Rose and Mastic Soap

Many months have passed since my friend Carolyne sent me a package of dried rose buds from London, allong with some beautiful hand-dyed silk crepe, and hinted that I might make some rose soap for her, but I was a bit anxious about this project and didn't really feel ready to give it a try until now.

Carolyne likes earthly, natural colors and fragrances, so I've been contemplating how to go about making a rose fragranced soap, how would I structure it, which colours should I use, which oils and butters, which essential oils etc.

Finally, I decided to use Rose Perfume Oil that contains some Rose essential Oil in it (because Rose E.O and Rose Absolute were way to expensive to use), Palmarosa E.O. and finally (after I tested the combination in my whipped body butter) Chios Mastic. 

Rose and Mastic Body Butter

For English, scroll down

Βούτυρο Σώματος με Τριαντάφυλλο & Μαστίχα 

Η εμμονή μου με Μαστίχα Χίου συνεχίζεται ... Σήμερα έφτιαξα λίγο βούτυρο σώματος με λάδι Καρύδας, βούτυρο Καριτέ, Αμυγδαλέλαιο και Καστορέλαιο, αρωματικό έλαιο Τριαντάφυλλου, αιθέριο έλαιο Palmarosa και Μαστίχα Χίου. 

Μαστίχα έχει τόσα πολλά οφέλη για το δέρμα, έχει αντι-μικροβιακή (υπό τη μορφή αιθέριου ελαίου) και αντι-φλεγμονώδη δράση, και είναι φυσικό αντιοξειδωτικό. Η έρευνα έχει δείξει ότι η μαστίχα Χίου συμβάλλει στην επούλωση των τραυμάτων και την ανάπλαση της επιδερμίδας.

Πέρα από όλα αυτά, έχει ένα πολύ ωραίο, φρέσκο ​​άρωμα που, κατά τη γνώμη μου, λειτουργεί συμπληρωματικά με το άρωμα Τριαντάφυλλου ή Λεβάντας.

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My obsession with Chios Mastic continues... Today I made some Rose & Mastic body butter with Coconut oil, Shea butter, Almond oil and Castor oil, Rose perfume oil, Palmarosa essential oil and Mastic from Chios.

Greek Mastic, a natural fragrance for handmade soap

Handmade Soap with Chios Mastic
 Χειροποίητο σαπούνι με μαστίχα Χίου

I've been on a roll these last couple of weeks. Lots of ideas, energy and several batches of soap set to cure. What I want to write about today is my current obsession with Mastic and the first time I used dividers to make some color swirls.

Other than for its lovely fresh fragrance, using Chios Mastic (Mastiha) has some amazing benefits:

"Ever since antiquity, Chios mastiha has been well known for its medicinal and pharmaceutical properties. 
Nowadays, it has been gradually revealed by the scientific community, through accurate and scientifically acceptable methods based on laboratory research and clinical studies carried out by independent researchers in Greece and abroad, that natural Chios mastiha is gifted with unique beneficial and therapeutic properties, thus confirming what has been historically recorded over the past. 
To be more precise, scientific evidence has confirmed Mastiha’s beneficial action against disorders of the peptic system, its contribution to oral hygiene, its significant antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory action, as well as the fact that it constitutes a natural antioxidant agent. In addition to that, Chios mastiha contributes to wound healing and skin regeneration. " [LINK]

And it smells great! All in all - an ideal, natural addition to handmade soaps.

I purchased 10 g. package of mastic resins in my local super-market for aprox. 3.5 EUR.

First time I used Chios Mastic resins in cold process soap was a week ago, in my Lavender & Mastic Soap and I was very happy with the result. Although I used both Lavender and Palmarosa e.o., the aroma of Mastic was very distinct after the soap was unmolded.

Rebatching the Whipped Soap

As you could see in my previous post, I made a whipped soap, for the first time, couple of days ago. 

Due to different consistencies of white and pink part of the batch, I wasn't able to mix and swirl them as I intended, so I was not very happy with the result. 

I was afraid how the bar might behave once we use it, because those white pieces didn't look that well incorporated in the rest of the batch.

I figured the bar may crumble to pieces soon after being used for the first time and I didn't want all those precious oils and butters to go to waste, so I decided to rebatch.

My little girl liked how the first batch looked, so I saved a couple of bars for her and grated the rest of them in a big stainless steel pot. 

First Time Making Whipped Soap

Couple of days ago I decided to try making whipped soap. I read all about it on Nizzy's website, figured out a recipe that had 75% sold oils and had my old hand mixer ready. Because it was the first time I used that technique, I had my hands full and I didn't dare taking time to get my camera, so I had my 7 year old daughter come and take a couple of photos with my cell phone. I think she did a marvelous job, all things considered :) 

About the Recipe 

I Used 101 g. of NaOH and water 2.5 times the amount of NaOH. I added Strawberry FO and Coco butter FO for fragrance and used white Kaoilin and pink French clay for colour. I was going for light, dusty pink and I used one table spoon of pink clay and one tea spoon of white clay for aproximately 1 pound of soap. This was also the first time I used pink clay in my soap and I must say I liked the results.

Sapun od maslinovog ulja

Sapun od maslinovog ulja sa Halkidikija

Kada je reč o sapunu koji se pravi isključivo od maslinovog ulja, takozvanom Castille sapunu, mišljenja su podeljena. Neki se kunu u njegove prednosti i blagotvoran uticaj na kožu. Preporučuju ga bez rezerve za upotrebu čak i kod nege nežne dečje kože.

Drugi opet ne vole ovaj sapun zbog toga što nije dovoljno penušav, a u našem društvu penušavost je sinonim za dobar sapun. Neki ga opisuju kao gnjecav jer kada se voda ne iscedi dobro sa posude na kojoj ga držite, sapun omekša i deluje nekako gnjecavo. Međutim, iz mog iskustva to je nešto što se dešava sa većinom čvrstih sapuna, bilo fabrički bilo ručno pravljenih. Jako je bitno da se sapun drži na suvom kada se ne koristi.