Hi, this is Teri with Tree Maire Soapworks. Today I'm going to be showing you
how to make these bars. Usually, I show you fancier bars but today I'm going to
show you this rustic bar. I think it really goes with the theme of honeybees
and I think it's equally as beautiful so let's get started. First, I start with my
distilled water and I use about 1/3 of the water weight in distilled water ice
cubes. I do this mainly because it cuts down on fumes and also it does help it
cool down a little more quickly. I'm using powdered sugar in this recipe and
I dissolve it in my distilled water before I add my lye. I'm using it at
a rate of one teaspoon per pound of oils. The reason I use it is it cuts down
on acceleration. Once the sugar is completely dissolved in the water I
measure up my sodium hydroxide and then I add that to my distilled water.
I carefully stir it until it's dissolved and then I set it aside under a vent fan
that's away from any children or pets. Normally, I measure my sodium lactate in
this step and I set it aside with my cooling lye water, but today I decided
not to use sodium lactate because I'm using beeswax, and that's a good hardener.
Now that my lye water is cooling, I start to measure my hard oils, and I start with
my coconut oil and then I melt that. While the coconut oil is melting in the
microwave, I start to measure my liquid oils starting with my castor oil and
then my olive oil. Once the coconut oil is completely melted, I add my palm
kernel flakes and I stir those in to try to dissolve them, but the melting point
for these is 102 degrees Fahrenheit, so I may need to microwave this again.
Palm kernel flakes add hardness to your bar and also shine and they can
cause your bar to be brittle if you use it higher than 15%, and today I'm only
using them at 10.5%. Also palm kernel flakes can cause acceleration so you
have to be careful with what recipe you're using for what design. Next, I add
my cocoa butter and I really like working with cocoa butter it adds a
hardness to the bar and also it adds moisture to the bar. Next, I'm adding
beeswax to my recipe and this gets added just when you're figuring your oils for
your recipe. This is added at 0.5% of your total oil weight.
Beeswax has a pretty high melting point so I had to microwave this again
to get it melted. Now that the beeswax is completely melted I add my melted palm
oil. Next, we'll be working on some of the additives starting with the honey. And I
use that at a rate of one teaspoon per pound of oils. Honey is not the easiest
to work with, but it is really good for your bar because it helps create a
lather and there are other benefits to honey as well. But one of the things you
have to watch out for is that it causes your bar to heat up because of the
sugars in it. So you just have to be careful. When I'm using these single
cavity molds, you don't really have to worry about that because they have a
hard time heating up and going through gel anyway. So I don't worry about that
in this kind of mold. My next additive is bee pollen and it's from Bramble
Berry and I use this at a rate of one and a half teaspoons per pound of oils.
Now, all of these additives that are measured in teaspoons can be figured
using Elements Bath and Body's Colorant Calculator. You would just go to the
bottom calculator. This is good for additives as well as colorants. It's just
if it's measured in teaspoons per pound of oils. So we're using 33.5 oz
of oils. So you put that in and then this is for the whole recipe,
so you're going to put in 100% in the percent part. And then you
just need to know your rate. So I used 1.5 teaspoons for the rate for the bee
pollen, but I use one teaspoon for the rate for the honey. If you were using
sodium lactate, you would use one teaspoon, and I used the sugar at a rate
of one teaspoon per pound of oils. So this works for your additives too. It's
just as long as it's figured in teaspoons per pound of oils or per pound
of soap. Okay, my next additive is calendula flower, and these are dried and
I chopped them up even finer. And I got these from Bramble Berry,
and I used them at a rate of one and a half teaspoons per pound of oils.
I'm using raw honeycomb fragrance and I'm also adding a little bit of the
tenfold orange essential oil from Bramble Berry as well.
Next, I'm using titanium dioxide and this is already dispersed one part titanium
dioxide to three parts olive oil. I'm using this at a rate of 0.75 teaspoons
per pound of oils. Once I get these ingredients mixed together and I'm happy
with them, I add them to my melted hard oils and then I add my liquid oils to those,
and then I use my stick blender to make sure everything is incorporated. I'm
using aloe vera liquid from Bramble Berry and this stuff is great for lather.
It makes the most wonderful lather! And what I did in the beginning, when I
measured my water, is I subtracted two ounces of water. So I'm adding two ounces of this,
aloe vera liquid. So if you want to do this with the aloe vera liquid or
with beer or some other liquid you want to add. You can go as low as a one
to one ratio when you're mixing your water with your lye, and then the rest of
that amount in liquid you can add later to your oils in the amount of whatever
is left over. So you never go below a one to one ratio of liquid to lye. And in
this case I still use two ounces more water than lye. I decided to use a little
yellow oxide to add to my color. I just used it at a rate of 0.125 teaspoons per
pound of oils.
Oxides tend to be a little clumpy so this palette knife and a little olive
oil worked very well to get the clumps out.
Once I'm confident that all the clumps are out, I add this to my oil mixture.
And you can see I got a little on the counter and I just want to show you how
I got that off, cause it can stain and all you have to do is add a little bit of
oil to it, and it comes off really easy. So I just dabbed on a little olive oil
and then it wipes right off.
Next, I strain my lye solution into my oil solution.
I stick blend this until medium trace. Next, I just make sure and have all my
molds ready, and all of these molds are from Bramble Berry. Two of them are new,
and I listed in the description below a link to where you can find these.
While I'm pouring, I just kind of tap it down and make sure I'm getting the soap
into all the corners and avoiding any air pockets.
I'm not quite sure how I'm going to package these soaps because I usually do
the regular rectangular bar, but if you have any ideas please leave a comment
below. Also, if you've learned something today or if you've been inspired, please
just give a comment below and let me know what it is.
I bang down each one of these molds again just to try to ensure there won't
be any air bubbles in the final product.
I'm not putting these in the oven because of the pollen and the honey that
would cause it to heat up, so I'm just covering it and hoping it goes through
gel, but it really doesn't matter on this, because these are not going to be cut
open. So you won't see any partial gel if there is any. So now that I'm just
cleaning these bars let me tell you what I learned from this batch. After two days
I popped these soaps out of the mold and they did come out fine but they were a
little soft and I feel like I really should have used sodium lactate after
all. Also the mold with the most intricate pattern had the most air
bubbles. And I think if I would have just put a slight amount of soap in there and
then bang that down and then add the rest of the soap, I think I would have
got those outer circles that are fairly thin all filled in. I really like how
these came out and I would do this again. I love seeing those natural colors,
the pink's that come from the clay's, the light yellows, and the light greens, like
the moss colo,r and some of that natural blue! I just love those gorgeous colors.
And those bars are the most simple bars but they just look gorgeous! So I would
ask any beginning soap maker, don't get in too much of a rush to do fancy
designs. Start with a one-color bar. And they're just gorgeous in their
simplicity! Enjoy that for a while! And then you can move on to something more
complicated, but get your skills before you advance to something that you're not
quite ready for. I've had a lot of people ask what I do with these soap balls and
we do use them, and I have an aunt that really loves them and we use them as
hand soaps. A lot of people said they would buy them but somehow I don't feel
right about that so comment below and let me know what you think I should do
with my extra soap balls.
Thank you so much to those of you who checked out my website and who placed
an order this week. I really appreciate it! Also, if you're interested I started a
new soap making group on Facebook. It's called Tree Marie Soapworks and
it's a closed group. So you have to ask to join. And it's for asking questions
and learning and sharing and encouraging others in their soap making journey, and
please read the rules. Now I'm stamping these cube soaps. And I got this stamp
from Bramble Berry, but I don't think they carry it anymore.
But I really like the look of it. The first one and second one I stamped a
little too deep. The third one, I really liked how it looked, and I just stamped it
almost all the way down and it came out really nicely. This one is my favorite!
And then the next one I did, I stamped it too far down on the upper right corner
and so I got the edge of the stamp in the corner, as you can see here. But
overall I think they came out really nicely, and I would do this again. I
really loved the look!
Thank you for joining me today, and if you appreciate this video just give me a
thumbs up and subscribe and hit the bell for notifications and also share this
video and have a great day!