Tea in soap?

[Mona719]

Has anyone done tea in soap? Meaning instead of just plain old water you would brew your tea and use that instead with the lye mix. Any tips or comments would be helpful ty

 

[Ruthie]

I've used Rooibos tea. Made it triple strength, let it cool, and just used it in place of my water. Did nothing else special. I doubt any of the great antioxidant properties survived saponification, but it is a lovely caramel color.

 

[Sinny]

I've used Rosehip Tea, brewed and used in place of the water and I also used the dried leaves in the batch as an exfoliant. It's lovely!!!

 

[Dorado]

Tried chamomile tea, also triple strength. I agree with Rutie, nice color, and that's it.

 

[Miz Jenny]

Haven't used the brew in place of water, but grind the tea leaves & use as exfoliant. My tea soaps sell out very quickly: lemongrass tea, especially; rosehip tea; coconut tea.

 

[Genny]

I have green tea soap every spring, Iced Tea in the summer and cinnamon & clove tea at Christmas time.
Triple brewed tea in place of the water.

Just keep in mind that at first the lye turns the tea funny colors & a lot of times the soap turns brown or fades.

 

[green soap]

I am not distilling EOs (yet...) so using teas is a nice way to put some of my garden into some of my soaps.

I use rosemary tea, citrus leaf teas (petitgrain EO is made from distilling citrus leaves), calendula tea, rose hips tea, spearmint tea, coffee (coffee is a tea right?..... I have lots of sage, thyme, melissa, lemon verbena....I use them when they go well with the other ingredients in the soaps.

Genny is right on the colors. Citrus leaf tea turns a weird bright orange yellow as soon as you add the lye. The soap does not discolor that much, maybe a little more tan, that's all.

 

[Badger]

I have made a green tea soap where I used triple strength green tea in place of the water in my lye mix. When I mixed the soap "batter" it looked a really ugly dark brown color, but it did settle down after it gelled and sat in the mold and turned to green. I also added some dry tea leaves to the soap as an exfoliant.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

I have brewed the tea like others mentioned, more often I just put the tea bag or loose tea right in the lye water. I love to use lemongrass !!

 

[FarmerMom]

Has anyone tried infusing the tea in oils? I have been infusing teas into my olive oil and it seems to add a light scent to the soaps.

 

[Genny]

Has anyone tried infusing the tea in oils? I have been infusing teas into my olive oil and it seems to add a light scent to the soaps.

I do that for color and then add that oil at trace. There are some herbs that don't infuse in oils as well though

 

[soapsydaisy]

One of my favorites to make and use is Earl Grey soap with you guessed it, bergamot essential oil.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

yes i have , made a couple . here is a link to one of them >><< http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f22/hibiscus-soap-32718/

 

[Pilar]

I have used tea in a recipe I posted in gallery, http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f22/lemon-star-anise-33220/
It takes tea with lemon pepper marinated in extra virgin olive oil. It is an incredible soap and wore lemon juice decoction skin peels, seeds and pulp with star anise. If you need my recipe I can pass but in the Spain we use a calculator very different with very different results to which you expose yourself here

 

[danahuff]

I have also used chai and Earl Grey teas. Just go with the brown color that results and it will turn out fine. As the others have said, just brew it triple strength. I just use three teabags.

I am attaching pics of my Earl Grey Tea Soap and my Chai Tea Soap.

 

[Ancel]

I make one called 'witches brew' with black tea in place of water plus the tealeaves, along with spider silk and rose quartz extract. Very popular, and really a nice soap.

 

[Mona719]

Thank you all for the help. I'm gonig to give it a try this weekend and will post pictures

 

[Lion Of Judah]

how did your tea soap turn out ?

 

[Bicycle808]

I brew with tea all the time, but I don't do triple-strength. You won't smell it either way, and regular-strength tea imparts nice color regardless.