Beyond colorants and essential or fragrance oils, there are many of cool things you can combine to your handmade soap. One of my most favorite is honey (which is a humectant), but there is also milk, glycerin, silk, shea butter, tomato paste, cocoa powder, fruit juice and pulp, flowers and dried herbs, finely chopped oatmeal, cornmeal (for an exfoliating bar), poppy seeds, finely ground coffee beans, beer and wine, berry seeds, citrus zest, yogurt, natural aloe-vera gel, Vitamin E capsule contents (2-3 per pound), seaweed, uncooked adzuki beans or almonds ground right into a fine powder, and embedded objects. In cold process soap making, whisk in these additives once you have blended to an appropriate trace. For liquids, add at a light trace. For anything you want suspended evenly throughout the bar (seeds, oatmeal), add at a heavy trace or else the additive will sink to the lower part.

As far as milk goes, it is possible to really make use of any type of milk-cow’s, goat’s, cream, buttermilk, half and half, plain yogurt mixed with water, even powdered milk. Use the milk straight in place of the water your recipe requires. Nevertheless, I once used Egg Nog, but it turned dark brown and lost its rich smell. No matter what milk you use, freeze it prior to using it. It should be “slushy” when included with the mixture. Milk soaps tend to overheat, just as honey soaps.

Furthermore, any time you apply alcohol in a recipe, let it go flat or boil it to let lose the alcohol, then cool it before use. If you do not even a little 1/2 pound batch will begin explosively boiling when the lye is put in.

As far as honey goes, add about 1/2 ounce per pound of soap. Be sure to spray the honey measuring spoon with non-stick cooking spray to so you do not have honey residue sticking to the spoon and altering your measurement.

To embed objects in your soap, place, say, a little plastic toy, rope for soap-on-a-rope, or identical item into the soap mold then pour the soap batter into the mold. Of course, this works best with see-through or glycerin soaps, which are normally “melt and pour” projects-not handmade cold processed soap.

When putting dried herbs or flowers, spread them on top of soap just applyed into the mold or mix them in with a whisk right before serving into the mold. Most herbs will turn brown in your soap as time passes. Dried herbs often bleed a brown color out into the soap surrounding it as well. Some individuals find this unsightly, although some feel it is lovely and a soap mark being handmade from organic ingredients.

For additional information on this and other handmade soap topics, go to purehandmadesoap.com. This website also offers free soapmaking video tutorials, pictures of the organic handmade soap process, free beginner soap recipes, and a 50-page soap “how to” ebook. The ebook includes 39 one-pound soap recipes, 60 natural soap bar pictures, and details on how to make your own soap recipes.

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