A Soapy Tea Party
Celebrating life's unexpected ups and downs and catching up on making some soaps.
Making a soap batch each and every day hasn't been a goal I've been able to find time for each and every day. Sometimes life gets a little bumpy, and that's okay. There are plenty of days left in the year to have fun making all 365 soaps. So to play catch up, I decided to throw a little tea party!
Tea in soap?
Yes! The water in soap making has only one job- to dissolve the sodium hydroxide (lye) so that as a solution it can interact freely with fatty acids to form the new bonds that make soap molecules. It's easy to incorporate additional ingredients into soap by infusing water (making tea!) or replacing some or all of it with another fluid that can do the same job.
I don't know about you, but I *love* tea! Green teas, herbal teas, breakfast teas, rooibos teas, white teas, spiced teas, oolong tea- the possibilities are nearly endless.
I decided to use this as an opportunity to test out some new scents, and skipped adding color to keep it simple. Mostly I want to see how well these scent and tea combinations hold up for a pleasing soap to enjoy after curing time. What about natural colors from the brewed tea? While tea can be beautiful natural hues, most botanicals will morph to browns in soap due to the changes in pH and whole saponification process. Here are some images of a beautiful tea going though a color change, morphing from berry red to an emerald green and then brown as the lye dissolves.
Which became this soap!
Soap 32: Acai Berry Green Tea
Scent notes of green tea, pink grapefruit, hints of lemon with oakmoss and musk.
Soap 33: Pomegranate Green Tea
Scent notes of sweet tea, mint leaves, lemon, bergamot, honey, hint of cardamom.
Soap 34: Matcha Green Tea
Scent notes of light fresh green tea.
Soap 35: Earl Grey Tea
Scent notes of black tea leaves, bergamot zest, subtle sweet violet and lily.
Soap 36: White Rose Tea
Scent notes of artemisia leaves, white tea, ambrette, white pepper, and a soft hint of woody amber.
Soap 37: Amber Sun Turmeric Tea
Unscented. Turmeric is an amazing ingredient for many things, and one of those special botanicals that can be used for natural color in soap making. Here you can see a very pretty soft orange color through the bar from the tea. A stronger brew of tea would give a bit stronger color. It can also be infused into an oil, or even added directly to the soap batter for some texture and a more speckled look.
Soap 38: Lipton Tea
Scent notes of freshly brewed iced tea with lemon.
Soap 39: Hibiscus, Elderberry, Red Currant and Cranberry Tea
Scent notes of bergamot, light and sweet hints of apricot and currant. This tea is very naturally sweet, and and I'm curious to see how those natural sugars will influence the lather once it cures.
Soap 40: Chamomile, Lemongrass, Orange Peel, Lavender, Rose and Hibiscus Tea
Scent notes of lavender, lemongrass, and tea roses.
Soap 41: Rosemary, Peppermint, Spearmint and Sage Tea
Scent notes of smoky Himalayan cedarwood, rosemary, peppermint, and sage. This tea is the same blend of herbs I mixed in our Herbal Bath Blend so I just had to try turning it into a soap.
I'm so excited to find out how these delicate scents will come through after six weeks of curing time! My first impressions while unmolding and cutting these have me thinking some are going to be fantastic for sure.
Will these soaps be available in the shop? Maybe! Mostly I made these as a starting point. The ones I like best will become recipes to use for future batches.
Do you have a favorite tea? Let me know. Maybe I will make it into soap!
