Green Tea Mint Soap

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I experimented over the weekend with a new soap recipe. I really liked the way it turned out. I used herbal tea for the liquid. It was a mix of green tea and peppermint tea bags.

Before you attempt to make soap please be knowledgeable about soap making procedures and safety using lye. If you’ve never made soap before I have step by step instructions on my website (The Family Homestead). I also give a list of supplies needed to make soap and links on where to find oils, scent oils, and lye.

I also have and ebook on making cold process soap.  I go through the whole process, step by step, with pictures:  http://crystalscountrystore.com/handmadesoapebook.htm 

This is a hot process soap recipe. Any cold process soap recipe can be made with the ‘hot process’ method. Just be sure to use the larger amount of water/liquid (most cold process recipes give you a range of how much liquid to use).

I make my hot process soap in my crockpot. I often get asked the question: “Do I need a separate crockpot just for soap making?” .. My answer.. No, you don’t. When you are done making soap in the crockpot you have … soap… and no matter if you make soap or a meal.. at the end of the day.. you have to clean your crockpot with.. (yep you guessed it).. SOAP .. :) .. so all is good because that is what you have in your crockpot when you are done. 

(a pic of my crockpot after I was done making the soap..  all full of soapy bubbles!)



Green Tea Mint Soap
This batch of soap is 4#’s.. you will need a mold large enough to hold 4#’s of soap…

8oz olive oil
16oz palm kernel oil
20oz palm oil
20oz sunflower oil

8.89oz lye
24oz water
3 green tea bags
1 peppermint tea bag

1.25oz green tea fragrance oil

Early in the day boil water and measure out 24oz. Put the tea bags in the water, cover and let steep until the tea reaches room temperature. After it is at room temp, remove the tea bags, squeezing out the water.




When you are ready to make soap turn your crockpot to “low” and add the palm kernel oil and the palm oil. Wait until they melt. Then add the olive oil and sunflower oil.



Add lye to the mint/green tea. Stir until dissolved.

Add tea/lye mixture to the oil mixture (no need to worry about proper temperature of your oils or lye mix when making hot process soap). Using a stick blender, blend until it reaches “trace”. Put the lid on the crockpot and wait about 15 minutes. Stir, cover and continue to let it cook. Every 5 or so minutes remove lid and stir. It took my batch about 35 minutes to turn into soap. You can see in the pics below the soap going through the various stages of cooking...





Remove from crockpot and add scent oil. Stir until well mixed. Scoop/plop soap into lined mold. I line my 4lb mold with a plastic bag.. it works just fine and is a lot less troublesome than trying to line the mold with freezer paper. In the end it is for our own home use and slight imperfections on the surface of the soap bars are gone after it has been used a few times!! ~Smile~



24 hours later I took it out of the mold…


And sliced it..



I love the color of it.. and the scent is nice.. not sure at this point if I can really smell the peppermint .. I’ve had a few people smell it and said they think they are faintly smelling it.. so. We’ll see after it sits for a few more days to harden up if the smell comes through more.

 

Comments

  1. JamieJuly 14, 2014 at 12:00 PM

    Hi Crystal,
    Wow, this soap looks amazing. I would love to try and make this.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Blessings, Jamie

    ReplyDelete

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All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

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