I made lotion this morning–a lovely whipped souffle type thing. It’s stuffed with rosewood, katafray, and patchouli essential oils, all of which are supposed to make you look 10 years younger. If you’re in Seattle or environs and want to swing by, I have a few extra jars.*
*Offer extended only to people I know. One would think this is a given, but apparently not.
A 100 percent lard facial bar. Made with rose clay, oat powder, ground rose petals, and scented with palmarosa and elemi.
If you can believe it, I actually got up this morning when Steve did–at 4:30. He does it because he has to (though apparently he “slept in” a little); I did it because I fell asleep last night at 8. Which is completely weird. Also weird were the dreams I had, in which all the soap in my drawer of soaply delights melted into a gooey, unsalvageable mess while I went from door to door trying to peddle the stuff. Considering all the oddness, it felt completely natural to wake up to an unseasonal snowfall.
Well, here we have it, the soap I made from the tallow I rendered. Scented with may chang and palmarosa, colored with red oxide.
Easy-peasy.
The first adventure in tallow-making was successful–but not as successful as it could have been. Out of two pounds of beef fat, I only got 10 oz or so of tallow. There was a lot of unrendered fat, even after 4 hours of simmering on the stove. So of course, I’ve got another batch going right now. Only this time, I’m doing it in the crockpot, and I’m probably going to re-render after the first pour. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s a combo of pig and beef fat. I went to a different Safeway this time, and the butcher threw all the scraps into a single bag. The SAP values are not the same, but they’re close enough that I’m not going to worry about it. Plus, I use a high enough lye discount that the recipes should be fairly forgiving.
I was expecting rendering to be smelly and gross, but it smells like you’re cooking beef stew.
In my abandonment of all things blog, I stopped posting new soaps quite a while ago. The obession, however, continues. Particularly as I have more virgin coconut oil than I know what to do with.
The backstory is this: About a year ago, I came across a Craig’s List post for really cheap VCO, contacted the seller … and then never did anything about it. About a month ago, she contacted me and said she was giving it to me. She’s up in Lynnwood; it was as good an excuse as any to hit the Korean Spa. Plus, if the oil turned out to be rancid or something, I wouldn’t be bitter about the drive. To be completely and totally honest, I can’t quite tell whether it’s rancid or not. It could be on the edge … or it could be just very strong smelling … or it could be on the edge … You get the point.
However, it soaps just dandily.
And I have been soaping just dandily too. Behold! A drawer of beauty!
Among other, older soaps that I can’t remember what’s in them, we’ve got:
Coffee Rose (rose fragrance & coffee butter)
Rosemary, ylang ylang & basil
Ahoy Matey fragrance (this is a dupe of Acqua di Sale that smells exactly like the original–I love it)
Ylang & vetiver
Patchouli, ylang, pepper, palmarose & pine
Citrus & anise
Melted dragon’s blood resin with palmarose, copaiba balsam & amrys
Carnation blend (ylang, clove & black pepper)
Rose and oakmoss
And that’s not all … oh no … that’s just what is CURED.
Here’s what’s curing now:
May chang & laurel
Springerle (butter CO2, anise, benzoin resin & clove)
A weird canteloupe fragrance that I got in a fit of reminiscencing about some body wash I used to love; alas, it’s retch-worthy.
Cocoa absolute & peppermint
Something … I can’t remember
Clary sage, ylang, vetiver & violet leaf absolute
So.
I know there are a couple people to whom I promised to send soap and never did. Mea culpa! I promise this time. Remind me. Or if you just want some. And I know you. That would seem obvious, but apparently not.
Yes, you read that right. Tallow. As in rendered beef fat.
I’ve never used tallow in soap, though I have used lard. Lard makes WONDERFUL soap. (And before anyone gets skeeved out, if you’ve ever used Dove or Ivory, you’ve used animal fats in soap.)
I got tired of buying lard in the plastic tubs; it’s not all that cheap and it’s got BHT and all sorts of other stuff in there to preserve it. So the next logical step was to render my own. Problem: It’s a little hard to find pig fat to render. Bob’s Quality Meats–a fabulous butcher in Columbia City–offered to order me a 60-lb. drum. I think that might be a little extreme.
However! Safeway butchers will just give you beef fat if you ask for it. They look at you funny (as do the cashiers when they see this big bag of fat), but it costs nothing. And these days, with the economy as it is, I’m all about soaping on the cheap. Plus, how best to recycle? They would just throw it out. So right now, I have a pot full of beef fat, water, and salt simmering on the stove. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
So, you want to start making soap? Well, here’s how NOT to do it. These poor, sweet guys are completely clueless, and I don’t know whether to just laugh my way through these or be scared by the fact that they lack basic safety precautions. Oh, what the heck, let’s just laugh … especially since they never actually get their soap to trace and all the effort was for naught.
The rabid (read: foaming at the mouth) soapmaking continues, and I have more soap than I know what to do with. I was thinking about selling the stuff, but have ultimately decided not to. Frankly, I can barely keep up with my accounting as it is; forget something where I have to track inventory and sales tax, too.
So what to do with all the soap?
Trade, that’s what.
I posted an ad on Craig’s List and got a bottle of homemade Kahlua.
Also, during the Georgetown Art Walk, I saw some lovely felted soaps made by Spiderfelt, and promptly contacted her to see if she wanted to do a trade: soap for felting for felted stuff. She needs more consistency than I can provide, but wanted to do a straight trade. Done. I loaded her up with soap today, and got this in return:
Funnily enough, I had fallen in love with it on her site, and she still had one. I’m so pleased.
Also, Becky, I haven’t forgotten to send you soap. I just haven’t gotten to the post office yet.
No one wants soap? I think my feelings are hurt! Seriously, please … take some off my hands.
So I’ve been making soap like there’s no tomorrow. I’m up to ears in it. Steve is threatening divorce. Well, that’s probably because a. I set the kitchen on fire the other day; and b. apparently the source of the kitchen drain clog was unsaponified soap from when I used to clean out all the pots as soon as I made the stuff. Anyway, does anyone want some? Let me know what flavors you like, and I’ll send you a little soapy care package.