Making oat milk in preparation to make an oat milk soap

Howdy Soapsmith Nation! I am working on some new recipes with additives I have been wanting to try out. After 10 years of making my tried and true recipes I have decided it's time to, once again, spread my wings and make some new awesome recipes! 

I wanted to work with oatmeal for a recipe so I decided to make it into oat milk first. Let's take a step back and look at the skin care benefits that oats can impart for us.

There are properties that will carry through saponification and some that will not carry through but are present in other skin care formulations, let's talk about both!

• Inexpensive and readily available
• Typically low allergenic and good for all skin types including problem skin
• Can provide some exfoliation
• Contains anti-oxidants and are anti-inflammatory
• May treat dry skin and remove dead skin cells
• Contains a compound called saponins which are natural and mild cleansers

Some talking points that may not carry over into soap but are relevant to other skin care formulations are:

• Helps to keep skin hydrated by forming an occlusive layer on the surface that retains water in the skin
• Imparts moisturizing, soothing, conditioning, and nourishing qualities, significantly improving skin dryness and roughness
• Helps reduce skin inflammation making it ideal for treating inflammatory skin conditions

I would be more interested in adding colloidal oatmeal to a lotion or butter to see if I could get these results. As an aside this would make a wonderful set, a lotion and soap both with various forms of oatmeal in it.

I also looked into what oatmilk/oatmeal might do for a soap formulation and what I found is not that much so I changed gears and looked up some nutritional value in hopes to find properties that may come through in a soap.

1. sugar content - 1.1g per 1 cup - might contribute to more bubbles (may also not be enough to make a difference.)

2. gluten content - this is tricky, technically oats ARE gluten free but if they are not processed in a gluten free facility they shouldn't be marketed as such. I am starting to see more people asking and searching for gluten free soaps so this is a good point to remember.

3. protein content- 6g per 1 cup (probably irrelevant to soap...)

4. fat content - 3.2g per 1 cup- maybe slightly relevant as it could contribute to superfat but probably not in a significant way.

5. sodium content 115mg per 1 cup, we do know that salt can contribute to a harder bar of soap so this might also be helpful, but again based on how small of an amount it is it's probably not significant.

There are also vitamins A, B, C, Iron and Magnesium listed, there properties will most likely not survive saponification though.

Alright so now we know what oats can bring to this party, let's make oat milk!

I combed through the internet and saw many variations on how to do this. Many of them had similarities so it makes it kind of easy to give this a go. In the end I decided to use a loose version of what it on the actual oatmeal container and see how that worked out. 

As a side note pretty much all recipes recommended using old fashioned oats as opposed to steel cut or instant and all recommended blending immediately instead of letting soak because it makes for a slimy mixture (this is probably more relevant to the folks that want to use it in coffee).

Here is what I did:
2C oats 
4C water (recommendation to use distilled for soap making). 

Instructions:
1. Add water to oats, mix with spatula then hand blend for about 30 seconds. Let sit for roughly 30 minutes to thicken.

After 30 minutes it was a thin porridge consistency and I was happy with the size of the oat pieces. 

BUT

I stepped away for approximately an hour to handle something and then it became more like a thick porridge which I did not want. This may have worked to my advantage because I determined that I wanted oat milk and not oat porridge for this project. So I went ahead and strained the milk with a wire strainer and it became a nice, thick milk with some pieces which will be great as an exfoliant.

I managed to pull off about 1C of oat pieces (grains? I don't know

what to call them now). Which left me with about 1C still in my oat milk. For me this is very doable.

I weighed out and froze the portion of oat milk I will need for the upcoming soap recipe. I also set aside the extra oat....pieces as I can add them back in to my recipe as an additive. 

Ok so stay tuned for part 2 of this little adventure when I reveal my recipe and we make a super sweet batch of oat milk soap!

~Ta for now
'Soapie

References:
https://www.schoolofnaturalskincare.com/11-benefits-of-oatmeal-for-your-skin/

The first E-Book is finished!

Well I finally did it! I wrote a soap making book. I have been wanting to start writing books related to bath and body product making for awhile and I am really pleased with the final result. I went through and detailed out all the big important parts that every beginner should know such as safety, equipment, supplies and provided a couple of basic recipes that can easily be made using oils and fats found at a local grocery store. I also included other information that I wish I had known as a beginner (you don't NEED to have every single supply offered by soap making supply vendors to succeed, for instance!) 

There is also some neat bonus information that go into a little bit of detail about additives including color, fragrance, special liquids to use like milks and beer and then an extensive troubleshooting section as well as references and resources (and a first timers shopping list too!)

This project was a labor of love and really sparked a creative part of my mind that I completely enjoyed. I plan to write and publish many more in the coming years because it gives me great joy to watch and encourage other novice makers to succeed in what I find to be a fascinating industry. 

To purchase this book please check out our site: https://www.soapsmithspgh.com/collections/e-books/products/beginner-soapmaking-guide-e-book

It's truly been a pleasure to research and write both this blog and this first e-book, I look forward to being able to share more in the future.

~Your Soapsmith

A look back on 2019

It's been a busy year here at the studio both personally and professionally. I just re-read my 2019 goals blog and am feeling like I actually was able to accomplish what I set out to do. For the company one of my main goals is always to be as environmentally friendly as possible. I spent countless hours researching packaging options and making decisions regarding which would be the most friendly both for the environment while staying budget friendly. As a small company we sometimes have less options because we are simply not able to purchase in the quantities that large companies are able to. Also some packaging that I REALLY wanted to use required specialized equipment which made it not feasible for us. I also tried some new ideas over the summer at the markets such as a bulk filling option for lotions and scrubs AND I left all my soaps unwrapped and sold them by weight instead of by one flat price. It was a neat concept and I was excited to see how many people supported the idea but since people come to markets not expecting to purchase in bulk I ultimately was still providing the containers for filling. I DO think that people are open to this concept and would embrace it in a store if given the option. I also think that by participating in these markets I helped people to know about us as local makers which I think is also an environmentally friendly move.

So what did I end up doing about packaging? Well I offered 2 options for containers at the markets a 4oz glass jar or a 2oz PCR (post consumer recycled) plastic container. It's not virgin plastic so I felt better about using it but it's also not a perfect solution in my mind. The problem with glass is that my products sometimes end up in a shower or being held by wet hands and the glass just simply is unsafe at that point. For those reasons I do not find glass to be a great solution for bath and body products. 

As for other packaging options I looked into I love the idea of compostable packaging but as far as those container options go I really could not find any that would hold up to products like scrubs and lotions, the containers would have broken down before the product was able to be used and also the container would not have held up in wet environments making it possible for mold, yeast and bacteria to grow thereby negatively impacting the product. I did have an idea to use mini milk cartons for refills for people but those actually require special machines to fill and close the container, also the minimum buy was insanely high, it was not a feasible solution unfortunately. I did go back to shrink wrapping my soaps for now. The system I use is called Biolefin and it is a biodegradable plastic that begins to breakdown within 18 months of being used and finishes its cycle within 3-5 years. I like this because unlike compostable materials it will breakdown regardless of where it is disposed (trash, recycle bin, compost etc.) whereas some compostable materials will not break down unless properly disposed. So if the consumer is not aware or does not have access to a composting system then the compostable material simply becomes another piece of trash in a landfill. 

Packaging is complicated is really what I learned this year, there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer. As new technology comes out and as the zero waste movement pushes large manufacturers to think through these issues more critically though I think that small companies will also have more green options available to them, I will never stop looking into what the next best solution might be.

Shampoo Bar

One great product that came of all this zero waste interest was it pushed me to develop a shampoo bar. I spent the year learning about hair and proper surfactants to use on it and then got to formulating. I wanted a product that was long lasting, gentle and vegetarian. I actually formulated three different bars and had a very strong front runner from the get go. These babies have been selling like hotcakes and I couldn't be happier. For me a shampoo bar can last 3-4 months or more if my hair is fairly short. For others that have purchased them they agree with this. This replaces the plastic shampoo bottles which is a huge win! I currently have a conditioner bar in the works and hope to release it in 2020, the conditioner bars seem to last much longer thus far. 

As for personal goals we have been doing really well on our zero waste journey. I did not need to buy any plastic storage bags this year because we were able to stay in the groove of using the silicone storage pouches as well as our normal food storage containers. We also tried misfit market and really liked it, I stopped it for the summer because we support a local CSA farm share and did not need both but we will go back to misfit market now that that has stopped. It provided great variety and none of the items we got were unusable which was great! We did lots of little things which are green such as upgrade the lighting in our house to include more LED options and also have sensors on our outdoor lighting so it only comes on when needed. In my opinion every little thing counts when trying to do better.

So how was your 2019? What goals did you set and were you able to hit the mark? What will be your goals for 2020?

'Till next year (next decade!) my friends, 
~Your Soapsmiths