This crisp, clean white bar smells of cold air and cool mint, and is just perfect for winter. It’s my first Christmas soap for 2014, and I’m not quite sure how it’s Christmas soaping season already.
This soap gets its whiteness from a combination of kaolin clay and titanium dioxide. I’ve erred on the side of too little titanium dioxide to avoid the marbling effect you get when you add too much titanium dioxide to soap batter.
I’ve scented these bars with clean and cool cajeput and peppermint essential oils. They smell bright and cool, like a stiff winter wind.
The final bars are hard, white, and smooth, making a great and original Christmas gift.
Blizzard Soap
25% olive oil
25% coconut oil
30% tallow
15% shea butter
5% castor oilPer 500g (1.1lbs) of oils:
- 1 tbsp kaolin clay
- 1 tsp titanium dioxide
- 10g cajeput essential oil
- 20g peppermint essential oil
Calculate with a 5% superfat.
Use SoapCalc to calculate your final amounts of oils, lye, and water based on the size of batch you want to make.
Follow my standard soap making instructions. I recommend soaping this recipe at room temperature to help prevent any glycerin rivers from the titanium dioxide. That means you should leave the oils and lye water to come to room temperature before combining, which is extra nice because it means you don’t have to juggle the two to try and get them to meet around 100°F.
Once you reach a medium trace (like pudding), blend in the clay, titanium dioxide, and essential oils. Bring the batter back to a medium thick trace.
Pour the batter into your prepared mould, tapping it on the counter to knock out any air bubbles. Use your spatula to create a bit of a drifting snow effect by dipping it into the soap and pulling it slightly forward as you pull the spatula out of the batter. Lightly insulate your mould and let saponify for 24 hours before slicing.
Let age for 3–4 weeks before using or gifting.
Hi Marie,
In your instructions you say to go to medium trace and add the clay and titanium dioxide. I assume the titanium dioxide is mixed in water? I’ve tried to use the powdered form and resulted with dry white spots of color in my soap. But have also used it mixed with water resulting in that marbeling effect.
Hi Danni! I do mean to add the titanium dioxide as a powder at trace. You’ll need to use an immersion blender (you can see mine in the photos) to get a nice, smooth soap whenever you’re working with straight powders. If you don’t have one you could blend it (and the clay which will also clump if only stirred in by hand) with a bit of water ahead of time, but I never need to do that with my immersion blender.
As for avoiding glycerin rivers (I’m assuming that’s what you mean by “marbelling effect”?), I recommend soaping this soap at room temperature is they are generally caused by the soap getting too hot 🙂 There also isn’t very much titanium dioxide in this recipe, which helps prevent glycerin rivers as well.
Thanks for reading!
What a wonderful recipe, Marie! Pretty clean looking soap. And you always surprise us with new EO. 🙂 For special effect, I probably sprinkle some glitter on top!
Thanks Iryna! I’ve been playing with micas + soap a lot lately, some silver would be stunning here 🙂
Hi what can I use instead of tallow? We don’t get that in my country. Can I substitute with sunflower oil? Thanks
Hi Julia! Sunflower oil is not a good substitute for tallow in anything, really—they are very different. Here is an entire blog on using tallow in soap and the alternatives 🙂
Hi again, Marie!
What an inspiration you are – I just made this soap with a slight variation.
Total oils are 500 g; used lard (pig fat) instead of beef tallow (run everything through soap calc), hope it’s not going to be too soft; ES – Eucalyptus, Spearmint, Yuzu FO.
Will stamp my soap with mica tomorrow, after unmolding.
I am happy! Thank you, Marie! 🙂
WOW, that was fast! I look forward to hearing how it turns out 🙂
I know, I couldn’t resist!
Well, lard did make it soft. I unmolded it this morning. Honestly, it could wait another day. Next time I will use less of lard in my soap.
It smells so good, just a gently touch of spearmint and almost no Yuzu-lemon.
I used while (with lavender sheen) mica. Accidentally spilled some. It is still really pretty and clean!
Thank you for your inspirations!
http://itmages.com/image/view/1996876/7376d7ca
It shouldn’t make it too soft, that’s strange. I generally don’t notice a difference between lard and tallow when unmoulding after 24 hours—I wonder if you’re getting a slower saponification than I am with your mould, since mine is a loaf and yours is a tray? Super pretty bars, though! I should go looking for my old crafting stamps 😉
I think, I know what the problem is, Marie! I thought lard is a lard. Right?! Nope. Look at the ingredients on the label – lard and hydrogenated lard, BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid added to protect flavor…. My friend “the acid” showed up again! 🙁 I had problems with proper saponification only twice so far – with my shampoo bar (ACV) and this one. Was going to, but shall not blame the mold any more. 🙂
Next time I should pay better attention to the products I use! Or use more concentrated lye solution.
Today my version of your Blizzard soap is perfectly white and hard. Curing… Really love the name, the look, and the smell!
Yes, crafting stamps work just fine! You would need to stamp right away, when soap is still soft and fresh, after unmolding and slicing. I am having fun with them!
Hmmmmmmm. Pretty much all the lard I’ve ever bought has contained some citric acid, but hasn’t produced a noticeably softer soap (at least not as soap as you’re talking). Frankly, I’m more interested in the “hydrogenated lard” that’s blended with the normal lard. Hydrogenated versions of fats have different SAP values than their non-hydrogenated relatives. I’m willing to bet this is probably the problem rather than the citric acid.
O! I didn’t even think about the hydrogenated part. Thank you for pointing it out, Marie
Happy to help—hopefully it helps 🙂
Looking so plain and so beautiful! 🙂
🙂 There’s something so lovely about a smooth, white bar!
GORGEOUS!
Thanks, Annie!
I am dying to make this soap but I do not have cajeput oil. Could you use tea tree instead?
Hi Amber! I really wouldn’t recommend it as the final bar will just reek of tea tree oil, which is sort of cajeput-esque, but has a super distinctive tea tree scent that doesn’t make me think of Christmas or winter at all. You’d be better off to use all peppermint or a blend of peppermint and spearmint and to save tea tree for things you want to smell like something antibacterial/anti-acne.
Thank you so much for responding. I wasn’t sure what Cajeput smelled like. When I looked it up online, it was comparing it to tea tree but not at the same time. I was confused. I will just order some. I love things peppermint and am now dying to smell it.
If you’re familiar with the scent of tiger balm, you’ll likely recognize cajeput when you smell it. I love it in diffuser scent blends as “fresh air”—it’s wonderful with all kinds of other essential oils 🙂 And cheap to boot!
Hi Maire,
So, I am going to make soap at room temperature, but I was just wondering if I can use less EOs than I use in CP soap?
Also, I am going to be making some soap with FOs instead of EOs, approximately how much per 500g should I use?
Thanks!
Michelle
Soaping at room temperature is still cold process soaping—the saponification reaction is still the same, so you won’t want to reduce the amount of EO you use.
From what I’ve read you can use less FO than EO when soaping as FOs are rather indestructible when compared to their natural alternatives. I’d start at using about 2/3 of the amount (so 20g per 500g oils instead of 30g), but use your own judgement as well, as some FOs will be stronger than others (just like EOs).
Great thanks for the info! Can I wrap my CP soaps with EOs in something like saran wrap so that the scent doesn’t disappear too much?
You definitely can, just do it after it ages 😉
Perfect! that is what I will do. Thanks! 🙂
🙂
Hi Marie!
Such a great looking bar of soap, so creamy 🙂
I made this soap with a couple of variations: I used 1 oz of whipping cream and used pine needle EO, lime EO and juniper berry EO. It smells great! SInce I used cream, I refrigerated the soap for 24 hours and I will let it stand overnight tonight at room temp before cutting it tomorrow morning. I cannot wait to see how this soap turns out!
Beautiful! Those bars sound downright decadent 🙂 Your recipients are very lucky!
Hi Marie, I’m wondering if you have any advice, tips or tricks on how to prepare a master batch of soap and break it up into different scents and colours. I’m short on available time and was thinking I’d make a large batch of soap at once this weekend or next so I’m ready for Christmas. Would love any advice you can offer!
Hi Karen! I actually do this all the time 🙂 First off, I’d really recommend soaping at room temperature. This will give you more time to work with the batter without it thickening up a lot, which is necessary as you will have to leave some of it to sit while you work on other batches. You’ll also want to be sure you have all your essential oils, colourants, and other ingredients pre-measured out and ready, as well as your moulds. I usually do just two different kinds from a master batch, but you might be able to push it to three, depending on how complicated each soap is. And last but not least, add up the weights of all your initial inputs so you can accurately divide the master batch. Have fun!
Hi Marie!
First, I love your site lots of good stuff here. I just made the ACV Rinse last night and today I made the Blizzard soap.
My question is regarding the titanium dioxide. I used it as powder at trace but my soap is still a yellowish color and not any noticeably lighter than the soaps that I have made without the pigment. Should I have mixed it with oil first? Not sure what I did wrong here, the soap still smells fantastic just not the same color.
Thank you!!
Hi Jessica! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 Do you see any trace of the TD, like big clumps anywhere? Was it micronized titanium dioxide? How much did you use, and how big was your batch?
i made a 60oz batch and doubled the additive measurements. The TD is from Montain Rose Herbs so it just says Matte White Pigment powder. When I blended the clay and the TD in it had a lumpy gravey consistency.
It’s my first time using soap additives so it’s trial and error for me yet. The scent is fantastic though and my apartment smells wonderful!
Did you use an immersion blender, or just hand stir? Whenever I get clumps it’s from trying to get away without getting my immersion blender dirty 😛
Marie,
I SHOULD say I’m TERRIFIED that I found your site, but I’m going to be brave and say that I’m thrilled that I found it! These gorgeous pictures of snowy-white soaps have been dancing around in my head since I first saw them… I can practically smell the peppermint and feel the chilly wind of winter! I keep returning to this page just to look at the photos…
I’ve NEVER tried making soap and am scared to death of what I’m getting myself into to buy lye, titanium dioxide, goggles, gloves and a whole new set of pans. But I must have some of this gorgeous soap. Why, oh why don’t you have a shop on Etsy?????
R
Hi Robin! Welcome 🙂 I’ve got a great article on DIY for beginners to get you started, plus some basic soaping articles (here, here, and here) so you can hit the ground running. Have fun!
Thanks! I made a set of your LUSH copycat clay bath melts… and that was fun for my son and I to do together on Black Friday (rather than shop with the masses). They swelled up and probably lost all their fizziness, but they’ll still work in the tub : )
I checked out your DIY articles and tips and found some great info. The clean-up article was especially helpful! Thanks to those tips, I’ll be making more items since I don’t dread the dirty pans quite so much : )
How fun! We had a blizzard for Black Friday here, though it is much less of a thing in Canada than in the US. I went home and made cookies after work 🙂 Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie!
Lurvely work as always. I’m just curious as to why you run with 15% shea butter in your bar soaps. What would be a good substitute for it?
Cheers!
Hi Ace! I just really love the effect of shea butter in my soap. I’ve played with lots of other variations and always end up coming back to it. I have used avocado oil as an alternative, but do watch your hardness numbers in SoapCalc if you do—you may find you want to increase the percentage of tallow to get a harder bar.
A group of gals and I got together and made this soap tonight. it smells DIVINE. I will certainly be making it again! Thanks for the AMAZING recipe!
Fantastic! I’m so thrilled you love it 🙂
Do you superfat all of your soap recipes or is it different from recipe to recipe? I notice that soapcalc uses 5% as the default, but the recipe doesn’t specifically mention superfatting. This soap looks wonderful. I have a majority of the ingredients already so I wanted to give it a go for my first soap.
Hi Dawn! I generally superfat at 5%—I obviously forgot to note that here, so I’ve gone in and done that 🙂
Hello Marie, my sister and I are now switching over to homemade soaps etc. thank you for your wonderful site. I have been doing my research and wondering about the amount of EO /FO you mention per 500 g, it seems much higher than soapcalc recomends. We are rather scent sensitive, so will I still notice the EO’s if I halve them? Thanks
Hi Rose! I’ve worked with my rule of 30g per 500g oils for a few years and I’ve found it works really well—especially because I like to age my soaps for months before use. I made this Blizzard soap in September and I’m using a bar now—it smells only slightly minty. I consider myself to be quite scent sensitive as well, and when I’ve used significantly smaller amounts of essential oils, the bars have had basically no scent left by the time they were ready to be used.
All that said, some EOs last longer than others in bar soap. I find dark patchouli and cinnamon last for ages, while citrus EOs fade quite fast.
Thanks Marie, the first soap we did was at a class, using cinnamon and anise, so as you said came out strong. We don’t have much of a stash yet ageing, so I will bow to you longer soaping experience. Thought I should add though, I am within driving distance of Saffire Blue, this I think, just might be a “bad” thing?
Lucky you! That would be a dangerous thing for me… but perhaps the extra money I’d spend would be made up for in the lack of shipping charges? 😛
Hi Marie!
Can I use bentonite clay instead of kaolin clay and get the same white bar results in this recipe?
No; bentonite clay is grey/green and that will come through in the soap.
Thank you Marie! I couldn’t wait for the kaolin clay so what I did was that I used titanium dioxide in the warm oils prior to mixing in lye solution, then I used zinc oxide at trace. Maybe this will get me the white bar I want to see.
Btw Marie, the lots of clays recipe is great!
Thanks again,
Cheryl.
Fingers crossed, and happy soaping! 🙂
I’ve made soap before but unfortunately I still have plenty of oils left. I have some that are expiring soon and I have some that already expired. I store them in my mini fridge. Stupid question, I think…. would I still be able to use the expired carrier oils? If not what can I do with them? Thanks!!!
Hi Maria! With oils you’re worried about rancidity, which tends to take quite a while to set in. Expiry dates on oils are more of a sell-by than a hard expiry date. If you’re storing them in your fridge they are likely still totally fine. Just smell ’em—rancid oil has a pretty distinct, musty smell. If the oils aren’t rancid, they’re still 100% fine to use 🙂
I finally made my batch of blizzard soap! It’s still curing, so I haven’t cut into the loaf yet… but it’s quite the orange-pink color. The cajeput essential oil I purchased (from SoapGoods.com) was quite amber. I don’t think the titanium dioxide or kaolin clay could compete with the golden color of the essential oil. Also, did you use refined shea butter in your recipe? Your pictures show a yellowy soap batter (like the shea butter the I used from New Directions) but your soap turned out a much whiter color. I’m guessing I should use the exact ingredients you did if I want the same results : )
Thanks so much for this beautiful recipe!
Hmm, how interesting! I used unrefined shea butter, so that’s likely not it. It could be the essential oils, though. In the future, try adding TD until the soap batter looks quite white before pouring—that’s how I got my original measurement 🙂
The soap has cured into a much lighter shade than the original orange-pink color. It’s much closer to the white bars that you have pictured.
I didn’t want to add too much TD and risk getting the “glycerin rivers” you mentioned!
Thanks for letting me know about the shea butter… I’m pretty certain it was the essential oil that caused the strange color.
Oh good! What a relief 🙂 It’s always nice when curing fixes problems. And yes, glycerin rivers are rather ugly, so I understand your hesitation 🙂
Hi Marie
I’ve made your Blizzard Soap recipe several times now and love it. But I’ve noticed a yellow tinge on the top and down the sides of the cut bars. I use water soluble titanium dioxide and distilled water. I made a 67oz batch and doubled the additives. I’ve noticed another recipe containing titanium dioxide showing a yellowish tinge. I’m wondering if it’s the pomace olive oil that I use ? Can you possibly share your expertise on this problem for me ?
Thanks Helen.
Hmm. I know exactly what you’re talking about, but I’m afraid I don’t have many great ideas for you. It could be oxidization, but why wouldn’t the effect eventually spread to the rest of the bar? Is it the entire outside surface of the bars? It would make more sense if it was. Hmm. Do you have any TD crackling? Is it possible your knife was a bit dirty? If it was the oils you’re using I’d think the colour would be uniform. Odd.
So, almost a year after this post and I finally just went ahead and did it. Soap making seemed so intimidating at first..then I did this one. Between the soap calc and the cold processing I could not have asked for an easier introduction to soap making. I used a silicon soap mold instead of block so it was pretty easy to just pop those babies right out when they were ready.
Wrapped them up in some breathable linen fabric and peppermint stickers. I plan on letting them continue to cure until I can give them away as Christmas gifts. (That and it gives me plenty of time to use the first bar as a tester-amazing color, great lather, and it smells awesome).
I had so much fun, and I’ve added yet another new DIY item to my skillset! Your blog is just the best and so inspiring. Thanks, Marie!
Yay! Congratulations on diving into soaping 😀 I expect you’ve slid full-on into soaping by now and have taken over an entire room of your place with aging soap 😉
hi,
love your blog! I have a question regarding your mold and the wooden dividers. I see that you don’t line the ends of the mold and the wooden divider insert. I have a very long loaf mold that I’m wanting to use for smaller batches. and I have wooden dividers/inserts. I thought I needed to line them and was trying to figure out how to do that, but after seeing your mold, I’m wondering if I need to? thoughts?
thank you!
Your observations are correct 😛 I don’t line mine and it’s fine.
Is titanium dioxide a necessity in soap?
Hi Maggie! It isn’t, but this soap will be a sort of yellow colour instead of “blizzard” white without it.
Okay, thanks!
🙂
Hi Maria, Love your site (spent most of today on it!). This blizzard soap will make the perfect gift for the women in my family this Christmas holiday! One question; I am out of titanium dioxide and need to get these bars started soon. Are there any substitutes that would whiten? I have loads of zinc oxide, would that work? Thank you for your time. (PS – I can’t wait for your book!)
Hi Carol! I can’t think of any reason why zinc oxide wouldn’t work 🙂 Happy soaping!
Help we are very new to making our own soap. Most recipes we follow are in grams. Most frustrating but cannot figure out soap calculator to get amounts of oil to use, water amount and lye 🙁 Any way to translate for us?
Hey! I just made a video on how to use SoapCalc so you can do this yourself—you can find it here: https://youtu.be/e2IfuosYBos. If you want to make soap it’s really important that you learn how to use a soap calculator; you should always calculate or re-calculate out any soap recipe you make, even if it’s already been provided with solid measurements. What if the author made a typo and now you’re using 40% more lye than you should be and you end up with a bar of soap that burns your skin? Or you use too little lye and you end up with super soft bars that go rancid and have to be thrown out? It’s also a great way to start creating your own recipes 🙂 Anyhow, I hope the video helps!
Marie, I just had to share that I made my first-ever batch of soap using this recipe four weeks ago. I just tried out a bar and it is wonderful! I have literally had “learn to make soap” on my to-do list for over 10 years and your blog and articles finally gave me the courage and motivation to make the time. I’m excited to do some experimenting to see firsthand how different fats give different results and although it won’t be nearly as luxurious, already have another batch curing (after quite a bit of reading I wanted to experiment and see what I would get with a simple lard/lye bar). My next plans are for a castille bar, and I’m already reading through your past posts to find another “fancy” soap based on your wonderful recipes. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge and in such an inspiring, encouraging way!
Fantastic! Welcome to the wonderful world of making your own soap 🙂 Prepare to never be in want of a hostess gift again 😉 Remember to take lots of notes so you can remember what you’ve done and what you love! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂
Made a large batch of this (1.5 kg of oils) last night at room temperature and divided into three batches to scent differently (Peppermint, Lavender & Rosemary and Lavender & Lemon) borrowing scents from your other soaps. Working at Room Temperature is a great idea and it gave me ample time to work on each batch, thank you for that. Anyway everything looks great… waiting to unmold as I type.
HOWEVER as a warning to other newbies, I realized AFTER making this huge batch, that the “Yellow” Shea Butter I had purchased from Amazon.com was NOT Shea Butter, but was Kpangnan Butter which has different Sap values. Wish I realized it BEFORE purchasing, I didn’t know what color Shea was supposed to be. 🙁 Anyway the difference in amount of Lye between the two doesn’t seem that great… I may just have an extra fatty bar. Just sharing so others don’t make the same mistake I made, Real Shea butter is Cream Colored NOT Yellow.
Awesome! I do this, too—I usually do 1450g of oils and halve it, which fits perfectly in my mould with a divider straight down the middle. The room temperature thing is such a godsend when you want to split it up and fuss with all the different parts, it’s the best! I’m glad you’re loving it as much as I do 😀
And thanks for the warning on the Kpangnan Butter—I’d never even heard of it before, but sure enough, the internet tells me that even though it is patently NOT shea butter, it’s often sold as yellow shea butter. Weird! What an unhelpful naming convention haha. You should be ok, though, given the relatively small difference in SAP values, the relatively small percentage of it in the recipe, and our superfat buffer. You can generally go up to 7% superfat without much trouble 🙂
Hello, I’ve just purchased lard for the first time and am somewhat apprehensive about using it. I see that this recipe calls for tallow, and I’m wondering if I can swap it out for lard instead, or do I need a different recipe? Thanks
Hey Kara! Lard and tallow are interchangeable in soap recipes 🙂 Lard is a bit softer, but not so much that I’ve ever noticed a difference in finished bars 🙂 Happy soaping!
For the titanium dioxide marbleing, I’ve found doing a water discount (between 30-33% is what I set the liquid on soapcalc), keeping the soap loaf cool for a few hours and then, taking the loaf out of the mold but not cutting it up for an extra day or two keep that marbleing at bay.
Thanks! I’ll have to give that a go 🙂
Hello. What amount would you recommend if I wanted to sub out the titanium dioxide for zinc oxide? I love the idea of a super white soap! Thank you so much for sharing all your great ideas! I’ve already pre-ordered your book – can not wait for it!
Probably 1:1? They usually aren’t good alternatives for one another, but I think soap might be an exception to that rule 🙂 Good luck and let me know how it turns out, and thank you for pre-ordering my book! 😀
Just wanted to say that I made this soap recently and it resulted in my favorite! Hard bar, but great slip and very moisturizing. I did some sliver and silvery white swirls on top to make it look more ‘blizzardy” Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Wnoderful! Thank you so much for reading and DIYing with me, and happy soaping 😀
Love this recipe! When soaping at room temp, this stays thin for awhile, making it my new go to for swirling….now just have to play with scents to make sure none accelerate trace. This scent combination is one of my favorites, right there with your silk mermaid shampoo bars. I love, love, love your recipes and videos!!! Thank you so much for sharing! !!
I’m so thrilled to hear you’re loving this recipe! Happy soaping, and thanks for reading and DIYing with me 😀
we use goats milk instead of water in our soap but never have gone to room temp. Would leaving goats milk/lye sitting out all day have a bad outcome?
I would be more concerned about scorching the milk if you don’t use the typical ice bath, and if you’re using the ice bath, the milk should never get so warm that it needs to sit out all day to come to temperature. You should be able to just leave the oils out to cool to room temperature and proceed as usual with your milk 🙂
Hi Marie. Just found your site and I love it. I’m also new at soaping but would prefer to use palm oil.Would that be ok instead of tallow.
I’ve never used palm oil so I really don’t know how well that would work.
After completing this soap could you pop it in the fridge to keep it from going through gel phase or getting the dreaded glycerin rivers? Do you think that would work? I’ve heard of people refridgerating their soaps up to 17 hours, then leavening them in the molds another 7-10 before cutting.
You definitely could, though this isn’t something I have a ton of experience with… though, come to think of it, my house is often cool enough in the winter that it may qualify as a warm fridge, haha 😛
Oh my Marie – another soap – when will I stop trying out recipes???? Am I one of those soapers that is always hunting for the next bright shiny thing??? I thought I had my soap bar recipe and now I have found this one – oh dear – I just have to try it – tomorrow. Funny that because my mold is waiting – all lined – and no soap in it for the week. If your soap recipe works I have some serious recipe cleaning ups and throw outs otherwise I will be buried under far too many recipes and no one will find me. Roll on tomorrow I want to make soap.
Probably never lol 😛 And that’s not a bad thing at all! I’m still mucking around with new recipes and it’s been years and years, and I love the soap I make… but I just can’t leave well enough alone haha.
Hello – again – just had to say one more thing – for some unknown reason I havent had the penny drop on how to use soap cal for percentages – yee haa – ring the town hall bells around the world – I have done it – dont ask why – how or when but I did it – I can now understand soaping that little bit more – Thank you
Yay! The ability to use a soap calculator is HUGE 🙂
OMG Marie – I have made this soap – I managed to buy the cleanest lard I have ever seen – I couldn’t get tallow for some reason – and did it – I have never done a room temperature CP soap and it was so much easier – all my other CP soap recipes instruct you to melt your oils first and letting them and the ye solution coming to a close temperature – can I do this with those recipes as well??? It was amazing to do this way – I also perfumed it with Tea Tree and Peppermint – oh my stars – that combo is divine and I will be sticking to that bend if I do it again – which raises my final question – can I use this recipe for any other blend I want to do and add colours??? – I should know this but sometimes a person just needs some re-assurance that they are doing the right thing.
Thanks
Liz – a very happy happy soaper
Yay! I’m so glad you’re enjoying room temperature soaping 🙂 In theory you should be able to do any recipe room temperature, but I have found some get very thick very fast at room temperature, so more intricate things aren’t possible, and if it is too cold you could encounter false trace, so do watch for that. And yes, you can just “dress up” this base differently if you want 🙂 Happy soaping!
I wanted the ask you what kind if Lard you use? I use Beef Tallow, Leaf Lard & Lard from my local butcher. I do notice that tallow produces a much harder bar the Real Lard. The “grocery store” or Armor brand Lard is hydrogenated and I think that’s what makes some soaps made with that type of Lard harder. I was just wondering if you have tried Fresh Lard since I noticed you said you never noticed a difference in the hardness of tallow & Lard. Just curious, thanks so much. I love all your soaps. I also love mixing Leaf Lard and Tallow to get the best of both worlds (Leaf Lard for the conditioning and Tallow for additional hardness.
The lard I used comes in a brick in the pastry section, but it hasn’t been hydrogenated. From what I understand hydrogenation should not be required for lard since it’s already a saturated fat? I know the plant sourced lard alternatives are hydrogenized, but that’s definitely not what I use—the ingredients are typically just lard and BHT or citric acid 🙂 I’ve never rendered my own lard; I must admit that the whole rendering process is rather gross, and as a vegetarian I hate having my whole house smell like cooked fat 😛
Hi! I love your website, and I’ve tried some of your beautiful recipes! My question is about the cajeput E.O. that you used in your Blizzard Soap. How do you handle this E.O without getting your fingers glued to the bottle, or ending up with a clumpy mess in your soap? Perhaps my E.O. was at the wrong temp or something, but I found it sticky like superglue, very thick and difficult to stir into the batter. I’m not sure what caused that. Did you have the same problem? I definitely cannot use it in my E.O. diffuser! lol Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Interesting! I have honestly never had that problem—mine pours straight out without any issues and incorporates into everything easily :/ Super old EOs can become really thick and resinous, but I’ve only ever seen that happen once and the EO was easily 6 or 7 years old. It might be something to ask your supplier about?
Thanks so much for your input, Marie! I’m glad I was able to find out how Cajeput is supposed to behave. I bought mine new from the soap company I use, but I suppose it’s entirely possible that it had been sitting on their shelves for awhile. Honestly though, my whole soaping experience that day reminded me of one of those comedy skits that Tim Conway does on the Carol Burnett show! I was sticking to myself, and then to everything around me! LOL! Anyway, many thanks for the help, and keep up the awesome work on your blog. I appreciate your recipes and expertise so much. 🙂
When we have days like that the best we can do is laugh and try and remember as much as possible for a funny story to share with our friends later, LOL. Thanks for making me one of those friends who gets to share a laugh with you 🙂 Best of luck not-comedy-skitting in the future and happy making!