A couple of years back I had a wart in between my eyebrows so I had to go to the dermatologist to have it checked. The dermatologist prescribed me to use a soap that I haven’t seen yet in the supermarket or other beauty and wellness sections of drug stores and department stores. Good thing that I can buy it from the derma’s clinic.
First exposure to dark color soap & its natural ingredients
I usually read the labels of the things I buy. I am curious about the ingredients of food and other products I put on my body. I become more interested when I’ve seen that a product is made of healthy ingredients (plus factor if it has all-natural ingredients). Since I liked the soap so much I used it not just on my face but on my whole body as well.
I kept the soap box because I wanted to remember the ingredients used, but since I need to declutter from time to time and I don’t like having too much stuff in my room I eventually have thrown it out because my table is already full of books and papers. Though I don’t have the soap box anymore, I still remember its ingredients because I was surprised the first time I read its label. It has some ingredients that are pretty weird for me. It has charcoal! To be precise it’s active charcoal. What I usually remember when I hear the word charcoal is barbecue because when I was a kid I used to sit with my grandparents while they were grilling fish and barbecues using charcoals. So I never thought that charcoal is a good ingredient for cleaning or detoxing. I used to think that charcoals are dirty.
The other ingredient it has is tea tree oil. I have an idea of how good tea tree oil is (this shall be told in another post — if ever I would write about tea tree oil ) I know that it’s antibacterial and antifungal so the moment I saw that it was one of the ingredients of that soap, I was convinced that it was a good soap to clean my face and the wound caused by wart extraction.
Creating the black soap
I don’t remember having plans of making an active charcoal soap, what I just remember is I like to remember the ingredients that are good for the skin.
I don’t use that soap anymore. To be honest I don’t even use any soap to wash my face because I prefer to wash my face using water. (Though, occasionally, I wash my face using regular soap when I felt dusty after cleaning or painting.) I thought of making a black soap after seeing that there was an available glycerin soap with active charcoal online. I can actually buy that and just add some essential oils to make my black soap, but I thought I’d rather buy the opaque glycerine, and manually add real active charcoal, plus the essential oils. I want to see for myself how the active charcoal reacts to the glycerin while the soap is being done.
Struggles in making the black soap
Though I have bought some materials and tools to make my soap, still they weren’t complete. Some of the items I bought were not appropriate so I have to be creative on how I will be able to do what even with limited resources.
Measurement difficulty
Although there are some recipes that you can find on different websites, I haven’t found the one that is suited to make my black soap. First I haven’t found a soap recipe that contains active charcoal. Next, the measurements recommended in online articles are different from one another so I had to compare them. I had to read different DIY soap-making articles so I would know the measurement that would fit in making my black soap. I am not good at Math so I had to use a calculator and unit converter to know how many drops of essential oil, a teaspoon of active charcoal, and ounces of glycerin soap I need to make the black soap. Once I was able to figure out the right measurement and write my recipe, I thought the next step would be easier.
The actual making of the soap starts with preparing the ingredients, and that includes having the right amount for each ingredient. Since you have to follow the recipe, you also need to make sure that your actual ingredients have the same measurement in your recipe so you’ll have your desired output. However, I don’t have a weighing scale so I have to make an estimation. I divided my solid glycerin soap based on the unit conversion I got. I was not sure if the amount of glycerin soap I used was exactly 1 pound (please continue reading to see the outcome of my black soap )
Melt it easily
I’ve read from balm-making DIYs that if you are going to use beeswax, use the ones that are in pellet form so it would be easier to melt it. As far as I remember, I haven’t noticed that there was any mention in DIY soap articles I’ve read that you need to chop your glycerin soap into smaller cubes. Maybe they have a good reason for not including nor recommending that in the steps, but I thought I’d like to cut my solid glycerin into cubes so that it would easily melt.
Bigger pot please…
The usual recommendation for melting the glycerin soap is to use a microwave oven. The recipe, I’ve read, mentioned that it will only take a few seconds if you use a microwave oven. We no longer have a microwave oven, and if you don’t have a microwave oven the other option recommended is a double boiler which we don’t have as well. I initially thought of buying one but changed my mind and bought a chocolate melting pot instead. I thought it would work just fine because I can use our other pots as its base. But when the chocolate melting pot was delivered, I found out that it was too small. So, I couldn’t make more soaps at one time because it’s too small.
Heating Uncertainties
Next, I haven’t used a double boiler EVER in my life. I don’t cook, to be honest, I don’t know how to cook except for rice, boiled eggs, fried hotdogs, champurado, and instant noodles (though I’ve attempted to bake lasagna once ) so I didn’t know how much water I should put on the pot. Initially, when I poured water into the pot, I made sure it did not touch the base of the chocolate melting pot. But I’ve noticed that the melting time was taking longer than what was written on my guide. So I’ve increased the flame level and added more water to the pot. I made sure that the chocolate melting pot was soaked in water so all parts of it will be heated and all the cubes in the chocolate melting pot wherever they may be placed would be easily melted too.
It worked! I wasn’t sure if that was the right way of doing things but I just did it. Since I saw that the process became a bit faster and the glycerin soap melted quicker, I thought I was on the right track.
The earlier the better — hmmm… Maybe?
I wasn’t sure when was the right time to add the active charcoal so I just followed my intuition. I added the active charcoal before all the cubed glycerin soap was completely melted. I thought if I sprinkled it on the soap base before it melted all the active charcoals will be appropriately melted and blended. There was a point where I was a bit worried that the active charcoal will not melt because the soap base was almost completely melted and yet the active charcoals were on the side clumping. Of course, I don’t want to have a soap with clumped active charcoals. I want to do it well, and have my first soap attempt a success, or else I will be lazy to continue making more soap projects.
Messy but Oh so Good ingredient
Without a doubt active charcoal is good for your skin because of its properties, (I’m not sure about the other benefits of active charcoal as of the moment I’m writing but I’ve read somewhere that it is detoxifying. I have also seen that one toothpaste brand added active charcoal in their product so I know active charcoal is really good. If they use it as an ingredient and emphasized in their marketing that it’s the special ingredient for that toothpaste variant then it means it must be really good, hence I am convinced that active charcoal is really good. ) One thing to be aware of when though when you use active charcoal is that although it is good for cleansing, it can make your hands look dirty plus it can leave stains on your soap molder. (oh my ) That’s what happened to my molder! I have two soap molders. I have used the other one, but while I was organizing my tools and materials for soap making the active charcoal was sprinkled on my new and unused molder, and now it looks so old, and dirty!!! That’s why I’m so familiar with the stain that the active charcoal can leave on your molder. Actually, during the time, I have written this post, my molder was soaked in water. I was hoping that the stain won’t stay forever on my molder. Now my molder looks so dirty even if it is clean and unused. That’s why one thing you have to know when you are using active charcoal for the first time is that it is oh so good but it is oh so messy too.
My favorite part
My favorite part of making my black soap was dropping the essential oils. I have used tea tree oil, and its scent is so strong. Because it’s so strong I have forgotten to add other fragrant oil. Tea tree oil has a woody and herbally scent. Sometimes when I smell it, I remember the smell of gas. I don’t understand why some natural ingredients smell like gas to me.
But anyway, if you’re okay with having the tee tree oil scent in your soap, then it’s alright not to add fragrant oil. I’m okay with it because I tend to be a purist most of the time. But I think it would also be nice to have a variant where my black soap would smell better and more appealing. Maybe something floral would be good because tea tree oil has a touch of herbal scent. It feels good when you smell good after taking a bath because your soap smells nice. Of course, you wouldn’t want to go out of the bathroom feeling fresh but people around you cover their noses and avoid you because you smell like gas or wood.
Do it Quick!
While I was doing the soap, I felt I was doing it right, but not until I was on the last step of soap making process. In the soap DIY guide I was following, it says there that you should avoid the soap mixture from being foamy. ( even by the time I was making the soap I still kept on looking at my guide and comparing some details) So when I was stirring the mixture I felt a bit proud because I haven’t seen any foam on it. I felt that my attentiveness was worth it because I made sure that I was quick to make some adjustments whenever there was a change that would occur in the mixture. However, when I was about to completely pour all the mixture into the molder, I noticed that some of the mixtures have already hardened even before it was transferred to the molder.
I did not anticipate that so I wasn’t careful nor did anything to prevent it from happening. If I knew that would happen I would have probably thought of preventive ways earlier. As of the moment, this post was written I was thinking about what caused it and what’s the best quick fix for it. Some of the questions I have were ” was it because of the flame level?” ” Was it due to the water level on the pot?” ” Do glycerin soap harden when it’s too hot and cooked slowly?” These were the questions I thought that need some answers to for me to have a smooth soap-making process.
Bubble bubbles bubbles…
I looooove bubbles!!!! But when you’re making soap the last thing you want your soap to have is bubbles. You want to make it look solid and compact. One of the concerns you may encounter when you have already poured your soap mixture on the molder is that they could have bubbles. When this happens, don’t fret!!! It’s natural, what you need to do is to know what you can do to remove the bubbles without poking them. (As much as possible I think it’s best not to touch your newly poured soap mixture while it’s still warm and soft unless you want to leave your fingerprints in your soap and have it as a design ) Touching it will leave marks on the soap which is the last thing you want to happen if you want to have a perfectly shaped soap.
The new black soap
Using one pound of solid glycerin soap enabled me to produce two and a half soaps. But I think if I’d made the two holes of the molder full with the soap mixture, I’ll only have two soaps.
I named the soap “black soap” because the color of the finished product is black due to the active charcoal. So active charcoal is not just good for cleansing but it’s also a good colorant if you want to have a black-colored soap. I don’t have issues if I use black soap as long as I know why it’s black and the ingredients are healthy and natural. But I’m aware that some may not find the color black in their soap appealing. My father asked me why the soap I made was black and nicely suggested that maybe I should make soaps in different colors.
My Honest Review on my Black Soap
I used my black soap a day after I made it. I used the half soap first because occassionally I have this attitude of consuming the least I like first.
When I used it, I have to consider the lather, the bubbles, how it felt on my skin, and whether the soap easily breaks and becomes smaller.
I’d say I’m happy with the bubbles and the lather. I think the glycerin soap I bought was good. My black soap produces just there a right amount of lather and bubbles. Not too much and not too few.
About how it felt on my skin, I think I’m pretty happy with the result. As I’ve mentioned above I don’t normally use soap to wash my face but I’d like to assess my black soap if it’s good or not, so I washed my face using it. I don’t know if you like the feeling of having your skin felt stretched after putting on egg white with a honey face mask. I don’t know how to exactly describe it, but it felt somewhat rubbery yet nice, I think the term they use for this is skin tightening sensation (I found this term after I googled the feeling or after effect of putting egg white honey face mask, I Googled it because I want to describe the feeling)
My black soap remained hard too and did not easily break nor become smaller and softer even after I rubbed it on my hands and different parts of my body several times.
However, while I was using my black soap, I realized I have a concern when using pretty soaps. Since I like the design of the soap, I don’t want to keep on rubbing the part of the soap with a design because I don’t want it to fade. I want to keep its pretty design even if I’m using it. I realized maybe I should use soaps without a design so I wouldn’t be concerned if the soap’s design is fading.
Anyway. I’m happy with my black soap. It’s solid, it’s hard, and it has a good lather. I made it and it’s all-natural
About the soap’s scent, it smells like tea tree oil. My parents didn’t complain that I smelled herbally and woody My skin didn’t smell tea tree oil and I felt fresh too. I thought it was okay even if I wasn’t able to add any fragrant oil but as I’ve said earlier it would be nice if my black soap would smell lovelier too.
Ps. This post might be helpful for people who are making their soap for the first time. I’m not an expert soap maker. This post was created to share my first-hand experience and honest thoughts while making an all-natural soap. At the moment of writing this post, I’m a beginner and a curious person who likes to try and play with different essential oils, and other natural ingredients. I’m still in the process of learning more about Aromatherapy.
Xoxo 💋❤
Originally posted at misswoman.wordpress.com
References:
Oil Therapy 