After scrounging through my stash of essential oils, I settled on a Rosemary Lavender combo and a Lemon Ginger combo. Since the lavender looked so delicate, I opted to mix that one with the creamy oatmeal base. The orange peels were a nice accompaniment to the golden color of the olive oil base anyway.
My kitchen already smelled amazing.
The second combo came together very similarly. Again, a pound of soap base (oatmeal glycerine this time), half a dropper or rosemary essential oil, half a dropper of lavender essential oil, 1/2 tbsp dried lavender flowers, and 1/2 tbsp dried mixed herbs (rosemary, thyme, and parsley). Fresh herbs shouldn't be used as their water content is just too high.
Once the herb and lavender soap was poured, I sprinkled another 1/2 Tbsp each of lavender and herbs on the top of the cooling soap for aesthetics value. I assumed the majority of the lavender and herbs would sink to the bottom of the mold- and I was right. This was better in my mind but I don't think it made much of a difference in the long run. The whole bar smelled phenomenal.
Tick.tock.tick.tock.tick.... You get the picture. In reality, the time I spent waiting for the soap to harden was a busy few hours. I made an amazingly silky and moisturizing body butter! That recipe is next.
Once the soap was cool and hard, I flipped the pan upside down onto a cutting board and lightly pressed on the bottom of each cavity. A sharp knife made chopping the loafs it into smaller bars quite simple. The non-stock spray did its job splendidly. No soap casualties.
I decided to wrap up a few of the bars to send out to family. The more testers, the better.
The herb lavender bars smelled like a spring garden. They were exactly what I was hoping for. The citrus ginger isn't a total flop, but the ginger scent isn't nearly as strong as I'd like. It still smells good, and the exfoliating orange peels feel wonderful regardless.
Onto the Body Butter. Have you ever looked at a bowl of buttercream icing and thought- oh man I bet that feels wonderful on skin. If you did, you'd be wrong. It's sticky. But the light whipped clouds are enticing anyway! Enter whipped shea body butter.
You'll need a stand mixer with whip attachment, raw shea butter, coconut oil (the hard variety for cooking), grapeseed oil, and a scent of your choice. Raw shea butter smells a bit strange if you aren't accustomed to it, looks hard, feels like dry clay, and seems like a major failure destined to happen. This works.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, put 1 cup coconut oil, and 2 cups (roughly 1 pound) raw Shea butter. Set the bowl over a pot of lightly simmering water for a makeshift double boiler. I'm all about using less dishes wherever possible.
Gently stir as everything melts. Once melted, stir in 1/2 cup grapeseed oil. Set this aside for 30 minutes to let it come down in temperature a bit.
Once the bowl is no longer hot- warm is fine- set it over a bowl of ice water to speed the cooling. At this point stir in your scent of your choice. Essential oils work well here but keep them to a minimum. You don't want to smell too strongly after you apply this. If you were to whip this in its liquid state, you would have a bowl of liquid and likely a mess on any surface within 15 feet of your mixer. If you whip it once it's cool, you get body butter. This is what is looks like after cooling. Think cream of chicken soup- no seriously.
Pop the bowl onto your stand mixer. Using the whip attachment, beat on medium until it looks like buttercream. Scrape the bowl a couple of times to make sure everything is fully incorporated.