Mike's Pure White Soap

Dirt

The day started with lots of dirt. My hubby and I did an 8 mile run in preparation for my friends half marathon near the end of April, On My Own Two Feet, that benefits survivors of domestic violence and raises awareness of the problem We did a nice stretch of paved Bike and Hike, not so dirty really, but when I came home, I started into the real dirt. First, my 17 year old just passed his temps, so we endured a harrowing half hour getting him to acknowledge basic car mechanics and processes, which I've taken completely for granted for the last 4 decades. After, he tried putting the car in reverse before stopping and grinding all the gears, we called it a day and relegated him to garden duty. Finally, a hint of spring...we hoed half the garden for the spring crops, planting 3 varieties of lettuce, kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, beets, and turnip greens. My indoor seeds are doing well, off the heat, and the first true leaves emerging after the seed leaves.

My husband, while he loves my soap, is requesting a personal  batch of plain white soap scented with his favorite patchouli blend. Plain soap is beautiful, but boring. I'm trying to learn different techniques, so every time I make a new batch, I'm inclined to try new color combinations and swirl patterns. My daughter and I share a shower, and literally, we have 6 or 7 bars at a time in our shower. It's not messy. We keep them dry on slatted wood holders sitting on the side of the tub. Hubby, however, keeps them wherever,  even though I bought him a nice wooden holder, yet 7-8 canoe-like soap remnants sit on the shower shelf dripping oxide blood down the shower side. It's really disgusting, and he knows it, but knows not know how to keep his handmade soap clean, dry, and contained. Due to this woeful inability, he's requested a pure white soap...cheap as all get out, made with Crisco, maybe, and unadorned.

Soap

Let there be soap for I am so dirty! Ok, I have never used New Crisco for my any of my soap formulations, and since my hubby requested something cheat and utilitarian, Crico he gets. He likes patchouli, so my fragrance blend is going to be a blend of patchouli, cedarwood, and tea trea. No color. I mixed up my oils and measured out lye and distilled water. When it came time for soaper showtime, I thought--what would a wee bit of color hurt. I'll use just a bit of light alkanet and do a droplet effect. So simple. Still mostly unadulterated white, but just a bit of life. You know what? I could sift on top just a tad of that new bronze mica I bought from Wholesale Supplies Plus. Mostly  white, but not so freakin virgin. Thank God. Oh, how fun. I mixed with my trusty stick blender to a medium trace. I poured out a teeny bit of the white and mixed with a tiny bit of alkanet. This time it was a nice light purple rather than the purple-black I mixed up for my last batch--goodness, this stuff strong or what? I poured out my white base and then poured my purple from way up high. I love this technique--so exciting to see the what happened deep within the soap the next day. I swear, it's so much like running or gardening, I can't even stand it. You just never know what you're going to get.