Camomile soap

Camomile Soap

1 cup clean rendered tallow
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup cold soft water
1/4 cup lye flakes
2 tbsp camomile flowers
1/4 cup talc

Rachel went out and picked camomile from her garden and dried them over night. The next day I ground the dried flower to a fine powder. Then I mixed it with the talc with olive oil.
We melted the tallow with coconut oil, and set it aside to cool. Then we stirred the lye flakes into the cold water until it was dissolved. While we let that cool, I greased the mold with petroleum jelly.

When fats, and lye water were lukewarm, we added the lye to the fat stirring constantly. We had to stir it until it was thick like honey. 15 minutes went by with me stirring and nothing happened, so Rachel took over for 15 minutes. Still nothing, but it was thickening a little. Then I went at it again for a while and it still wasn't thickening. So, the book recommended that we set the bowl in cold water and stir it. It started to thicken. I stopped stirring when the solution made a ribbon on the surface.


Then we added the camomile-olive oil mixture to it. It made a beautiful green color. We then poured it onto the molds.


It made 12 molds. I kept 6 and Rachel kept 6. Because the soap is coconut based it took a little longer to set about 3 days in a cool place. Ten it needs to cure for three weeks until it can be used. I really enjoyed making the soap. Rachels mom taught her how to do it and now she showed me, and when Aoife is big enough, I'll teach her too! It was interesting to read the soap making book. I learned about the original ingredients used, and how they have changed to more processed ingredients, and now commercial soap is nothing like the real stuff. I remembered when I was young, my grandma, Irene who tells amazing stories, told me that when she was young the women would just wash their hair with soap and they would have the most beautiful sheen. She was commenting on how our modern shampoo's do nothing for our hair. Now I know why because the ingredients are so unnatural for our hair. So, here is the final product; looks great! Just have to wait a couple weeks to try it out.