Drying walnut shells

I've always been around black walnuts, since the black walnut trees grow freely and abundantly in east Tennessee. As a kid, they were a toy, something to kick and throw. But now, looking at these nuts through the eyes of a soap maker, I can really see the potential! So, back in October, I went to my husband's family farm, grabbed up a few bags of freshly fallen walnuts, and headed home to make a great soap additive!

Picture from EatTheWeeds.com

To clean, dry, and shell your walnuts:

1. Start off with a freshly fallen walnut, still in the green "fruit". While wearing gloves (the fruit will stain your skin!), peel away the softened fruit, revealing the walnut underneath.

2. Once all of your walnuts have been removed from the green fruit, soak the walnuts in a cool water bath. Make sure to use a stainless steel tub, since the walnuts will stain. Stir the walnuts to help remove any excess fruit.

3. Next, hang your walnuts in a mesh bag for two weeks, which will allow the walnuts to cure.

4. After your two week wait, use a hammer to break the tough walnut shell, revealing the nut. You can save and eat the nuts, but we are going for the shells. Break your walnut shells with the hammer until they are small pieces (dime size or smaller).

5. Finally, put the walnut shells in a heady duty food processor and grind them until they are a fine powder. The finer the better!

Store your walnut powder in an air tight container until ready to use. Suggested usage rate in soap is 1 tbsp per pound of oil.

Making Orange Peel Powder

I don't know what was wrong with me… I must have been dangerously close to contracting scurvy over winter break because before I knew what I was doing, I was eating oranges like crazy! I think I ate my way through 3 bags of navel oranges in about 2 weeks. Crazy, right?

Well, in my craziness over that delicious citrus, I decided to start drying my orange peels and save them for soap additives! Want to give it a go too? Excellent! Grab a fresh orange and listen up!

What you will need:
-Oranges (yummm)
-A drying surface
-A coffee grinder
-A storage container

1. So, first start off by peeling your orange and eating all of the sweet, juicy goodness inside! (Bonus: You're fighting scurvy! Arr!)
2. Next, clean your orange peel with soap and water and scrape away the white pith underneath the peel.
3. Set your clean peels out to dry. You can either let them dry naturally in the open air or place them on a baking sheet in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.
4. Once the peels are completely dry (which should be 1-2 weeks in the open air), place them in a coffee grinder or food processor and blend to a powder.
5. Store your orange peel powder in an airtight container! 

Orange peel powder is an excellent additive in beauty products! You can add it to handmade soap to create texture and color, add it to clay face masks to provide exfoliation, or add it to bath water as an excellent citrus bath tea!

In regards to milk soap...

A few weeks ago, I posted this post about making soap with milk. In that tutorial, I talked about making milk soap using the rebatch method, which allows you to make soap without using lye.

I thought that I would post again on milk soap, but this time, instead of rebatching, we are making soap using the hot process method.

Hot process is a different way to make soap, and it is quite similar to cold process in the beginning. Instead of pouring your cold process soap into the mold to let it saponify, you introduce heat using a crock pot or double boiler. The heat essentially "cooks" the soap, making saponification happen quicker.

I like to use the hot process method when making milk soaps because I do not have to worry about accidentally cooking the milk, since I am deliberately cooking the milk! It takes some of the worry out of making milk soap.

Here's a video I made the last time I made goat's milk soap:

If you are interested in my milk soaps, you can find the Goat's Milk and Oatmeal soap HERE and the rest of my milk soaps HERE.

Soap Tutorial: How to make Rebatched Milk Soap

About a week ago, I was reading on a parenting community that a member wanted to make some milk soap, but she was not comfortable with handling lye. On the surface, this would limit soap making to melt and pour varieties. However, there is another option: rebatched soap, or french milled soap!

To make french milled soap, you will need:

• a double boiler (I use a candle pouring pot that sits in a pot of water on my stove)
• 1 pound (4-5 bars) of cold process or hot process soap
• Up to one ounce of milk (any kind of milk will work. I have great success with goat's milk and butter milk)
• Any scents, fragrances, or essential oils that you want to use
• A mold
• A spatula
• A knife or cheese grater

1. Start off with cutting your soap up into small chunks or grating your soap with a cheese grater. 

2. Put your soap chunks into your double boiler and warm the water on medium heat.

3. As your chunks are warming, slowly stir in your milk one tablespoonful at a time. You may not need the full ounce of milk. Look for a chunky-mashed potatoes-type of consistency in your soap. If the soap is not 100% smooth, it is okay. 

4. Now is the time to add any color, fragrance, or essential oil that you like. I made my rebatched milk soap with ginger essential oil and orange essential oil.

5. Using your spatula, carefully pour your soap into your mold. Let it cool overnight before unmolding and cutting. Put your soap in a cool, dry place to "cure", or harden. The harder your soap, the longer it will last!

First Attempt at a Peacock Swirl

I've seen the peacock swirl around in the soaping world, and while it is gorgeous and produces amazing looking bars of soap, I've always been a bit hesitant to start such a complicated-looking technique. I love beautiful, bold swirls on the tops of soap (so much that I bought a mold just so I could do them!), so yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet and try a peacock swirl.

First, I watched this video by LovinSoap about 10 times in a row.

Then, I attempted the swirl using my 9 bar mold from Brambleberry.com and Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil  from AromaHaven.com. I chose this mold because it gives me lots of room to swirl on the top of my soap, and I chose this scent because it does not accelerate, giving me plenty of time to work.

And here are my results:

I like the swirl and it is very pretty, but it is not in the classic peacock, or bouquet.

I think I have identified two problems with my first attempt:

1. My lines of soap in the beginning were more thick than I have seen others do. I think I need to thin out my lines, which will give me more room to have more lines and more swirl.

2. I drew my S-curve very wide. Next time, I am going to tighten up that curve, hopefully giving myself more swirl per inch.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the soap, I love the colors and the scent, and the swirl isnt terrible for a first timer. The soap gelled overnight, so the green and purple really pop next to the white and black. I have some new fall and winter scents coming in next week, so I'm looking forward to practicing this advanced swirl a few more times! Plus, I am going to get some help from a friend of mine who is an expert at swirling and marbling paper! Go check out her Etsy shop here: DynamiteFibers

Making Sea Salt Soap

Yuzu Sea Salt Soap

Salt soap is a true luxury! A salt soap bar combines the gentle cleansing of cold process soap with the exfoliate and skin softening power of salt. The salt is embedded in the soap to create a hard, long lasting bar that is speckled with the salt crystals, which gives the soap a really unique look.

Making salt bars is quick and easy if you are already familiar with how to make cold process soap. If you are not familiar with cold process soap, or if you are just beginning, you may want to get a few batches of CP soap under your belt before you attempt salt soap.

Love Spell Salt Soap

Some quick tips:

• When using salt in cold process soap, you need to be aware that salt is a lather killer. In order to combat this problem, it is best to use a large percentage (80%+) of coconut oil. I prefer to use 90% coconut and 10% castor, which makes a stable, creamy lather with medium sized bubbles. You can use any percentage of oils that you like, but most soapers will advise you to use at least 80% coconut oil.
• Another tip is on superfatting. Most soap calculators default to 5% superfattening of your oils, but for salt soaps it is better to use between 15% to 20% superfat. This keeps the soap from being too drying on the skin and adds to the moisturizing properties. 
• One tip that I will strongly encourage is to use individual molds when making salt soap. Salt soap likes to set up quickly. I've heard of some soapers who are able to cut their salt soap within 2 hours of pouring the soap. However, if you cut your salt soap loaves too late, the soap will be dry and crumble easily. Individual molds keep you from worrying about this, since you do not have to cut them.
• The longer you let your soap cure, the better! Soaps tend to get better with age (like cheese and wine), and salt soaps are best used after a 6 week cure or longer.

Pipe Smoke Salt Soap with Nettle

Come back tomorrow and see my YouTube video on how to make sea salt soap! And make sure to comment below if you have any questions about anything! 

Christmas Eve Craft Tutorial: Salt Dough Ornaments

Cutting out stars

With the holidays upon us, and my two year old up to his neck in the Christmas spirit, I thought it would be a fun idea to get him into the Christmas crafting spirit as well! After much careful thought, we decided to make up some salt dough and personalize some ornaments made by Benjamin to add to our Christmas presents! He had a blast making and decorating them (and getting a little messy in the process!) and I know that the grandparents are going to adore them!

Making holes

Here's what you will need:
-2 cups of flour
-1 cup of salt
-1 cup of water (approximately... I needed a little more)
-Mixing bowl
-Wax paper
-Cookie cutters
-A pencil, pen, crochet needle... Something to poke holes with!
-Baking sheet
-Paint (we used the acrylics that we had lying around the house!)
-Ribbon or twine

1: Combine your flour, salt, and water in a mixing bowl and mix together until you get a dough consistency. I needed a little more water than 1 cup.
2: Put your dough on your wax paper with a dusting of flour and work it out until it no longer sticks to your hands!

Painting, toddler style!

3: Use your cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use your pen or pencil to make a hole. I used a crochet needle to make my holes and it worked great. Bake in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, then flip your ornaments and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let them cool before decorating.
4: Time to decorate!! We were super simple and just used acrylics and finger tips, but you can get really creative with glitter, markers, more paints, or ribbons and buttons to glue on!
5: Add a ribbon for hanging and you have the perfect ornament, stocking stuffer, gift tag, or homemade gift for a grandparent!

Merry Christmas, everyone, and I hope you have a safe and happy holiday!

Hot Process Goat's Milk Soap (In Pictures)

Here's a quick picture tutorial for my hot process goat's milk soap! Super easy... Just remember to stick by it and keep an extra eye on the soap as it cooks!

Oils melting! I used olive, castor, and tallow.

First, you will start off like normal, melting your oils in your crock pot or double boiler. When you make your lye solution, you will keep out part of your water to substitute with milk. (For example, if you are supposed to use 12 ounces of water, just 8 ounces instead, and keep 4 ounces of milk to the side) Please take loads of CAUTION with your lye solution, because it will be stronger than a normal batch! Put your milk in the fridge to chill it.

You can use a stick blender or a whisk. It will trace fast!

Once the oils are melted, add your lye solution (BE VERY CAREFUL! It will be extra strong!) and mix until traced. Your soap will trace faster than usual, because of the water discount.

Add your goat's milk!

Now, slowly add your chilled milk and mix together. Your soap may take on a neon yellow or neon orange color. This is normal, dont panic! As the soap cooks in your double boiler or crock pot, keep a very close eye on it and stir it often. Your soap will take on a natural tan color as it cooks. Remember, oil separation is normal in the beginning stages of hot process soap, so no worries!

Almost ready! It needs to cook a little longer...

Once the soap takes on a mashed potatoes-like consistency, you can add any fragrances or additives and toss the soap in your favorite mold. I added some ground oatmeal to this batch for some scrub!  Once cooled, your soap can be cut! Some folks like to use hot process soap right away, but I still let mine cure for 4-6 weeks.

Goat's Milk Soap with Oatmeal

Enjoy!! It may take a few times to get it right, but hot process goat's milk soap is fun, fantastic, and addictive!

Hot Process Goats Milk: mystery revealed!

Every soap maker, from the newbies to the seasoned soapers, either loves or loathes making goats milk soap. The milk can separate, curdle, cook, discolor, or stink! It is a big pain in the booty, but the outcome is so lovely! Goats milk soap is truly worth all of the sweat and tears!

After just a few craft shows under my belt, I began receiving more and more requests for these tricky suds. So, one evening, after apparently losing my mind, I attempted to make goats milk soap with disastrous results! My soap stank, looked bright orange, and was just a mess... So, bound and determined, I set out to perfect the art of making soap with milk, while hot processing!

Keep on the lookout for my tutorial!

Easy tent weights!

This week, I made my first tent weights! I thought I would share them with you...

You will need: 4 buckets, a small (read: 50 pound bag!) bag of Quikrete, Eye hooks, washers, and nuts.

What you will need!

Start by attaching the washer and nut tightly to the eye hook. This gives the eye hook something to hold on to, and your tent will not pull the hook right out of the concrete!

Next, fill your buckets about 3/4 of the way full of Quikrete. Make sure to wear eye protection and a face mask! Once the dust fades, bury your eye hooks in the Quikrete and just add water! No need to stir! (So easy, a toddler can do it!)

The Quikrete will dry in about an hour! Just add some strong nylon rope and voila! You have home made, fairly inexpensive tent weights for your craft shows!

I have about $16 in these weights, which is WAY cheaper than buying them for $40 at a big box store! I bought my buckets at the Dollar Tree for $1 each, the Quikrete was $5 at Lowes, and I bought 6 eye hooks for $6 at Lowes. I already had the nuts and washers on hand.
All in all, it was a fun, easy, fairly quick project! And best part: I will not have to borrow Jeri's tent weights any more! Ha!

Tutorial: Homemade Deodorant

Homemade deodorant? Man, Milly must have really gone off the deep end...

Nope! I promise! You are going to LOVE this homemade deodorant! There are no aluminum or any other nasty additives. And it actually works really good! It took me about 10 minutes total to make my deodorant, and I even had some left over... Plus, it is super cheap!

Your Supplies

You will need:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup corn starch
3 tsp coconut oil (you can use shea butter if you prefer. I havent tried it, though)
1-3 drops of essential oil or body safe fragrance oil
Mixing bowl
Container (I used an empty deodorant container and it's working great)

1. Combine the dry ingredients together.

2. Add your coconut oil and fragrance. I combined them together using my hands, but a spatula would work well, too. The coconut oil may melt a little if you use your hands.
3. When it is fully combined, spoon the mix into your container. Put the container in the fridge for an hour or so to harden your mix.

When using your new deodorant, make sure to apply it lightly. A little goes a long way!

Deodorant! :o)