I'll be honest you. I have been avoiding this particular fragrance oil for months. I'm just not that crazy about the scent. BUT, of course you are NEVER, ever suppose to judge a fragrance based on how it smells out-of-bottle. This is a very popular fragrance in bath and body products and I definitely want to create whatever keeps my customers happy, so I decided to go ahead, bite the bullet and make the soap. Big sigh; Here I go...
First of all I made this batch of soap using a new recipe. I used Olive Oil, Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter as my base ingredients. Olive Oil is always a great base to use because it's mild. Coconut Oil increases lather and bubbles but can be very drying, which is why I normally don't use as much as I did in this batch. However, to offset the increased amount of Coconut Oil, I added even more Cocoa Butter for it's great moisturizing properties. Cocoa Butter also will help make the bar hard which will ultimately help soap last longer.
I then added Palm Oil (hardness & lather), Unrefined Shea Butter (more moisture!) and Castor Oil (for even more bubbles). Also new to my recipe is Tussah Noil Silk Fibre*. Silk Fibre adds a rich and silky feel to the lather which is suppose to feel really, really good in your skin.
The Results
I am extremely happy with the way these bars look. The high liquid oil content really gives the bars a nice smooth texture with a very slight sheen to the appearance. Here's the best part: THEY SMELL GREAT!! The longer these bars cure, the better they smell. The scent of some fragrance oils morph in Cold Process soaps. In my opinion, this is one of them. This is another batch that I am really dying to try. I'll see how they turn out in the next 4-6 weeks. If I'm really happy with the results, I'll post the recipe here.
*The Tussah Noil Silk that we use in our soaps is made by wild Tussah Silk Worms when forming their cacoons and is hand harvested AFTER the Antheraea Pernyisilk Moth has emerged.
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