I made soap by hand yesterday because my electrical stirring devise or soap wand as I call it, broke. Not really broken but is on perpetual high speed so foams up my soap batter.
I was able to gain a feel of the transition of the soap becoming soap again. "coming to trace is Zen"
A mutual soaper in Texas said that last night and it is true.
In the old days when I started making soap, I used a big wooden paddle. Stirring and stirring all day and in to nights.
My husband would prompt me for months to get some sort of machine to do it for us. I fought it tooth and nail because I said it would loose the "hand made" aspect of soap making.
Of course I caved in time.
The wand skips through all the waiting to give you creamy put together soap mix and when you are hand stirring it takes like 2 hours sometimes, before your soap "comes to trace".
Making soap is almost like making a good custard, one must aways keep an eye on the cream batter and continue stirring. This is the time you get to involve all the ingredients in the soap and evolve the ones in your head too because soap making is "alone time all the way". It gives me a chance to hone in on Sanskrit mantra words.
Gum~ to remove all obstacles:)
Here is what I am practicing right now;
'Om Trayumbakam Yajamahe Sughandhim Pushti
Vardanam Urvar-ukamiva Bandhanan
Mrityor Muksheeya Mamritat
Peppermint Vanilla Soap
32 ounces olive I have an unfiltered fresh green one from Italy
14 ounces organic extra virgin coconut oil with two vanilla pods finely scraped and chopped infused into oil for three days and the whole jar soaked in hot water 2 times a day to ensure saturation of the vanilla in to the coconut oil
I first blended the water phase with the olive oil and stirred that for one hour. Then, I slowly added the coconut vanilla mixture to the almost soaponafied olive oil.
It took another hour for these three ingredients to embrace one another. They did and when supper thick and creamy, I added the peppermint oil and stirred for 20 minutes.
What amazes me is that each batch has a life of its own. Every oil giving its own spectrum of colorful scent.
What color would you think patchouli would put out?
Purple?
Like a deep almost black green?
I ground up some dry patchouli and a bit of vanilla pod which I simply sprinkle on the soap before serving.
As I most impatiently wait to cut Peppermint Vanilla Soap, I Can already detect the sweet wafts of vanilla over peppermint's super intense coolness as if reflecting off of sapphire waterfalls.
Happiness
Thank you
Christine Ziegler in Texas, love you!
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