Verbena Flowers Soap

When I bought this fragrance, which it is one of the best fragrances I have smelled to date,  I knew that it would discolor to either beige or light brown.  So I decided I would not add any colorants.  I also wanted to do flowers for decoration, but rather than putting them on the top of the soap, I wanted them to be inside the soap!

This brought me to thinking of a flower cane.  Something which reminded me of polymer clay clanes.  I never did like making canes with polymer clay though, because I did not need to have multiple identical slices of polymer clay.  However, in soaps, canes are  ideal, since there are multiple bars to be cut from a loaf.  So, I borrowed from my polymer clay tools to make this soap, to create the flowers.  But I did about half of the flowers by hand, so that if you do not have polymer clay tools laying around, you could still make this soap if you wanted.

There is also a GIVE AWAY going on for a small bar of this soap, details for entering can be found below the recipe.

Verbena Flowers Soap

 

Soapmaker level:  Intermediate

Tools Needed:

• Standard soap making tools and protective equipment
• 3 lb loaf mold (or adjust recipe below to your mold size, which you can do here).
• Clay extruder (for embeds) with flower accessory disk adapter (this is a different brand from the one I used, but I cannot find the adapter I have for sale anymore online.  You could check your local craft store too.  You could also make them by hand though and avoid this extra expense.
• Acrylic roller and a work surface for the lemongrass embeds (I use a tile)

Having a recipe with 70% of solid fats can be tricky, as it tends to get thick fast.  Feel free to use your own or an easier recipe, and just follow the design guidelines:

Ingredients

 

Ingredient	Gram(s)	Ounce(s)	Pounds(s)	Oil %
Karite Butter (Shea)	98.71	3.48	0.22	10%
Tallow, Beef	345.50	12.19	0.76	35%
Rice Bran Oil	246.78	8.71	0.54	25%
Ricinus Oil (Castor Oil)	49.36	1.74	0.11	5%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg	246.78	8.71	0.54	25%
Ingredient	Gram(s)	Ounce(s)	Pounds(s)	Batch %
Lye – NaOH 100% Purity (5% Superfat)	137.15	4.84	0.30	9.68%
Water (33% Lye + 67% Water Solution)	278.45	9.82	0.61	19.65%
Total Oils	987.13	34.82	2.18	69.64%
Soap Weight (Pre-Cook)	1,417.39	50	3.12	100%

Fragrance:

• 2 oz Lemongrass Verbena soap, I used one I bought from New Direction Aromatics, but feel free to use any other.

Additives/ Colorants:

• 2 tablespoons of colloidal oatmeal (optional)

For Decorations:

• Purple or violet soap dough
• Yellow or white soap dough (optional) if you are rolling flowers by hand
• green soap dough for the lemongrass effect (optional)
• corn starch

MAKING THE EMBEDS:

With extruder:

I bought my Makin’s extruder years ago for polymer clay.  It is still available online and there are also other brands available at your local craft store.  I have an adapter that allows me to put larger shape discs than the default size.  Above I included links to another brand for the flower disc attachment.

1. Condition your purple soap dough by playing with it, squeeze it and roll it.
2. Then roll it into a cylinder shape that will fit into your extruder.
3. Insert it and add the flower disc and screw it into the extruder.
4. Move the crankle until all of the soap dough comes out in the shape of the flower.
5. Repeat for as many flowers as you want.  I rolled about six flower logs.

You could watch the video here

Without extruder:

1. Take a small piece of purple soap dough and roll it into a thin snake shape, about 5 inches long (12 cm) each “snake” will be a flower petal, so you need about five per flower.
2. Take a small piece of the yellow or white soap dough and roll into a think snake or log shape, this will be the center of your flower.
3. Adhere two of the purple snakes together, using a little bit of water as your “glue” wet the soap snakes with a brush or your finger.  They will be side by side.
4. “Glue” with water, the  yellow or white soap snake to the top of the two purple ones
5. From this point on, you will add the remaining purple soap snakes so they cover the white or yellow one, forming a flower.
6. Put a slight pressure so they stay together and wrap with plastic so they do not dry out,  unless you are making the soap soon.

You can watch the video here:

Lemongrass blades:

1. take a piece of the green soap dough, and roll into a 5-6″ (12 cm) log.
2. Dust your work surface and the log with corn starch, then flatten the log with your hands.
3. If necessary, dust with cornstarch again.  This time, use the roller to make a thin sheet out of the green soap dough.  Repeat until you have 6 or more.  Leave these uncovered so they harden some.

MAKING THE SOAP

Remember to wear your safety gear, Lye and liquids containing lye burn!

1. In a well ventilated area (outside or by a window), add gradually the lye to the distilled water.  Do not breathe the fumes.
2. While you wait for the lye water to cool down to 110 or to room temperature, you can weigh and melt your oils, your fragrance and the colloidal oatmeal
3. When your oils and lye solution are at around   110°F (37.77°C). add your lye solution to the oils slowly, to avoid splatters pour it on the blender shaft.
4. Stir with the blender on Off position initially, then blend for 15 second periods, alternating with stirring, until it is emulsified.  This takes about 50 seconds to 1 minute with this recipe.
5. Add the colloidal oatmeal and fragrance, then blend again until incorporated
6. Start filling your mold.  When you have about 1 inch (3 cm) layer of soap, start adding the flower logs.  You could start with one flower log in the middle.  (You would put two to cover the length of the mold, since they are shorter than your mold.
7. Add another layer of soap, and add two flower log on each side of the soap.
8. Insert the lemongrass blades in between flowers.
9. Smooth out the top of the soap as well as you can, as your  top will become the bottom of the soap.
10. After 14  hours start checking for hardness.  Try releasing from one side of the mold, and if nothing sticks back, it is ready to be removed from the mold and cut.

You can watch the video of the making below:

 

GIVE AWAY:
For US residents (contiguous states):
If you watched the cutting of the soap part, you might remember I cut the ends into two smaller soaps. Well, I am giving away one of those smaller soaps, it makes a nice hand soap but could also work in the shower. For your chance to get it, do one of the below:
* Leave a comment below with the word “verbena” on it
* Like my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/soapsbyglenda or leave a comment there mentioning this soap
* If you are in instagram, leave a comment with the word “verbena” at this picture post https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq2uhDfHCnT/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
* Leave a comment at the blog post below, with the word “verbena”
https://soapsbyglenda.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/verbena-flowers-soap/
Winner will be announced/contacted on 2/6/19
Contest closes on 2/6/19 at 8:00 a.m. US Central time (Chicago)