Making Up For Lost Time - Making Soap!

It's been busy in A Breath Of French Air's soap kitchen this month! I've been cranking out the soap, so I thought I would share with you some of my new products.

Eucalyptus Charcoal soap - It's invigorating, fresh, and wonderful for the skin! Charcoal draws out toxins in the skin, so it's perfect to use as a facial soap! I divided up the batch and used gold mica for the swirls (below) and gold stars on top. The stars are skin safe and wash off after the first use. I think they both turned out awesome!

The top two are my Lemongrass soaps. I used the hot process method, so they are a little more rustic looking. They have a greenish tinge since I use French Green Clay, which contains actual decomposed plant material, making French Green Clay very nutritious for the skin. Calendula petals are on top to add some prettiness!

The last soap I am going to show is my famous Pumpkin Lavender soap. It's all the rave, and hard to keep in stock! The scent sounds weird, but it's amazing together!

I have many more to show, so I will be back with more pictures! Thanks for reading.

Hot Process Handmade Gingerbread Soap From Scratch

It was a cold and damp day, so I thought it would be a great day to make more soap. I'm running low on basic soap, but I also need some holiday soap....so I'm made Gingerbread Soap!
In the above picture you can see the hard oils melting. I have coconut, palm kernel, shea butter, and palm oil. Off to the side (which you can't see), I have my carefully measured lye/water solution and my soft oils. My soft oils are olive, rice bran, and castor.
While the oils are melting, I got my mold ready to go. I put oats on the bottom of the mold. This will actually be the top of the soap.
I also added ground oats and cocoa powder. The oats are great for your skin and the cocoa is for coloring the soap.
This is my favorite part...right after I poured the lye/water mix into the melted oils. In the above picture I just turned on the stick blender.
This is what it looks like one second after blending.
Here you can see a light trace. If I were making cold process soap, I would stop at this point, separate the mixture and add coloring. Since I'm hot processing, and I'm using cocoa for color, I'm skipping this step.
This is what it looked like after it came to a medium trace and I added the oats and cocoa.
Now the soap is "cooking". You can see the outside of the pot starting to gel.
About 20 min. later. It cooks from the outside in, and when the white spot in the middle is tiny, or disappears, it's finished!
This is a crummy picture, but this picture was taken after the soap had cooled to 170 degrees and I added the Gingerbread oils to the soap.
I added oats to the top (bottom of soap), but most of it fell off after taking it out of the mold. Hot process soap is ready to use as soon as it's finished with the "cook". It takes several hours for the soap to cool.
All set to go! See the oats? This was the bottom of the mold.
All cut and ready to go! I like to let my soap sit for a week or so before using. You don't have to, but the soap will last a lot longer if you do.

Now you know what it takes to makes soap!

Fall Forward! It's Time To Think About The Fall Season

Pumpkin Lavender soap! It sounds like a strange combination, but the outcome is amazing! I made one batch of soap and ended up making several more due to the demand!
Autumn Apple Soy Candle - A sweet, fruity scent with a touch of cinnamon....mmmmmmmmm! I made these in two sizes - 2 ounces and 4 ounce tin jars.
Pumpkin Spice whipped soap! I love this product! It's soft and creamy, and the best part is that you can use it as both a body soap and a shampoo! Just scoop up a handful and scrub away!
Pumpkin Spice handmade soap. This is soap is made with real pureed pumpkin, which contains rich vitamins which are great for your skin.
Last, but not least, are my new candles: Cranberry Vanilla, Iced Pumpkin, and Autumn Apple.

Celebrate the Fall Season!