CAMOUFLAGE

June 04, 2019

CAMOUFLAGE

Dear all,

Today, I would like to present you my soap Camouflage for the soap challenge club of June 2019.

This soap is made out 100% of natural colours, foods and drinks.

RECIPE
LYES (FOOD AND DRINKS)

First lye

25% Olive oil

25% coconut oil

25% thistle oil HO

10% Sheabutter

10% cocoa butter

5% castor oil

white: frozen camel milk

black: to the half of the frozen milk, I have added active charcoal

Second lye

green: frozen self made cucumber puree (poured in some destilled water- only a couple of spoons) and frozen milk. The resulting green colour was not very dark, so I helped by adding some parsley powder to it.

Third lye

light brown-rosa: frozen orange juice. The result was a extreme light yellow, which could scarcely be seen. This is why I used madder root powder to increase the intensity of the colours. 100% lye made out of frozen orange puree-juice.

CALCULATION RATIO

3 lyes.
First lye: for 250g Oils consisting of 82,5g only milk
second lye: for 150g oils consisting of 25g cucumber puree and 25g frozen milk
third lye: for 150g oils consisting of 50g orange puree
Total amount of puree in a ratio of 8: 550/8= 68,75
my ratio: 75g

FRAGRANCE

I have used a combination of essential oils: lemongrass, peppermint and orange

TECHNIQUE

I have made a dancing funnel with squeeze bottles in the dividor.

I hope you like the result.

PROPERTIES

I did not only want to get nice colours, a good technique and a good result. I also wanted to know which properties this combination of food and drinks provides to our skin.

Here you go:

camel milk: iron, B vitamins and natural acids that moisturise and soften the skin

cucumber: vitamin c, caffeic acid. Cucumbers are believed to improve the complexion, soothe the skin, and fade freckles. See further information in: http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/creative/June/cucumbersoap.html

orange: Oranges help to moisturise skin, providing softer healthier looking skin for longer. They contain antioxidants, citric acid. See the below link for further information: https://www.faithinnature.co.uk/article/the-benefits-of-orange-for-skin.aspx

Parsley: it contains antioxidant properties and high amounts of vitamin C https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/amazing-health-benefits-of-parsley/#gref

madder root: this powder offers only a natural colorant and should not be used for soaps for infants. See further information in: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/using-madder-root-powder-color-soap/

active charcoal: It draws bacteria, poisons, chemical, dirt and other micro-particles to the surface of skin, helping to achieve a flawless complexion and fight acne. https://www.livestrong.com/article/550610-what-does-charcoal-do-for-skin/

OTHER ATTEMPTS

MINI DROP SWIRL

I have also made a couple of attempts for this challenge. At the beginning, I wanted to make a mini drop swirl, but I finally changed my mind.

Below, you will see the attempt with the mini drop swirl.

For thissoap, I made 4 different lyes.

1st Lye:selfmade cucumber puree. I put it in the freezer. I did one part of the lyewith it. The colour did not turn that green. I reinforced with parsley powder (selfmace)

2nd background colour pink. I did a third lye with self made carrot juice,, and used some madder root to reinforce the colour

3rd background drop: orange. This was made with a puree ofo ranges. I put the self made orange puree/juice in the freezer. The colour turned really very light (see drops)

the fourth lye was made out of milk. I divided this into two and made white (colour of the trace) and black (active coal) drops.

HURRICANE SWIRL

As you see, the hurricane swirl turned a completely mess. For the first try I just made a small batch in the dividor with water as lye and some food powders on the trace. I mixed the powders with oil first, but I made a big mistake; I forgot to filter the mixture of oil and food powders. By filtering them, I obtained much better results (see above the mini drop swirl attempt)

BLACK MOOR SOAP

I also made a black moor soap to play with natural colours and I am happy with the results for this soap, but as you will see the food requirement was not accomplished for this category

BLUE CURACAO OBSESSION

At the very beginning, I wanted to create a mini drop swirl by using some syrups (with no alcohol), but I changed my mind, as the resulting colours were not what I was looking for. You can see the tests I performed below:

T
I bought all possible kinds of syrups and juices that had a colour. I wanted of course to test the colours, and so did I:

I then made some colouring tests with :
1- Blue Curacao cocktail syrup (with no alcohol)
2- Mango cocktail syrup (without alcohol)
3- black currant selfmade syrup
4- cranberry cocktail syrup without alcohol
5- woodruff cocktail syrup without alcohol
6- strawberry cocktail syrup witout alcohol
7- carrot juice
8- beetroot juice

Results of the test after some days:

And yes, I turned obsessed with blue curacao, but after some tries, I decided not to use it. The trace was thickening too quickly and the resulting soap looked too artificial and after some hours out of the fridge, the soap turned grey. So, I just left this idea.

The first try I did was a small batch with 500g with a Swirl in the block form. I decided myself for the following colours:
- curacao
- green--> spirulina
- white--> milk
- black--> charcoal

I made different shades of blue by pouring more or less curacao in the soap batter. It worked. The ready soap looked like in this picture. The dark green/black cannot be seen in this picture. I will post them once the soap has been cut.