Two more castile beauties out

Bagged and tagged :) I love castile soap, it's super easy to make, there's no forgetting to add oils (what's that on the counter? 5 oz of castor oil!! oh snap!! - you know what I mean), traces quickly when pomace is used, it's nice on everybody's skin and generally white, which means it goes well with almost anything you want to throw in the pot.

First I made some spotted castile - as I affectionally call it - it's a light exfoliator because of the poppy seeds and has no other additives, fragrance or color. It's a great seller because of this, there's no worry about allergies, yet provides "spa" soap properties.

The other one I made was a mad scientist one. Started out as a rosemary lavender, which people seem to love down here (I can't stand lavender). I added a whole sprig of fresh rosemary to the oils and put it on my magic bullet to mix...it came out almost like a mayo consistency, but everything chopped nicely. I then added the lye, I did notice something really interesting when adding the lye: the oil was at room temeprature, the lye was super hot...it had just turned clear, yet when I added the two together, trace happened within 2 minutes. I thought it was going to take forever because of the temp difference and the oil being just olive which tends to trace slower - go figure!

When I was mixing oils+lye, waiting for it to trace, I noticed I did not have any lavender on hand!! Sooo...I added calendula petals once cooked (which took about three hours and a nasty burn on my tougue - note to self: use testing strips for castile...it's tricky to cook), yet the smell was not what I had envisioned. I ended up choosing lemongrass EO and this amazing bar came out :) it smells really fresh, has a great texture, almost candle like smooth, has the soothing action of calendula petals and is 100% olive oil. What better way to love your skin!?!

I still have the soaping fever, but alas, I have no lye. So I'll have to wait to purchase more lye, and olive oil, and coconut oil, and.... you know how it goes.

So happy soaping everyone, make one batch for me ;)