News — soap

Ok, confession time given that a client just sent me a picture of my soap, decorated and looking dangerously edible. I messed around quite a while a few years ago with making soap from biodiesel byproducts. (Mostly glycerine is left over when you make biodiesel). It worked really well as soap, but was hard to sell; mostly because the texture always stayed soft. So I mucked around with making liquid biodiesel soap as well. (I can say if you do this, it's one of the best grease-stripping agents on the planet, seriously. Just hard to ship or transport.) Because of...

Honey is a fun ingredient for soap, and I use it a LOT.   Here's why: Honey is both a humectant and antibiotic. It's still used in some places as a wound dressing-- go ahead and google. It's fascinating stuff. But when I add honey to soap, it's because I'm looking for a couple of effects specifically. The humectancy, and the fact that it causes handmade soap to "mellow" and the scents become more true-to-plant.   Watching soap gel up and get to "trace"--the stage where if you lift out the mixer, it leaves traces on the top of the soap,...