Tea Tree Shampoo Bars

So today I made tea tree shampoo bars. I used the recipe from my original book, dividing the batter four times. I made two 42-44oz soap loaves, plus some leftover. I mixed green mica into one pitcher, oil and titanium dioxide into another, and the third had activated charcoal. The remaining batter (about half the total recipe) remained in the bucket, uncolored.

For the scent, I used about 1/3rd tea tree with the remaining being eucalyptus and Brambleberry’s sage and lemongrass.

I decided to use the mica powder (green) in one loaf and leave the second loaf naturally colored with just the activated charcoal and the titanium dioxide I had remaining from the first loaf. Most of the second loaf was the uncolored batter that remained. I tried to do a swirl, but the batter accelerated so fast (even without color or scent) i had literally minutes. It became extremely thick. I mixed the lye and oils at 101 and 105 degrees.

I layered the batter as best I could, using a spoon to make some design on top of the green one and just flattening the naturally colored one on top.

I colored the remaining batter purple using both mica and high quality food color and used it to pipe soap cupcakes with a large closed star tip. I used previously made melt and pour embeds to top them. They look hodge podged together, but hey, it was my first attempt.

I really do not like the smell of tea tree oil!