I escaped to my little cottage two days ago and attempted an old recipe with a minor adjustment. Unintentionally, I created Mint Chocolate Chip soap...oddly enough, not a drop of chocolate or cocoa in it! I was pouring in the scent at the end of trace and my husband walked in and asked about the ice cream...I told him it was soap and he walked away mumbling about ice cream.
I took pictures again, lucky you. Some day, after I make my first million selling soap, I'll hire a good photographer to make these look really, really good. You'll have to put up with me until that point.
Back to the soap... I found a note in an old soapmaking book that talked about super-fatting the soap with Shea Butter after trace, as Shea Butter doesn't completely react with the lye in the soap; it remains behind and adds nice conditioning oils in the finished soap. I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I'm trying it out. In addition to this, I picked up a pretty little packet of green oxide to add a bit of color. So this would be three firsts for me (does that add up?) - first with super-fatting after trace, first with coloring soap, and first with swirling. 
This is a basic recipe using Coconut Oil with a touch of Shea Butter, Vegi Oil (yep, Crisco), Olive Oil, and Lye. Nothing fancy here. This is a recipe I received when I took a soap making class over 10 years ago, and everything was by volume, not weight, so I broke out my old measuring cups to make this. This isn't the most scientific method, no exact figures here (really, who among us really takes the time to measure out a perfect cup??). For all it's non-scientificness (new word), it used to make the best bar of soap with a wonderful, creamy lather that lasted forever, and gentle enough for babies and those of us with picky skin. After trace, I added a heaping teaspoon of melted Shea to the mix, along with the Green Oxide (I'm going to have to look that up, not sure that's the proper name...) and a sprinkling of crumbled Spearmint leaves (the bag of peppermint leaves nowhere to be found, I should have noted that as a sign...). I used the 'Williamette Valley Peppermint' essential oil from Majestic Mountain Sage (http://www.thesage.com/) as my scent. I think next time I'll leave out the dried leaves, they turn a soft brown after curing and it really ruined the look I was going for (moldy ice cream??). Does anyone else have that issue when using Spearmint or Peppermint leaves to the soap mix? See the pics below and let me know...
So here are the soaps. I had enough for two little crates (the photos at the beginning of this post, soooo cute! You have to see these lovely vintage Velveeta crates...that shop in Jamestown CA again...) so I decided to make them each a bit different. The first is the plain old soap with swirls of color mixed with my spatula (too thick to use a knife and swirl carefully), the second I swirled less color and added a bit of crumbled spearmint leaves across the top (I don't plan on doing this again, they don't stay that pretty green color...you'll see...). I love the darker swirls in the one soap, but the brown bits kinda ruined the look, almost like sea foam. They do seem to be curing well, as I was able to cut them today. There were even some suds on the knife when I rinsed it off and the soaps seem to have a creamy texture. And a nod to my husband...they still smell like Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream...I'll have to mix in some Cocoa Butter next time and see how that smells...
Let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you.
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