Monday, December 30, 2013

Lavender - Last One of the Year

I just had to make a Lavender soap if only for the Grandmothers.  I don't dislike Lavender, but it's not a great personal favorite, but I know that many people really love it.  That includes the family's grandmothers.

I continued with a similar recipe to the ones I had already made, determined to use both Lanolin and Jojoba, but this time I also remembered the Cocoa Butter that is sitting on a shelf in kitchen.  Since I don't have steady supply of lard, I thought it would be a great addition to the recipe to make the soap harder.  I also had some Shea butter that I added to it.  One of the grandmothers loves that.

For colour I turned to the Alkanet infused oil that I have, lovely and dark red, ready to give it's blue to purple colour as soon as it comes in touch with the alkaline caustic soda. I never tire of the colour magic that soap making is.

I made these big generous chunks of soaps and the recipe turned out to be:

Olive Oil - 40% - 7oz / 200g (80g of that was Alkanet infused)
Coconut Oil - 30% - 5.3oz / 150g
Cocoa Butter - 10% - 1.8oz / 50g
Shea Butter - 10% 1.8oz / 50g
Sunflower Oil - 5% - 0.9ox / 25g
Lanolin - 2.5% - 0.45oz / 12.5g
Jojoba Oil - 2.5% - 0.45oz / 12.5g

I used water with a teaspoon of sugar.  And to continue the theme I decorated with Achillea flowers, Lavender flowers and Birch leaves.

The grandmothers got their soaps for Christmas. One of them remarked that the saves hers for special occasions and was just running out.  It pleased me that she would get a new one.  But this year, rather than give soaps as presents for christmas, I had people choose some to take with them when they left the Christmas dinner.  I still have enough left for me and plenty of soaps begging to be created in the New Year, among them a Vanilla soap and there is is definitely a Yellow one on the horizon.

Happy New Year and very best thanks for the one about to pass.

9 comments:

  1. What a beautiful looking chunk of lavender soap! You've got to love this one

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  2. Lovely! Anyone would be pleased to receive that.

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  3. Beautiful! I love lavender and have hopes of being a grammie some day :). Did you add Lavender Essential Oil to this soap or was it left unscented?

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  4. I keep looking for a "like" button to like your comments!
    Rosella, I did use Lavender essential oil to scent it. Just a glugg (no measurement).

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  5. Thanks - I have quite a bit of Lavender growing here (in the summer of course) that will be nice to use for decorating this soap. A glugg of essential oil sounds good to me! Can't wait to try this.

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  6. Beautiful soap! What a great gift idea =)

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  7. Dear Ambra, I have read your blog completely and I must say it is very interesting and full of information. I find your knowledge about natural colorants great and your relationship with them amazing! Today I have tried a soap with a rhubarb infuse, whipped. The color wasn"t so intense as yours, but I will see it tomorrow. I am eager to try to color my hair with the rhubarb root :) Thank you for such splendid ideas!

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  8. Absolutely stunning. I love the colors and how elegant and regal yet mildly rustic it looks. So glad to hear they were welcome gifts!

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  9. Very nice. I like the rustic look. I've seen various shades of Alkanet but this one is my favorite.

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