Dead Sea Mud Soap

The 1st time I bought dead sea mud was 5 years ago, when Ah Ton was only 3 years old. I bought it to treat him to a home spa. Yes, my dogs have very good lives. After his shower, I rubbed dead sea mud on his entire body & left it for 15 mins. The end result was soft fur & moisturized skin despite not using conditioner on him. My hands were smooth from applying the mud on him as well. I managed to dig this photo of him from my FB. This was taken in June 2009.

There're many benefits to dead sea mud, such as improving blood circulation, hydrating the skin & anti aging properties. Therefore, I chose to make dead sea mud soap out of so many other soap recipes from my book as my 1st attempt.

As with cake baking, cold processed soap requires accurate & precise measurement of the ingredients. Apart from that, one has to take safety precautions as 1 of the ingredients is lye (aka caustic soda), which is a highly corrosive alkali used to clear choked drains & pipes. Also, once lye has been added to water, it rapidly heats up the water to steaming temperatures. Next, the oils are added to the hot lye water mixture & mixed till trace has been achieved. In view of the fact that 2 of my oils are solid (coconut oil & shea butter), I added these 2 items 1st to melt them before the temperature dropped. 

I stirred with a silicone spatula I bought from Ikea. I stirred & I stirred. I switched to a plastic whisk hoping to speed up the process. I whisked & I whisked. I think I was at it for at least an hour. My arm was absolutely aching. But the mixture refuses to thicken to a trace. In the end, I made a decision to sacrifice my $7.50 hand held electric mixer (for making cakes) from K Mart. Instead of fixing up both the whisks, I fixed up only 1 to minimise the introduction of air into the mixture. It took me another 15 mins on maximum speed to achieve trace. So that was $7.50 well sacrificed. Now it has to sit in the mould for 24 to 48 hours until it hardens enough to cut into bars & another 4 to 6 weeks to air dry before it's ready for use.

All bowls & equipments used in soap making have to be left untouched for at least 24 hours. This is to ensure that the lye has been fully neutralised by the oil so you don't get chemical burns while trying to wash the items. Oh, I need to get a replacement for my electric mixer. I'm so eyeing the bench top planetary action mixer complete with whisk, hook & paddle so I can start making bread as well. It has always been my dream to own a KitchenAid but I'm just gonna settle for Kambrook at less than a quarter of the price. Perhaps coming or next pay day.