HERB - Re: Help with olive oil soap?

[DianaFiona@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/30/98 9:52:05 AM Eastern Standard Time,
g.walli at infoengine.com writes:

<< 
 Reliable reports that I've had from professional soapers and from what
 I've experimented with myself indicate that it can take as long as
 7 days for heavily olive oil soap to cure depending on the size of your
 batch. >>>>>

	Olive oil soap is also supposed to take a long time--up to several hours--to
reach trace. But one trick I have picked up in my reading on the net is that
using what is called variously a "stick blender" or "immersion blender" to do
your stirring can cut that time down dramatically, to as little as 10 minutes!
So I have been using it in the few batches I've done so far, and yes, it does
indeed work, even on olive oil soap.:-) However, soapmaking is hard on the
blenders and they tend to burn out quickly if you make a lot of soap. The
recommendation is to use them in an on-and-off fashion--blend for one minute,
rest a minute, blend again, etc. 
 
 >I plan to mill it later and add some essential oils and milk.
 >While milling it, would this be a good time to introduce lavender flowers
 >into it for 'guest room' soap balls?
 
 Absolutely. I'm assuming you're adding powdered milk? I've not known
 liquid milk to work when added to a rebatched soap, but neither have
 I tried it before. Adding more liquid to an already saponified soap
 mixture means that you have soap and liquid, as far as I know.
 
 But just thinking about how lovely some nice goat's milk or buttermilk
 would feel in a milled soap. MMMm...yummy. I'm coming to stay at
 your house. :)
 
 Jasmine >>
	One of the websites I found, run by folks who sell shredded soap for
remelting, suggests adding milk as the liquid part of the remelting process,
saying that all-vegetable oil soaps, in particular, benefit from having some
animal proteins in there to help the soap melt well. In the batches I've done
the soap turned rather caramel colored, which I have wondered if too high a
heat on the milk might have caused. (Remelting should be done at as low a temp
as possible, but the lowest setting on my crockpot may be too high......... )
	I've been wondering about adding buttermilk to the soap at the remelting
stage myself, but buttermilk usually curdles and separates when it is heated
too high, so I'm rather worried about doing so. Adding it as part of the
liquid during the original making of the soap is done pretty often, I
understand, as is adding goat's milk in either powder or liquid. The powdered
form is often added at trace, to help prevent the heat of the lye/water
reaction from caramelizing it.
	As to adding herbs in to the milled soap, well, that's the only reason I'm
going to the trouble, myself! ;-) I want to protect my additions from the lye
as much as possible. That said, a possible intermediate method is to shred the
soap while it is still pretty soft--within it's first week, usually--and knead
in the extras by hand. Then either push it into molds to harden, or roll it
into balls (That looks the best to my eyes.) I wouldn't advise this for adding
essential oils--most are *way* too strong for such direct skin contact--but
dry herbs or grains should work pretty well.

			Ldy Diana, off to stir her melting soap shreds........ 
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