Episode 3: Essential Oils

The Soap Opera was created by Sarah Wheatley. If you liked what you heard, please rate and review the show in iTunes, or tell your friends and family about it! Spreading the word makes all the difference.

If you have any questions about soap, tools, or ingredients, you can contact me on Patreon, on Instagram @shiresuds, or you can email me at shiresuds@gmail.com!

Many thanks to Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com for the music (Licensed under Creative Commons 4.0). The tracks used in this episode are "Ripples" and "Finding Movement".

If you want to challenge your soapmaking skills some more, I recommend checking out Humblebee and Me, a wonderful website with tons of science-based soap, skincare, and makeup recipes!

If you want to purchase any of the soap I made for this show, you can find it at shiresuds.com. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Soap Opera! Happy Sudsing!

SOAP CALCULATOR http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

IMPERIAL WEIGHT

• 17.64 oz Olive oil

• 2.22 oz Lye

• 4.5+ oz Water

• 0.5-1 oz Essential oil of your choice

METRIC WEIGHT

• 500 g Olive oil

• 63 g Lye

• 130-150 g Water

• 15-25 g Essential oil of your choice

ESSENTIAL OIL IDEAS

• Lemon -- pairs well with Orange, Eucalyptus, or Lavender!

• Orange 10-Fold -- pairs well with Lemon, Benzoin, or Bergamot!

• Bergamot (Bergaptene-Free) -- pairs well with Rosemary, Lavender, Orange, Chamomile, or Lemon!

• Palmarosa -- pairs well with Cedarwood, Chamomile, or Lavender!

• Chamomile -- pairs well with Lemon, Cedarwood, Palmarosa, or Lavender!

• Lavender -- pairs well with Lemon, Rosemary, Palmarosa, Chamomile, Peppermint, or Cedar!

• Rosemary -- pairs well with Lemon, Bergamot, Cedarwood, Cinnamon, Peppermint, or Lavender!

• Peppermint -- pairs well with Benzoin, Lavender, Rosemary, or Cedar!

• Spearmint -- pairs well with Benzoin, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Orange, Peppermint, or Rosemary!

• Eucalyptus -- pairs well with Lemon, Spearmint, or Cedarwood!

• “Vanilla” (Benzoin resinoid) -- pairs well with Lemon, Orange, Bergamot, Peppermint, Spearmint, Cinnamon, or Coffee!

• Cedarwood (Atlas) -- pairs well with Lavender, Palmarosa, Eucalyptus, or Chamomile!

• Cinnamon (Be careful! Using a lot could cause skin irritation) -- pairs well with Benzoin, Bergamot, Lemon, and Orange!

• Coffee (you could also brew coffee to use in place of water) -- pairs well with Benzoin, Cinnamon, and Peppermint!

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Assemble all your tools. Make sure you have plenty of space to work!

2) Measure out all your ingredients -- use the glass container for the water and the large bowl or pot for the oil.

3) Add the water to a glass container. Don’t use too much water, or your soap will take much longer to harden!

4) Gently heat the oils in the microwave or on the stove until they have melted. Don’t let it get too hot!

5) While wearing the mask and gloves, slowly add the lye into the water, mixing it up while you do so. It will get very hot, so be careful!

6) When both the oils and the lye have reached room temperature, mix them together.

7) Using the immersion blender on the lowest speed, gently pulse the blender until the soap has reached “trace” stage. As the soap thickens, increase the speed of the blender. Stop before it gets too thick to pour into molds.

8) Add your essential oil to your batter and gently fold it in until completely mixed. I love using rosemary, lavender, or peppermint oils, but you can use any essential oil you like! Make sure you’re using real essential oil, not a fragrance oil!

9) Carefully pulse the blender a few times to fully incorporate the essential oils into your soap batter. Be careful not to let the batter thicken too much!

10) Carefully pour the soap into your mold, using the rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.

11) Set the molds to cure in a cool, stable location.

HOW TO IDENTIFY TRACE STAGE “Trace” is the term for when you drag a spatula across a liquid material and it leaves a valley behind. A “thin” trace happens when the valley disappears quickly. A “thick” trace happens when the valley disappears slowly, or not at all. A thin trace can be found in most cream sauces, thicker soups, and products like buttermilk and heavy cream. A thick trace can be found in sour cream and whipped cream.