Easy soap!

[fablulu.livejournal.com]

I made the easiest soap in the world, twice. It's just shaved ivory bath bars, in a steel bowl, over another pot of simmering water. I add a generous amount of almond oil (6 tbls to three bars), and fragrance, and start mashing it up with a potato masher. sometimes I add a few tablespoons of water since water does evaporate as the soap heats up. It never melts, it turns into a playdoh consistency. Than I pat it together into a form I like, wearing rubber gloves cuz the stuff is hot. Not burning hot, just uncomfortable hot. I've done blue robins eggs, with a bit of food coloring, and oatmeal. I've formed it into soap on a rope, and last of all, just a big old block of white soap. I tried a mold as well, and it worked fine. it does firm up nicely. It creates a very creamy lather, and when it gets down to a sliver, it doesn't break. It also seems to last much longer, hmm. The only problem would be fragrance, you have to add quite a bit, i've been adding a teaspoons worth of fragrance oils, and it's just not enough. I think that is the only drawback to making your own soap, the cost in getting the bar to smell as nice as a store bought fancy soap. One bar I added cooking vanilla to, and it was absolutely heavenly, and cheap. I'll keep making vanilla soap, but I don't think I'll be adding half a bottle of 8$ orange fragrance oil to a batch anytime soon. Hey, any ideas/info for more frugal fragrances??