Rose and Milk Soap - A Mother's Day Gift Day 1

There is nothing that a mother loves more than receiving a gift made by their child. I can’t believe my mom still has every single drawing I ever brought home from school. There is nothing that woman needs more than some pampering. Am I right? I think that homemade bath products are the best idea for Mother’s Day gifts.

World’s Ugliest Soap

So for today’s recipe, I made a Rose and Milk Soap. I have wanted to make a milk soap for quite some time. Milk soaps are said to be gentle and moisturizing on the skin. I chose to add dried Rose Buds and Petals to this soap because every woman loves receiving flowers on her special day. This Rose and Milk Soap is scented with our Rose Fragrance Oil, and last, but not least, I used our Heart Silicone Mold to show the mothers how much we love them.

As you can see, this blog is labeled as Day 1 and that means this soap did not turn out how I wanted it to. My plan for this Rose and Milk Soap was to put rose petals in the bottom of my Heart Silicone Mold and pour the soap on top. That way, when I pop the soap out of the mold, I would have a beautiful soap with rose petals embedded in the top. Andee came to me and asked me what I was making, and I told her my plan. She gave me a funny look and said, “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.” I was beginning to think that she knew something that I didn’t. However, I continued making my soap as planned.

When I got to work the next day, I excitedly went to the blog kitchen to check out how my soap turned out. I popped my soap out of the mold and oh my goodness! I have officially made the ugliest soap in the world. I grabbed my soap and took it to Andee. All I had to do was hold up the bar and she burst into laughter. Andee began explaining to me how all botanicals decompose when added to soap. I have to admit that makes sense, but I was not thinking about decomposition at all when I was making my soap. Sometimes I want to kick Andee in the butt for allowing me to make these mistakes, but then I realize that she is letting me learn from my mistakes and I am so grateful for them.

Here at The Sage, our warehouse has an old metal bell that we ring to gather everyone for lunches, meetings, and impromptu shopping trips. I gave the bell a ring so I could show all the ladies in the warehouse my wonderful mistake. To my surprise, everyone thought that my soap looked cool! Tina said, “ I think your soap looks like decomposing teeth! This soap would make a great Halloween soap!” I have written that idea down, and I am saving it for a later date. She went on to tell me that my soap was beautiful, what a motherly thing to do. ♡ I even sent my husband a picture of my soap, and he replied saying me how cool he thought it looked and that I better bring a bar of soap home for him.

Sometimes when we make mistakes like this, it is so easy to criticize yourself. In the past had I made a mistake like this I probably would have cried like a baby. Now I have learned that these mistakes are not just failures, but learning experiences. Everything on the internet gets filtered, so we often only get to see the perfect finished product and not the hours of work that went into it and if we only compare to the finished product, our mistakes can be discouraging. This is why I love to share my mistakes with you, so that you can see everyone makes mistakes and we are all perfectly imperfect human beings.

Let’s pop over to the blog kitchen and I’ll show you how to make this batch of soap!

Recipe:

Weighing out the Oils

Milk Powder with water, Oils, and Lye Solution

Soap in Heart Shaped Mold

1. The first step to making this soap is to weigh out the Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Sunflower Oil, and Apricot Kernel Oil.
2. Once the oil ingredients have been weighed out, they need to be heated. Use a microwave or double broiler pot on the stove. Just be careful not to overheat the mixture!
3. While the oils were warming, I worked on making my lye solution. I usually use 6 ounces of water for a 1 pound batch of soap because I am adding Milk Powder, I lowered it to 5 ounces.
4. Then in a separate beaker I weighed out 1 ounce of water and added 1 tablespoon of Milk Powder, this slurry will be added at trace.
5. The oils and lye solution need to cool to around 120°F. Once they are cool enough pour the lye solution into the oils and stir using an immersion blender.
6. Once a light trace is reached, the Rose Fragrance Oil and Milk Powder with water can be added and mixed into the raw soap.
7. After everything is completely mixed, pour the raw soap mixture into the molds and allow to set for 24 hours.

When I first started making this soap I thought that adding the milk powder would give me a white soap. I did notice the color get slightly lighter but the soap did not turn pure white. I sprinkled some Rose Buds and Petals in the bottom of my soap mold and poured the soap on top. Just remember that the Rose Buds and Petals will begin to decompose turning the soap a weird, brown color.

Check back in tomorrow for another version of this Rose and Milk Soap!