A few weeks ago I bought some fresh lavender from Trader Joe's, which, if you aren't on the west coast, is like Whole Foods but for the more, um, value-oriented hipster. It's the place you go when you want granola, but you don't want to give up a kidney for it. I love that place. Anywho, I put the lavender away when I got home and forgot about it for several weeks. Until yesterday. I was looking around and voila, found that my fresh lavender had turned into dried lavender. The buds had dehydrated really nicely (gotta love that dry Los Angeles air), so what else was there to do but make soap with them?
Lavender is always a big hit with people. It's a popular essential oil with a very long and rich history, going back at least 2,500 years. Its name is derived from (duh) the purple color of its tiny flowers, and it was used as a perfume by ancient Egyptians and cure-all by the Greeks. Today lavender is used for relaxation, stress reduction, and even to help in the healing of bruises and burns. No lie, if you're starting to bruise, or you burn yourself, apply a few drops of lavender essential oil and you can really tell the difference.
I've used lavender in my massage therapy practice for years, and there's really nothing quite like it for that "ahhhh" relaxation feeling. I can remember finding the smell a bit too flowery at first, but now it's one of my favorite scents. I've played around with using lavender in previous batches of soaps, but I decided to go all-out with this one, and base the soap around the herb rather than just doing my thang and adding in some lavender essential oil at the end.
I spent a few hours steeping the herb in the melted oil for this batch. This makes a sort of tea, so you've got lavender oil rather than just plain oil. You're really supposed to let it steep in a jar by a sunny window for a few weeks if you want to make true infused oil, but I am notoriously impatient so I cooked mine for a couple of hours in the crockpot. The oil was pretty fragrant after I strained it, so I sort of accomplished my goal, I think. The next time around I want to prepare a true infusion just to see how it differs.
There are lots of lavender essential oils out there, but the one I added after the soap cook is actually a popular blend of different lavender essential oils. The point being, since crops differ each year and all the oils differ slightly, to make a lavender essential oil that is consistent in quality and scent year after year. I find the oil I use isn't as herby as a lot of other lavender EO's (what soapers called essential oils), and is a bit more subtle, but I really like how it smells.
This batch actually wasn't without its hiccups. Because the oil was so hot from steeping the lavender flowers, when the chemical reaction with the oil began it kind of rose up and out of the crockpot, onto my stove and my floor. But, I was able to salvage most of the batch (not the soap that hit the stove and floor, of course) and have it not end up a complete disaster.
I mixed in some moisturizing oils, the lavender essential oil, and some dried lavender buds along with a bit of silver mineral coloring to give the pale soap a kind of sheen. The finished product turned out pretty well, I think, and the smell is absolutely awesome. Essential oils are notorious for fading after a while, but that's part of the art of making this stuff. Experimenting and finding what works and will stick, and what doesn't work so well. It'll be fun to see how the soap changes in a few weeks as it dries out and hardens up a bit (what soapers call "curing"). All lye based soaps are better after a few weeks of curing.
But that's a whole other entry.
No comments:
Post a Comment