Mechanic soap

[mommyray]

I want to try a mechanic soap for my husband.

I'd like to use canola, shortening, olive oil, and coconut oil. I am ok with that mix and have experimented a little bit.

Now onto to the next step.....what "scrubbies" to use. He wants something that scrubs, but he says lava soap (pumice) irritates the cuts & burns on his hands -- and all mechanics have cuts & burns on their hands!

I'm playing around with the following ideas:

Oatmeal
Coffee
Grits

Thoughts?

Also, can lemon juice be used for scent? I don't mind the idea of using EO, but have some crazy sense of wanting everything (but the lye) to come from the cupboard.

 

[Tegan]

If not pumice I use ground loofah, FINELY ground coffee, or oatmeal in my scrubby bars. Make sure you wet the loofah first or it's REALLY scrubby hehe.

 

[Soapy Gurl]

You want to use citrus EO, it actually breaks down grease. That is why the mechanics soaps are orange. I love fine ground loofah, it makes a great scrub in soap.

Lemon juice won't work for a scent, it isn't concentrated enough.

 

[Dragonkaz]

Mechanics love my orange poppy seed soap. It's made with coconut oil, cocoa butter, olive oil, ricebran oil and castor oil. I add about 1 tbsp of poppy seeds to 2 kg of oils and about the same of oatbran.

I anchor the orange EO, by adding a little patchouli EO. Cornflour can also be used to anchor citrus.

 

[paillo]

i use citrus eos too -- orange or lemon, because, right, they do help break down grease. i also use poppyseeds, and sometimes finely ground loofah or very finely ground coffee is good too.

i made one with guinness stout, quite a lot of poppy seeds and orange eo. my favorite description of it came from a little boy whose dad uses it -- 'the dirty soap that gets you clean'!

i anchor the citrus eo with litsea cubeba and always a little cornstarch (same thing as cornflour).

variations of this are also great for gardener's soap.

 

[lsg]

I use pumice and finely ground coffee. I also add a little lanolin for those dry mechanic hands.

 

[ikindred]

how do u anchor a scent with cornstarch?

 

[paillo]

how do u anchor a scent with cornstarch?

i add about 1 tbsp ppo to my warmed oils before adding the lye. works like a charm

 

[ikindred]

going to have to try this when I make my orange patchouli soap next week.

 

[mommyray]

Thank you!

Thanks for all the replies. All very interesting.

I found what I could at the store, so I'm going to try oatmeal and lemon EO.

Ok, I have not heard of anchoring the scents. I have a million things to learn, don't I?

 

[mommyray]

Soap smells like and is behaving like bread...

Hmm.....any advice would be appreciated.

I used this recipe from Kathy Miller's site:

28 oz coconut oil
24 oz olive oil
30 oz veg shortening
12 oz lye
32 oz water

Then I made slurry out of 6 oz grapeseed oil, turmeric (I wanted it to be yellow), and a cup of ground oatmeal. I left this out until it was a thick pudding.

When I made soap last week, it became like mashed potatoes very quickly. This time, I kept the crock on "keep warm" but also used "low" during the mixing phase.

Once I put the lye/water in, I stirred it with a spoon, but gave it a quick shot with the stick blender. It turned opaque fairly quickly. So, I left it alone for about 10 minutes, and then turned into pudding. Then I stirred in the slurry with a spoon, and it turned light orange (instead of the desired yellow).

Before I got it all incorporated, it turned into mashed potato. I slopped it in the mold.

Here's the weird part....after about a minute, the soap started to rise like bread cooking, getting tall in the middle and cracking open.

So, I have two questions:

1. Any suggestions about what I did wrong that made it turn into mashed potatoes so quickly?
2. Why did it rise in the middle?

Two things I do like about this:

1. The little pieces of oatmeal turned a darker color than the rest, which gives a rustic appearance that I like.
2. It smells really, really, really good in my house right now -- like lemon bread.

 

[mommyray]

Forgot to mention...

I also put in lemon E0, one ounce.

 

[HeartToHeart]

MECHANIC/GARDENERS BAR

I have used poppy seeds and cornmeal together. Makes a nice bar for greasy hands.

 

[Bukawww]

I do a 100% coconut oil soap with a 10% SF, poppy seeds, Sweet Orange x10, Spearmint, Litsea Cubeba EOs. And color it with carrot puree.

Its so ridiculously efficient at degreasing and smells so good!

 

[Fragola]

Are you people using a larger quantity of citrus oils than in usual soap ?

I mean - normally ppo for EOs is based on the desired scent intensity not on the need to provide a cleaning boost.

As a note, I've bumped several times into turpentine containing recipes for mechanic soap. Apparently it helps a lot with degreasing.

 

[Bukawww]

I am not using 'extra' - just the normal amount (anywhere from .5-1oz ppo).

EOs don't saponify so the benefits would still be 'intact'. But the degreasing in my soap comes from the coconut oil and lower super fat (I normally do a coconut/shea soap with a 15-20% SF).

Also, the poppy seeds add some friction.