more soap + diaper cream/lip balm

on a bit of a soaping kick i guess, now that i actually have the ingredients to make it. tonight i made oatmeal, milk & honey (omh) soap which i just love because of the scrubby oatmeal in it. and bramble berry's omh fragrance is so wonderful.

same basic soap recipe as the baby soap though i ran out of corn oil and used soybean instead. don't forget to recalculate your NaOH for the proper oils if you sub in something different.

for omh soap, i use goat's milk instead of water. this was a full can (12 oz.). i forgot that it's usually a good idea to NOT discount when using that much milk. in other words, the recommended amount of water is 25-33% of oils, so in this case (a 48 oz. batch) the recommended amount was 12-18 oz. use the higher amount if you are a beginner or don't know how a fragrance will act; because the lye solution is somewhat weaker, the batch is more forgiving. i usually go with the lower amount so my soap will cure faster and because i (generally) know how things will behave. milk however heats up a lot, very quickly, and so it is better to not take much of a discount (if any) when subbing it in for water.


that's what happened when i added NaOH to the goat's milk. the color and chunky separation were to be expected; the NaOH reacts to the proteins and fats in the milk. what was not to be expected was how this kind of turned in to a bit of a volcano, and i barely got it to the sink in time before it bubbled over. that's why there are chunks on the side.

this can all be stirred back together, and should be before adding to the oils. it will reek of ammonia.

at trace i added 3 tablespoons of bramble berry's omh fragrance oil, about 1 cup of rolled oats, and about ¼ cup of honey. the oats kind of float in a lump on top so i set my stick blender down on top of them and pulsed to break them up some.


in the mold. the lighter chunky bits are the oats (not the reflections from the kitchen lights). it won't look quite so liquid poo-like after it comes out of the mold. it reeks to high heaven right now (the ammonia from the lye-milk solution) but that will go away in a couple days. no need to insulate as both milk and honey generate heat in soap.

also made the diaper cream tonight, a semi trial run. semi in that i tweaked the recipe a little bit to include a bit more liquid oils so it would be creamier and not quite as solid. also in that i will definitely need to make more of this, i'm sure we will go through it. i also subbed in soybean oil with vitamin e (picked up at trader joe's for relatively cheap) for the sweet almond oil, and i added a bit more zinc oxide than i thought i would initially.


the three squat tubes in the back are the push sticks, the two skinnier ones in the front are oversized lip balm tubes (½ ounce instead of the usual 0.15 ounce). i have no idea why they cave in at the center, they have always done that as they cool. this is not a problem unique to me. i smeared a bit of the scrapings from the cup (by the way, this is best made in a small measuring cup so you can pour easily) on my hand and it is just as i had hoped, smooth and moisturizing and creamy. should be perfect for little bottoms.