Aloe Vera Cream & Suppliers’ Differences

I have been meaning for a while to post about how I use Aloe Vera in my products. I make an Aloe Vera soap with 100% of the liquid being Aloe Vera gel from the plants in my garden. Recently I also tried using the Aloe Vera gel from my garden in my moisturizing hand and body cream. I scented it with Spearmint and Lavender Essential Oils. I have posted about Grandma Aloe Vera before but here she is again, and she is just about to blossom!!! Grandma Aloe Vera was the very first Aloe Vera plant I had here. She was given to me as a cut off/shoot off from another plant about 5 years ago and was quite small at that point. Now, as a size reference for you, the top of the tallest stalk in the phot comes up to my nose!! I call her grandma because she has offered a lot of shoot-offs which I have re-planted and now the shoot-offs offer shoot-offs. She may be a great-grandma soon! Take a look in the photo at the two stalk-like things. Excuse the lack of proper terminology but most of what I know has been passed on to me by people in the area, rather than from books. If I understand correctly, in order for the Aloe Vera plant to be good for the skin or for our bodies (yes, people drink it too!) the plant needs to be a few years old. Apparently, as soon as it begins to sprout these stalk-like things which eventually blossom into small red flowers, then it is good for the skin. Here are some of Grandma’s new shoot-offs. I will take these out and re-plant them. I have about 25 Aloe Vera plants now and 7 of them have produced the stalks this spring. Here are some of the other plants, Grandma’s first shoot-offs which are now offering stalks. First Step – I cut off some of the bottom branches/ arms, which look nice and full of gel. Next Step – I cut off the prickly edges. Next Step – After cleaning it off well with water, I cut it open. Next Step – I cut/ scrape out the gel. Warning!!! Aloe Vera gel is gucky, gooey and stinky!!

Next Step – I put it all in a mixing bowl and blend with my hand mixer.


I blend for quite a while, making sure that all the lumps are smoothed out. It can get frothy.

This time I substituted ½ of the water for Aloe Vera Gel in my moisturizing cream and it is really special. It has a very unique texture, almost slippery but cooling and pretty nice.

I want to try a soap one of these days with not only the Aloe Vera gel, but the skins blended in as well. Will post when I do.

SUPPLIER ISSUE – I recently received an order of beeswax from a different supplier than usual. Both of the products I have made with the new beeswax (a Cream and a Salve) have turned out much harder than previously, using the very same recipe.

So, my conclusion is that the hardness of beeswax varies from supplier to supplier. This Aloe Vera cream for example was thick when I scooped it into the pots, but then it almost hardened into Butter!! So, I re-mixed, adding in more liquid and it turned out nicer.

Basically I think changing suppliers can drastically change the recipe and result. I have found this with Essential Oils as well. Quality and strength varies drastically from supplier to supplier.

Questions for you:

Have you had similar issues?

Can you add any experiences or knowledge about Aloe Vera?

Happy Soaping!!

xo Jen

Blog Award

I feel honoured to have been awarded a Blog award by Sonja of Purali http://purali.blogspot.com/ Thank you Sonja! It is called the Liebster Blog (Nicest Blog) award and has been created to give relatively unknown blogs a spotlight.

So now I would like to pass this blog award onto some new bloggers I have discovered and am really enjoying:

Soap is Beautiful http://www.soapisbeautiful.com/
I recently discovered this delightful blog and am amazed at her showcases and photos!!

Briny Bar soap http://brinybarsoap.blogspot.com/
I am not sure what I enjoy most about this blog - the photos of her innovations? Her wonderful and comical writing? Or hearing about her enthusiastic soap-making escapades...

Sahara Supplies http://saharassoapmakingsupplies.blogspot.com/
I love this blog for the simple yet awesome skin care recipes she offers. I have tried out several and loved them!!

Happy soaping and Happy blogging!!

xo
Jen

Lemon – Sea Salt Soap

I have been wanting to create a lemon soap for a while (Essential Oil combination of Litsea Cubeba, Lemon, Lemongrass & Citronella) and have also wanted to try varying my salt soap recipe with different salt quantities and oils so I tried both at once.


The whole soap room smells fresh and clean and citrusy right now, as I have just cut and stamped these. Not easy to get a clean-cut stamp with a salt soap.

I love the colour FOR NOW. I made a Lemon Poppyseed soap a while back (http://jenorasoaps.blogspot.com/2010/06/lemon-poppyseed.html) which was coloured with Carrot Tissue Oil. It was a stunning yellow straight out of the mould, but after a few months it had faded almost completely. See recent photo of the same soap.


So... I hope that the luscious yellow of the fresh salt soap stays more this time. Will let you know!

Any other suggestions for natural bright yellow?

Xo
Jen

Rich Honey Colour

I did it! I got a great honey colour I love! It may not be as deep honey brown as I might have liked but I am really pleased. Wow.... I am on a roll!



To get the richer honey colour, I simply soaped at higher temps and incubated lightly! You can see the richer colour when you see the lighter soap next to it.



I loooooooove honey. In my tea.... in my coffee... in my Breakfast Oats Bake... on bread... on toast... in soap!

I would love to see some examples of other honey soaps! Can you post links to photos in comments? Maybe someone would like to take on a honey soap showcase?

Happy honey soaping!

xo Jen

Wild Lavender, Honey Goat Milk & Question

Wild Lavender Soap - fresh out of the mould

I have finally achieved a Wild Lavender soap that I adore, although for some reason I am getting some serious bubbles! I don't really mind them but will work on getting this soap smoother in the future. For now, this is my soon-to-be-launched Naturalmente Mediterraneo Wild Lavender soap. In the end, I use Ratanjot instead of Alkanet but as I understand, they are basically the same. The wonderful thing about working with Ratanjot or Alkanet is the colour evolution during the curing period! This is the soap fresh out of the mould... I will try to remember to post a picture after 4 weeks curing.



Honey Goat-Milk


In my attempts to get a nice dark rich honey colour, it seems each batch of my honey goat-milk soap keeps getting lighter! As I have been soaping at lower temps lately (28º both oils & lye) I think that maybe that is what is having an effect on the colour of the honey soap. Usually when I make any soap with goat milk, I freeze the goat milk the night before, so when I mix the lye in, the temperature never goes over 30º. So instead, this morning I let the lye mix get up to 55º by half un-freezing the goat milk prior to mixing in lye! Then I mixed the oils and lye at 35º instead of 28º. Additionally, I have covered the moulds with a thin blanket. I usually do not cover my goat milk or honey soaps.

See what a rich colour the lye mix got! (without curdling the milk...)


So – I will unveil tomorrow and reveal if all of this has had an effect on the colour! Fingers crossed for a deeper, richer honey coloured soap!!

Question:

1) How can I stop the "crumbling" at the bottom of soaps? I do not mean salt soap. Sometimes when I cut my soap, as the knife gets to the bottom, it takes off a bit of soap. This happens if I cut same day I remove from the mould or even if I leave it for a week. Any thoughts? Here are some examples of what I mean. I would LOOOOVE your input and ideas!

Happy Soaping everyone! Have a super weekend!

xo
Jen

Goat Milk Soap Colours

I am really pleased with the lastest creamy whitish colour I got with my goat milk soap. No added colour. Simply kept temperatures low during the soaping process and left it in the mould without covering it with a blanket, in a non-heated room.


This is one of my all-time favourite soaps, simple yet luxurious. Patchouli & Geranium scent. Mmmmmmmm....


Here you can see a little sample piece of my previous batch laid on top of the more recent batch, so that you can see the difference in colour. The previous batch had Orris Root in it. Can you see it? The soap is slightly darker but also has specs. Those Orris Root specs are scratchy too!


It is possible that the scent is slightly more intense with the Orris Root, but I don't like the the scratchy specs enough to use it in my soaps anymore. I am getting great staying power in my aromas lately anyway, without the Orris Root. Finally!!

Naturalmente Mediterraneo update - I am excited to report that business is going really well!! Oh yippee... yahooo!!!! I am running out of products quickly and have to make bigger and bigger batches. I am finding new suppliers who ship quicker as I am running out of ingredients as well. I absolutely LOVE what I am doing and feel so privileged to be living my dream!!!

For those of you in Spain - Jabonarium ROCKS! http://jabonariumshop.com/ I needed some Geranium and Rosemary Essential Oil urgently and they shipped them too me in less than 24 hours!!!

Aloe Vera Soap - New Green Attempt - Stevia

Another pure (no other liquid) Aloe Vera soap attempt, this time with a new green - Stevia powder!!


An interesting green - kind of a deep muddy army green?


Not quite the green I would like for an Aloe Vera soap as Aloe Vera has such a fresh crisp bright green...


but I may try again just softening it a little.

xoxo Jen

Experiments

It has been a while since I have written about my experiments! So much going on, but that doesn’t stop me from experimenting with new things...

I understand that some people have had difficulties entering the Jenora Soaps blog lately and others have had difficulty leaving comments. So sorry but I am just not sure why. And I am not sure what can be done about it? Could it be since I changed the background? I know one follower had to search for the blog again on google instead of clicking on her saved link. That worked for her. If anyone know how glitches like this can be fixed, please let me know!

I share some photos of experiments with you...

Beer Honey Shampoo (a fave of mine)



Goat Milk Charcoal Facial Soap
This was my first experiment with Charcoal & my first experiment with Titanium Dioxide. Charcoal was very easy to work with. Titanium however, was not… Notice the white streaks? After googling it, I found whole lot of advice about how to use Titanium Dioxide. I made another attempt which was much better. However, I don’t think it does anything worthwhile to my soaps to continue using it. Slight colour difference, but nothing wow. So for my soaps, for now, I will most likely not continue using it. Pure Spearmint Essential Oil…. This soap turned out very nice on my combination skin face.



Goat Milk Charcoal Facial Soap II
No swirling this time. But other than that, a similar recipe. More charcoal. Still waiting for it to cure before trying it out.



Honey Goat Milk (no added scent)

“Save a Dog” Doggie Shampoo Bar



Aloe Vera Soap
This did not turn out very attractive. Actually the scent is not very attractive either... I was trying to get a nice green in my Aloe Vera bar. I was not going for this odd bluey/gray/purplish and I was definitely not going for the chicken pox look. At one point I got this nice green by accident:


By adding a touch of indigo to really yellow oils. I was aiming for blue and this lovely minty green came about! So I tried again with my Aloe Vera soap and got that weird looking soap! Check them out next to eachother!



Hope you enjoyed some of my latest experiments! I know I love reading about all of yours!!!!!

Xoxo
Jen

Naturalmente Mediterráneo On-line Launch!!

I am very excited to invite you all over the new Naturalmente Mediterráneo blog at http://naturalmentemediterraneo.blogspot.com/, where I am beginning by offering 4 different types of fresh, natural, hand-made soap for purchase. I will be updating with new products regularly.

Thank you so much to all of the Jenora Soap followers… what a wonderful experience this continues to be and what a supportive and encouraging group of followers!

I would love to see you over at the Naturalmente Mediterráneo blog. Please let me know what you think!!

For anyone that becomes a follower of the new blog, I would like to offer a 10% discount on your first purchase.

Thank you, Happy Soaping & Happy Showering!!
Xo
Jen

Colours - Stamped Soaps

I had a few email requests as to what I had coloured the soaps with in the stamped soap pictures so I thought I would post about it.

The first one in the picture looks green/ grey... well, oddly enough this was supposed to be another lavender soap experiment. I thought why don't I try blue? I had only ever tried the Indigo powder in a salt soap. So I added a little indigo powder at trace, but as the oils were so yellowy, it turned greenish! It looks better in real life, more minty green. I have tried to repeat this same green colour in another soap (Aloe Vera) but no... once again controlling this natural colour alludes me...

The second soap has no added colour other than honey. It is a non-scented honey soap.

I achieved the pretty purple in the third soap with Ratanjot. It does not look this purple in real life (thank you photo!!) but it is still pretty nice. I infused Castor Oil with Ratanjot and add it at trace.

The fourth photo is of my white salt soap. There is no colour added to this. Salt soaps are fabulous to colour naturally as they seem to go vibrant colours. And the white is so easy. I simply, use the clearest oils possible such as Sweet Almond and the whitest butters like Coconut Oil (tons of it).

The fifth soap is my Orange Poppyseed soap. It is coloured with Annatto powder added both to the lye solution and at trace. I do have to mention that I will be toning it down slightly becuase there is a very slight yellowy/orangy tint to the suds on this soap and I really prefer really white suds.

The final soap here is my "Save a Dog" soap. It is a dog shampoo bar and with this soap, I am going to be collaborating with the local animal charity organization to help raise funds. They are overrun with dogs. As Spain has been devastated by the recession (we call it the Crisis here), so many foreigners have returned to their countries, many leaving dogs behind. I heard at some point that some days when the volunteers arrive at the shelter, there have been up to 5 dogs tied to the front door. So sad. I hope to help somehow. There is no added colour to this soap, just some white clay and I think the Citronella Essential oil has turned it a mild yellowy-creamy colour.

I also wanted to mention something about another experiment of mine. I have been trying to get my Essential Oil scents to stick better. One of my experiments has been with Orris Root. I have concluded that in my soaps, Orris root has not really helped with scent-staying-power and I have decided I do not want it in my soaps as it is rough and scratchy. I have found other things that have helped but not Orris root. So, I wanted to let you know out there in case you were wondering about Orris Root.

I am very close to launching the Naturalmente Mediterráneo blog with a few soap soaps offered. As it will take some time to get official, I will be going ahead and offering some of my products "un-oficially". This launch should be happening within the next few days.... I am pretty excited!