Amber Frankincense & Myrrh Soap

No, it’s not Christmas deja vu…this soap is a special order. It is a very nice fragrance blend that, like pumpkin, gets overlooked for most of the year.

I used 42 oz of my master batch oils #2 formula:
5%        Apricot Kernel Oil
10%      Avocado Oil
5%        Castor Oil
5%        Cocoa Butter
25%      Coconut Oil
5%        Grape seed Oil
20%      Palm Oil
5%        Palm Kernel Flakes
5%        Rice Bran Oil
5%        Refined Shea Butter
10%      Soybean Oil
1%        Green Tea Extract
With:
5.949 oz/169 grams – Lye (5% superfat)
12.3 oz/350 grams – Distilled Water (slight discount)
16 grams – Sodium Lactate (1 tsp/lb oils)

This made 60 oz of batter. I poured off 8 oz and used 52 oz with my 3 lb silicone mold for this project. (I frequently make extra soap batter to try new scents, molds, & techniques.)

I planned my color pallet to take into account discoloring (and slight acceleration) from the fo’s. I measured out 1.5 oz of BB Amber and 1.5 oz BB Frankincense & Myrrh Cybilla. (You can see the natural discolor of this scent combo in my Oct 17, 2015 – Gold Frankincense & Myrrh Blog).

Why Black? Activated charcoal seems to be the new thing. A colleague showed me an ad for AC soap and they wanted $15 a bar. It is good for your skin, and if it’s in, then maybe people will find black soap more appealing. (I’m hoping, as it’s a nice color to work with.)

Activated Charcoal is said to draw bacteria, poisons, chemicals, dirt and other micro-particles to the surface of skin, helping to achieve a flawless complexion and fight acne. It also is said to reduce inflammation, which is significant in preventing premature aging.

Back to soaping:

Color Pallet & fo mix:
20 oz black – BB Activated Charcoal –  1 oz FM fo; 1 oz Amber fo
8 oz brown – BB Cappuccino Mica –  .5 oz FM fo; .5 oz Amber fo
8 oz yellow – CC Yellow Locking Mica – no fo
8 oz red – TKB #30 Lake – True Red – no fo
8 oz orange – BB Celine Red Mica (morphs to orange) – no fo

I stick blended to emulsification, and by the time I prepared each part with color & fo, the soap was at a very light trace. The brown batter got a bit thicker than the rest.

I poured all the black into the mold, then drop swirled the brown, yellow, red, orange. I then did a horizontal, followed by a vertical hanger swirl. I had done something similar in my Santa’s Sleigh Ride soap and really liked the results. (See Oct 12, 2015 Blog – Santa’s Sleigh Ride).

I then splattered the leftover colors and swirled the top with a chop stick.

20 hours later, the soap easily came out of the mold.

The Celine Red mica is morphing nicely to orange.

I’m surprised there isn’t more yellow. Instead of equal amounts of the four colors, I should have used more yellow to offset the red & orange, which are so close in color. The orange may still morph a bit and the brown may darken a little more too.

I love how the mirrored images look and that each bar is so different.

 

It’s interesting that there seems to be more of a vertical hanger swirl than the horizontal. I did about 8 horizontal hanger swirls and only 4 vertical swirls, yet they all seem to be just vertical. A very different result than I was expecting, but I really like that it looks like flames.