This has probably been the most difficult soap for me to make. Not because of the technique (though it was time consuming) or the amount of colors I used (Seven!), but because it forced me to revisit a memory that causes deep pain still, and that is the loss of our dog Queenie, she was a Corgie – Chow Chow mix, whom we came to love though we only had her for a couple of years. I have wanted a make a soap inspired in her for a while though, so this was a nice opportunity to do so.
Queenie came to our lives in 2015 when one night, when driving home, we found her and her companion dog, Zack, on the street. Literally on the street:
We immediately thought that someone had run over the black dog and the other dog was standing guard. I got out of the car only to find out the black dog (Zack) was simply taking a nap.
This happened very close to our home, within walking distance. Both of the dogs had collars and they looked old, so we figured we just needed to find their owners.
There was no contact information on their tags, however through the vet listed we contacted their last owner, who said she had given them away to a friend, but that neither her or her friend wanted them back since the dogs kept scaping their yard. Long story short, other than rabies vaccines, they had not had any vet care or preventive treatments, so they were both heartworm positive, and for Queenie, who was 9 at the time, this meant heart complications which eventually were too much for her body. We welcomed them to our family and Zack is still with us.
This is a picture of her during Christmas in 2016, unbeknown to us, this would be her last Christmas with us (she is on the front, left)
I chose a rainbow for the colors of the soap, as I figured there are lots of rainbows where she is right now. I made a slideshow video with a lot more pictures of her if you care to watch. And wrote a very sad poem too.
Below is the recipe, supply list and video of the making of the soap too:
Recipe Totals
Note: I am using a lye blend that includes Koh (Potassium hydroxide), mainly because I bought some for a project, did the project, now I have a lot leftover and want to use it up. Also because I have read that it helps increase bubbles, and my husband loves a bubbly soap. You can run the recipe through a soap calculator to get the amounts for just Naoh.
I used the same recipe for the embed, but in smaller amounts, I still had too much leftover though.
| Liquid Required | 6.09 oz | 172.53 g |
| NaOH Weight | 3.75 oz | 106.3 g |
| KOH Weight | 0.31 oz | 8.72 g at 90% Purity |
| Lye Weight | 4.06 oz | 115.02 g |
| Oil Weight | 28 oz | 793.79 g |
| Fragrance Oil Weight | 1.75 oz | 49.61 g |
| Superfat | 5% | |
| Total Batch Weight | 39.91 oz | 1131.35 g |
| Lye Concentration | 40% | |
| NaOH / KOH Ratio | 95% / 5% | |
| Liquid : Lye Ratio | 1.5 :1 | |
| Saturated : Unsaturated | 45:55 |
Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes
| Oil | % | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 30 | 8.4 | 238.14 |
| Tallow Beef | 30 | 8.4 | 238.14 |
| Coconut Oil, 76 deg | 25 | 7 | 198.45 |
| Castor Oil | 8 | 2.24 | 63.5 |
| Shea Butter | 7 | 1.96 | 55.57 |
| Total | 100 | 28 | 793.79 |
Fragrance
| Indian Sandalwood | 1.75 oz |
Colorants
1/4 tsp Orange Vibrance Mica
1/4 tsp Green Mojito Mica (Crafter’s Choice)
1/4 tsp Banana yellow mica (Crafter’s Choice)
1/4 tsp Kashmir Mica (Blue)
1/8 tsp Fluorescent Neon Purple from Nurture Soap+ 1/8 tsp Purple Vibrance Mica
1/4 tsp of Trial by Fire Mica red mica
1/4 Tsp of MIDNIGHT BLUE MICA FROM NURTURE SOAP + 1/8 tsp Purple Vibrance Mica + 1/8 tsp Black Onyx Mica from Elements Bath and Body for the Indigo color
Equipment
Molds
Embed
To make the embed mold, I used a 3-d printer and this silicone. I explained how I did it briefly in the video. I can make custom ones too, you can contact me here about it. However, there is a dog embed mold already in the market from Lisa with I dream in Soap. Initially I was going to make a vertical column mold, but had trouble figuring out how to keep it from leaking, then I remembered Lisa’s cat embed mold, and decided to make it loaf style as well, she is truly genius!
If you are interested in learning how to make your own mold, I found these videos helpful:
Something curious:
This morning I woke up after a particular dream. Perhaps it is because this blog post went live today and I scheduled it last night before going to be.
In my dream, which was an odd dream as usual, I was walking up an outdoor walkway, my mom was with me. There was grass on both sides but the walkway was made out of concrete and it was very wide, perhaps 10′ wide. There were sections with stairs and then long flat sections as well. As I am walking up (there was a lot of people coming and going both ways), I saw Queenie. Standing up, looking in the opposite direction. I saw her from behind and recognized her, and said to myself: This is Queenie for real, I am not imagining it.
I got close to her and kneeled down, and started petting her. I remember telling her “I am not coming home yet”, and she smiled and seemed to understand. Sadly I had drank a lot of water the evening before so my bladder woke me up around that point.
Soaps by Glenda 