Soap with Madder Root

 I read in a Soap Queen's article 'Formulating Cold Process Recipes'  that you could make a nice soap by using 30% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 30% palm oil or lard and 10% of another oil such as rice bran oil. I was itching to try out the madder root that a friend had given me so decided to use that recipe for a trial run.

The plan was to half fill my new embossed mould with uncoloured, unscented soap as I wanted to cut it into blocks to show off the top as it doesn't really show up all that much when the soap is cut as normal.

 Then, in my other loaf mould, I wanted to pour a plain layer on the bottom and then I would do a 'pencil line' on top of that with cacao powder followed by a layer of soap coloured with madder root. I had seen this done with a tea infuser so I decided to use that. 

Unfortunately, while I was fiddling around trying to get the cacao powder to sprinkle over the bottom layer with no success as the powder wouldn't come out evenly, the remaining mixture was getting thicker and I still had to add the madder root and the scent. Oops! So then it was panic stations to get it all mixed up and by the time it hit the mould it just became globby and difficult to work with. 

So much for trying to do a straight pencil line. Oops! Maybe next time I will be more successful and will use a different strainer for the powder that's for sure. I wrapped up the soap and as I had made it at night I wasn't able to peek at it every hour or so to see how it was gelling like I normally do and, would you believe it, it turned out with a partial gel plus some of the top had cracked! That confused me as when I read what causes a partial gel it can be because the soap doesn't get hot enough yet the reason soap cracks is because it overheats as far as I know. This is probably double dutch for those who don't make soap and it is something new to me as it hasn't really happened before like this.

The soap in both moulds had partial gel which was so disappointing as these soaps were meant to be gifts and they don't look all that wonderful even though they are probably lovely to use. Never mind.

The next time I make soap I will do it during the day so I can keep an eye on it like I normally do but I had to go out unexpectedly when I had planned to make this batch. In Jan Berry's new book Simple and Natural Soapmaking she has photos of soaps which have had natural colourants added and you can see how they look after a couple of months when the colourants have been added to oils or to the lye mixture. It is very interesting and the book is worth buying especially as there are 50 recipes to experiment with. 

The 'Ugly Ducking' soap I made last time has been rebatched and is already useable. I added cocao powder to it before pouring it into the mould and it certainly darkened the soap. Rebatching isn't something I would like to do very often as you end up with less soap and it is hard to get it looking smooth. The original batch filled a loaf mould plus a number of individual moulds whereas after rebatching there was only enough to fill a loaf mould. 

If anyone is interested in the recipe I used for the soap with Madder Root here it is:

450g olive oil
450g coconut oil
450g lard
150g rice bran oil
211g lye
495g water
31g   mixture of White Rose FO, Lavender and Mint FO and Lavender EO.
1t     Madder root mixed in with some of the soap mixture before adding to the rest of the batch for

        the top layer after reaching trace. 

I hope some of my readers in Queensland and New South Wales are getting some rain at the moment. We haven't had a lot of rain like areas around Bundaberg but any rain is better than none. There has been light rain for much of the afternoon which is very much appreciated as it has been so very dry.

Have a great week everyone!