I decided to get with the season and start soaping some fall scents. I have soaped a cinnamon before, its hard to find a high quality cold process skin safe cinnamon so I stocked up when I found this, but this time I added apple fragrance oil and apples! Soaping with fruit can get tricky, the sugar in the fruit can seriously overheat the soap as it cures. I had a 5 pound batch and added in a little under an ounce of apple puree per pound of soap (not just per pound of oils) I added it in at medium trace so the lye water wouldnt burn the apples. Cinnamon fragrance oil gets pretty hot as it is so with the addition of the real fruit I knew I had better keep a very close eye on this batch. I poured it into a collapsable wooden mold and instead of placing it in my oven to cure I put it in my cold bathroom in the cold bath tub. I kept checking on it every 10 minutes or so and feeling the sides and moving it to a new cold spot. The wooden mold was getting hot and I was getting concerned. Then it got to be dinner time and I got preoccupied with making dinner and socializing with family that was over. A few hours later I realized I had left that overheating soap far too long. I raced in to check on it and it had cracked and was extreemly hot. I pulled out the nails that hold the sides up and removed the ends and felt the hours old soap, it was still very soft but it was shockingly hot. I pulled down the sides and the crack re-sealed itself! I have never see that happen before! The soap was far too soft to leave out of the mold like that so after letting it cool for a few moments I put the sides up but left the ends off and put a fan on the soap. It turned out perfectly! I cant wait until its perfectly cured so I can use it myself!

Posted by Shelley in Uncategorized on September 12th, 2007 | No Comments