Future Soapmaker On Board!

That's a pretty exciting title, right? I don't think anyone is as excited as I am to announce that Robinson baby #3 will be making his/her debut this November! Squeeee!! My two older daughters are bouncing off the walls - let's hope they're this excited when a 3 a.m. cry rings out in the house!

So, what does this mean for OHTC? Several things, it turns out. The very first thing is ensuring an absolutely safe working condition for myself and my growing little one. This means taking extra care to continue working safely - things I'm happy to say that I've already been doing for quite a while. I wear gloves, safety goggles, a mask, an apron, and my hair is always contained. Containers are carefully labeled (lye solutions in particular) and stored properly. A wash station is always available to me should I spill any caustic substances (soapers, by now I hope you know that the MSDS sheet for sodium hydroxide lists a cold water flush as the best way to handle a lye spill!).


Tea Tree Mint - one of our most popular soaps! It's also got an awesome swirl of activated charcoal, nettle leaves, bentonite clay, zinc oxide and red reef clay. 
My #1 concern, it turns out, is working with essential oils. Many of you may already be aware that I am allergic to tea tree oil. Sadly, this is one of the main oils in one of our most popular soaps: Tea Tree Mint. I only make this soap a few times a year, on days when I can really ventilate my soaping area with open windows. I also have to take a dose of Benadryl otherwise my throat will begin to close up. Believe it or not, but in my cost analysis, I actually include the cost of the medicine for this batch! The first time I ever worked with tea tree oil was in a (well diluted) coconut oil salve that left me with hives that took weeks to go away! Essential oils are quite powerful and allergies are real - which is why I now always exercise caution with a new oil. Oregano is another one that gets my husband's allergies going, so it's one I won't even keep in the house.

I'm sure you know where this is going. I can't risk a major tea tree oil reaction while pregnant. This affects not only the soap, but also the Tea Tree Mint mineral bath soak (will be replaced with another minty offering; most likely a eucalyptus mint). Fans of that minty experience can still find Mentha Viridis, our eucalyptus mint blend, in a soap.

Are there any soaps that I make for folks with a sensitivity to essential oils or with a medical condition that means essential oils are not possible? Of course! I make a very simple Oatmeal Milk and Honey soap that is free from essential oils and has a basic two oil soaping formula. This is the soap I love using on my little ones! Another soap that I often reach for is Hippie Peace. I love the soft gray color from the sea clay and the swirly lines from the cocoa powder. The essential oil blend is a simple one - lavendula angustifolia and pogostemon cablin (lavender and patchouli). Neither are contraindicated in pregnancy according to NAHA and Tisserand. Keep in mind that not all lavenders are safe in pregnancy - lavandula stoechas or French/Spanish lavender is not considered safe. This is why botanical names are so important!

Another major change is that some categories may be put on hold until next year. Our sugar scrubs are one such category, along with our bath bombs (once they're sold out, they're sold out!). Our whipped body butters have always been discontinued over the summer months to avoid melting in transit. I don't expect any of those categories to come back until 2016. Our wax items are definitely staying, along with our lip butters (one of our biggest sellers!) and many of our soaps (you'll see seasonal flavors come and go as usual) as well as our mineral bath soaks. I haven't had any trouble with making these items so far and I'm happy to continue to do so!

As I get closer to delivery and as I know more about how I'm progressing, I will be happy to update with future blog posts/social media shout outs about how maternity leave is shaping up. Right now, it looks like my tentative shut down date is going to be around November 1st. If you, like many others, rely on OHTC for your holiday shopping, this is a great year to get it out of the way early!

Thank you so much for all your continued support and awesome messages of encouragement over the course of this journey. I definitely do not plan to shut down OHTC. I definitely do plan to put family first. I'm glad that so many of you support a small business with that brand of ethics! In the meantime, let's keep having fun together!

Soap making oils!

Why are certain oils not ideal for soap making? Have you ever wondered why soapers choose the oils that they do? How do we create our formulas?

First, the best point to remember of all is this: just because an oil is good in a lotion or leave-on product, does not make it a good candidate for converting it into soap. In large enough quantities, some saponified (soaped) oils can feel like taking a shower with lotion - no lather, greasy after feel! Some can go rancid too quickly (and who wants a rancid soap??). Some are just plain too expensive for use in a wash-off product. Others have components that the lye does not react with and therefore it does not saponify (turn into soap via a lye reaction) at all. Mineral oil is one such example. Jojoba oil is a close second in that category as it does saponify, but only a small part of it does - making it unsuitable for use in soap, except in minute quantities (it is also generally too expensive for many to put into a wash-off product).

Our soaping formula in action! Testing an essential oil blend out - rough life!

Without getting too in-depth about my formula, I will say that I (along with most other soapers) am always looking for that balance of cleansing, bubbles, lather with conditioning, moisturizing, and long-lasting bars. Bars that are too conditioning, with too much oil left behind can leave you feeling like you didn't get completely clean, and it can also mean little-to-no lather. Bars with too much lather and a very low superfat (superfat = a calculated excess of soaping oils that are left over in the bar and do not turn into soap) can make for a very drying soap that strips the skin. Balance is key.

Soap hardness and durability are another factor. We are always looking to create a harder, longer-lasting soap. Handmade soap cannot sit in water for any length of time and it should be allowed to dry completely between uses. We cure our soaps for 6 weeks in order to help produce a hard bar. Shea butter and coconut oil also helps achieve the same goal. Over a long enough period of time, olive oil also produces a very hard bar. We have started to include sodium lactate as well - this is a naturally derived salt from fermented corn or sugar beets, often used in the dairy industry (yogurt!).

Without getting too technical, the fatty acids included in every oil and butter we use are analyzed for the properties it will bring to the final soap. This is why we choose some oils and butters over others. Shea butter, for example, has a high level of unsaponifiables (components that will not turn into soap) which means that as a soap making ingredient, it is highly moisturizing. It is a butter with one of the highest levels of unsaponifiables, more so than cocoa butter, mango butter, avocado and kokum. It is also saponifiable enough to create an actual bar of soap instead of an oily mess, unlike high levels of jojoba oil. You could say that it's in the "sweet spot" for soap making! It also contains a healthy dose of stearic acid as part of its fatty acid profile - which makes for a very hard soap with stable, moisturizing lather. Is shea expensive? Yes. It is by far the most expensive soaping fat that we use. And we use a good chunk of it to boot (well over 20% of our soaping formula).



A bar of soap gone rancid. This one came from another soapmaker and contained soybean oil. It lived in my bathroom drawer for less than a year before I noticed the brown/oily spots. 
What about rancidity? Is this an issue? There are many soaping oils that have a tendency to go rancid rather quickly: grapeseed oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, cottonseed oil, rapeseed (canola) oil, sunflower oil and I'm sure some others that I'm leaving out. Some of these are very cheap to soap with, which makes them popular to use. If not protected with vitamin E or rosemary oil extract, I'd expect to try to use soaps with high amounts of these ingredients quickly (within 3-6 months) before the dreaded orange/brown oily spots occur (which means the bar turns rancid). Rancidity will make soap greasy, soft, and start to smell bad. It's a shame since soap generally is supposed to get better as it ages! Some of my favorite bars are ones I've hoarded for a year or more to use.

One final word. Any soaping formula is subjective. There are many different types of soaps out there, many different formulas (we use three here at OHTC!), and everyone feels soap differently. What might be "just right" for a mechanic's greasy hands is likely far too drying for my winter skin! And while many folks enjoy shea butter in their soaps, not everyone will. There's also something to be said for additives and essential oils when it comes to what they bring to soaps. Honey, milks, colloidal oatmeal, silk, clay, and even essential oils can all alter the skin feel of the final soap. We use these to our advantage here - it's not all about the scent or the color that these ingredients can give. It is, however, a happy side benefit!

I hope that this has helped you to understand the limitations of soap making and the reasons why we soap makers love the oils and butters that we do!