Echinacea Purpurea Herb Soap

 12/9/11       room temperature 66℉         Humidity 50%

olive oil     400g
palm oil     240g
coconut oil   240g
sweet almond oil    425g 
hazel nut oil   95g 
lye  204g
milk  440g
echinacea purpurea herb powder 12g   +  water  80g


Litsea Cubeba EO
rosemary EO
Lemongrass EO

Videos(no sound) of Neem Oil Liquid Soap

                                       In the end, the temperature of this batch was only 85.2℃




Followings are short films I took from my digital camera of neem oil liquid soap. This liquid soap was  made of 70% neem oil and 30% canola oil.
Neem oil  SAP Naoh=0.1387   Koh=0.194  INS=124
I tried my best to record and stir at the same time.  Sometimes the lens got fogged up by the steam of the soap batch.
Here is the receipe of this batch

neem oil      483g                                    483*0.194 =94
canola oil    208g                                    208*0.1856=38.6
Koh            132g
water        396g
  1/24/12 
total soap paste is 905g ,  make into liquid soap using ratio of 1:2.

When I decided to record this film, I had been hand mixing for over ninety minutes.  Before recording,  I could see the koh floating on top as darker brown liquid.

You can see from the shaky film that the mixture was still very soft.

The mixture looked like chocolate pudding. The smell of the neem oil was very strong.

The pot was on the stove with warm setting on.  From time to time I monitored with a digital thermoter.  The temperature was below 85℃.

Tripod you say?  That will be great if I have one.  I will try to ask my daughter for help if I do another film again.

 

These two films I couldn't separate them.  The first one seemed about the same.  The second one seemed to dry up a bit.  Slightly turn to like sugar paste.  At the end of the second film, you can see the stove setting on "warm" with full coil.

In this film you can see the texture was denser.  The paste temperature was 81℃

Finished!!  It took another 30 minutes.

Snowdrift Farm is closing

 When I opened my email yesterday, I received the following newsletter--  

Greetings!

Unfortunately while I was caring for Trina, a series of poor management decisions left Snowdrift Farm in a very poor position. While I have tried to restore it, the problems were too immense. Therefore Snowdrift Farm will be closing on December 12, 2011.

We will be closing out our inventory at 50% off over the next week. I have tried to take down everything that is not available.

December Classes will be held from 9 am to 3 pm at 4420 N Highway Dr as scheduled.

I am very sad that we are unable to continue. We would like to thank everyone for their support over the years.

Bill

December 12 is the last day to order. 

  

We are closing out all of our products with remaining bulk amounts. Take 50% off of all orders over $30.

What a pity.  Snowdrift Farm was a very good soap making supply store.  It was established since 1996.  The retailed/wholesale goods it carried including lotion making, soap making, cosmetic needs.  The price were mostly fair.  I usually had contact with miss Christie.  She handled ordering and phones.  I also visited their formulary on their webpage to get new idea or learn new information.  The webpage of Snowdrift Farm was one of the most helpful page I visited for soapmaking.

I started to notice something wrong when I couldn't get jojoba oil at 7/13/11 . In October I even couldn't order coconut oil.  Snowdrift Farm had moved the store location twice this year.  It finally  settled in the estate which was claim to be bought by the business owner.   During this time,  Rancho de Nieve llc was considered to replace its name.


 One time when I went to pick up my order at 1:30pm,  Miss Christie was not in .  I thought she wnet to pick up her kids.  Miss Chirstie was a nice attentant but sometimes hard to be reached by phone.  she was also the only one who handled all orders.   Christie suggested that I went to apply a small business license.  I got one but I didn't realize that I need to submit a filled form monthly  to Tucson City for tax.  I submit three invalid ones.  What a trouble to go through for a small business.  The information line states that they cannot give any legal suggestion or instruction.  It means I cannot find out how to fill the form correctly.  I would be better off having no business license.

It is a sad thing to see the Snowdrift Farm close its door.  From now on, there will be no soap making supply store in Tucson.  Tucson has lost some of its sparkle....