, so curing space is kind of limited at the momet. the good news is our personal use soap stash is getting smaller, which means I can justify making more soap for us soon......