Green Tea Castile Soap

This formula is quite popular.  This time, I used both green tea and chamomile tea and then added both lavender and tea tree essential oils.  I think folks are going to love it.  It's in rectangles as I used the new mold Tom built for me.




Green Tea Castile Soap

28.8 oz. Olive Oil
9.6 oz. Palm Oil
9.6 oz. Coconut Oil
18.2 oz. Bigelow Camomile Tea/Asian Gourmet Green Tea
6.7 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
1 Tbsp. Essential Oils (Tea Tree, Lavender)
tea leaves and chamomile flowers

Beer Shampoo Bar

Adding body to your hair is enhanced with a beer shampoo.  Try this shampoo bar that has beer as the main ingredient!  It's for normal to oily hair.

20 oz.    Samuel Adams East West Kölsch Beer
6.6 oz.   Sodium Hydroxide

16.8 oz.  Coconut Oil
 8.6 oz.   Castor Oil
 8.6 oz.   Safflower Oil
 7.2 oz.   Palm Oil
 4.3 oz.   Jojoba Oil
 2.4 oz.   Cocoa Butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. Essential Oil Breathe Green Blend (Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Laurel Leaf, Peppermint, Ginger, Eucalyptus, Ravensara, Lemon)
1 tsp.   Vitamin E Oil

Shampoo Bar for Dark Hair (normal to oily)

I made Peppermint Tea as the foundation for this shampoo bar for dark hair.  The excitement for this project rested in the use of the new mold that Tom built for me!  It's awesome!  I will now have more consistency with the size and shape of the bars.




20 oz.    Peppermint Tea
6.6 oz.   Sodium Hydroxide

16.8 oz.  Coconut Oil
 8.6 oz.   Castor Oil
 8.6 oz.   Safflower Oil
 7.2 oz.   Palm Oil
 4.3 oz.   Jojoba Oil
 2.4 oz.   Cocoa Butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. Essential Oil Breathe Green Blend (Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Laurel Leaf, Peppermint, Ginger, Eucalyptus, Ravensara, Lemon)
1 tsp.   Vitamin E Oil

Chardonnay Soap with and without colorant

It's time to try a colorant.  I'm not a fan of "fake" soap colors but I think people expect a wine soap to be purple.  The color of the wine completely changes during the chemical reactions in soap-making, so I've purchased a colorant and am giving this a try!  This is the formula for a 2 pound recipe.

14.4 oz. Olive Oil
  8 oz.  Coconut Oil
  8 oz.  Palm Oil
1.6 oz. Grapeseed Oil

12.1 oz. Chardonnay Wine
4.5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

1 Tbsp. Essential Oils (Lavender, Geranium Rosewood, Ylang Ylang)

Half of the batch was left in the natural color  We added a purple colorant to the other half but it certainly doesn't look like purple!  It's rather brown.  Interesting experiment.

Troegenator Double Bock Soap

Reverting to my favorite beer soap formula (35 % Olive Oil, 30% Coconut Oil, 30% Palm Oil, 4% Castor Oil, 1% Cocoa Butter), I made a 4 pound batch and poured it into the remaining milk cartons and small PVC rounds.  We decided that since this is a heavier beer, we needed a heavy combination of essential oils.

25.2 oz. Olive Oil
21.6 oz. Coconut Oil
21.6 oz. Palm Oil
  2.9 oz. Castor Oil
   .7 oz.  Cocoa Butter

27.4 oz. Troegenator Double Bock Beer
10.4 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

2 Tbsp. Essential Oil Blend (Cedarwood, Juniper, Frankincense)

Willow Creek Pumpkin Ale Soap #2

This recipe is identical to the first Willow Creek Pumpkin Ale Soap except for the cooked pumpkin.  When I made the first batch, the addition of the pumpkin interfered with the saponification process.  I ended up rebatching it.  Since then, I've learned that rebatching is also called hand milling or French milling.  I thought I was just fixing a mess!  Ha!  Anyway, I've repeated this recipe without the pumpkin.  It still took a long time to saponify and, again, once I put the additives in the process seemed to reverse.  This time I put the blender back in and kept up the stirring.  Looked good when I poured it into the molds.


12.5 oz. Olive Oil
12.5 oz. Palm Oil
10 oz. Coconut Oil
5 oz. Sweet Almond Oil

17.5 oz. Willow Creek Pumpkin Ale
5.5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
1 Tbsp Essential Oils (Allspice, Anise, Cinnamon, Patchouli, Orange, Cinnamon Leaf, Cloves)
1 Tbsp Coarse-Ground Whole Cloves
2 Tbsp Spent Grain
1 Tbsp Vitamin E Oil
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Mr. Gibbons' Chemistry Class Soap Recipe

Ted Gibbons at John Harris High asked if I would make soap with his 3rd period Chemistry class.  The kids were great!  They were really engaged in the process and loved the chance to choose their own specialty mold for their personal bar of soap.  This is the recipe that I used with them.

11.2 oz. Olive Oil
11.2 oz. Coconut Oil
8 oz. Palm Oil
1.6 oz. Cocoa Butter

12.1 oz. Water
4.7 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

1 Tbsp. Vitamin E Oil
1 Tbsp. Essential Oil (Allspice, Anise, Cinnamon, Patchouli, Orange)


This small batch made about 12 bars of lovely white soap.