I checked the cream soap this morning, and it is delightfully unchanged! That means it is fully emulsified, I won't have to worry about any liquid soap or other fluids separating out. Right now, it's like a firm putty - like fresh playdoh, but translucent. After I've had my coffee and breakfast I'll be taking one pound of the soap, and whip it with a hand mixer. I can let it sit for a couple of hours after the whip, to see if it stays whipped, and then mix in crushed walnut shell and sugar, perhaps a little apricot kernel oil or jojoba, and see what kind of scrub it makes. My feet are just dying for some scrub, I've taken to going barefoot or with sandals since the layoff, and they look pretty bad! It's too hot to put back on my hand knit socks, but they were doing a great job of keeping my feet nice and soft - but it won't be so bad using handmade scrub and foot cream instead!
And speaking of things that scrub, I have a couple of new soaps in my shop. I sent my oldest son to town to pick up, gasp, lard. My brother just bought a new house, and he prefers an old recipe of mine that is about 27% lard, and requested new soaps for the new bathrooms. The instruction I gave my son was "There are several different sizes of lard, I just need the one pound box, not the giant tub". What he heard was "Blah blah blah lard, blah blah blah blah giant tub." He brought home the EIGHT POUND TUB! Gah! Oh well. It is a great formula, with creamy lather and a long lasting rock hard bar, so I made enough for everyone, not just little brother. The Slab of Slate soap and the Lemon Poppy seed are made with this non-vegetarian recipe, I had forgotten just how luxurious those soaps are, and still full of great veggie oils (olive, macadamia, mango butter). Coffee is cold now, I'm off to whip me some soap!
