Soapy Treats

I'm really excited to share this post with you. My friend Laura and I have been toying with vegan soap-making. We've made a few batches before--some more successful than others, but our most recent batch turned out far better than the rest. In fact, I think it rivals some of the finer soaps I've purchased from well established soap makers. I'd like to take you through a photo tutorial of how we created our soap. As you'll see in the photos it's a real ugly duckling story. We turned lumps of fats and oils into beautiful, sweet smelling, soapy treats. Here's how it starts:



We measure out the lye using a postal scale. I knew exactly what I was doing asking Laura to be my soap making partner. Laura, thankfully is more scientifically minded than myself. When I want to eyeball the measurements it's Laura who speaks up and says "Let's actually measure it out exactly Mary, so we don't die."



We pour the lye into cold water. We have to do this outside as the chemical reaction heats up the water instantly to well over 120 degrees. We have to let it sit and cool until it's the right temperature to add our oils and fats.



The fumes that come off from the lye and water are really intense. Laura and I will take turns stirring, rotating every 15-20 seconds it's that intense. You can feel a sharp, scary burn in your lungs if you get too close. We always keep a bottle of vinegar close by in case there is a spill. The vinegar will neutralize the lye. If any of you have seen the movie Fight Club you'll remember the vivid demonstration of how dangerous lye can be on the skin.



While we wait for the lye and water to cool down, we measure out our oils and fats. We wanted to make our soaps vegan. The idea of using lard or bacon fat like in the old days really grosses me out. In our most recent batch we used Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, and Palm Oil. Everything gets measured out exactly and melted down in a large pot.



When the temperature of melted oils is within 10 degrees of our lye it's time to combine the two.



The lye is always poured into the oils rather than the oil into the lye. At this point the danger zone is over as the fats help to neutralize the lye.



Once the two mixtures are combined it's time to mix. Our first batch we used simply a metal whisk and the whole process took well over 3 hours. Thanks to a purchase of this cheap immersion blender the mixing time takes only about 10 minutes.



The soap is ready to pour when tracing occurs. Tracing is when the soap changes from a thick liquid to more like cake batter. It is at trace that we added our spearamint essential oils to give the soap a refreshing scent.



Pour the soap into a wax lined cardboard box. It will sit in this box for a few weeks while the soap hardens and cures.



Laura and I added cosmetic grade French green clay to our soap. French green clay is great for facial masks and is known to draw impurities out of the skin.



A few weeks later the soap has hardened and is ready to cut.





We found this soap to be so fabulous that a tiny amount goes a long way. It lathers quickly and the soapy lather is silky and luxurious. I cut the bars down further into tiny squares and wrapped them in bits of silk that I had previously marbled.



The end result is a precious little bar that smells of delicate spearamint. I think they look lovely dusted with the green clay. A little bit goes a long way so if you're one of the lucky ones to get a bar use it sparingly!

Soapy Suds

I've been a huge fan of homemade soaps ever since I discovered Etsy. Just one read of homemade soap ingredients compared to store bought soaps and you'll start wondering how the mass produced soaps are even legal. For example:
These are the ingredients for Lever 2000 soap Pure Rain:

Sodium tallowate, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium cocoate, water, sodium isethionate, stearic acid, coconut fatty acid, fragrance, titanium dioxide, sodium chloride, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT, FD&C blue no. 1, D&C red no. 33.

Eww..do you know what that first, main ingredient sodium tallowate is? It's what's created when you combine sodium hydroxide (lye) with beef tallow. That's right folk. ANIMAL FAT! GROSS. And how about Stearic acid. Any idea what that is? It's a saturated fatty acid that's usually derived from tallow or lard. For those greasy animal fatty soapy suds we all love. The rest of the ingredients are mostly petroleum products, synthetic preservatives and synthetic detergents many of which are proven irritants. Feelin' clean yet?

Now, lets take a look at some homemade soap ingredients:
This is a beautiful bar called "Pink Grapefruit"from Etsy seller Besem Naturals Scents

Ingredients: saponified oils of olive, palm kernal, coconut, rice bran, castor oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, rose clay, pure essential oils and fragrance.
Also, 10% of profits are given to orphan relief.

And rather than smelling like chemicals it smells like sweet, ripe grapefruits. I'm not missing the beef tallow. Would you?

There are so many wonderful choices when it comes to buying handmade soaps. You can buy organic, vegan, completely free of dyes or any scents, and you can buy handcrafted soaps for specific ailments you have that I promise, will do wonders for your skin that beef tallow, stearic acid and trisodium etidronate couldn't even touch. Pictured above are a few of my favorites. Make the switch!

Champagne on a Beer Budget

I'm not a wealthy girl. And while the term "starving artist" would most appropriately label my income, it in no way defines my lifestyle. As I type, I'm nibbling on a Ganache brownie made by a professional pastry chief who sells tasties from her Etsy Shop "Fancy That Cookies". I'm not exactly sure what ganache is, but I'm pretty sure it's the closest thing to heavenly sent manna. Along with my decant brownies I have a Chocolate Torte that's literally too beautiful for me to eat, so it's going to my mom as a gift. Now why, might you ask, does a girl who makes such little money, invest in professionally baked goods? No, it's not because I'm a fat girl with a chocolate addiction. (not that there's anything wrong with a chocolate addiction--for the record.) It's because I traded, bartered, exchanged goods for them. Trading has become my favorite past time. I trade for whatever I can get my greedy snobby hands on. Fine pastries, lavish homemade soaps, custom fitted hand crafted jewelry, fine art prints, soy candles and vegan organic face lotions. Items that even if I made a lot of money, couldn't afford on a regular basis. But little broke Mary can, and frequently splurges on herself and loved ones.

But how? It's simple. I have talents and items that others want. And I want their talents and items. Why would I spend overvalued government issued paper money when I can use my arts as commodity? But don't think it's always easy finding fellow artists and crafters who are willing to trade. It takes some patient and kind queries. Don't pressure others to trade and don't get your feelings hurt if no one wants to trade with you. If you aren't successful in finding folks to trade with, it just means that you aren't asking enough of the right people. Or, maybe you just aren't giving them enough options to choose from. I've had a few people ask me to trade and when I have a look at what they have to offer it's a poor showing. Make sure that what you have to trade is a valuable commodity. It might be something like housecleaning skills. But you better be a good house cleaner! Or maybe you can crunch numbers for taxes, but make sure your math is a hell of a lot better than mine or I'm never going to trade with you again. And of course, some people don't trade simply for their own personal reasons which are really none of our business.

Here's how I generally think about trades:
I could spend 1 hour at an average 9-5 job making $8-$12 an hour or...I can spend 1 hour painting some of my glassware for a woman's wedding toast worth $60. The value of the glasses is in the time and talent I put in. But my raw cost is minimal. Now this bride-to-be makes beautiful sterling silver jewelry. We make a trade. She gets the glasses-- an expensive set to boot-- and I get a pair of custom created earrings worth about $60 that I can't afford.

I could keep going on and on about trades I've made but my brownie is gone and I've got some cookies to sample next.

(items pictured above are from previous trades that I've made. All images link to the Etsy shop where they were sold. Please admire their work and do not spam them for trades unless you ask very politely and won't get your feelings hurt if they say no)