Soap test candidates

[camwyn]

Poked through my soap recipes to see what looked like it might be a good idea to test with you guys. Options so far:

- Beeswax-and-honey soap, which would involve coconut oil, olive oil, soybean shortening, beeswax, water, lye, honey, orange essential oil, and cedar essential oil
- Cocoa butter soap, which involves castor oil, cocoa butter*, coconut oil, olive oil, palm** or soybean shortening***, water, lye, lemongrass essential oil, lavender essential oil, and cedar essential oil
- Cinnamon-clove-ginger shampoo bar, which uses castor oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, jojoba, olive oil, lye, cinnamon leaf essential oil, clove bud essential oil, some ground ginger, some ground clove, one egg yolk, and water
- Extremely mild ('baby') soap, which uses olive oil, palm or soybean shortening, coconut oil, water, lye, and lavender or no essential oil
- Hemp soap, which Bing can tell you about; this is coconut oil, palm or soybean shortening, hemp oil, olive oil, castor oil, and peppermint and/or spearmint essential oils
- Coffee kitchen deodorizing soap, which is olive oil, palm or soybean shortening, coconut oil, water, lye, and coffee grounds
- Extremely basic soap: olive oil, castor or coconut oil, lye, water, and some form of essential oil

I can change the essential oils, obviously, and my shampoo bar original recipe didn't include the powdered spices, but they made up for the fact that I was pretty low on essential oils otherwise. And I can offer fragrance free versions if people would prefer to test something like that instead. The coffee soap is something of a novelty but is apparently supposed to be quite good at removing the stink of garlic and onions from hands. The basic soap has both olive and either coconut or castor because 100% olive oil soaps can have a weird, almost slimy feel to them.

I've made the shampoo bar in the past and tested it on my own hair and skin repeatedly. I've also made and used the hemp soap, and a version of the basic soap that's been pretty nice. (Plus it worked rather well when I grated it up super fine and mixed it with washing soda and borax for laundry powder. EDIT: I forgot I made up a batch of the hardest, least superfatted soap I could just to make into laundry soap. I have ground up the basic stuff to use for bubble bath, which is a different matter.) I'll be happy to test any of these on myself, but one person's not much of a sample size, so folks who'd be interested in one of the others or who have a specific combo they're interested in, let me know.


*I intend to use fair trade cocoa butter since I know how the chocolate industry can be towards its growers/producers
**Palm oil is ethically/environmentally questionable at best, but so far whenever I've used it I've used sustainably produced palm oil and plan to keep doing so
***Theoretically the things marked 'soy or palm shortening' could be made with Crisco but honestly, I'm not entirely sure what the hell Crisco's saponification number is, especially if they tweak the amount of soy oil vs. palm oil or any of the other additives, so why take a chance

Comments

[wedic]

Don't make too much at once - I went through a soap phase and all of mine went strange and sweaty and changed colour.

[lemon_badgeress]

"Hello," she said, suddenly and unexpectedly from approximate two inches away from your nose, "I am here for the beeswax and honey soap."

I can also test-and-compare anything except the shampoo bar (I shave my head) and the coffee kitchen soap (I don't cook and the smell of coffee makes me ill)

[camwyn]

I'll pick up the ingredients this week, then. I've been meaning to test that one out for a while anyway.

[attractivegeekery]

I do so very much like the sound of that Shampoo bar.
(Actually, all of them sound fantastic, but in particular the shampoo bar)

[camwyn]

I have two pieces of the cinnamon-clove-ginger shampoo bar sitting in my closet curing. If you wanna meet up tomorrow or Friday I can give you one in person. Otherwise, next week is the best time.

[eor]

You're making me hungry. I'm going to be the kid in class who eats the soap aren't I?

Well, not really. The lye makes me shy away.

Beeswax and honey soap sounds interesting. The cinnamon-clove-ginger shampoo does as well. I wonder if it will set off the "no scent" policy at work.

Your apartment is going to smell so good!

[camwyn]

Well, as I said, I've got two pieces of the cinnamon-clove-ginger shampoo left. I can send one of 'em along as long as you or Doe gets me an address to send to.

[derien]

My first choices would probably be the honey or cinnamon smells, but I'd be happy to be a test subject for any product that hasn't already been taken. But write down specific questions you'd like me to answer because I'm sure I won't remember to give feedback if you just leave it up to me to think of something.

[ceitfianna]

The shampoo bar and the beeswax and honey soap are the ones I'm most curious about though the hemp one sounds interesting too.

[camwyn]

PM me or email me an address, and I should be able to get the honey-beeswax soap out the door to you tomorrow or Friday.

[jothra]

I had a bad reaction to hemp once, but I'm totally there for trying anything else! I've always wanted to try making soap. Maybe once I have a bigger kitchen...

[tibicina]

I'd be most interested in the shampoo bar and the coffee-odor reducing one, but I'd be willing to try bits of any of these.

[camwyn]

I have a lot of pieces from my first shampoo batch left over. If you're interested in a bar that has cedarwood, basil, and pine scents in it instead of the cinnamon-clove-basil scent combo, I can send you a chunk or two.

[tibicina]

Sure. (I'd like cinnamon and clove better, but cedarwood and pine are usually good, too. And my boyfriend might really like that blend, too, actually, so you could get two opinions from very different types of hair.)

[kyrielle]

If you still need testers, I would totally volunteer to test any of those, except possibly the hemp (only because I find the idea weird; no good reason), although the beeswax and honey is easily my favorite off the list.