Castile Bubbles ~ One of my favourite soaps

After my last soapmaking experiment with spirulina which didn't turn out as I had hoped, I thought I would redeem myself and make one of my favourite soaps, Castile Bubbles which is plain and simple and very easy to make.

I recently saw some really pretty moulds on The Nerdy Farm Wife as I subscribe to her newsletter and she used them to make Rose Clay Soap. A friend of mine found the moulds here on eBay and I couldn't help myself so bought one as I needed a bit of cheering up and I can't comfort eat anymore by eating sugar laden goodies :-)

Well the mould arrived looking like this which was quite an interesting way to package something. I guess it was cheaper that way.

Six Heart Love Chocolate Cake Mould

I knew a 1kg batch of soap wouldn't fit into the one mould so I cleaned out my other heart mould ready to use if I needed it. When I was looking at it I saw there was a heart shape at the bottom of each heart so I had an idea for an experiment...as you do! I had been given some little heart shaped soaps by Suzie from The Curing Room so I wondered what it would look like if I put one in the bottom of a few soaps.

Well obviously it didn't work out but I have read that some soapmakers hide little animal shapes etc. in the soap they make for children which I would try doing if I had any children to make soap for. Give it a go if you are into soapmaking and let me know if it worked. I am sure it would if the shape was put in the middle of the soap when using different shaped moulds.

In this soap you only use olive oil and castor oil plus the lye and water of course but I wanted to see if I could colour the hearts a light pink so added 1t Australian pink clay (mixed thoroughlywith 3t of the oils earlier) into the mixture and was a bit disappointed when I unmoulded the soap the next day as it was white.

However, as it has started curing it is turning a very light shade of pink which is quite pretty but I can't really get the right colour when taking photos unfortunately.

I love this soap and, as I said before, it is one of my favourites. Next time I make it I will add more oil or water in with the clay as there are a few pink specks showing up in the soap even though I thought I mixed it thoroughly. This recipe is from a book I got from the library and I didn't put it through the soap calculator as it turned out well for me before although I didn't add the clay last time. The oil and lye need to get to 40C and I didn't wrap towels around the moulds overnight like I usually do.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested. As I said it is a quick and easy soap to make and the heart shaped moulds make it look very pretty and great for gift giving.

CASTILE BUBBLES

950g olive oil

50g castor oil

124g caustic soda

250g water

1t pink clay mixed with 3t of the oils 

Have a great week everyone!