green soap
Well-Known Member
I have been having fun using infused oils in my soaps. I get a lot of the herbs from my garden and infuse the oils after drying the herbs. In other cases I buy the herbs, mainly to use as colorants.
I have used infusions using two different methods. In both cases I used mason jars to hold the herb and oils (I used both pints and quarts) The first time I kept the oils with the herbs in a boiling water bath for a couple of hours. This worked fine. The next time I used a baking stone and set the oven for 200F. This worked very well since I was making some liquid soap using the 200F warm oven method. I kept the infused oils in their jars in the oven for 4-6 hours. This also worked very well and I will piggy back infused oils into the oven when I make more liquid soap.
The concentration of herbs used in the infusions was from 1tbs to 2tbs per cup of oil.
Here is a list of the infusions I tried (I will break this up into a couple of posts):
Cinnamon. I crushed/ground the cinnamon sticks but did not pulverize them. Not much or any color contributions, but the two batches I made with the infused cinnamon oil smell heavenly and the scent seems to last a lot longer. The other advantage is that unlike cinnamon leaf EO, it did not speed trace. I only made a pint, and divided the pint between the two batches, so that means about 1 cup infused oil in a kilogram batch. I will use a little more next time for a stronger scent. I am definitely infusing cinnamon again!
Allspice. Again, crushed but not pulverized. No color contribution, just a slight scent contribution. I used it in a spice soap, it smells similar to cinnamon leaf EO, but very subtle. It was fine, but probably not worth the trouble of infusing allspice again.
Calendula petals. I collected these from my own garden and dried them. Wow! beautiful yellow color and the calendula scent comes trough in the soap. I also use it in fizzy bath bombs. I like this better than in soap, to take better advantage of the skin healing properties, which I am afraid take a loss with the lye. I will surely make calendula infused oil again.
Rosemary. Collected from my garden and dried. This is a favorite and will be repeated! The color contribution is tan/yellow, not very green, but the scent contribution was awesome! I also added rosemary EO and the soap has a lasting rosemary scent. Since rosemary OR is a preservative, this infusion seem worth doing often and using it in small amounts in different soap batches. By the way, the soap can be colored green using a little indigo powder in the lye water (not an infusion).
Marjoram. Negligible color contribution, very nice scent contribution. I used it in a soap where I also added rosemary EO, it smells unusual but wonderful.
Herbal sachet blend. This was an herbal medley from my own garden, containing a blend of: rose petals, lemon verbena, sage flowers, borage flowers and rosemary. OK, so I admit this is not reproducible, but it was wonderful and it made me realize that it is possible to transfer the scent from my roses to my soap. I will make other blends like this again, but maybe just for very special - special occasion soaps.
rose petals. Got the idea from the previous garden blend, no color contribution, a very subtle scent contribution.
Madder root. I used 25% madded infused oil to get the most wonderful dusty pink shade. I have been using it a lot, also in combination with alkanet infusions, so I need to make more! No scent, just color.
Alkanet root. This has a slight odor that does not seem to transfer into the soap, so it is just for color. Wow! First I used 100 grams of infused alkanet in 1000g of oils and it got me an inky dark purple batch of soap. I reduced it to 50g on a second batch to get a medium purple, and smaller amounts for jut a touch of lavender color.
I will add pictures in the next post, as well as any other infusion I might have missed (will look at my notebook).
I have used infusions using two different methods. In both cases I used mason jars to hold the herb and oils (I used both pints and quarts) The first time I kept the oils with the herbs in a boiling water bath for a couple of hours. This worked fine. The next time I used a baking stone and set the oven for 200F. This worked very well since I was making some liquid soap using the 200F warm oven method. I kept the infused oils in their jars in the oven for 4-6 hours. This also worked very well and I will piggy back infused oils into the oven when I make more liquid soap.
The concentration of herbs used in the infusions was from 1tbs to 2tbs per cup of oil.
Here is a list of the infusions I tried (I will break this up into a couple of posts):
Cinnamon. I crushed/ground the cinnamon sticks but did not pulverize them. Not much or any color contributions, but the two batches I made with the infused cinnamon oil smell heavenly and the scent seems to last a lot longer. The other advantage is that unlike cinnamon leaf EO, it did not speed trace. I only made a pint, and divided the pint between the two batches, so that means about 1 cup infused oil in a kilogram batch. I will use a little more next time for a stronger scent. I am definitely infusing cinnamon again!
Allspice. Again, crushed but not pulverized. No color contribution, just a slight scent contribution. I used it in a spice soap, it smells similar to cinnamon leaf EO, but very subtle. It was fine, but probably not worth the trouble of infusing allspice again.
Calendula petals. I collected these from my own garden and dried them. Wow! beautiful yellow color and the calendula scent comes trough in the soap. I also use it in fizzy bath bombs. I like this better than in soap, to take better advantage of the skin healing properties, which I am afraid take a loss with the lye. I will surely make calendula infused oil again.
Rosemary. Collected from my garden and dried. This is a favorite and will be repeated! The color contribution is tan/yellow, not very green, but the scent contribution was awesome! I also added rosemary EO and the soap has a lasting rosemary scent. Since rosemary OR is a preservative, this infusion seem worth doing often and using it in small amounts in different soap batches. By the way, the soap can be colored green using a little indigo powder in the lye water (not an infusion).
Marjoram. Negligible color contribution, very nice scent contribution. I used it in a soap where I also added rosemary EO, it smells unusual but wonderful.
Herbal sachet blend. This was an herbal medley from my own garden, containing a blend of: rose petals, lemon verbena, sage flowers, borage flowers and rosemary. OK, so I admit this is not reproducible, but it was wonderful and it made me realize that it is possible to transfer the scent from my roses to my soap. I will make other blends like this again, but maybe just for very special - special occasion soaps.
rose petals. Got the idea from the previous garden blend, no color contribution, a very subtle scent contribution.
Madder root. I used 25% madded infused oil to get the most wonderful dusty pink shade. I have been using it a lot, also in combination with alkanet infusions, so I need to make more! No scent, just color.
Alkanet root. This has a slight odor that does not seem to transfer into the soap, so it is just for color. Wow! First I used 100 grams of infused alkanet in 1000g of oils and it got me an inky dark purple batch of soap. I reduced it to 50g on a second batch to get a medium purple, and smaller amounts for jut a touch of lavender color.
I will add pictures in the next post, as well as any other infusion I might have missed (will look at my notebook).
