My first cream soap! * Updated pics added

[kelleyaynn]

I made my first cream soap today. I tweaked a shaving soap recipe I found on the cream soap group over at Yahoo. It seemed to go as planned (from my reading). It's hard to imagine at this point that it will relax and turn creamy! I know it does, but wow.

I also made my first lard soap today. I had a tub of lard I was planning on using to make a bird suet cake, but found out the hard way lard melts - really easily! So rather than waste the unopened tub I still had, I decided to make some soap. It made about a pound, and I had just enough exotic amazon teakwood FO from Nature's Garden to scent it (for my DH).

I've done so much new soaping this spring break! It's been so much fun!

Here are pics of the cream soap:

This the cream soap after the first half hour of the cook. I didn't get my camera out in time to capture the beginning. $%^##

This is at the end of the cook.

And ready to rot.

Will add pics of the lard soap tomorrow, after it is cut.

 

[soapbuddy]

Congrats! Did you post pics yet?

 

[spicyjem]

Kelley - Nice! I can't wait to see the final pics! If you don't mind, I may pick your brain in the future because making cream soaps is something I want to eventually do.

 

[ikindred]

Exactly what is cream soap used for? I have not even thought about making it just yet because I am not sure of what it is used for.

 

[Sunny]

Exactly what is cream soap used for? I have not even thought about making it just yet because I am not sure of what it is used for.

i think it's generally used for bathing.


id love to be updated as your soap rots, and let us know how it eventually turns out!

 

[Hazel]

Congratulations on your cream soap!

I'd love to hear how it turns out because I'd like to make a batch some day, too.

 

[Bukawww]

I'm waiting on some cream soap goodies myself - can't wait to mix it up!

At this point, are you supposed to start adding your 'supercreaming' ingredients till it reaches your right consistency? Maybe thats why it still looks pastey...I dunno, speaking only from what I've read.

 

[kelleyaynn]

Hey Spicyjem - pick away! I'll keep everyone updated.

Cream soap is just soap that has the consistency of a cream (like a facial cream, not the stuff you drink). Right now, my soap has the consistency of a lump of clay - pretty hard, but it softens up, and after a couple of days of "rotting" (as the cream soap cure is called), I can add some liquid to help that if I need to. At least that's what I understand. It really wasn't much more difficult than making CPHP so far, and having done CPHP, that was a help for my first batch. The cream soap group at Yahoo has lots of advice, recipes, and information. I pretty much followed the info I learned there. Cream soap also benefits from an extended cure time - several weeks at least, and from the group it seems like over a year and it still improves. What ever "improves" means. I'm a total newbie when it comes to cream soap.

People who've used cream soap apparently love it. I'm trying it to make a shaving soap for my use in the shower. I currently just use my bar soap, but wanted to try to make something more like shaving cream. It can be used for a facial soap, body soap, you name it.

To take liberties with Dr. Suess, "oh the things you can soap!"

 

[TJ]

Really nice soap!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge of cream soap. Every time I try to google it it comes up as Whipped cream soap. Not the same.

 

[kelleyaynn]

I'm waiting on some cream soap goodies myself - can't wait to mix it up!

At this point, are you supposed to start adding your 'supercreaming' ingredients till it reaches your right consistency? Maybe thats why it still looks pastey...I dunno, speaking only from what I've read.

You add the supercream ingredients after about 1 and a half hours of cook time, when the soap is "neutral". Cook it for another 15 minutes, then put it away to rot. Stirring the soap during the cook is rather a misnomer. The recipes actually call it "chunking", because it really is like trying to stir clay. I had to "chunk" and "stir" for about 5 minutes when I added the supercream ingredients to make sure they were incorporated. From what I understand it is the rotting time that gets it to the right consistency, along with adding some liquid after a couple of days if necessary. I think most people do end up adding liquid, and then you have to add a preservative too. Apparently the best time to add EO or FO is right before you start to use it. Adding it to early can affect the rot and consistency negatively. As far as I can tell, I think my soap is supposed to look like this right now.

 

[nattynoo]

Nice one. Cant wait to see it after its whip.
Is that what happens??? U whip it after the rot??

 

[soapbuddy]

Yours looks softer then mine. After the cook, mine is a fairly hard soap ball, which loosens up with time.

 

[kelleyaynn]

Here it is after overnight in the fridge:

It turned nice and white, and relaxed a bit - it spread out to fill the container on the bottom.

I stirred it up, and it got nice and soft - not "cream" yet, but I haven't added any liquid yet. Here's the soap after stirring:

Tomorrow I'm going to add some aloe vera juice, the optiphen, and whip it up. More pics to come!

So far, so good.

 

[Hazel]

Thanks for taking the time to post pics. This is very interesting. Could you please post the link to the Yahoo group? Pretty please with sugar on top.

 

[kelleyaynn]

Here is the link to the Cream Soap Group on Yahoo:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/CreamSoap/

 

[mariflo]

Cream soap is awesome!!!
I whip mine first and then let it rot. I also give it another whip before I mix it up with the final ingredients (coffee, ess oils, clay ...).
It makes the most wonderful foaming scrubs and shaving cream ever
Whoever invented cream soap was a genious!

 

[Hazel]

Here is the link to the Cream Soap Group on Yahoo:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/CreamSoap/

Thank you! I know other people had mentioned this group but I forgot about it. I'll have to check it out.