Lard and three oil soap

What a sad and sorry week it has been! I was hit by the flu last Monday and have absolutely wasted a week lying in bed, staring at the wall, issuing orders to the menfolk and being generally bored out of my brain. I take my hat off to those who have to endure long term illness as I think I would be a bad patient. However, today I have remained upright for an hour or so and am trying to get back into some kind of normality once again.

 

 Three friends and I had planned to drive to Warwick for the Jumpers and Jazz Festival last Wednesday where we would meet up with three other friends and enjoy the day together. As I had borrowed the moulds from one friend to make the soap pictured above I thought I would make a batch of soap on Monday and give them back to her when we met up. I was starting to get achy as I made the soap and I could feel myself getting scatty and unable to concentrate but thankfully I was able to complete the job without too many mistakes, cleaned up and took myself to bed with instructions to the menfolk that they would have to get their own dinner. Little did I know I would be saying that to them for the next week and I don't think they have starved as yet :-) I however was kicking myself for not having some chicken broth in the freezer ready to heat up if sickness struck which it rarely does.

 The plan was to divided the batch of soap into three. I left one third uncoloured and used that portion to make little hearts for embeds in future soaps.

Another third was coloured with pansy mica which turned out nicely.

 

The remaining third was coloured with Pastel Pink Australian Clay. I had planned just to add a little clay at a time to get the right colour but was getting too sick so just threw it all in. I think it was 1t mixed with water....but it turned out a lot darker than the pink clay I have used in the past and I ended up with a brown colour unfortunately. However, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter as it all goes down the drain anyway. The colour was the least of my problems at that stage. 

I used the following ingredients for this soap:

500g  Lard

250g  Olive Oil

250g  Rice Bran Oil

250g  Coconut Oil (Copha)

Lye    172g

Water 412g

Pansy Mica

Pastel Pink Australian Clay

This is my second batch of lard soap and I still have enough left for a couple more. I haven't tried the first batch as yet but it should be ready to use by now. 

By the way, as it turned out, the three of us who were travelling from Toowoomba last week were all sick on the day so had to cancel. I believe the city has been hit by the lurgy. I hope everyone reading this is keeping well. Now...my bed is calling me once again :-)