How to make Chocolate Balloon Bowls

Soaps

Goat Milk Shower Gel

This is not the first time I made liquid soap but this is the first time I made liquid soap with goat milk.  It took two tries to get it right ( by right I mean the consistency that I like). In the fisrt try, I used cold goat milk  (not frozen) and I added it with lye.  It burned the milk and the final result was this :

 

While it lathers well and smells great, I'm not happy with the appearance.  So I tried the second time.  This time I did not mix the milk and the lye but I added the milk latter after the soap had gelled.

I added the milk little by little.  Eventhough the soap was quite hot, it did not burn the milk .

The oils I used for this liquid soap were coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, sunflower oil dan cocoa butter.  It"s quite thick so I call it shower gel.  I was pretty happy with the result :)

Simple Soaps

Until now I get this statement a lot : "Your soaps are too pretty to be used" or "I'm going to keep this forever"..... I"m flaterred actually (I always think other soapers made way more beautiful soaps than I did), but before the soaps are made, we soapers, are actually formulate oils/butters and additives carefully to produce mild high quality soap :) . And along the way, It is hard to ignore all those tempting swirl techniques and all those pretty colors.  However, once in a while I managed to make simple soaps. No swirls. No fancy colors, just cocoa powder, activated charcoal and milk as additives.  To match the natural colors, I added chocolate FO, Milk FO and Peppermint EO as the scents.

 

Well, it's not that plain because I used fondant mat for texture :) . I'm quite happy with the results.  

New Soaps

Colorant Adventure

It's been a long time since I hunted  for this tree : Kesumba Keling (Bixa Orellana) or annatto seeds.  The seed is widely used as yellow colorant although it appears red.  I was pretty sure I  could find the tree here because it has  a local name (nobody I know even ever heard of this tree).  One day when we made our routine trip to Bogor, I saw it.  On the roadside of Jagorawi toll road.  At first I thought it was my imagination :) .  Until last week I made my husband pull over (which he sincerely did) and It was really the tree.  Yeayy.

I ground the seeds with coffee grinder and infuse it in coconut oil

And this is the soap :)

I'm pleased with this soap.  The yellow part is from annatto seeds and the brown part comes from honey.  I added biji selasih for light scrub. ...

Persimmon Soap

Sebagian besar orang tentu sering mendengar buah Kesemek (Diospyros kaki) atau Persimmon dalam Bahasa Inggris walaupun hanya sebagian saja yang pernah memakannya.  Buahnya manis dan renyah. Kesemek tinggi kandungan tannin.  Tannin terutama lebih cepat diekstraksi dalam larutan alkaline.  Itulah sebabnya pada saat pembuatan sabun dengan puree buah kesemek, warna sabun berubah menjadi coklat tua walaupun puree kesemek bewarna kuning keemasan.

 

Puree Kesemek

Sabun buah Kesemek.  Sabun ini dibuat dengan metode Hot Process.  Puree ditambahkan ke lye solution. Dengan instant larutan berubah warna menjadi hitam pekat.  Begitu pula saat pemasakan.  Warna sedikit memudar di akhir proses pemasakan.  

Tannin bersifat astringent.  Menurut Wikipedia

Astringent medicines cause shrinkage of mucous membranes or exposed tissues and are often used internally to check discharge of blood serum or mucous secretions.^[2] This can happen with a sore throat, hemorrhages, diarrhea, or with peptic ulcers. Externally applied astringents, which cause mild coagulation of skin proteins, dry, harden, and protect the skin.^[3] People with acne are often advised to use astringents if they have oily skin.^[4] Mild astringent solutions are used in the relief of such minor skin irritations as those resulting from superficial cuts, allergies, insect bites,^[3] or fungal infections such as athlete's foot.^[5]

Facial Bars

Ini sabun-sabun khusus untuk wajah, semua menggunakan essential oil dan pewarna alami.  Double Clay menggunakan red moroccan clay dan french green clay, oatmeal and honey menggunakan oatmeal bubuk dan madu murni, sabun bengkuang menggunakan bengkuang juice dan silk.  All ready in June :)

Cocoa Butter

Sekarang Ritz n Luna menggunakan cocoa butter pada semua produk.  Cocoa butter mengandung 20 - 40 % stearic acid, menjadikan sabun lebih keras dan tahan lama.  Juga sangat moisturizing.  Hal yang sama untuk lipbalm, lotion dan scrub, very luxurious.

Cara Pembuatan Sabun Domino

Sabun ini dipesan khusus oleh sepupu saya untuk souvenir pernikahan.  Saya mendapatkan ide dari Brambleberry, hanya saja sabun domino di Brambleberry adalah Melt and Pour Soap.  Saya membuat Cold Process Soap version.  Sangat menantang proses pembuatannya karena memerlukan beberapa steps.

Pertama-tama adonan sabun berwarna putih dituang ke rectangular cavity mold, ditengah2 diberi embeds garis merah.  Setelah agak keras baru ditusuk dengan sedotan ukuran besar dengan pola titik-titik domino.







Setelah kurang lebih 18 jam dan bisa dicopot dari cetakan, hasilnya seperti ini. Adonan sabun yang baru diberi pewarna merah red oxide, dituang perlahan-lahan ke lubang dari sedotan tadi.  Trust me, the process was such a mess :D. I can laugh now

BRINE BARS

Setelah sebulan tidak membuat sabun, ada banyak hal yang ingin saya coba. Salah satunya adalah Brine Bars (Soleseife).  Teknik ini berasal dari Jerman.  Brine bars ini mirip Salt Bars karena sama2 menggunakan garam.  Jika salt bars menggunakan garam langsung seberat 50 -100 % dari berat minyak yang digunakan untuk membuat sabun, Brine bars mengunakan larutan air garam (seperempat bagian garam dari berat air pada lye solution).
Keduanya sama2 memberi efek therapeutic yang baik pada kulit, seperti berendam di pantai, purifying the skin.  Hanya untuk salt bars sepertinya kurang cocok untuk iklim tropis di Indonesia, sabun menjadi berembun.

Ada tiga jenis Brine Bars yang saya buat: Coffee, Papaya dan Honey and Oatmeal.  Semua menggunakan Phtalate Free Fragrance Oil.  Please call me if you are interested in these cutie pies :)

Wedding Favor Soaps

Ylang ylang Soaps

The Indonesian name for ylang ylang is "Bunga Kenanga" (Cananga Odorata).  I bought the essential oil at serambi botani (always love to go there, still can not believe my campus has turned partly into a mall >:o.

I love the yellow color of ylang ylang so I color the soap yellow using powdered orange peel that I made a couple of weeks ago.

I love it :), I think it's pretty and simple

Jasmine Soaps

Many women request this soap, they are especially fond of the jasmine scent.  I finally found this jasmine fragrance oil.  If you love floral scent you will love this one.  However I can't just use the scent without adding something special.

 I used jasmine water to mix with lye, and at trace I added noni juice and groud dried jasmine flower.  The soap, again, were made with hot peocess and I added olive oil after cooking process completed as superfat.

This is the soap in the mold.

And...cut :)

Fresh cut roses

This soap is inspired by the name of the fragrance.

Again, this is hot process soap, I added coconut milk and cocoa butter at the end of the cooking process. The scent is subtle but definetely there.  The lather is luxurious.  A feminine soap :)

Sabun Bengkuang

Ini mungkin sabun paling populer di Indonesia.  Bengkuang terdiri dari 86-90% air.  Saya membuat sabun ini dengan metode Hot Process.
Pertama Bengkuang diparut dan diambil juice nya. Juice ini lalu dibekukan.

Sebagian dari parutan bengkuang tadi dihaluskan sehingga menjadi bubuk.

Frozen Bengkuang juice + NaOH menjadi lye solution








Sabun ini menggunakan minyak kelapa dengan superfatting minyak zaitun.  Setelah proses masak selesai, bubuk bengkuang dan minyak zaitun diambahkan ke dalam adonan sabun. Setelah agak dingin, fragrance ditambahkan dan sabun dicetak.

Jadinya seperti ini .  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in this :)

Castile Soap

Our new Castile Soap is simply white, without added colour.  It is made with hot process to reduce the curing time.  Cold process Castile Soap should wait between 6 months to 1 year.  By doing hot process, I hope the quality of Castile Soap can be reached in less than 6 months.

It is lightly scented with peppermint essential oil.  Castile soap is so gentle, made with 100 % olive oil, it can be used for face and body, even for baby.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castile_soap

Cake Soap

I joined a group in FB :soaping101 and since then I'm a soaping addict :).  I've made hundreds of batches and quite made some disasters :D.  One thing I still can not do is piping, I tried several times and still doesn't understand this piping thing :(.  However, no quitter here, this is my attempt of making cake soap.

I'm pretty happy with the result.  This is coffee soap, I made ice cubes with coffee and made lye solution with it.  Only the bottom part has coffee infused oil, the other two layers lighten with titanium dioxide.  This is scented with coffee fragrance oil.  Please let me know if you are interested in these :)