Digging In The Dirt

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day here in the Okanagan. I decided to take advantage of that and wandered around the yard for a bit, just to see if I could find any signs of awakening. I did. The Cannas are starting to come up! In the front garden, the tulips and irises are beginning to show themselves, too. Spring really is right around the corner.

Of course, once you know that spring is almost here, its time to get your hands in the soil. And that means you need a good, scrubby yet gentle soap to get those hands clean. Our Gardener's Hand Soap is the perfect answer. With the addition of poppy seeds, corn meal, dried orange peel, and pumice, this gentle hand soap will get the dirtiest of hands clean!

The base is made with Beef Tallow, Coconut,  and Sunflower oil. I know the use of animal fats in soap can be a contentious issue for some but I will never apologize for its use. As long as we are a planet of meat eaters, the fats from those animals largely ends up in landfills. I would prefer that it be used to make other products, beneficial products. Beef tallow, and lard as well, are very close in nature to our own body fat and make for hard, long lasting, yet gentle bars of soap. 

So, get out there, get dirty! Then, come in and get clean!

Thrice Rice Soap - Rice Three Ways

 A while back, on the SoapMaking Forum, one of the makers mentioned that she adds rice to her soap and it's one of her favourite soaps. After some discussion, I decided to try it... and immediately fell in love with it.

I decided to use Jasmine rice, just because I happened to have some Jasmine fragrance oil and a large bag of Jasmine rice. First, I washed the rice thoroughly and used that wash water to dissolve the lye. Because of the starches from the rice, the lye liquid quickly turned into a mush, thickening up almost like a pudding. I've never seen that before.

Once the rice was rinsed, I cooked it in more than double the  amount of water usually used for cooking rice and I overcooked it, almost to the point of mushiness. I drained the water, reserving all of it; the rice was blitzed in a Magic Bullet, along with enough of the cooking water to create a fairly loose slurry. 

When I was ready to put it all together, the slurry, along with some rice flour (that's the thrice part) was added to my oils. The lye rice water was added and, once the batter reached trace, I added the Jasmine fragrance oil.

So, what does rice bring to the soap? Rice has been used for centuries in Asian skin care. According to articles I've read, the geisha used to wash their faces in rice water; they were known for their flawless skin. According to an article in the Daily Times of India, rice "revitalizes and protects the skin from sun damage. It comes loaded with antioxidants that fight free radicals and give you a more youthful-looking skin. It helps in skin brightening too. It's considered a mild exfoliator, making it ideal for daily use."

Granted, the article is talking about a rice puree used as a masque and washing with rice water. Truth be told, soap doesn't really stay on your skin long enough to provide any real benefits, other than cleansing. 

In this soap, the rice provides an amazingly silky, creamy lather. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I washed with it. I have dry skin and I found that it didn't strip my skin, leaving that dry, tight feeling. I still used a moisturizer because, as I said, I do have dry skin. The light scent of the Jasmine fragrance oil made this soap feel like an indulgence. I can see why rice soap is as popular as it is.

2021

 

2020 behind us no; what a year it's been. When I look back though, I have to say that I am grateful. With everything that has transpired over this past year, I can honestly say that it has been a good year for me personally, and an amazing year for my little business. I am thankful for each person who has helped to make 2020 a good year in a time of upheaval.

As I look forward to 2021, I'm excited by the possibilities, both personal and professional. I hope you are, too! I'm looking forward to seeing you in 2021 - may it be a year full of excitement and possibility!

Salt Bars

 One of our best selling soaps these past couple of years has been our Salt Bars. They're a pure white bar with simple ingredients - coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil - with the addition of sea salt and lavender, peppermint, and rosemary essential oils. Don't let the simple ingredients fool you, however. 

Normally, a soap that's high in coconut oil, as this one is, can be very drying on the skin which is something of a surprise to most people. Coconut oil has been used forever in skin and hair care; it's known as a moisturizing oil for both. When you add lye to it, though, it becomes what we call a very "cleansing" soap, which means it can be drying, stripping... cleansing. Soap made with 100% coconut oil is often used for laundry soap or dishwashing soap but never for body soap.

However, with the addition of 50% salt, the coconut soap is transformed into a gentle soap that I've been using as a facial soap for a number of years. Incidentally, the salt in the soap doesn't help with exfoliation; it's very fine sea salt and dissolves readily. It does help to create a smooth, almost creamy, lather that I've even used for shaving my legs. The bars are hard and long lasting as long as you don't leave them in your shower. 

An interesting tidbit that I haven't had a chance to try yet - apparently coconut soap is the only soap that will lather in salt water. I'll have to try it the next time we visit my daughter on Vancouver Island.

This batch, made this morning, won't be ready for sale for at least three months. This is one soap that benefits greatly with as long a cure as possible. I even recommend buying more than one bar and putting all but one away for a year... or more. Thankfully, I still have some left from last year's batches; some are six to nine months old by now. 

Salt Bars, just poured, now resting until they're firm enough to remove from the molds, some time tomorrow, making these the first soaps of 2021. 

A previous batch curing. Three to six months is the minimum cure time for these bars. The longer the better!

Sorely Neglected - Hopefully to be Remedied

 The blog has been very badly neglected over the past year. I'm hoping to remedy that; as new soaps and new items are being made, tested, and rolled out, I'm planning on updating the blog to keep you in the loop. 

In addition to making soaps like crazy this week, I've been experimenting with lotions and potions, as I've been doing for many years. I'm working on developing an indulgent, or possibly very simple, effective eye cream. I've been researching, making, and testing (using myself as the guinea pig, of course) all week. I'll update when I have something to report. 

The soap kitchen has been active this week - here are a few pictures from our Instagram feed so you can see what's coming up. 

All of these will be ready in time for our first market of the season, on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2021. 

April Soap Challenge - Pour Through/Pull Through

One of the benefits of being out of work and being told to stay at home to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is that I have a lot of time for crafting and soap making (not that I'm making a lot of soap). Thankfully, each month, the Soapmaking Forum has a challenge; the challenge for April is the Pour Through or Pull Through technique.

This technique is borrowed from acrylic painting and can make some interesting patterns. The Pour Through technique involves pouring coloured soap batter through a strainer or colander, depending on the size of your mold. The Pull Through technique involves pouring your batter into a mold that has a shaped strainer at the bottom of it. Once the strainer (or whatever is being used) is pulled up through the soap batter, patterns are made. If it's made in a column mold, it usually ends up looking like a kaleidoscope. I've seen some beautiful examples of this technique but I've also seen some muddy looking examples. It's a technique I've been wanting to try for a while but really didn't have time for experimenting.

Well, now I do and this technique just happened to be the challenge for this month. I've already made a first attempt that I'm pretty happy with but I think I'd like to try another one, tweaking with what I learned in the first try.

Here's the tool I used for my attempt #1.

It's from a Pickle (Gherkin) jar, meant to pull the pickles up from the bottom of the jar. I tied two strings to it, one at the top of the handle and one at the opposite side, making it easier to pull out of the soap batter. My mold is made from the 3" core from a roll of blueprint paper (working at a print shop definitely has its perks).

Here's the soap in the mold (I won't be showing the cut soap until the challenge is over or unless I like my next attempt better).

It looks kind of muddy, doesn't it? I was a little worried at first but, trust me, it doesn't look to bad at all. I purposely made a full batch (my usual 1000 grams) and had enough left over to fill my guest soap mold. One thing I must say, I'm really happy with the way the colours came out. The blues are coloured with Ultramarine Blue and a bit of Activated Charcoal and the green is coloured with Olive Mica. The soap is scented with Candora's Caribbean Escape (Sweet Melon, Raspberry Nectar, Italian Lemon, Creamy Coconut, and Raw Sugarcane), which reminds me of SUMMER!

The fragrance oil does have 3% Vanilla content so it may discolour a bit. I added Titanium Dioxide to keep the discolouration to a minimum but I expect it will still darken to a light beige.

It felt good to make soap again; it almost brings a bit of normalcy to my week. 

Stay safe and..... wash your hands. Need soap? We have soap!

A Message to My Local Friends

In this time of Covid-19, we're all being told to stay away from other people, to stay at home, to wash your hands. Like many of you, I'm now among the ranks of the unemployed because of this virus. Like you, we're trying very hard to stay away from people. That said, you still need groceries, right? You still need "the necessities of life". Right now, soap is one of those very important items. It's one of the ways we can stop this virus in its tracks.

So many events are being cancelled, including our local markets, understandably so. That said, if you need soap or bath products, we do have them available. Is there any better time to pamper yourself? We are more than happy to arrange for safe local delivery or pick up (the Kelowna area). All you need to do is get in touch, either by email or by phone.

We have plenty of stock available; I will begin posting available stock on the Available Now page, along with prices. This isn't an online store, however. You will have to get in touch by email or phone to order. Payment can be made by e-transfer and pick up or delivery will be arranged. Delivery will be free for orders over $20.00.

Email us at mission.meadows.soapery@gmail.com or call 250-317-4122 to order and arrange pick up or delivery.