Saturday, August 22, 2020

The Covid Factor and where it led me.

 Covid at first sounded like a nasty dose of 'flu that could kill you if you had a serious co-existing health condition.  It was constantly on TV and my elderly clients watched it all day and it made them extremely anxious. So, with agreement from the families, we banned it and put on channels without constant virus updates. 

Doing care work, my life was not affected really, except that it got busier as a needy new client came to us. So why did I decide what I did?  I really don't know.  I decided that I would learn something new and what I wanted to learn was how to make soap. 

I made the first very simple batch.  And then another.  Then I tried new recipes and bought more ingredients and equipment.  I have been bitten by a bug!  I can't stop.  So I broadened my scope to include body butter and lip balm. The soap falls broadly into two groups.  The "good" soap made from pure organic ingredients that matures over 6 weeks.  It has no chemicals in it, it is mild and moisturising and if I put a fragrance in at all, it is a skin friendly organic pure essential oil.  I wanted it to be fit for people with allergies and sensitive skin and those who want to be careful of our planet. So far, I make four different recipes of these soaps. 

The other soap is mostly "melt and pour" that I buy ready made.  I melt it, add colour and fragrance and put it in moulds.  If there is a bird and a flower in a mould for instance, I can colour the bird white and the flower yellow and surround everything in a soft blue.  This soap is pretty so most people don't use it, which is rather disheartening. It is also good soap, but not in the sense of the purer organic slow maturing soaps. I think I'll post some of my recipes later so that I'll have a record of them. 

But the best place to learn about soap making is YouTube.  There are thousands of tutorials on there.

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