A Saturday Full of Soap-ing
Last year, it became obvious that we needed to increase our manufacturing capacity this year so we ordered a s
Doesn’t the swirl on the left look like a goat…a little?
econd mold. That means that we can now make 240 bars in a day instead of the previous 120 bars per day. So what did we do Saturday? We made 240 bars of soap. We made a batch of Clove bud, and a batch of Cedarwood. That was lovely in itself, but we even tried something fun. We used green mica powder to add a green swirl to the cedar
wood soap. I love the way the swirls look, and I really think it adds a new dimension to the product. Color is wonderful!. I think we will continue to make some plain bars too in each of the scents for any of you all that want just plain bars, but isn’t the swirl pretty. Perhaps people will want it for their lovely green guest room.
After we did our regular soap making, we tried a few other things. We have been talking with The Virginia Distillery Company, and are working on creating a whiskey soap using the draff (Draff is the mash that is left over after the first phase of the whiskey making process) as an exfoliant, and a bit of whiskey as a scent. This is our 3rd try at this recipe as we want to make a product that both the Virginia Distillery Company and we can be proud of. We made this small batch and look forward to seeing how it cures.
And lastly, we worked on our liquid soap recipe. After doing a bunch of research, I found out that making liquid soap using our regular bar recipe as a base works, but has some big draw backs. The liquid soap that we made first works great, smells wonderful, but after it sits for a while, has the consistency of snot. Who wants to wash their hands with snot….not me!!! So what I learned is that the lye that is used for a liquid soap is different than the lye used for bar soap. Instead of sodium hydroxide, you use potassium hydroxide. The potassium hydroxide creates a base that is a pasty consistency to which you add additional water to make a liquid soap.
1st phase looks all creamy
This is the gel phase after cooking for 6 hours. Ready to make liquid soap
So after making regular, whiskey draff , and liquid soaps we are ready to rest. We will be really excited to add the new products to our offerings at the Charlottesville City Market this spring. Cant wait to see you all there in only 4 weeks. Spring is almost here, YEEHA