Milkmint - A milky white and minty soap

One of my friends is and artist and I just love the colours
she uses. I don't wear much lace, but have a hard time
resisting buying it and this scarf made it home with me.

I am so proud of this one.  I think I wrote somewhere rather nonchalantly that some soapmakers try to get their milk soaps very white.  My attitude was rather like: "As if that matters".  But I had to try.  But midway through the experiment I decided to cheat and put a little bit of Titanium dioxide in there.  I didn't quite trust the soap that I painstakingly made to be as white as I wanted.  But I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have gotten it this white if the bases hadn't been very white...Or would I?  Well I'll never know.  But I don't care.  I think this is my all time favorite soap.  At least right now.  I tend to love best the latest soaps.

I had read somewhere, probably in the book I have about making milk soaps, that the trick is to dissolve the lye very, very slowly in the frozen milk and not let the soap heat up too much.  So I did that.  I half froze the milk and put a bit of the lye into it and stirred until the milk was almost completely thawed and then I put it back in the freezer.  I waited for it to freeze again and then I put a bit of the lye into it ...  Repeated this many, many times until all the lye was dissolved.  Obviously the last time the lye/milk solution should be at about room temperature and so should the oils.  I combined the two and the soap came together perfectly.  I added some TD and Peppermint EO.

I got the brilliant idea to crumble some dried mint on top.  I had the last mint of the summer that had gone to flower and I had dried that even if they say that it should be picked before flowering.  I think it's my German genes that make me ignore advise like that.  So I put it on top of the soap.  It was so pretty.  But I made one mistake.  I put the soap in the freezer and I think that resulted in the pretty green and purple herbs on top turning brown.  OR, it could have been that I wrapped it too soon.  Oh, I could have cried!  But not for long.  Chuck it up to experience.  I'm going to make that again and this time not put it in the freezer and absolutely not wrap it too soon.  But the smell is lovely.  I really like peppermint essential oil.  It is nothing like artificial scent.  Just pure and fresh.
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