Cocoalicious

Goat milk is not easily available though we have a lot of goats around here, where my parents live. I was asking the local people if anyone would be willing to sell some goat milk and my requests were met with utmost curiosity and uncontrollable giggles. Finally one generous local goatherd agreed to sell me some goat milk. What more, we even convinced him to bring his goat over and milk it at my parents home. :D

Here's the goatherd and his pretty goat:

Isn't she a pretty goat!! Also a little scared...poor thing!! 

The goat and goatherd at work, with a lil'
help from our cleaning lady. Three excited
spectators......grandma, mom and meeeeee

I froze the 200ml of milk that came and finally got to make some soap with it.

Showing the top face
Made on 09.10.2011

About turn!!

This soap was made with palm oil, coconut oil, olive oil, goat milk (2/3's goat milk and 1/3 distilled water) and superfatted with cocoa butter. The swirls were made with cocoa powder and scented with vanilla oil. I had to keep and eye on my mom to keep her from eating it!! She thought it looked and smelled like marbled cake. :)

Cut into an easy to handle size with a happy helper...my dad 

Since the vanilla oil was a real dark brown, I added it only to the soap base with cocoa powder. Luckily every bar of soap has enough cocoa swirls and the scent is coming through nicely. 

Easy and simple cocoa swirls

The soap didn't go through gel, and I am happy about that. Just hope the soaps don't darken over time though, coz I really like this cream and cocoa contrast.

Happy soaping everyone!! 

Dared to go bare!!

Unscented soap with Frangipani flowers from my mom's garden.
Also known as Temple flowers they are my favourite flowers.
 I jut love their colors and scent. 

If not for my cousin who sneezes when she uses any kind of scented soap on her face, I don't really think I would have made an unscented soap. While moving back to India, almost 90 percent of the weight in my bags was due to soap or something soap related. But now I have a lot of happy guinea pigs (mom, grand-mom, aunts and cousins...maybe some friends too in a few days) trying out the soaps I made while in Austria. :)
Over the weekend my cousin came over to see how soap gets made and together we made the first batch of unscented soap and also the first batch of 'Indian' soap. Thankfully no soap volcanoes in spite of humidity and higher temperatures. I used coconut, olive, sesame and palmolein oils and kept the superfatting at 5%. Palmolein was something I had never worked with before and I was worried it would cause some problems. But Hallelujah to the world wide web and the teachsoap forum where some other soaper had the exact same doubt, whether palmolein and palm oil had the same SAP. She used the same SAP and so did I. It came to trace very quickly, but that wasn't much of a problem as I didn't have to add any essential oils or color or any herbs.

Though the soap is unscented it has it's very own scent, which my guinea pig cousin customer loved when the soap was being made. I hope this unscented scent doesn't give her the Achooooos!!

My mom generously offered to hold the soaps while I clicked.
The dark pink is another variant of Frangipani.
Again from my mom's garden

Just some plain soap

Soaping across continents

I am finally back home in India, after a lovely almost one year stay in Austria. We are currently on the lookout for a house that we can set up and call home. In the meantime I get to spend a nice 2 months with my parents before my husband finishes his project in Austria and is back in India.

With all the soaps I made while in Austria I tried to keep the ingredients list quite short coz I didn't know how easy or difficult it would be to soap without some of those exotic additives that one can get in Europe, but not in India. While waiting for some essential oils I ordered from a supplier in Bangalore to arrive I bought coconut oil from a girl who sells coconut and sesame oils going door to door (we have a lot of sellers coming home with their wares here). I want to try and keep all the ingredients as local as possible and also when possible to buy ingredients from people who work so hard walking so many miles in the heat everyday to earn their daily bread.  

The temperatures here are quite high and I will have my fingers crossed when I actually get to soaping to avoid a soap volcano. Till I get all my supplies I am enjoying life in the countryside, watching goats, buffaloes, sheep and pretty butterflies. :)

Clicked at butterfly park, Mainau Island

Clicked at butterfly park, Mainau Island

My mini-tank

How do you guys cut your soap? I tried and tried and tried with a knife, every time cutting my bars unevenly and having to trim off most of the soap later. I start off fine, but then somewhere in the middle I realize I am too pro and decide to do a quick swish with the blade. I end up with a 'top-thick bottom-thin' bar or else a 'top-thin, bottom-thick' bar. Grrrr...
So with my sad cutting stories I was on the verge of giving up. See, I don't have that much coal to buy me a tank cutter and frankly I really don't need a tank to cut some six bars of soap. Then came along the spoon-swirl frenzy and I reached the lovely French lady's video (I think her name is Ka fee??). The spoon-swirl soap was terrific, but I was looking at something else. Hey!! What is she cutting the soap with?? Some wire kinda thing. First I thought it was a saw with the blade replaced with a wire. The bulb slowly lights up....there is hope!!! Finally I might be able to use an even bar of soap. I decided to make it the instant I set foot in India. No idea why I keep linking everything to the moment I set foot here or there...always trying not to set foot in my mouth though (I do have that disease, let me tell you)!!

Without further ado, let me introduce to you:

The Mini-tank aka Tortenschneider (cake cutter)
(Google image)

All I had to do was set foot in the local grocery store. Cost me 2 Euros. Hallelujah!!! It does need a guide though, any two pieces of wood or two cutting boards...else my soaps end up not just uneven, but wavy too. It gives are real clean cut. A great buy for budding soapers/profi soapers (who can spare that much cutting time). Its fun to shower with an even bar of soap!!

Sunshine soap

These days nothing gets thrown away before careful consideration...you never know what can be used to make soap. I held onto a broken umbrella handle for a few months too, while my husband wondered if I lost my marbles. So we got two cans of Pringles (thankfully the small size) that travelled with us to Slovenia and came back with us empty. The chips flew lightly out of the can and settled heavily in the butt. I am at a loss to understand how a few grams of snack can turn into a few kilos the second they hit the mouth.

I am one of those green soap lovers and have been wanting to make one for sometime now. The contents of a bag of nettle tea leaf had been soaking in olive oil for more than two weeks now. Molds were ready. Something was missing...what could it be? Has to be something to make me break into a panic sweat in the last minute of soaping. Well this time it was the cardboard tube around which aluminium foil is rolled. Now that is exciting enough. The grand plan was to do a soap embed with fresh soap in a different color. See this was supposed to be a morning soap, with the sun rising from the center. I can be imaginative too people!!

The outcome wasn't too bad actually. The cardboard pulled up a little too much soap with it. I shouldn't have waited so long before taking it out from the mold. Wish the green was a little greener and the yellow (from turmeric)  a little yellower/orange. I couldn't give the sweats a miss though....it was really hot here yesterday.

Hoping the sun doesn't set on me, by fading away

Scented with Mint, Tea tree and a tick of Lime essential oils. The mint masks the green smell really well. Thanks for the mint tip Amy W from Soapy Stories. About 11% Shea butter and 10% superfat. I drastically cut down the Coconut oil too this time.  A little bit of the end piece lathered very well. Not big bubbles, but nice small and creamy ones. :) 

Why do I even try to cut with a knife???
Had to make corrections later.

Little heart samples.
Funnily they turned green with turmeric??

This soap is fully natural, including the colors. I feel pretty good about it!! :)