Easy, Peasy, Lemon-Squeezy

Yesterday's batch of soap was a breeze. Or, as my nine-year old likes to say, easy-peasy,lemon-squeezy. I timed myself. Deciding on ingredients and calculating the recipe took 15 minutes. Setting up and weighing the oils took an hour. Making the caustic solution took another 15 minutes. I did other things while the caustic solution cooled down, and it took less than a half hour to mix it together and process it into soap. The soap log rested overnight, and now it's in my kitchen, ready to be sliced and stored for curing.

The soap will be rebatched after the fragrance components have been blended. When the soap is finally finished, the total time invested will be significant.

It gets easier and better each time. These days, I spend far more time shopping out ingredients for soap than making it, and I'm making as much as ever.

Lately I've been thinking that if it takes months for a batch of soap to cure properly, and it also takes months for the volatile compounds in essential oils to dissipate from soap, perhaps rebatching is the best way to work with essential oils.

I'm starting to become more flexible about using fragrance oils, especially in harmony with essential oils, herbs, incense resins and spices. I have a bias against synthetic fragrance due to my massage therapy and aromatherapy training from many years ago. But in defense of synthetics, it's possible to find them without ingredients such as phthalates and musk xylene. Honestly, I think that all ingredients should be used with care, and I would like to be as informed as possible about the usage of every ingredient. In the end however, it's up to the person using the soap to decide if the ingredients are acceptable.

The other day at a natural foods store, I was examining the soap aisle. An all-natural, organic, essential-oil scented type was eight dollars per four-ounce bar. It had been on the shelf a while, and the scented was faded. My soap smells far better.

Right now, I'm grating a batch that I processed 16 days ago. It's going to rest in a large tray for another two weeks. Then I'll melt it down with a strong herbal tea, skin soothing oils and essential oils. After two weeks of drying, I'm hoping it will be acceptable.

I've been thinking about the soap I'll need through the end of summer, and getting it all made in early spring. By spring, I'll start making the fall soap. In summer, I'll start making the winter soaps. It's a bit of an adjustment. I prefer to make soap for what I'm feeling now. The reward for my effort will be a lovely soap that is ready in the season it was made for.

So, now that it's becoming so easy. I'm thinking about making it harder. Instead of rustic, unevenly sliced bars of bumpy looking soap, (bumpy but oh so nice on the skin,) maybe I should graduate to fancy soap molds? Should I enter the debate about adding sodium lactate or stearic acid to make the soap smoother and harder?

Hmmm.

And what is this obsession I have lately with containers? Yesterday I washed out a 32 oz bottle that had contained castor oil, and noticed that if I cut the top off, it would make a perfect mold for round soaps. Every plastic tub that contained any type of food is a potential lye measuring bowl, and the lids are spoon rests. Larger tubs are perfect storage containers for grated soap or infused oils.

It's madness, I tell you! And now, back to the kitchen, to grate more soap.