Buttermilk Carrot Bastille Soap

 On the cure rack right now is this creamy soap: buttermilk carrot bastille. What is a bastille soap you ask? Well, first let's start with Castille which is made only using olive oil. And bastille is the name soapers have given to soap that's been made with only olive and coconut oil. It has a little more lather than castille thanks to the buttermilk and coconut oil but is still considered a low lathering bar. Lather doesn't really matter, that's not what gets you clean even though that's what the cosmetic world has duped us into thinking! Bastille is a very gentle bar, I love to use it on my toddler who has very sensitive skin, with mild eczema. Both buttermilk and carrot add to the gentleness in this soap making it a favourite for those with eczema and psoriasis.

I did something new with this soap that I've never done before, I poured the soap into two molds and only allowed one of the molds to go through a gel. Gelling is the norm when it comes to making cold process soaps and up until the other night, it was the only way I've ever soaped. On a cold process making group that I belong to, there was discussion about not gelling your soaps. Apparently, avoiding the gel stage makes for a brighter soap especially in milk soaps. So far, I'm not a fan of not gelling as the saponification process (oils turning to soap) takes longer and the lye was still present in the soap 3 days later and also it was just a big mess. But the colous is a creamier yellow which I do like. It'll be interesting to see if there's any difference once they've fully cured in approximately one month from now.