Soy candles... another delve into handmade aromatics

I don't know what happened to the time, but I meant to blog this little project for soy candles weeks ago...

Like a lot of crafty people, I dabbled with candlemaking as a child, but somehow it never really captivated me as a craft.  I think the crux of the problem was that I always tended to use those kits involving smelly, flakey paraffin wax that had to be mixed with stearin and then set within unforgiving plastic moulds using lurid artificial colours and fragrances.
 
It was only recently that I became inspired to give it another go... largely thanks to this post on the iMake blog, which sold me on the idea of beautiful container candles made with soy wax... a vast improvement on paraffin wax.  The urge was helped along further by my revival of interest in soapmaking...  (lets face it - once I'd got all of my essential oils out of hibernation, scented candles became something of an inevitability.)
 
So here are my candles - and I have to say I am very pleased with them!

I made a batch of these one Sunday afternoon with a friend and we chose the scent combinations together, as a result of the blending experiments that I discussed here.  We decided to scent half of them with a very pleasing combination of Sweet Orange, Ylang Ylang and Cinnamon essential oils and the rest with a fresh, foresty combination of Lavender, Peppermint and Rosemary.  The orange-based ones are real crowd-pleasers and do wonders to generate a feel-good scent into the room, whereas the foresty ones have a cleansing, freshening property and would be ideal to burn around the house after a good spring clean.

Overall this project was very quick and easy indeed and barely needs any explanation.  So the rest of this post is a series of comments on the ingredients and equipment used - along with some personal thoughts about scenting, in case anyone out there fancies giving it a go.

 
In terms of equipment, you don't really need a great deal of stuff.   First you need some kind of containers - and a great place to find these is charity shops.  I managed to find some ideal bits and bobs of glassware, which suited me just fine.
 
And of course you need some wax.  I ordered some lovely organic soy wax from The Soap Kitchen and found it much easier to work with than paraffin wax.  It is much softer and less brittle in texture and it melted very easily in a glass jug over warm water.  It also washed easily out of the jug, simply using washing up liquid and hot water.  (I suspect, for anyone who finds soy wax to be too soft, that it could be tempered by mixing in a few beeswax pellets to add hardness.)

As for the rest of the bits - the main thing you need is some wick, which can be got from any online candlemaking supplier.  For container candles, the only advice I'd offer is to choose your containers first and then purchase wicks that are of an appropriate gauge (or thickness) for the diameter of your containers.  Personally, I went for a very easy option and bought ready-made lengths of stiffened wick, attached to little metal holders at the bottom.  I used a tiny blob of special wax glue to attach the wick holder to the bottom of the container (but if that all sounds a bit much, there are plenty of online tutorials for sealing your wick into the bottom of the container simply by bending the end and using a bit of melted wax).

An optional extra which I found very useful was a pair of skewers held together at both ends with rubber bands, which you can lay along the rim of the container and use to trap your wick so that it is held perfectly stiff and upright when you come to pour in the wax.   You can see the general idea here, as my candles were setting...

Finally.... depending on your whim, you might want to add some scent and colour.  If adding essential oils, you want to do this as late as possible, after the wax has melted but not if it is piping hot.  Let it cool as much as possible without re-setting and then bung in your essential oils and get it quickly mixed just before pouring.  (This is mainly to prevent the precious scents from evaporating in a mass of aromatic steam).

   

My personal preference was to keep the colour natural, but to scent the candles thoroughly with essential oils.  When I say 'thoroughly', lets just say that I am no stranger to spending crazy money on the sort of beautiful container candles made by brands like Diptyque...  so I was looking to emulate this sort of high-quality product for a lot less money.  And this is where I bothered to do some research, reading advice from the sort of candlemakers who cater for the upper end of the market.

My main problem with a lot of candle tutorials out there (and the same goes for soapmaking books) is that they so often fail to recommend enough essential oil.  They also rarely offer any useful advice about the volatility and fleeting nature of different essential oils - or tips on ways to combat this.  As a result, beginners are deluded into thinking that a few drops of sweet orange essential oil will be enough to scent 200g of wax or soap.... and then end up disappointed when their product doesn't smell of anything.  This can be quite disheartening and is a wasteful learning process to go through...  (I seem to recall it took me a good year of trial and error back in the late 1990s to work out exactly how much essential oil is really needed to create a long-lasting scent in a kilo of handmade soap).

So, for scented candles, I am going to offer my 2ps worth.  Others may beg to differ, so take this as my personal opinion...

If you want your candle to smell like a top-end designer candle when you burn it, then be prepared to put in approx 10% of essential oil (e.g. 20ml of essential oil into a 200g candle).  Of course, this is a very basic rule of thumb and will vary depending upon your choice of essential oils (some are far more potent than others).  So my real advice is to read up a little and find out which essential oils have better staying power than others and which ones can act as 'scent anchors' for the more fleeting oils, by combining them.  Often the scents that people are immediately attracted to (such as the citrus oils) tend to be the top notes.  Sadly these are also the most fleeting - but you can still use them to achieve a sophisticated and long-lasting scent if you take the time to plan a combination that has the right balance of top notes, middle notes and base notes.

For anyone wanting to get into this, I'd strongly recommend that you spend an idle afternoon playing around with scent blends using the chopstick method that I described here before starting on your candle projects.

As an example - in the case of my orange candle, above - the vast majority of the scent blend is made up of my top note: sweet orange essential oil.  The middle-note of ylang ylang adds depth and sophistication to the orange, without overpowering it.  Finally a very small % of cinnamon leaf acts as a base note, to 'anchor' the orange scent for longevity.  A couple of months on, these candles smell as strong and orangey as the day they were made, and the cinnamon remains a very subtle undertone that is barely-there.

Well...  I appear to have rambled on for far longer than I intended , so I shall stop right there.  If anyone has bothered to read this far - I hope at least that you found something useful...

Home spa treatments - a simple tutorial using soap offcuts

As a break from knitting, I'm using this post to share a recipe and tutorial for a really nice home spa scrub/bath soak that I've been playing with, which is very easy to make at home and is a great way to pamper yourself.

Supposing you've made some gorgeous handmade soap and, after trimming the bars, you're left with a pile of beautiful-smelling offcuts...  (In my case, these are the sliced-off strips from a batch of my favourite handmade soap that I made about 6 weeks ago, scented with lavender, ylang ylang and patchouli and embedded with calendula petals)

...or perhaps someone has given you a bar of lovely soap, but you have very sensitive skin and you're just not 100% sure about using it on your face or body.  This recipe solves either of these problems, by combining the finely grated soap with oatmeal, creating a very mild skincare product that can be customised to your skin type and used in a variety of different ways.  

Mixed with honey, the mixture can become a deep cleansing and antibacterial facial scrub.  Alternatively, encased in muslin, it can become a very mild skin-softening bath sachet, which doubles up as a face & body wash.   

For the sake of brevity I won't attempt to elaborate on the skin softening properties of oatmeal or the antibacterial properties of honey, but if you're curious about these ingredients I'd suggest googling it, as there is a wealth of info available online.  I shall simply talk through the steps to make the treatments...

 


What you need...

Soap offcuts of your choice
Oatmeal (plain and simple, with no additives)
A fine cheese grater
Storage jars (little ones make ideal gifts)  

Optional items...
Clear honey (for use as a facial scrub)
Small pieces of muslin and ribbon (for use as bath sachets/body wash)
Essential oils (e.g. if you wish to bolster the aroma or properties)

Method

Step 1 - Using a food processor, grind your oatmeal down to a fine grain.  The most economical option is to buy regular rolled oats from the supermarket and blitz them in the processor until they reach a texture similar to wholemeal flour.  (Alternatively you can sometimes find oatmeal in finely ground form - e.g it is often sold as 'Colloidal Oatmeal' in  health food shops).  

Step 2 - Grate your soap cuttings until you have a a pile of fine gratings, at whatever quantity you choose.

Step 3 - now simply blend the grated soap with the oatmeal.   Depending on your skin type you can use a proportion that suits you.  A ratio of 40% soap to 60% oatmeal is pretty good for most skin types.  But if you're after a very mild product, try lowering the soap:oatmeal ratio to 30:70  ...or for a more cleansing product, up it to 50:50.   (If in doubt, you could always test out small amounts as a handwash, to find out what works for you.)

At this stage, you may also choose to add some extra drops of essential oil to the mixture... e.g. if you're using unscented soap, or a very low ratio of soap:oatmeal.  Given that this is a skincare product, I'd strongly suggest that you avoid artificial fragrances and go for pure essential oils that are known to have beneficial properties for your skin type.
 
Combine and shake the mixture thoroughly, until you can see that it is perfectly combined, then decant into a jar for storage.  At this stage, the mixture is ready for use as a honey facial scrub (see instructions below) or  could even be scattered loosely into a bath, if desired, to scent and soften the water.

Step 4 (optional) - If you'd like to package the mixture up as bath sachets or body scrubs...  cut out a circle of muslin, approx 7" in diameter, and place a pile of the mixture in the middle.  (If you're a true perfectionist you could go so far as to hem the muslin or use pinking shears to avoid fraying).  Tie up the muslin tightly with string or ribbon, until you have a securely filled sachet - and voila!

Using the treatments...

To use the powder as a honey facial scrub...  
Wet your face with warm water.  Now take about a teaspoon of the powder into the palm of your hand and drizzle on just enough runny honey to form a thick paste.  Massage the paste into your face, allowing it to exfoliate the skin gently.  As long as the oatmeal has been ground thoroughly it will not feel harsh or 'scrubby', but very gentle.  If desired, leave the paste on a for a few minutes as a mask (e.g. while soaking in the bath) and then rinse off thoroughly when ready.

To use as a bath sachet...   
The next time you take a bath, try dangling the sachet under the taps while the water runs through it, or alternatively drop the sachet into the bath and swish it around for a while.  You should notice the soap and oatmeal infusing through the muslin, scenting and softening the bath water without creating any sludgey mess to clean up afterwards.

To use as a face & body wash... 
While you're in the bath or shower you can use the sachet as an all-over face and body wash, simply by soaking it in the water and then rubbing it against your skin.  This creates a gentle lather through the muslin, with the softening properties of oatmeal, and you'll get several uses out of each sachet before it needs refilling.

Enjoy!

Handmade soap-fest!

Ye gods, my flat smells heavenly. This week I decided to get some serious soaping out of my system before my pregnancy renders me unable to pursue chemical shenanigans and whimsy. So here are four new batches that I have whipped up...

All of these were made with base oils of olive, coconut, palm and palm kernel. They also all contain either goats milk or coconut milk and were made using the 'cool technique' described by Anne L Watson in her truly excellent book, Milk Soapmaking. (Seriously, I've become such an Anne Watson convert that I'm on the verge of throwing away all of my other soap books. Although some of them are great for aesthetic inspiration, none of them come close to the simplicity, clarity and common sense of Anne's methods).

All of these soaps need a few weeks to cure on the rack before they will be ready for use. But for now I've given a bit more on each soap below...

Lavender Soap

This is a goats milk soap that I made using all of the leftover vegetable oils I had at the end of a day's soaping, so it ended up having a higher proportion of coconut oil than the others.


I decided to keep this one simple and scented it with nothing but pure lavender essential oil, which I love. The lavender buds on the top are purely decorative and will come off after a couple of washes. (Lavender unfortunately does not keep its colour if you embed it within the body of the soap itself)

Orange Oatmeal Soap

This is another goats milk soap, made with a crowd-pleasing scent blend of sweet orange, ylang ylang and cinnamon leaf essential oils. I actually discovered this scent blend as part of my essential oil experiments and it was so utterly delightful that I used it for both soap and candles (which I will blog separately).



The oatmeal is finely ground and has two purposes - firstly it adds a gentle scrubbiness to the soap; secondly, along with the cinnamon, it will help to anchor the sweet orange scent which is notoriously fugitive and prone to fading over time. (Suffice to say I also used a LOT of essential oil in this batch, to help counteract the risk of fading, which created rather a nice pale orange hue).

Earthy Blend soap

This is a repeat of my all-time favourite soap, made with lavender, ylang ylang and patchouli. I made this batch mainly to counteract the number of bars that I have given away from the last batch! This scent is beautifully earthy and, to my mind, greater than the sum of its parts.



The addition of calendula flowers adds a bit of rich colour to the bars, which are made with coconut milk rather than goats milk.

Minty fresh soap

The scent of this soap is so fresh and zingy it practically jumps up and down to be used. This batch is made with goats milk and scented with peppermint and spearmint essential oils. The speckles are the contents of a peppermint tea bag, which tend to turn rust-coloured when you add it to soap.



The subtle greenish hue is due to the addition of a couple of teaspoons of French green clay, which adds extra cleansing properties and will also make the lather somewhat creamy. This is a particularly nice soap for men - or anyone who appreciates help waking up in the morning.


Finally - I thought I might show off a pair of glass jars that I use for displaying handmade soaps in my bathroom... (I bagged these bargainous items about 6 years ago at a bric-a-brac stall in a village fete).

Scented afternoon

Whoo... as part of my inspiration for making some more soaps, I rummaged out my neglected essential oil collection this afternoon and had a bit of a blending session.

Mainly, this consisted of me playing with a range of scent combinations using the cocktail stick method. This is an efficient way to experiment with scent combinations that simply involves dipping a cocktail stick into a particular essential oil and putting it into a ziplock bag along with other dipped sticks - and allowing it all to fulminate for a bit.

So, for example, if I wanted to blend 3 parts Bergamot with 2 parts Rosewood and 1 part Ylang Ylang, I could place 6 cocktail sticks together into the bag, 3 dipped in Bergamot, 2 in Rosewood and 1 in Ylang Ylang. (The only crucial thing is to write on the bag what I put in there!)

Anyway - lovely as this activity is, all of that hard core sniffing made me feel quite giddy, so I gave it an hour and then called time out and flopped for a bit of blogging. Tomorrow, once my nose has had a bit of a rest, I'll give each of my experimental scent bags a sniff to see what I think of them. If I like any of them, they might become candidates for future soap batches - or possibly scented candles.

The longer I keep the bags, the more I will learn about how the blend matures over time... e.g. which of the top notes stood the test of time and which didn't. If a blend turns out to be disappointing or faded, then it is a lesson learned. But quite often I come across blends that smell completely different - and far more lovely - once they've had a bit of time to fester.

All good fun!

Feeling Soapy!

Happy weekend, dear readers! And now for something completely different....

Behold my first batch of handmade soap for 5 years!


As a diversion from knitting, I've started to have a little reversion to the past and thrown myself back into cold process soap making. This used to be one of my major crafty obsessions from the late 1990s - just one of the many building blocks in my crafty journey through life. At some point oil painting took over as my number one obsession, not to menton knitting, and my love affair with soap was put on the back burner...

But recently a series of things have conspired to reignite my soapy urges. First of all, I used up the last of my lovely handmade bars and was filled with regret at having to revert to shop-bought soap. Then a few weeks ago I listened to the soapy episode of the iMake podcast and recalled how much fun I used to have with this, bringing evocative memories of a time when my house smelled like a fragrant pharmacy.

Finally, I discovered my intact (and delightfully anal) soaping spreadsheet, which contains my recipe calculator and detailed notes about all of my previous batches. (Sadly I was not a blogger back in my soapy days, but the spreadsheet meant that I still had a full set of records to refer to - hoorah!) This time around, I intend to supplement my spreadsheet notes for each new batch with a blog post and photos... so watch this space.


These bars are currently 'curing' to firm up a litttle and will be ready to use in a couple of weeks. They're made from a combination of olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil - mixed with sodium hydroxide and coconut milk. The yellowish colour is a result of combining olive oil with the warmed coconut milk and the deep hue of one of the essential oils. When the soap became ready for moulding, I added calendula petals for decorative effect and scented the batch with my personal favourite blend of Lavender, Ylang Ylang and Patchouli essential oils. Scent blends are a very personal thing, but all I can say is that this one makes my heart sing. Each of the oils is changed in nature by combining it with the others and, as it matures, this blend becomes reminiscent of light rain on a summer evening.

This week I've been testing the curing of this batch by using offcuts like these to wash my hands.


I've noticed that the lather is geting fluffier by the day and the soap milder. Once these offcuts are fully dried out, I'm going to try something new, by grinding them to a powder and combining with finely ground oatmeal to make a softening skin scrub... (will blog the results of that later!)

For now - if any of you are interested in giving cold process soaping a go, I'd recommend a copy of Smart Soapmaking by Anne Watson - it's a great beginners' guide that demystifies the process beautifully.