Chai & Soy Milk Soap Recipe

1lb grated basic soap (see yesterday)
8oz soy milk
2oz soap nut concentrate  (in lieu of this just add more soy milk)
2 bags chai tea

-Break open tea bags and steep in warm soymilk & soapnut mix. Pour into grated basic soap and melt over low heat. Mold and allow to set overnight. You can then cut bars and allow to cure, about 10 days for this recipe.

If you probably won't make this soap but want some anyway send me a message at brandi_kaleka@hotmail.com. All it'll cost you is your immortal soul....fair...

Superfatted Soap Recipe

Superfatted Soap Recipe (taken from The Complete Soapmaker, p. 73)
1lb grated basic soap (see yesterday for making basic soap)
8oz water (I used the soap nut concentrate, again see yesterday)
1oz each cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, lanolin and glycerine
10 drops essential oil

- Melt the soap with the water on really low heat (2 or 3). Stirring too rigorously can cause bubbles so take it easy. In a pan heat the cocoa butter until melted, then add the oils, lanolin & glycerine and melt. When soap and water have completely melted down add the warm oil and stir completely. Pour into a mold and let it dry overnight. You can now cut it into bars. Bars will be soft and depending on the recipe, they can take up to a month to cure; this recipe takes about a week.

If this makes your mouth water but you think that actually making them may end up on a pile of good intentioned  "to do's", perhaps I could send you some. brandi_kaleka@hotmail.com

Soap Nuts - the everything cleaner

laundry soap, surface cleaner, toilets, soap scum, floors, pets, jewelery, seriously everything...

The first I ever heard of Sop Nuts was in 2009 at a small business expo. They weren't in their raw form but there were two companies using them as the active surfactant in their products. What is this Soap Nut? Turns out that yeah, it's a nut, actually a nutshell, Sapindus Mukorossi. The shell has a thick coating on the inside. When you boil them in water they create a natural surfactant. (surface-active agent: a substance, such as a detergent, that can reduce the surface tension of a liquid and thus allow it to foam and penetrate solids; a wetting agent). Hence the secret ingredient in a certain company's top secret ingestable ingredient which 'Makes Water Wetter'. There it is, mystery revealed, just buy the nuts. This 1kg bag could do 500 loads of laundry or clean enough countertops to wrap around earth, maybe even twice. The point is it'll last a long, long time. Even better, you won't have to use chemical detergents and cleaners. You don't even have to sacrifice efficacy. I've been trying them for almost a year (same bag) on all kinds of cleaning and the only thing I've found that it isn't great on is glass.

Making All-Purpose Concentrate: Boil 14 soap nuts in 1L of water. Smoosh them to the sides of the pot with a spoon, getting out all of that mucousy goodness. Boil boil boil...until you're satisfied that it's all absorbed into the water. Strain through cheesecloth and put into a spray container. It's a botanical extract so keeping it in the fridge will extend the shelf life. I usually make a new batch on Sunday and then use it for everything throughout the week. For Laundry use about 4tbsp. You can add vinegar or tea tree oil as an anti-bacterial agent. They smell very mild, sort of like a fig. I sometimes add essential oils depending on what I'm cleaning. Pine oil for floors, lavender in laundry etc.

If you want to try Soap Nuts you can send me an e-mail at brandi_kaleka@hotmail.com. I plan to use them from now on so I have ordered an industrial quantity and would be willing to share. Why doesn't everyone use these?

Soap for a Year - Basic Soap Recipe

This one of many Basic Soap Recipes. It will give you a huge block of plain soap. From there you can cut off smaller batches to melt down and make your specialized soaps.

Ingredients (taken from The Complete Soapmaker)
32oz blended vegetable oil or olive oil
74oz tallow
3oz cocoa butter
14oz lye*
41oz cold water

*Lye will give you a chemical burn so have a small dish of vinegar on hand incase it gets on your skin. You can neutralize it immediately rather than getting it together when your skin is frothing off. Always use gloves.

Container #1

Contaier #2

Container #1 Fats: Put the fats (oil, tallow, cocoa butter) into a big pot and melt them down.

Container #2 Lye & Water: Use a microwave safe plastic container for the lye water mixture. Add the lye to the water, not the other way around.The lye will get hot as hell, ~ 200F.

Basic Soap before drying

Trailings

Next: The idea is to get the fats and the lye both to between 95F-100F at the same time. It can be a bit tricky but I do this by setting the pot of fats on the counter and setting the lye solution in a cold water bath in the sink. Once they are the right temperature pour the lye into the fat, stirring constantly for what seems like a long time. Stir, stir, stir until you get trailings. Trailings are present when you can drip the mixture on top of itself and it stays for a bit. Sort of like pudding, google it if it's unclear. It can take up to 30minutes to get trailings but I usually notice them within 10-15miutes with this recipe. Pour the soap into a 12quart container (like the one you used to make tallow), wrap it in a towel and put it in a warn place for at least a day. Voila Soap!

Basic Soap

To Make Soap, First We Render Fat

A little gross yes, but using rendered fat (tallow) in your soap will give it a creamyness that no vegetable fat can compare to. You can use waste fat that you've been cutting from your meats (and freezing of course), or you can visit the butcher. If you can, get suet from the butcher shop. Suet is the white fat that forms around the kidneys. It is renouned as the creme de la creme of soap fats, 10lbs should be sufficient to get a good start on soapmaking. 

Rendering fat basically means that you are taking the fat that you have, waste fat or suet, boil it down with a bunch of water until it's liquid. Then you strain it through a mesh strainer to get out all of the meaty bits. Strain it into a 12 Quart plastic container with a lid, like a rubbermaid. That's about it. Make sure you add a lot of water when boiling it, as much as you want as the fat and water will separate when it cools. Add peanut butter and bread crumbs to the leftover meaty bits and pack it into pine cones to make birdfeeders. This brought Blue Jays to my yard!

Put the container in the fridge overnight. In the morning you will have a solid block of tallow on top and all of the water you added will be at the bottom. You may have to shave off a few grainy bits but don't worry too much about it. Cut up the tallow and put it into freezer bags until you're ready to make soap. It's worthy to get yourself a good soap making book. The one I have is called The Complete Soapmaker.

Tallow