Chamomile-Peppermint Soap

Here's my lates batch of soap: chamomile-peppermint soap.

500 gr chamomile oil

400 gr sunflower margarine

350 gr coconut oil

300 gr palm oil

300 gr sunflower oil

100 gr ricinus oil

  80 gr beeswax

650 gr chamomile tea

270 gr NaOH

Peppermint leaves, chamomile flowers, peppermint oil

Prepare the chamomile oil some weeks in advance. Add 550 gr olive oil to a glass jar and fill it with 100 gr chamomile flowers. Let it sit for 4 to 6 weeks in a warm place. Then filter it and put 500 gr aside for your soap. You can use the rest as massage oil.

Add some ground chamomile flowers to two tablespoons of your chamomile oil and let sit for at least two hours. Prepare chamomile tea, filter and let cool down.

Make the lye: Add the NaOH to your chamomile tea (NOTE: Do this outside! Always wear gloves and glasses. ALWAYS add NaOH to the liquid and NEVER EVER do it vice versa!) Your tea will change colour and smell strange, but that's ok. Let the lye cool down.

Melt all the hard fat components in a pot and then add the liquid oils. Let cool down to 45 degress Celsius. Add the lye slowly and mix constantly. Now you want your raw soap to thicken slightly. This works best with a hand blender. When you have a consistence like hot vanilla pudding, add the oil-chamomile mixture. 

Pour about 2/3 of your mixture in your soap mold and mix the rest with ground peppermint leaves and peppermint oil. Pour it in the soap mold, too. Cover soap mold and isolate it well. Let cool down 24 hours, cut and let age for 4-6 weeks.

Here you can see the gel phase very well: note the change of colour on the surface