Let’s make another cold process soap because, as you know, cold process soaps over greased are optimal for the hygiene of our skin. Contrary to what is often thought, caustic soda disappears completely from the final composition leaving us all the properties that vegetable oils and natural glycerin bring to the skin.
Many people believe that glycerin soaps are better and softer, but while this may seem like this in principle, glycerin soaps do not have the moisturizing capacity of good cold process soaps. Cold processed soaps contain quality butters and vegetable oils that, when broken down and converted into soap, provide glycerin to the final composition in an entirely natural way. In contrast, glycerin soaps, as the name suggests, are composed of glycerin that has been extracted from cold processed natural soaps.
They look much prettier, but glycerin, in the use of daily hygiene, is very likely to end up drying our skin because natural glycerin has hygroscopic properties that attract water and retain it. That’s why it’s initially moisturizing, but used daily it can end up drying out our skin.
We wanted to formulate this cold process soap with vegetable oils and orange zest because orange (and orange essential oils are contained in its bark) it has sebum regulatory properties and suits all skin types very well.
Previously (read article on how to prepare powder from herbs and extracts) in section of natural ingredients to see the process of home preparation of orange zest powder.
NOW LET’S GO WITH THE SOAP
To make this soap with a 12% over greased * we will need:
800g olive oil
100g coconut oil
50g castor oil.
273g water and
117g caustic soda
WITH ADDITIONS OF
50g orange zest powder
15g (1TBSP) honey
15g white clay and
15g zinc oxide
*If you do not know what over greasing is and how to calculate it we recommend that you read the post on how to make soaps by the cold process method.
PROCEDURE:
We’ll melt the butters first, in case there are. In our present recipe, we will melt the coconut oil because in the winter stays in its solid condition. And also, previously, we will prepare the lye, that is, the mixture of caustic soda with water.
Let’s always try to follow some minimum safety measures with caustic soda such as wearing gloves and making our mixture in a well-ventilated place so as not to breathe the toxic fumes that come off when mixing the soda with water.
We will need a large container to start with, preferably temperature-resistant plastic, or glass. We will add the oils and gradually the lye and start beating gently until we see that it starts to trace. Theoretically, at this time, we will add the additions of honey, clay and orange zest and continue whisking until everything is well traced.
In the video we have advanced too much and added the honey and the clay’s before the trace. In principle, this would not be done because honey, clay and zinc oxide are considered to be able to better provide its emollient properties at the end of the trace.
If you’re wrong, how it’s happened to me with the nerves of the video, you’ll see that soap is also traced smoothly, although maybe there will be a small difference in the soap’s ultimate emollient and hydration capacity.
In any case, you’ll see that they’re beautiful. We will have to wait, however, a couple of months before using them to give them time to mature well and to lose water. Also, to get a better ph, more like the ph of our skin.
If you liked this video, and you’ve tried the recipe, let us know in the comments.
