Herbal infusions

I love herbal infusions. They can be a way of using a herb well past the date that you would normally throw them out. Foodwise they can add an edge to your cooking and for making soap they can add fragrance, but also means that you can utilise the qualities of the herb without having the lumpy bits of the herb (which all tend to blacken up after a while).

To make an oil infusion you need approx 500g of your oil and up to 8oz of the herb you've chosen. A double boiler/bain marie pot makes life so much easier, but if you don't have one you can use a normal saucepan with an upturned tin in the bottom - or something solid that won't be affected by boiling water.

Measure your ingredients and place in bain marie over continuously simmering water. Make sure the bain marie or bowl doesn't touch the bottom of the pan (which is where the tin comes in) and that the water doesn't bowl dry. Allow the infusion to cook for approx 1 hour, making sure the herb doesn't cook - deep fried infused herb tends to leave crispy bits. When infused you can start again with the same oil and a new batch of herbs to make a stronger batch. Basically, the longer and more often you can keep the process going the stronger the infusion.

When you're happy filter the oil through ever decreasing filters. I tend to do the last pour through a coffee filter to make sure no bits are left, but it takes a long time to filter through – patience and a good book is needed, as you'll have to keep topping the filter up.

Alternatively you can pour the oil with the herb into a glass jar and leave it on the windowsill. It works best if you can leave it in the sun, but, if that's not possible then a warmish room will do. This kind of infusion takes between 24 – 48 hours, but some people will leave the infusion for weeks.

When picking herbs for soap making I like lavender (soothing), peppermint (aching muscles), calendula (skin rashes and inflammation), annato (colour), nettle (astringent), rosemary (scalp itching). You can use fresh herbs from the garden, but for longevity of the final infused oil it is best to use fully dried herbs to make sure that no moisture remains mixed with the oil.

Soap Scents

It's been a fun few months. Illness, both mine and the children, has taken up all my time and it's been enough just keeping up with the world let alone adding crafting time on. I have lots of projects in the pipeline and am having fun but not seriously crafting at present. I am still working on image transfer to polymer clay. I can do this and it works well I just can't find a suitable varnish to seal the images. It either stays sticky and doesn't set or sets and then becomes sticky after a few months. Tcch. The fine tuning is always the hardest.

On fine tuning I've been making soap tonight. I have a new base recipe in development which is needing tweaking and I thought tonight I'd go for it and make a full size batch with a nice scent for christmas presents. It looks good so far. I know I shoudn't peek, buthey, we all do it. It's gelling nicely at present so this could be the definitive base. I've made up a new scent mixture as a heavier Christmas smell and have used 4ml ylang ylang, 4ml cinnamon and 12ml sandalwood. A nice treat for the nose and hopefully a good present for my friends.

I've also been fiddling with soap wrapping. I like waxed paper. I like the bareness of it. Thinking on it though I think for the price I charge for a bar of soap maybe bareness is not acceptable. If you want to treat yourself you want something that looks good as well as feel and smell good. That makes it sound as if I overcharge! I don't . One of the reasons this new base recipe is taking so long is that I can't get the price in for less than £5 because there are so many goodies in it. OK if I ever get to be a bulk producer, but those days aren't here yet. Slow and steady and building , but not bulk yet. Anyway I have had a brainwave and have got some lovely paper that is affordable and now I'm prevaricating. Full soap wrap? Or strip of paper round soap? The strip looks good, but for hygiene maybe the full wrap. I need to sleep on it.

http://www.puresoaps.co.uk/