OCTOBER 2015 SOAP CHALLENGE - ALTERNATIVE LIQUIDS

It's been a very long time since I last participated in one of Amy Warden's soap challenges. The last few months have been kind of crazy. First acting as a de facto single mum of 4 for almost a year, then a transcontinental move to be reunited again with husband and father, and then settling down and starting a life all over again. So I guess soaping became less of a priority.

But I'm SO HAPPY to be back again.  

I now live in an area where the main produce are bananas and blueberries, and they go really nicely with coconut milk, so that would have been my firt option. But I don't know why I had in my head that we had to use a liquid that we had never used before. I must have missunderstood, but because of this I automatically ruled out just about all the animal and vegetable milks, as well as yogurt, beer, coffee, teas and aloe vera juice. (Yes, I love alternative liquids in my soaps). Don't have a juicer at the moment and didn't want to buy commercial vegetable juice, so I had to find something else.

I was determined to somehow link this challenge with the community where I live now, and that's when I remembered an awsome local small business than makes some mean ginger beer. They even have a blueberry flavored one, but unfortunately they were out when I went last week, so I had to settle for Grumpy's Double Shot Chilli ginger beer.  

Belonging to the same family as turmeric and cardamom, ginger has been widely used in cooking and medicine for thousands of years, especially in Asia. I lived in China for many years and that's where I learned my go to remedy at the early signs of a cold: crash some fresh ginger root and make an infusion. It has never failed me. You should try it!

The list of health benefits asociated with ginger is really long, so I will only name a couple with links to articles that mention a few more.

Ginger is a known anti-emetic, meaning it prevents vomiting, and it can help aleviate nausea caused by morning sickness or motion sickness. Also, thanks to its compound gingerol, ginger has been found to have anti-inflamatory properties, which in turn bring pain relief. 

But, can you get all those great benefits from ginger beer also? Well, apparently, some commercial ginger beers don't even contain any real ginger but ginger flavouring. Of course, that is not the case of Grumpy's, which is made by steeping real ginger. So my guess is you could reap some of the health benefits of ginger by drinking this awsome beverage. But most of those health benefits are asociated with taking ginger internally. And we're not going to eat the soap we made with it.   

However.... this beer is brewed for weeks, and the carbonated effect is obtained by adding yeast. And yeast has been known to have multiple skin benefits. Double win. 

Also, when used on the skin, ginger can stimulate circulation and soothe burns. So we could asume that the ginger contained in the beer is being applied on the skin when we use this soap. Still, at the level of concentration we're talking about here, I think it is safer to just consider this ingredient for its label appeal.

But to enhance all the above properties, I scented the soap with ginger essential oil in a blend with pink grapefruit and bergamot. Since ginger is also a reputed aphrodisiac, I decided to add some ylang ylang as well to create a synergy. It smells a-mazing, kind of like ginger beer, really. 

As for the process, first I let the beer go flat, but I didn't boil it because it's a non-alcoholic beer. I probably could have added the lye straight, but I chose to froze the beer first, as I do with any other liquid that is not just plain distilled water. I feel that avoiding the high temperatures better preserves the qualities, but then again, I'm sure saponification and a high ph does destroy a lot... so all I'm doing is minimizing the damage, I think. 

Another challenge within the challenge for me was the natural colourants. I have experimented with some, and actually have a  limited collection of them, but they are not my thing yet. Me and indigo are definitely not friends. And I hate the way spirulina turns brown with time. I was out of clays so, ... what to do? Well, might as well try some hot paprika, to continue with the chilli theme of the beer. Not the same thing, but close enough cousins. I really like the peachy orange colour and I decided to add the powder straight to the soap batter because I think the speckles add a certain rustic look that match nicelly with an all-natural soap. For the design I went for a simple two colour dandelion zebra swirl, a technique that is no stranger to this soap challenge.

And that's it. Thank you all so much for stopping by. 

To my fellow members of the Club, thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. You are all trully inspiring. 

Anna