I seem to have a thing for turning my favourite beverages into soaps. Café Latté, Gin and Tonic, and now a Chai Latté. This wonderful, rich soap is scented with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and vanilla. I blended white kaolin clay (USA / Canada) with milk powder, ground cloves, ground ginger, and ground cinnamon to give a hint of exfoliation. And, with the help of Annie and Sven, we got the mysterious red soap thing sorted out!
The magical red colour is a result of milk and cinnamon bark essential oil (cinnamomun cassia blume) mingling together in a bar of soap. The red colour isn’t as pronounced here as it is in the Cinnamon Oatmeal soap I made a few months ago because all the spices and essential oils made the initial soap darker. It’s still got a very distinct red tint to it, though.
These bars have a warm, rich lather, making them wonderful for shampooing and shaving. The blend of spices and essential oils will also help increase circulation when the soap is used on your skin, so don’t be surprised if you feel a bit of a warming tingle.
Chai Latté Soap
35% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
15% lard
15% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
10% castor oil (USA / Canada)Per 500g (1.1lbs) oils:
- 25g cinnamon bark essential oil
- 3g clove bud essential oil
- 2g cardamom essential oil
- 5g vanilla essential oil
- 5g ginger essential oil
- 1 tbsp white white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
- 1½ tbsp milk powder
- 2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Blend the clay, milk powder, and spices together.
Follow my standard soap making instructions (calculate for a 6% superfat). When the soap reaches trace, add the essential oils and clay mixture. Pour the soap into the mold. Let saponify in the mold for 24 hours before slicing and curing for at least 3 weeks.
Before saponification, just after pouring into the mould. You can see it’s not red at all here.
After saponification—the bars are now a deep, russet red!
This is very inspiring, made my first soap last week and am very proud about it. What do you do with all the soap? I make a lot of things but cannot use all of it. All give aways !!!! Like your posts every week ..
Awesome, I’m thrilled to hear it! I end up giving a lot of soap away as gifts, and I keep my parents and boyfriend supplied as well 🙂 Also, since I have lots of long, thick hair, a shampoo bar doesn’t last more than 4 or 5 washes with me. So, between all those uses, I manage to go through it… sort of. I still have tons in my basement, of course, but it only improves with age! Thanks for reading 🙂
Hi Marie!
I am planning a chai type soap, but I sell mine, so I am very careful about what I put them! Cinnamon and Clove oils are skin irritants, while Ginger is slightly phototoxic and may cause sensitization in some people. Please be sure to warn recipients! I will make my concoction with good quality fragrance oils!
Cheers, Jane.
Hi Jane! I’ve never had a problem with using irritating or phototoxic EOs like cinnamon, lemon, or ginger in soaps because it always gets all washed off—the soap carries off the EOs along with the superfat percentage. I’ve definitely found cinnamon lip gloss or lemon lotion to be irritating/phototoxic, but since soap doesn’t sit on the skin for long and is entirely removed, it’s never been an issue.
This is genius advice. I can’t believe I never thought about the soap removing the irritating oils! Duh! That’s what soap does! You’ve opened a whole new world for me now that these EOs are not forbidden in soap! Thank you!!!
Awesome! I’m thrilled to help, there’s nothing quite as exciting as opening up new doors 😀
If you use steam-distilled EO photosensitivity is not a problem. Coumarin which cost photosensitivity presents only in cold press oil. Green fruits have more coumarin than red. Distillation will not remove citral which will give you irritation….. but if you lucky to have chromagraphic passport for you Essential oils , you can safely add proper amount to avoid irritations.
Hmmm, interesting. I did some research and it sounds like steam distilled citrus EOs are definitely a safer bet, but nobody can really seem to agree and I couldn’t find any reliable looking scientific studies on it. I did find out that it’s furanocoumarins, not just coumarin, that causes photosensitivity. I wish there was some solid info on which ones are safe and which ones aren’t, as almost all the information I found online was conflicting.
Oh Marie, this sounds awesome! I also like to make soap from favorite beverages! Green tea is a fav as well as coffee. Now, I am going to try your Chai! I don’t have all those essential oils at this time. Hmm… I don’t suppose the spices alone will be enough to scent it. What do you think? Thanks so much for all your inspiration. Love your blog.
Hi Anna! I’m so thrilled you’re planning on making my soap 🙂 Unfortunately, in my experience the scent of ground spices never really comes through in soap—plus, they make the bar really quite gritty, especially if you use a lot. If you don’t want to get all of the spices, I’d stick to cinnamon, ginger, and clove, as those are the three strongest scents 🙂 They’re also super delicious and will come in very useful around Christmas time! Have fun & thanks for reading!
Questions? Whole milk or non-fat milk powder? 😉
I used whole, but if all you’ve got is non-fat I’m sure that’ll work just as well 🙂 Have fun with it!
Hello, Marie,
First of all, congrats on your blog, I find it stunning! I’m a huge DIY person too, and I relate to your things a lot. I have just one question: I’m starting to make my own soaps and shampoos, body creams etc, BUT I’m Vegan, which means I don’t use or consume anything that comes from animals (not even honey). What would you recommend to substitute the Lard in your recipes? Do you have any Vegan ideas of soap/shampoo recipes to share, perhaps?
I’ll be looking very much forward to your reply.
All the best,
Camila.
Hey Camilla—thanks for reading! You can read my article about why (even as a vegetarian) I use lard in my soaps, and the alternatives out there, here 🙂
Hi Marie, thanks you for your wonderful website and your inspiration!
I have bought all my ingredients to make my first ever batch of soap- your chai latte recipe. I’ve put all the ingredients etc in the lye calculator but… it give the measurements in grams and most of the oils (olive, castor, coconut and essential oils) are liquid so there is no way to convert liquid measures to weight(g). I was wondering what you do? Any help is greatly appreciated…I’m keen to get started!
Thanks heaps. 🙂
Thanks for reading & visiting, Michelle! I’m so thrilled to hear you’re going to make your first batch of soap 🙂 It does sound like you might need a scale, though—you really shouldn’t make soap without weighing the ingredients as you need to be very precise to ensure the resulting bar of soap is safe to use. Once you have a scale you can just weigh out all your ingredients (including the liquid ones) because everything has mass 😛 Have fun! And be sure to let both the oils and the lye water come to room temperature before combining them with the Chai Latte recipe as it can be a bit tricky at hotter temps.
Hi! I’ve been making soap for a few months now and i always soap at 100*. Because this soap recipe uses a lot of the hot eo’s, i totally see why there is a need to soap at a lower temp. You mention room temp, but what temp is that? (sorry, silly question). Thank you!
Hi Alli! Room temperature is generally about 21°C, but the general idea is that it is the ambient temperature of your house. This works out because it’s a) easy to get your ingredients to because they’ll just settle at that temperature and b) it’s mucho cooler than 100°F.
Thank you! I’m very excited to try the cooler temp!
🙂
What a fun soap! I loved your step-out pictures, they were so clear and detailed. Thank you for sharing. =)
Thanks for reading, Anne-Marie! I’m honored to have the soap queen checking out my blog 😉
Good basic recipes but cassia is not cinnamon and may contain varying amounts of coumarin. I would recommend using real cinnamon from Sri Lanka; Indus Organics has it a reasonable price.
Well… technically it is cinnamon, since it’s from the cinnamomun genus, but you are right in that the particular variety I mentioned is not Cinnamomum Zeylanicum, the variety that is sometimes called “true” cinnamon. The essential oil derived from that variety is approximately 6x the price, and since Cinnamomun cassia blume still smells perfectly lovely, the choice was an easy one. Also… do you eat your soap? That’s the only reason I could see you being concerned about coumarin content (and liver toxicity). Personally, since I don’t eat soap (especially not the 10 or so bars in a day that would be required to potentially pass the daily coumarin consumption recommendation), I’m not really that concerned about it.
Yep, great response Marie. Thanks for the info too, you always know what you are talking about, I appreciate that! It makes me very confident in the recipes you share!
Thanks, Anna! I always try to understand my ingredients, so I’m always experimenting and researching. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m kind of glad I took chemistry in high school now 😛
Hello again,
I have a question for you about natural shampoo bars. I have tried going to natural shampoo bars and my hair seems to take a very long time to dry ( I like it to dry naturally without applying heat to my hair). It also seems to absorb moisture and I wake up with it wet and wavy even kinky and my hair has always been straight. The wetness is kind of annoying. Have you had this problem?
Thanks again,
Janelle
Hmmm… how odd. I’ve never experienced this, but I also have very thick hair (so it always takes a while to dry). I did notice my hair took on a bit of a wave when I first started using natural shampoo bars, but that seemed to be because I wasn’t doing a thorough job of washing all my hair. You really do have to put in the effort to wash all your hair with a natural shampoo bar, not just the roots, since the natural bars aren’t super strong detergent like store bought shampoo is. Then you also have to make sure you’ve got all the shampoo back out again. Also, are you doing an ACV rinse on the length of your hair? That helps smooth the hair down, which may help it shed water and dry faster.
Oh! Another thought—it could be that the silicone is starting to peel out of your hair. Silicone coats the hair and would really effect absorbency (preventing it). So, it might just be that you are starting to get to know your actual hair, sans silicone.
Hi Marie!! Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how fabulous I think you are, and how much I love, love, LOVE your blog!! Seriously, this blog is like my favorite cookbook, all stained and dog eared… there’s not a stinker in the bunch!!
I’ve been making my own cleaning products and toiletries for a few years now, and have been enjoying all of those, “ah HAH!” moments… the ones where you realize that you really CAN make something that is BETTER for your skin, and you can do it fairly easily, and certainly for a lower cost. But it’s always trial and error, pulling from different sources, learning what’s REALLY going to work, and what is a half assed version of the chemical laden original.
Enter stage left… your clay mascara. Really?? Holy crap, Marie!! Its awesome! Do you know how many horrible recipes there are for mascara out there?! A LOT. And they are HORRIBLE. That is when I knew that I loved you. That, combined with the time that I wore your mineral foundation to work for the first time. A 23 year old coworker of mine, who also is a big DIYer, but is also beautifully, brutally honest, asked me, “Is that the make up you made?” I said yes, holding my breath… “Looks good.” she says, and walks away. Pure Gold!
Anyway, just wanted to thank you… I mean REALLY thank you for all the hard work and time and brain power you put into this blog. It’s great. I love it. Just made my first batch of soap, chai latte. My house smells like Christmas, I didn’t blow up my kitchen, and the soap is cooling on the counter. Later I will put together little bags of body butter, facial setting spray, cottage spray, and gingerbread lip balm that I made as gifts. Super sweet.
And now, smoke blowing aside, I wanted to ask where you get your containers. I am having a hard time finding an all in one site, without buying a case.
Also wondering if you have ever experimented with alkanet powder as a colouring agent?
Yours, Andrea
Hi Andrea! Thank you so much for your incredibly wonderful comment 😀 I have been re-reading it and basking in the glow for a while now 😉 I’m so thrilled to hear that you’re appreciating my recipes (especially the mascara—that one was years in the making, and yes, I think I’ve tried all the crap recipes for mascara that use aloe goo and charcoal lol) and getting elbows-deep in DIY 🙂 It sounds like we should have some sort of girly DIY day… if only you lived nearby 😉 Ah, the cruel tease of the internet!
I get my containers from both NDA & Saffire Blue (plus some grocery store mason jars). I tend to get most things from both places, but I do prefer the tins from Saffire Blue, and only Saffire Blue sells sifter jars for cosmetics (I also prefer the eyedroppers from Saffire Blue). Both places have comparable prices & good selection, so I tend to alternate between the places I order from and grab what I need as I do. Are you looking for anything in specific?
I have done a wee bit of alkanet experimenting, but not nearly enough. It’s on the list!
If you ever need any help, have any requests, or just want to share your experiences I’d be thrilled to hear from you 🙂 You can easily share photos of your projects with me on Instagram @MarieRayma. Thanks so much for reading, supporting, and DIYing with me—I love it!
I made this soap! Yay me…unfortunately, the soap was a bit soft when I took it out of the mold about 27 hours later after I got home from work (I’d take pics, but I don’t want you to laugh 🙂 ). Should I have left it in the mold longer? Now that it is cut, how long should it cure before using?
Yay! The soft soap after 24+ hours happens to me sometimes as well… my theory is that the mould wasn’t insulated well enough, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means the saponification reaction takes longer. You could have left it in the mould longer, but other than a bit of a messier cut, the bars have always been fine for me after 3< weeks of curing 🙂
I really love your creativity. And just your attitude about stuff. I had been looking at had made shampoo bars for a while but couldn’t bring myself to pay so much for the bar plus shipping. I thought to myself maybe you should just make some. It seems to be a common hobby. So I did a google search of how to make soap to see if it was worth trying and I stumbled upon your website. I love the soap tutorials. Ahh they are all so beautiful. I looked through pages of your different soaps practically drool and I knew it was something I had to get into. Thank you for being so inspiring. And sharing the beauty of all that you do. I find a lot of people like to hide away their skills to enjoy it all of themselves. So thank you for sharing.
Aww, thanks so much, Majara 😀 I really appreciate your appreciation, haha. I do spend a lot of time and money on this blog, so it’s nice to know that effort is noticed and appreciated. What I want most is to inspire and teach people so they get out and make these things, and I’m thrilled to hear I’ve helped you do that 🙂 Thanks so very much for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie,
Thank you so much for all the neat recipes!!!
Is there anyway I can get away from using clay in the recipes? I am just starting out in the DIY soaps, shampoos, lotions, lip balms, etc. I would like to cut down on the amount of ingredients I need right away…
Would you recommend spearment or peppermint EO to start with?
Which citrus EO would you recommend? (I only want to buy one or two to start)
What size of tins would you recommend for storing body butters, lotions, creams etc.?
One more… 🙂 How much of the oils and butters should I purchase at the start if I am planning to make 10 batches of soaps and shampoos, and a number of lip balms, salves, body butters and hair balms… I want to make it worth my while but I don’t want to have huge excesses that I can’t use in 10 yrs. 🙂
Thanks so much!!!
Michelle
Ach, another question… I am trying to find cinnamon EO online, but only finding cinnamon bark EO…? Also, there are different kinds like ceylon, CO2 extracted, steam distilled, and organic. Which one do I want?
Sorry ‘nother question!
I can’t for the life of me figure out how all the measurement conversions work…. This recipe calls for 25g cinnamon essential oil. I’m trying to figure out how the measurements work and how much cinnamon EO I will have to buy to make this and a few other products…
15ml bottle of EO to oz = 0.50721 oz
0.50721 oz to grams = 14.3792 g ???
That means that to make one batch of this recipe I would need nearly two 15ml bottles of this EO??? Something isn’t matching up here…
Also, I don’t understand the “Per 500g oils” thing?
Ah. It looks like you have fallen into one of the many stupidities of the Imperial system here. That is, that there are two different kinds of ounces—fluid ounces and weight ounces. And they are not the same thing… despite having the same name… don’t worry, you are not the first person to assume otherwise, myself included 😛
So, 15mL = 0.5 fl oz. You cannot easily convert that to a weight measurement without measuring out 15mL onto a scale and looking and seeing how much it weighs.
Yes, soap does use up a lot of essential oils. I buy my soaping essential oils 100mL at a time (which is why most of them are based around the cheaper EOs, like cinnamon, citrus, and lavender). So, your estimate of two 15mL bottles is not far off for 500g of soap. If that’s too steep for you, just don’t scent your soaps—truly. Using less will just be a waste as the scent will vanish before you even get a chance to use the bars 🙁
As for the “per 500g oils” thing: when you make a batch of soap, you choose your size of batch based on the total weight of carrier oils in the batch (EOs are not included in that). A 500g batch makes about 12–16 bars of soap. The total batch ends up weighing more than that because you add water, lye, essential oils, and other things, but those are all variables (you can use no EOs, superfat at different rates, use more or less water, etc.)—the amount of oil is the constant. So, if you were to make a batch that used 750g of oils, you would multiply all those “per 500g” amounts by 1.5. If you were to make a batch that used 1000g of oils, you’d multiply them by 2, and so on & so forth 🙂
Choose whichever you like—read the descriptions and reviews & (most importantly, haha) look at the price! I use this one.
Hi Michelle! Ok, let’s get these questions answered 🙂
You can leave the clay out of all soaps, but I sure to love them. If you want to reduce your investment in clays, just get kaolin, which is white (and easily coloured with oxides or whatever) and cheap. Clay means you can use the bar as a shave soap as well, so clay = no more weird foamy fairy goo from the store! So it’s pretty useful 🙂 Plus, face masks are awesome. My personal fave clay is French Green, which makes butt-kicking, pore cleansing face masks that you will quickly become addicted to. In all my soap recipes you can really use any clay you like—the differences are mostly in colour, so obviously using green clay in this recipe is not going to give you a red bar of soap 😛
Spearmint vs. peppermint is mostly about personal preference, but peppermint contains menthol, which gives a lovely cooling sensation that is great in things like tiger balm, and spearmint does not.
If you want to make soap, I’d grab the citrus EOs that are available in 5 fold (orange and lemon). They last longer 🙂
For lotion get 125mL bottles with pump tops so the lotion lasts as long as possible (’cause you aren’t dipping your grubby fingers in it all the time). For body butters, I like 60–120mL (2–4oz) tins.
Um… a “batch” is not a measurement… so I can’t really provide advice there, lol. If you want to be super precise about it, I’d make up an spreadsheet that includes all your recipes, and the amounts of all the individual ingredients. Categorize & add it all up, and then you’ll know for sure. I started by buying the 473mL bottles of most carrier oils, but do look at the price jump to the next size. If it’s quite small (like $6 instead of $4 for 2x as much), consider the larger size. I wouldn’t do anything larger than 1L for liquid oils, though, or anything more than 500g for the solid ones, simply because you don’t yet know what you like, and you don’t want to be stuck with oodles of something you hate. At least liquid oils always go into soaps easily 😛 Soap = the best way to use up weird ingredients, haha!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
haha, ok. I’ll just suck it up and buy one or two clays to get started…
oh, lol, I guess a batch can be any size. 🙂 Good advice though…
Thanks!!! God Bless, Michelle
You won’t regret the clays, you & your pores will love them!
Hi Marie,
Can I add 15% cocoa butter along with 15% shea butter to this recipe as I am not in favour with lard & palm, look forward to your suggestions,
Thanks for your help,
Tina
Tina—Cocoa butter is a good hardening fat, though quite pricey. You can read more about why I use lard/tallow in my soaps & substitutions here.
Hi Marie,
I was looking to make some organic shampoo as my next adventure in the DYI world and liked the sound of your recipe. However, my wife says she prefers a liquid shampoo for her hair…colored and massive amounts of fine hair. I searched hoping I would find a honey-based shampoo so I could use our honey.
What I found is a long list of complaints about too much oil build up in hair using a DYI non-poo product. Many suggested a diluted Organic Apple Cider rinse as a conditioner. Wow…now I am really confused and hesitant to make a non-poo recipe.
If you would be so kind to offer some advice from your experience and wide-reaching research on an organic shampoo? While I would prefer to use something with honey in it…that isn’t a “must-have.”
Thank you ahead of time for your troubles and insights.
Jess
Hi Jess! I’ve written a few entries on my adventures with natural hair care—here, here, here, and here.
Anyhow, the general gist of it is this:
I hope that helps! I’ve been doing this for nearly three years now, and I’m really happy with it 🙂
Hi Marie,
Are you using the vanilla oleoresin (10 fold) from New Directions in this soap? I don’t have a good vanilla EO primarily because it is so expensive, but I’ve had my eye on this one because of good reviews and several saying that it only takes a little. I’d love to know what vanilla you’re using and what type of usage rates you find gives you a good scent.
Thanks!
Hi Amy! From my continued soaping experience, benzoin is your best option for getting a natural vanilla scent in soaps 🙂 I made a candy cane soap with it for Christmas last year and it was awesome! The 10 fold stuff really hasn’t impressed me that much in CP soap situations, especially when compared to benzoin (which is also quite a bit cheaper).
Just to clarify, should I / can I use benzoin eo when it calls for vanilla in this chai latte soap recipe? Thank you!!!
Yup! 🙂
Hi, as everyone else has said… your blog is amazing! Thanks for all the hard work! While trying to create my own recipies from a ton of research, i came up with the ratio of 1ml of eo for every ounce of carrier oil. So my 4lb batch is actually 66oz of oils and I use 66ml of essential oils. I dont want to use too much thats its wasteful, nor too little to be wastefull, if you know what i mean? Your recipe calls for 40g on a one pound batch and with knowing that 40g =40ml, i’ve realized you use waaay more eo’s than i do. I’d love to know your thoughts on eo ratios 🙂
Hi Alli! The rule of thumb for essential oils in soaping is 30g essential oils to 500g of oils, or 1oz essential oils to 1lb of soaping oils. I used a bit more here because vanilla EO is quite weak, but in general 30g EO to 500g oils works perfectly and lasts through several months of aging (though this does, of course, vary by EO). Thanks so much for reading!
Thank you! For this recipe i made a 5lb batch, and used the ratio of .75oz to a pound of oils, i was a little scared to use the for 1oz to 1lb ratio. I also subbed the cardamom for nutmeg since thats what i had. I feel like the cinnamon is so overpowering though! Thats all i smell and I was really looking forward to more of a spicy-chai. For 80oz of oils, i used the following eo’s. 70ml cinnamon bark eo, 7ml clove eo, 7ml nutmeg eo, 14ml vanilla oleresin eo, 14ml ginger root eo. Because the cinnamon was so high in comparison i was afraid that this would happen, but i used the same math as you just converted it to ML and reduced it to .75eo to 1lb. Will the cinnamon fade at all? Also, do you know if this will be irritating to the skin with so much cinnamon? Thank you!!
Hi Alli! I can’t speak for the accuracy of your measurements as there’s no terribly reliable way to convert a weight measurement of essential oils to a fluid measurement as they all have different densities. Compare benzoin to cinnamon to vanilla 10 fold and you’ll see what I mean.
All that said, yes, this is a cinnamon heavy blend—I did that to make it as affordable as possible. Since soap requires a lot of essential oils, I try to focus on less expensive ones and highlight with the pricier ones. I can buy 100mL of cinnamon bark essential oil for under $8, and I can barely buy 15mL of ginger essential oil for the same amount. I have been criticized for publishing recipes that require a lot of ingredients, some of which are expensive, so I do try to keep that in mind 🙂
I haven’t found this to be irritating to the skin because of the cinnamon EO, but I have found that soaps that feature a lot of ground cinnamon (or any ground spice, really) can be irritating as they are amazingly strong exfoliants.
Yes i definitely can see that this is a cinnamon heavy blend, i dont know why it surprised me so much that thats all i would smell. I love chai tea and was really looking forward to a chai tea latte soap. I can still use this as a cinnamon soap for the holidays so all is not lost. I was just very surprised at the results. It is still curing so who knows, maybe i’ll smell some of the other notes once i test it out.
On the other hand, have you checked out bulkapothecary.com? I have looked everywhere for the best prices and they have the best! There are a few things that are cheaper elsewhere but for the most part they really do have the best prices. to compare the eo’s that you mentioned, 16oz cinnamon bark is only $21 and 15ml (.5oz) of ginger root is only $4.75!!
I look forward to reading more of your recipies, especially your shampoo bars and cream rinses!
You can also try dropping a few drops of cardamom/ginger/clove EO on the finished soaps while they’re still quite soft—they should soak in and boost the spice blend 🙂
Bulkapothecary.com is based out of the States, so between currency conversions, international shipping, and customs/import fees, I won’t be ordering from them 🙁 Sigh. Americans have all the best online stores!
Hi, love your recipes. Made both of the tiger balms! Great stuff! Have been making a few batches of the chai tea latte soap for a fun raisin evening for a charity. It will be a gift for all the women attending. We raise awareness and funds for Dalit women in India. The first 2 batches went well. But the last 2 have seized when I added the powdered ingredients. I got the soap in molds and I think I can still use it but the consistency is not smooth like the first 2 batches. Any ideas for me? I have 3 batches to go and hoping for better results. I tried to think what was different. I used a new bottle of vanilla and it wasn’t the 10 fold like the 2 first batches. A new bottle of lye and new different brand of coconut oil.
Hi Leslie! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 I’m sorry your last few batches have seized on you! The vanilla is what catches my eye—what exactly are you using now? Can you link me to a product online? Also, are you soaping at a different temperature?
Here is the vanilla oil I used for the last 2 batches. On my last batch the oil was 110 and the lye mixture was approximately 119 degrees. Thanks for your help I really appreciate it as well as the quick reponse.
Leslie
Hmm. I don’t see anything about that EO that sets off alarm bells for me. Can you try benzoin EO instead? I’ve never had any bad experiences with it, and it does have a lovely vanilla-like scent.
Are the shampoo bars and ACV rinse safe for color treated hair? I have read different opinions on this on several sites, some siting the lifting of the hair shaft releases the dye pigments while others say shampoo bars are better because they are less stripping. What has been your findings on this topic? Thank you for all your great recipes, both cosmetic and edible!
From what I have read it seems like it should be—the homemade shampoo bars are weaker than commercial shampoos, and the ACV rinse smooths down the hair shaft, helping re-seal the colour. That said, I don’t have colour treated hair and haven’t managed to recruit a subject to do any testing for me, so I really can’t say for sure. Sorry to be so unhelpful!
Hi Marie,
I tried to make a Chai Latte soap, combining the milk part from your Pumpkin Pie soap. But, something happened went wrong 🙁 I would love to know what went wrong.
The soap looked like it started to separate really bad with a thick layer of oil floating on top. I poured it in the mold, but saw that it only started to separate even more. I poured it back in my pan and stick blended the heebeegeebees out of it. Unfortunately, I lost the whipped white top. But finally the soap started to look like a really thick healthy soap batter 🙂
Now, I’ve read that particular Clove EO can speed up the trace process. Does anybody know what could have gone wrong?
The things I did different were the following things:
– I used Chai tea instead of water.
– I used Mango butter instead of Sheabutter.
– I combined the oils and lye around 50 degrees Celcius.
– I used less EO’s, but a larger amount of Clove
– I didn’t used Kardemon EO
– I used less ground spices (I was afraid for the irritating effect) but added the seeds of one vanilla pod
I decorated the soap and sculpted the top. I am rather proud of my sort of failed project. It smells like ginger cookies and looks like dark spicy cake batter. I have wrapped the tin with a tea cloth. I am so curious what it looks like tomorrow when I can cut it! Hopefully it isn’t a fat blob of oil on the inside 🙁
Thanks in advance!
Selma
Hi Selma! It almost sounds to me like you got a false trace that started to split when you stopped stirring since you were able to get everything to combine in the end… could that be it? 50°C (122°F) is also quite hot to be combining your oils and water. I don’t soap hotter than about 43°C, and I prefer to soap around 21°C (room temperature)—that really helps give me lots of time to work without the soap thickening up really quickly.
Anyhow, let me know how the bars look when they are cut!
Hi Marie,
Thank you for your reply. A ‘false trace’ you say? Never heard of that one! I am still a beginner I think. It was the biggest batch I ever made. The total weight of oils was almost 1kg.
I will look the ‘false trace’ up on the internet! It could be that the temperature was too high. Maybe I was a bit to eager to make the soap 😉 Hopeful the end result will look as nice as it smells! I will try to post a picture in this thread.
I am certainly going to try to make the whipped milk part in another project. It just looks so delicious!
Good day,
Selma
There’s some good discussion around false trace here 🙂 From what you’ve said you likely aren’t a victim of soaping too cold.
Hi Marie,
I’ve cut the soap and it actually turned out great! Here are some pictures:
Here you can see the soap in one whole loaf. It just looks like a cake!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4zpif1rdroo88m/Foto%2003-11-14%2020%2038%2046.jpg?dl=0
On this photo you can see the cacaoline I tried. My original idea was to separate the ‘whipped white part’ from the brown tea part with a cacaoline. When I had to blend the whole as one batter again that idea went through the roof. But I still wanted to try out the cacaoline! It gives some depth to the brown reddish color.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lla6wq3im6s1rr1/Foto%2003-11-14%2020%2048%2051.jpg?dl=0
Here is one of the ends where you can still see the oily leftovers from the first pour in the mold. I didn’t had any time (nor sense/time/nerves left) to clean out the mold 😛
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4hxixc92b2o19x/Foto%2003-11-14%2020%2047%2017.jpg?dl=0
I am rather proud of the result! The gold sparkles and other decorations lift the soap to a real Christmas soap! The smell is rather strong though. I hope it softens a bit now it has been cut.
Thank you for your lovely blog and great recipes! I feel so inspired right now 🙂
Kind regards,
Selma
Beautiful! It looks like it turns out really well in the end 😀 YAY! I love the cocoa line as well 🙂 Phew 😉
Can I use cinnamon essential oil….I don’t have the bark oil. Will it still color it? Make it irritating, or ? Thanks for your help.
There’s no such thing as just cinnamon essential oil—it has to be from either the bark or the leaf. I can’t really answer either question if you don’t know what ingredient you are working with :/
Is this a shampoo?
Technically no, but you can certainly use it as one 🙂