Goat's Milk Soap with a swirl

I have been meaning to write this post for about a week but the cyclone and its aftermath have been occupying my thoughts. I had some goat's milk soap in the freezer which needed to be used up and I also have some ultramarine liquid colour in my stash which I bought ages ago and which I want to get rid of as I want to use natural colours as much as possible so thought I would try and do a swirl with layers of uncoloured soap mixture, light blue and light pink which was to be coloured with pink clay.

However, once again I didn't get the results I wanted but it is all a learning curve isn't it? LOL! I had bought some jugs with long spouts which were on special at the time from Supercheap Auto and was keen to try the swirling technique which the Soap Queen so easily does on her blog. I didn't do the part with the hanger as I couldn't bend it into the right shape. I did take a photo of the jugs when I bought them but who knows where it is now but they looked like the ones the Soap Queen is using in that blog post I linked to above although they are blue. They are microwaveable so should be able to withstand the heat of soapmaking.

The problem is...well one of them anyway...I have been experimenting with Fragrance Oils as I have found that when using Essential Oils the scent dissipates and, as they are quite expensive, I thought I would give Fragrance Oils a try. I bought some from Gavin's Little Green Workshops as I thought he wouldn't sell anything with nasties in it and the ones he sells are phylate and nitro musk free apparently. What I have discovered since using the oils though is that they can contain vanillin and can turn your soap brown as the Soap Queen explains in this post.

So more experimenting needs to be done as I like my goat's milk soap to be a creamy colour and not brown.

I am going to experiment with using natural colours like madder root, alkanet root powder etc. There is nettle growing everywhere so that needs to be harvested for soap making and I think that with the addition of some spirulina powder the green colour may not fade as much next time like it did in my batch last year.

Liz from Eight Acres has allowed me to preview her soon to be released eBook on Making Your Own Natural Soap and I can recommend it if you are interested in using tallow to make soap so put your name down here and Liz will let you know when it has been published. I have never used tallow in soapmaking and she explains about where to source the tallow and how to render it and I hope to do that in my crockpot.

A review of her eBook is coming so don't forget to grab yourself a copy when it is available. You won't be disappointed.

Last but not least, I think my one and only Dragonfruit is ready as it is completely red and has a little bit of 'give' when I press it so tomorrow is the day for picking. I am keen to see if it has white or red flesh and I do hope it is ripe as I believe it tastes much better if it is.

Prayers are still needed for the cyclone/flood victims as the town of Rockhampton prepares for the flooding of the Fitzroy River and low lying areas will be inundated.  I am not sure if some areas hit by the cyclone up north have power back on as yet but I did hear at some stage that they were running out of water. I do hope that situation has been remedied but much of the focus lately seems to have been on the ongoing crisis in SE Queensland and northern NSW as the flood waters recede and the damage that has been sustained is visible. Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated I am sure.