November 15, 1998

Made soaps and tried PVC today...:)

We went out to my favorite place, Menards, and bought a 5' length of 2" diameter PVC pipe, and a 5' length of 1.5" (I think; it fit just inside the 2" diameter pipe) PVC pipe. Then we got 3 end caps for the 2" diameter and 3 end caps for the 1.5" diameter stuff. We came home and sawed the 2" diameter stuff into 3 20" lengths, and the 1.5" stuff into two 30" lengths. (We bought one too many end caps for the 1.5" stuff.) I want to mold soap inside the 2" stuff, with the 1.5" stuff as the "pusher-outer-thingy." :)

So I had to play with the toys and make soap. I made a plain recipe that I like:

30 oz. Olive oil
16 oz. Coconut oil
2 oz. Beeswax
6.6 oz. Lye
18 oz. Water
(I think those numbers are correct; I'll check later.)

For scent, I used.. let's see if I can get this right:

12 parts Sweetcakes Sandalwood-Vanilla FO
3 parts Sweetcakes Red Rose FO
3 parts Lavender 40/42 EO
1 part Sweet Orange EO

I was trying to make a kind of warm floral scent. The rose wasn't very pronounced in my final version, but that was OK. I called the scent "Victoriana" (you know me, I have such trouble with names :). Since my citrus blend worked out so well, I thought I'd try this. I am far from a master perfumer (far from even an apprentice perfumer) tho so it's good I don't mind failures and experiments (or "spearmints" as Steve calls them, as in "Are you going to spearmint on me again?"). :)

I mixed the soap up with the stick blender until a very light trace, probably only about a minute or two. The stupid stuff turned to thick pudding trace and I barely managed to get it all into the PVC. I think I definitely need to use the blender less. Got the PVC all nice and closed up and out on the back porch to set up during the day (nice sunny day, too) so.. we shall see tomorrow!

Oh yeah, I also decided that my booze infusions have done enough time... I opened the bottles to take a whiff, and you would never know you were smelling soybean oil instead of Jack Daniels or Myers Dark Rum! I stuck the bottles upside down in the freezer for several hours to separate the alcohol and oil, and just pour the alcohol off the frozen oil. So I think I'm going to try that rum infusion in homemade bay rum and see how it turns out. And for the JD, I think I'll try making whiskey scented shaving cream (assuming I can find some jars!). Hehehe, "spearmint" time again.. I love it..:)