Perfecting My Recipes

Yes, there is an S on the end of the word recipe.  I went back to my local farmer's market yesterday, after a long winter.  I brought with me a whole new inventory of soaps.  I have spent the winter trying new techniques and perfecting my recipes and I think I've finally found the perfect recipes.  I have a main recipe that I make for the majority of my soaps, but I also have some soaps that have other functions besides just showers.  For example, I recently developed a mechanic soap (of which I need to replenish already!).  The mechanic soap uses a slightly different recipe. 

This winter, I made a huge soap supply haul at one of my favorite soap supply online stores and with it, I decided to purchase some kaolin clay.  I have heard many soapmakers talk about putting it in their soaps so I decided to try it.  It was cheap as dirt (probably because it is dirt) so I bought a 5 pound bag of it.  Well, it took a few tries to figure out how to use it and how much to use but I finally got into my groove and have been making some truly beautiful soaps with it. 

Since the soap we use here in my home is always my failed soap or my old soap whose fragrance has turned a little, I had never used any of the soap that had the clay in it.  I was cutting a loaf of soap the other day and per usual, I cut the ends off.  I decided to wash my hands at the kitchen sink with this end piece.  It was the creamiest, most luxurious soap I had ever used in my life.  I can't explain why it felt more luxurious than my regular soap but it did and the only difference I could figure out was the addition of the kaolin clay.  So I took another end piece into the shower with me.  Holy cow, it was amazing.  I rubbed it on my shower puff and got the thickest, fluffiest lather I've ever seen.  It made the shower an awe-inspiring experience.  Look at these two pictures.  The picture on the bottom has kaolin clay incorporated into the whole soap.  The one on top does not.  Can you see the difference?  It's amazing to me.