Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Apricot Mango Soap Recipe

Apricot Mango Soap

4 oz. Apricot Kernel Oil

4 oz. Mango Butter

7 oz. Coconut Oil

8 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

10 oz. Olive Oil

2 oz. Castor Oil

1 oz. Stearic Acid

5.25. oz Lye

13.65 oz Water

This makes 36 oz of soap. I'm looking forward to this bar curing. It should be a highly conditioning bar but also very cleansing. I think my brother, the mechanic, should like this one. I'll post an update once I have tried it.

New Soap Recipes - Mango Apricot and BACON!

I've been on another soap-making frenzy lately! All of these bars were wrapped this past weekend and I made 2 more new batches. Now my friends and family will be clean!

One of the things I have wanted to do was to try to render bacon grease and use it in a recipe. After all, original soaps were made from tallow and lard. I know the soap my Great-Grandmother made was rather harsh and I believe they only used it for laundry. Today with SAP values and soap calculators it's easier to design a soap recipe and know what type of bar will result. I read up on using lard in soaps and quickly realized that it needed some good moisturizing oils to go with it. I designed both of these recipes this past weekend so it will be a couple of months before I can report the results. All of my other soap recipes have been updated with the final use results. App of my recipes are unscented, because that's what I need in a soap but you could add fragrance or color to any of these recipes to customize the bar to your preferences.

If you make any of my soap recipes I would really like to hear about your own experience and whether you liked the end result.

Yum, Bacon! Soap

• 7 ounces rendered bacon grease or lard
• 6 ounces coconut oil
• 7 ounces olive oil
• 4 ounces avocado oil
• 4 ounces palm kernel oil
• 2 ounces shea butter
• 1 ounce stearic acid
• 1 ounce castor oil
• 4.55 ounces lye
• 12.2 ounces distilled water

Makes 32 ounces. This bar is designed to be a good cleansing hard bar with lots of condition oils. I do not expect it to have as much lather as some of the other soaps.

Note: 1/9/10 - This soap turned out really nice. It has a great lather and seems to also be very moisturizing. I'll make this one again.

Mango Apricot Soap

• 8 ounces palm oil
• 7 ounces coconut oil
• 6 ounces olive oil
• 5 ounces palm kernel oil
• 5 ounces mango butter
• 4 ounces apricot kernel oil
• 1 ounces castor oil
• 5.2 ounces lye
• 13.7 ounces distilled water

Makes 36 ounces. This bar should have great lather and be very conditioning.

Making laundry soap

Most of you know that I have been dealing with a lot of new allergies lately. I thought they were all food related but now I am starting to think that some of it might be about fabric content in my clothing or my laundry detergent. I've decided to try another unscented laundry detergent - one that I make myself.

Since I got into making soap I have considered making laundry detergent. It is super simple. You boil some water and melt grated soap in it. Then you add borax and soda ash (washing soda) and stir until it's dissolved. Add some water to top it off and let it sit 24 hours. The mixtures thickens to a near gel and you are ready to go. The only hard part is figuring out which recipe to use. There are HUNDREDS all over the web, here are a few

Recipe from The Simple Dollar

The Family Homestead recipe is often referenced on other sites

TipNut has 10 recipes, powdered and liquid

The Dugger Family has their recipe - they are the family that has about 50 children

My friend, Diana, has a long list of recipes she sent me for laundry detergent and other household cleaners. She got it from this blog.

The recipe I am using is basically this one on Bake Space. It took linger to find an appropriate bucket than it took to make the soap. I'm using about half the water so I will only need 1/4 cup of detergent per load. I guess I'll see if it works this weekend!

Hemp Apricot and Mango Rosehip Soap Recipes

Mango Rosehip

3 oz. Mango Butter

4 oz. Rosehip Oil

9 oz. Coconut oil

10.5 oz. Palm Oil

3 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

1 oz. Castor Oil

1.5 oz. Stearic Acid

4.7 oz. lye

12.1 oz. water

This one is designed to be a relatively hard bar but with great conditioning properties and lots of lather.  The rosehip oil gives it a pink tint. It makes 32 ounces of soap.

Note: This is a new favorite of mine. It's a nice hard bar with good cleansing properties while still maintaining lots of conditioning. It makes a great lather too.

Hemp Apricot

3 oz. Hemp Butter

2 oz. Sweet Almond Oil

3 oz. Apricot Kernal Oil

10.5 oz. Coconut Oil

6 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

9 oz. Palm Oil

1.5 oz. Castor Oil

1 oz. Stearic Acid

5.4 oz Lye

13.7 oz. water

This is a rework of my original Hemp. That one wasn't a favorite. Hopefully this will be an improvement. This is designed to be a hard bar with high conditioning properties. This recipe makes a 36 oz. batch.

Note: The Hemp Apricot seems to be much more popular than the original Hemp soap recipe. My brother, the mechanic, loves this one as a hand soap. It has good cleaning properties.

Mango Walnut and Macadamia Avocado Soap Recipes

I should think about giving my soap recipes clever names but then you would have to guess what was in them. That would require work so here are the uncreative new soap recipes from my studio.

Mango Walnut

3 oz. Mango Butter

4 oz. Walnut Oil

7 oz. Coconut oil

9.5 oz. Palm Oil

6 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

1.5 oz. Castor Oil

1 oz. Stearic Acid

This one is designed to be a relatively hard bar but with great conditioning properties. It makes 32 ouces of soap.

Macadamia Avocado

3 oz. Avocado Oil

3 oz. Macadamia Butter

5 oz. Olive Oil

10 oz. Coconut Oil

13 oz. Palm Kernel Oil

1 oz. Castor Oil

1 oz. Stearic Acid

This is designed to be a hard cleansing bar that has lots of bubbles. This recipe makes a 36 oz. batch.

**** Both of these soaps are really nice. The Macadamia Avocado is almost pure white. It has a really nice lather. The Mango Walnut is a really nice bar - very moisturizing and a really nice lather. This is one of my new favorites.