Learn2Soap - We Never Stop Learning

Perhaps you are an experienced soap maker and you stumbled upon a soap calculator that expresses the hardness, cleansing, conditioning, lather, iodine, and INS numbers for your soap.   If you did and you started doubting your soap recipe, you’re not the first soap maker to have this happen.  There are several things to think about, consider and keep in mind about soap quality numbers.  But, the most important thing to do right now is to quit doubting yourself.

Even if you get the perfect numbers, what does it mean?  Absolutely not a thing if you ask me.  There are so many factors involved from the water that is available in the area where the soap is used to how humid it is in the geographic area.  You know, a soap that works really well in Biloxi, Mississippi, will not work the same or even be a soap you may want to use in Houston, much less West Texas or even Arizona.

And there are even more factors than those listed above.  Many, many years go I participated in a soap swap where we all made the same soap recipe.  The results was that everyone’s soap was different.  How could that be?  Well, I like to think that we all have different ways of doing things and we all put a little of ourselves in the things we make.

Additionally, numbers are just numbers because with each season, with each batch of oil and fats that are pressed from seeds or somehow rendered, the oils and fats will be unique from time to time, batch to batch and will have different exact sap numbers and iodine numbers due to growing conditions and things like that.  So the numbers are just guidelines, they are not exact.  The chances of an oil you have on the shelf having the exact same characteristics as the numbers listed in a calculator somewhere are very slim.  It’s just not something that you can be exact about unless you send the oil to a lab to be analyzed.  And then there goes your budget if you know what I mean.

The harder the soap bar, the lower the solubility and the less lather you have.  Some people like lots of lather, some don’t and some have no preference, they just want the soap to clean.  So, numbers are still just numbers.  You know what you like, so don’t go second guessing yourself. 

Like when you use the MMS calculator, you go with what you already know, stuff that you learned along the way in your soap making journey and you draw from that knowledge when you plug in the numbers for the amounts of oils.  The truth is you know a lot more than you think you do. 

The only really crappy bars of soap that I’ve seen have been either soaps that were way too superfatted, were way under-cured before they were wrapped, or were one oil soaps like 100% cottonseed oil soaps.  100% cotton oils soaps suck!  LOL  They go rancid very fast.

Further, everybody’s opinion of what the perfect soap recipe is will be completely different no matter what the numbers are.  Opinions about soap are like finger prints, everyone has a different one, but we all have them, unless we don’t. LOL  But that’s not all bad.  So, take what you learned about oils from Soap Calc and at some point in time I bet that even without know it you’ll use some information you learned there and use it in a future soap recipe without even knowing you’re actually using it.

If you’re subtituting rice brand oil in your recipe for the more expensive olive oil and are worried about the soap ending up too soft, then toss in a little stearic acid or castor wax to make the bar harder.   How much?  Well, not a lot or the it would make the soap too hard.  So I’d start with about an ounce per pound of rice brand oil used and go up from there if you’re not pleased with the results.

Soap making is science, but not rocket science and it’s not meant to be.  Use what you know, use your intuition, relax and have some fun.  I say numbers are just numbers.  If you like your soap, I bet others will too.  If don’t like it, well, that’s just part of the spice of life.  We all have different ways of doing things, our products end up different… and just think how boring it would be if we all made things that were identically the best. 

So, don’t forget that knowledge comes from experience, numbers are just guidelines, and guidelines are no substitute for knowledge gained thru experience.

For coloring bath salts (which are a cosmetic) you would need to use a color additive that is approved by the FDA for use in cosmetics. There are lots of color additives that are approved for cosmetics,  however some of them do not work well in bath salts.

Ultramarines are basically made by heat treating kaolin clay and sulphur. At low pH’s (which is the range where bath salts are) ultramarines tend to break down and release sulphur giving off that lovely rotten egg smell. Not a very nice surprise for your customers. While these stink, LOL, they do
not fade.

Iron Oxides will work, but may also leave a residue in the tub. The good thing is they don’t fade.

Micas will work. Some will fade and some won’t. They will most likely leave a residue in the tub.

There are also natural colorants on the FDA’s approved colorant list. These are annatto, caramel, carmine and beta-carotene. There are a few more, but nothing that you would probably want to use in salts. These will all fade in sunlight or UV rays. There are no flowers (like blue malva - which will make water a lovely blue — too bad it does not hold up in soap) or chlorophyll listed on the approved list and using these “simply for the purpose of coloring” your salts would make them an adulterated product, you don’t want that.

Dyes offer the biggest color choice of all. You want to make sure that what you are using in on the approved list for cosmetics. And as with natural color additives, eventually dyes will eventually fade, particularly if exposed to UV rays. There are a couple dyes that are limited in the amount you can use in a product, Green 8 and Red 36, but generally you would have to add so much of these dyes to a product that the product would start coloring other items before you reached that limit.

Unless you are familiar with the ingredients in certain food colorants it is not a good idea  to use them in bath salts or other toiletries.  Some food colorants, particularly gel/paste food colorants, contain Blue#2 and Red#3.  Both Blue#2 and Red#3 are not approved by the FDA for use in cosmetics.

The link to the FDA’s list of approved color additives is: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/opa-col2.html 
You can look up the individual colors in 21 CFR part 73, subpart C and 21CFR part 74, subpart C.  Unless you are making make-up or lip stick and eyeshadow, you don’t really need to worrying about what you use as long as it is on the approved list for cosmetics.

Ellen’s Essentials Yahoo Group is hosting a Naturally Colored Soap Swap.  Each participant is using herbs to color their soaps.  It’s really going to be interesting to see all the different soaps colored with herbs.  As soon as the swap is complete I’ll post some pictures of the soaps and some information on the herbs used. 

In the mean time, feel free to come join Ellen’s Essentials Yahoo Group.  We’ve been posting about the swap over there.  Some of the herbs we’ve used in the swap presented some very interesting results.

Keep your winter shoes, boots and gloves smelling fresh and clean. 

You’ll need:

Crystal cat litter (silica gel type stuff found at the grocery store)
Essential or fragrance oils (tea tree and lavender work well)
Small cloth bags with tie closures

Mix a small amount of the essential or fragrance oils with some of the crystals cat litter.  Put this mixture of litter and essential oils in the muslin bags and place the filled bags inside the gloves and boots.  The crystal cat litter will absorb the moisture and the antifungal, antibacterial properties of the tee tree should keep the odor causing bacteria and fungi in check.  Lavender essential oil has some properties similar to tea tree and will also help make the tea tree smell better.