Anne's Delight
April 24, 2008
I think one of the many reasons I like soap making and related pursuits is that not only is it creative and entertaining, among other things, there are constantly new things to discover. Back in February of 2008 I was deep into experimenting with different oils and had fallen madly in love with shea butter. It really does make a lovely soap.
By then I had been doing this long enough to realize that I was going to totally destroy the family exchequer, if I didn't start ordering my oils in bulk to save money. So I was on soaperschoice.com ordering all my favorite oils. I had intended to order shea butter, but because I wasn't paying attention, I ordered SEVEN gallons of shea oil and didn't discover the mistake until the oils were delivered.
Of course I immediately went to cry on Anne's shoulder. Did I mention that she's my muse? Since I really didn't want to go to the hassle of returning the oil, she suggested I see what I could do about putting it into a soap recipe. The end result was that I crafted two wonderful recipes, one with both shea oil and shea butter, the other just the shea oil. Anne had warned me that shea oil tends to make a very soft soap. I didn't find that to be the case. But then I have this habit of using a rather high percentage of hard oils in my recipes. In my opinion they tend to make harder longer lasting soap, which I like. Lesson Learned: Even the stupidest of mistakes can lead to wonderful discoveries.
Here are the recipes.
Anne's Delight 8 oz shea oil, 4 oz shea butter, 3 oz palm kernel oil, 1 oz coconut oil, 2.13 oz lye and 5 oz water. I no longer remember what FO and colorant I used, but 1 OZ Lemon grass FO and ¼ teaspoon gold mica make a nice combination. Micas mix best with water and can be added to the water just before adding the lye.
Anne's reward 10 oz shea oil, 4 oz coconut oil, 2 oz palm kernel oil, 2.23 oz lye and 5 oz water.
Both of these recipes layer nicely if you wait until medium trace to pour.
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