The Blues - Tooth soap recipe

I'm not a blue person.  My colours are the warm tones, especially red.  It's not that I dislike blue, in fact I think blue is a very nice colour.  It's just not me.  So I tend to buy things that are not blue, except jeans.  And since I really like the blue of jeans, I guess it could be said that indigo blue is a favorite colour after all, even if I'm not a blue person.  I have been experimenting with dyeing from Woad and Japanese indigo.  It really is an amazing process to turn green leaves into a clear blue colour.  Just like magic.

I haven't made any blue soaps, although I did try once.  I used indigo powder, but not enough, so the colour disappeared.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to skimp on ingredients.  so when I got the idea for this soap I decided to be generous with the Indigo powder.  I somehow thought it would be appropriate to make a blue tooth soap.  I made tooth soap a long time ago and I still have most of it.  Not because I haven't used it.  It's just that it lasts forever.  But I started to feel a little deprived of the fresh minty taste of conventional toothpaste.  My old tooth soap had baking soda in it and baking soda just doesn't taste very good.  So I have been wanting to do a new tooth soap.  And then I thought about the old blueing agents.  Since i'm quite old, I remember when it was possible to buy a blueing agent to make white laundry appear whiter.  Admittedly, I just barely remember the stuff, but it was sold in the olden days and used.  Now they have something that works in a similar, but in a more sophisticated way, called optical brighteners.  But I thought it might be a great idea to make a blue tooth soap, maybe it would make teeth appear whiter, or it would just look nice.

I have mint growing in the garden and I harvested all of it when it was starting to get cold.  I made some mint jelly, but decided that it really is just too weird to eat that with lamb.  Even if British people do that.  It tastes just like toothpaste.  I guess one has to be reared on that to appreciate it.  But I used part of the mint for a tea that I used as the water phase in my soap.  So the genius me didn't quite think things through.  The art major should have known that mixing the yellow mint tea and the blue indigo would produce a magnificent green.  But I just didn't think.  So here is my "blue" tooth soap:

It's a small recipe (200g/7oz), but it'll last for a long time.

Olive oil 30% 60g / 2.1oz
Cocoa butter 30% 60g / 2.1oz
Coconut oil  22% 44g / 1.6oz
Soybean oil 15% 30g / 1.0oz
Neem Tree oil 3% 6g / 0.2oz

Mint tea 38% 76g / 2.7oz
Xylitol 2 tsp

Lye 28g / 1oz

Peppermint eo
Ginger eo
Licorice extract

Since I don't want the tooth soap to produce too many suds, I used much less coconut oil than usual and much more of the cocoa butter.  The neem oil has anti bacterial properties, so I added some of that.  I also added 1 tsp licorice extract, which is supposed to be good for the gums,  to the essential oil blend. I used 1/4 tsp ginger (again that is supposed to be good for the gums) and 1 tsp peppermint for that fresh minty taste that I had been craving.  I also ground up 1 tsp zink oxide and 4 capsules of magnesium citrate (good for teeth) with about 1/4 tsp indigo powder.

I made these into little hearts since I think they look kind of cute.  I have tried the soap already although it needs some more time to cure.  Well I can't say that it whitens the teeth, but it has a minty taste and it cleans well without sudsing too much.  I might add some more xylitol next time and even some more peppermint eo.  Just to get that really, really fresh minty taste.  And I might even skip the mint tea and go for a truly blue soap.

Distractions

Making soap is just the most satisfying activity that I know.  Ever since I started to make soaps I have been driven by some force that just demands new soaps.  My mind constantly thinking of new things to try.  Some new ingredient.  Some old ingredient in a new way.  A look that I wanted to try to create.  A scent that demanded to be made.  A new colour to strive for.  The ideas came fast and furiously.  So what happened?  Why haven't I been making soap?  I do not know.  Except my mind just wandered off to new things.

This summer I have been taken with dyeing and I bought a lot of used books on the subject.  I've started to organize the dyeing by making sample charts.  It's really interesting to see how the same dyestuff can generate different colours depending on the mordant and modifiers used.  A shift from acid to alkaline can generate a completely different colour, like all soapers know. I make one sample for un mordanted wool, one for rhubarb mordanted and five alum mordanted.  Then I use iron and copper water to modify the colours, as well as citric acid and washing soda to shift the pH.  I have bought Chrome and Tin, but haven't used those yet.  I also try to remember to do samples for cotton, linen and silk, but for some reason I keep forgetting to throw those into the dye pot.   I have assembled about 20 different charts already and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.  I have a lot of natural dye plants that I have yet to try and now the leaves are turning and disappearing before my eyes.  But winter is perfect for using imported dyes like Indigo powder, Cochineal, Logwood, Brazilwood, Annatto and Alkanet as well as onion skins, which I still haven't tried although I have collected a bunch.

Another thing that has taken up some time is my addiction to junk.  I love to go on a treasure hunt at the local thrift store, The Good Shepherd.  I generally walk there every day at lunch, killing two flies in one swoop: I get good exercise and I do it during the lightest time of the day which is essential to keep good spirits in the dark winter that is just about here.  I've picked up some very nice things for very little money.  I got a studded headboard for the spare bedroom for a few dollar and redid that.  I also got the linen drapes and a lovely 80's carved Chinese rug (I've always loved those). And the mattress, a very good quality one, I also got at a thrift store.  And the night stand.  And the daybed thing, which I reupholstered.  In fact that whole room is filled with my finds and it's overflowing with stuff right now.

Just the other day I bought some dining room chairs.  They have coil springs in the seat which is way more comfortable than the modern day version that is used in the Ikea chairs we are currently using.  The chairs aren't really old, they are repro pseudo-rococoish, probably 80's or even 90's, but when I've sanded the frames and painted them with milk paint and reupholstered the seat with some linen, they are going to look great.  I also got this lovely little nightstand, a very simple thing, probably from the 20's or 30's with three drawers all of which have locks.  I'm sanding it down and I think I'll wax it rather than paint it with milk paint (which I find so interesting right now).  Originally the pine would have been painted to look like mahogany, but it had been repainted white when I got it.  I've decided that it will serve as an occasional table between two armchairs in the living room.  I can certainly use the storage space for the small treasures I have yet to find.

Then there is the gardening.  I haven't really kept up with the home garden this year, but the allotment has gotten some attention.  I just managed to harvest the potatoes while it was still reasonably dry.  The only thing that's left in the allotment is some salad, some kale and carrots.  And of course the dye plants, although I have harvested most of the leaves.  I've had the greatest fun and frustrations with learning to dye with Japanese Indigo and Woad.  Achieving a beautiful blue colour as well as a disappointing pinkish gray and slowly becoming wiser and more experienced.  Getting a pure blue from green leaves is just magic.  I love the light blue that comes from Woad.  I still haven't tried traditional Indigo powder.  That will wait till winter.  Except I just used some precious indigo powder in my last soap.  The context was perfect for a blue soap.  So I didn't skimp on the Indigo powder like last time I tried to do blue soap.  Well, the results were unexpected, although they should have been entirely, glaringly obvious.  But that's another post.

It's fall already.

It's here.  Summer is gone and fall is here.  The blustery winds and rain have arrived after an unusually good summer.  I'm never prepared, really.  There is always so much more that I wanted to get done this summer.  Every year it's like that.  But it's over in a blink of an eye.  Now we can light candles in the evenings again and curl up on the sofa listening to the winds howl.  Oh, well.  There is something cozy about that too.

I bought the perfect thing for fall.  I found this rya (also called smyrna) rug at the Good Shepherd (our local junk store).  It's owner had only just started it and obviously put it away and given up on it.  I love the colours, reds, yellows and oranges with purples, pinks, browns and blacks.  And it came complete with all the yarns, the pattern and colour swatches.  I only paid 15$ for it and now I'm all set for fall.  I try to do one line in an evening.  It's very calming and I don't have to remember anything.  It's numbered and I just have to change the colours.  I have no idea where I'm going to put it when I'm done, but that doesn't matter in the least.  I have a piece of handiwork that will entertain me in the coming winter months and serve as a warm blanket while I work on it.

Not that I have no projects going.  I'm still cleaning my eiderdown and there is a long way to go.  I'm also dyeing yarn regularly, right now I have some Dyers Chamomile in the pot.  But I haven't made soap in the longest time and I'm starting to miss that.  So much so, that I'm even beginning to get ideas for new soaps to make.  I guess I just might write a post about soapmaking soon.