Charcoal Facial Bar with Mango, Avocado and Babassu

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Amanda

I received an email recently about soaping without coconut oil. I have some recipes sans coconut oil but most are really high olive/bastille/castille type of recipes that don’t produce many bubbles. I wanted a bar that was nice and bubbly. I know that babassu is similar to coconut oil in its fatty acid makeup so I got some babassu to try.

I wanted to make a face bar with charcoal. I like to have at least one butter in every soap that I make and that butter is usually shea. I’m not a big fan personally of shea on my face…so I thought I would try mango in this recipe. I also love avocado oil in a facial bar…so included that as well.

Charcoal Facial Bar with Mango, Avocado and Babassu Recipe

Avocado oil – 4 oz
Babassu oil – 8 oz
Castor oil – 2 oz
Mango butter – 4 oz
Olive oil – 12 oz
Rice Bran oil – 2 oz
Water – 9 oz
Lye – 4.35 oz
1/2 Tablespoon Charcoal

If you are new to soapmaking…start here.

Melt the mango and babassu.

Add all of the other liquid oils to the melted oils. Add the charcoal to the mix as well.

Add the lye solution and mix to trace.

I added about .75 oz of tea tree oil. Then pour it into your mold. I prefer facial soap to be round. Facial soap and beer soap… I’ve always gone with round bars for those types of soaps. So I am using a mail tube with a liner (more info on the liners).

Unmold and cut after 24 hours. Let cure for at least four weeks.

So…the verdict. Its been several weeks since I made these and I have to say that I LOVE this recipe. Its bubbles amazingly well even though there isn’t any coconut oil. The charcoal helps suck up excess oil. When I use this soap I make a nice thick lather in my hands, put it onto my face and let it sit for a minute (almost like a mask) and then rinse it off.

If you give it a try…let me know what you think!

Happy Soaping!
-Amanda

ps…. Bramble Berry sent me a goody package with some exciting products to try out! They are running a promotion during the month of November called GIVEMBER! (Make sure you are on their email list for the newsletter!) And I get to be a part of the fun. I’ll share the details with you soon!

pss or is it pps?…. Check out the new pourable silicone from Bramble Berry! Guess who wrote the eZine that accompanies the kit! (MOI!)

Don’t forget SOAPMAKING CLASSES!

3″ Liners for PVC or Mail Tubes

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Amanda

I’ve had a ton of interest in the liners and wanted to show you how to use them if you purchased them.

They fit both 3″ PVC pipes and 3″ mailing tubes up to about 10″ tall.

I’ve had several people ask me how much soap their molds will hold. Here is the formula to use to figure this out.

3.14 x r x r x h x .4
where,
r = radius (center of your mold to the outside)
h = height

So if you have a piece of PVC pipe that is 3″ wide by 9″ tall you would figure 3.14 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 9 x .4 = 25.434.

We’ll round down to 25. This number equals the amount of oils in your recipe.

So back to lining the molds! Simply insert the liner into the mold. You might have to stick your hand down the inside to push it all the way down to the bottom.

The mail tubes are easy. You simply fold over the extra part of the liner sticking out.

The PVC requires one more step. Since the PVC is much thicker than the mail tube you’ll have to cut two slits in order to fold the liner over.

Fold over the sides and tape down.

One you fill either tube with soap pull up on the sides of the plastic to smooth out the wrinkles that might have formed.

Wait 24 hours and unmold!

If you would like to order liners they are 25 for $10.00. Email me amanda@lovinsoap.com to order.

Thanks to everyone who has already ordered!

Amanda

Liners for 3″ PVC and 3″ mail tube molds

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Amanda

I love soaping in PVC. It’s one of my favorite molds to use for making 3″ round soap!

It can sometimes be a bit tough to unmold your soap especially if you’ve used a recipe high in soft oils or a recipe high is castor oil (which makes sticky soap in high amounts). You can rub with mineral oil. But you know…I don’t want to use mineral oil.

So I’ve found a source for liners that fit 3″ pvc pipes and 3″ mailing tubes that are up to 10″ tall. I use these to line the molds in my soap making classes.

Line the mold with the liner and pour in your soap. After you pour your soap in you’ll pull on the liner a bit to smooth out any wrinkles or creases that might form.

24 hours later simply pull the bag of soap out.

Remove the liner from the soap. Turn inside out and peel from the soap. It comes off very easily!

Slice up your soap!

These make lining 3″ PVC pipes or 3″ mailing tubes a breeze.

These are so nifty, I wanted to offer them for sale. $10.00 will get you 25 liners and includes first class shipping in the US. Payment through Paypal – email me, amanda@lovinsoap.com to order.

-Amanda