It's a Beautiful World!

It's a Beautiful World Soap

I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged! Between a house renovation that occupied so much of my time and just plain getting older and slowing down, I feel like a hermit or maybe a turtle!

For the past 2 1/2 years, I've been making soap. Nothing fancy, just good, all natural body and hand soap. After using all natural soap for so long, if I use store bought soap, I can smell the chemicals in it!  

I'm starting to get regular customers and decided to give my little business a name. Since I love globes and maps, I integrated them into my business by wrapping the soap in old maps. It seemed natural to call the soap business, "It's a Beautiful World".

 There are numerous soap recipes out there. My suggestion, if you're interested in trying it, watch tutorials on YouTube and invest in a book with simple recipes calling for cheap oils.  My first soap was a very simple, 3 ingredient soap from a tutorial on YouTube. 

After that, I bought a book with 4 basic recipes that you can change with additives.
I've tried many different combinations including, Nettle Soap, Buttermilk Soap, Lavender Soap.....you get the idea. 

Along the way, there have been a few flops......I burned goat's milk when adding it to the lye, I added Poppy seeds to a Lemon Poppy-seed batch too late and they bunched together and I added too much essential oil to a batch and it didn't harden completely.  But, that's part of soap-making.

Soap-making is science.  It's very precise and about ingredients reacting in a certain way to others when mixed together in the correct way.  When it's ready to mold, it's the consistency of thick pudding. I spoon it into silicon molds. After being molded, it has to be wrapped up so it'll cool down very slowly. After about 24 hours, the soap is hard enough to un-mold and cure. Curing or hardening the soap takes a month to a year depending on the oils used. It's done by leaving the bars in the open to dry out. Then they're ready to go!

It's been fun sharing about it! 

Happy Soaping!

Sally