I used this black soap recipe in the crock pot.
Isn't it pretty -- almost like you can see a reflection in it. Or the cosmos! I was amazed at how much it resembles out black granite counter tops in the kitchen. Beautiful soaps!
Here they are laid out to cure for a few days --
looking remarkably like hockey pucks.
For scent, I added Brambleberry's Raspberry Porter. I took a chance on this one, hoping it would NOT smell like beer -- and it doesn't! It reminded me of the Raspberry (Porter?) Beer my cousin Mike made for his wedding years ago (Now he's a world-reknown cheesemaker!) It was more like wine--I think it was the only beer I've ever liked! This smells like that Raspberry Beer tasted -- not like beer at all! Mmmmh!
It took me a while to figure out what kind of scent to pair with this black soap. It's supposed to be good for problematic skin, so many recipes add Tea Tree Oil. That's not an option for me, as Tea Tree Oil is a known trigger for my rosacea flare-ups. Not a good combination! I had some high hopes for Moroccan Fig, but that turned out to be more of an autumnal scent--very nice, but not right for this batch. One whiff of the Raspberry Porter and I knew ... Think Black Raspberry.
At heavy trace.
After 15 minutes of cooking on Low in the crock pot.
Very earthy looking mud.
After cooking for 30 minutes. Still mud-like.
Still earthy looking mud like oils, clay and charcoal. But now it;s light and fluffy (if you can believe that!). It has been coking for about 1 hour by now. Here's where I added the scent, and then packed it into the pvc tube mold.
After 24 hours, I pushed it out of the mold.
Here it is unwrapped and ready to be cut into rounds.
Beautiful black soap!
1 comment:
Couldn't help thinking black tar! Obviously this won't leave you all tar-ie looking but maybe slightly smelling of that raspberry? What are the benefits of the activated charcoal?
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