Miscellaneous Recipes  Note! You are advised to double-check the formulation of all recipes before making any of them. Recipes using sodium or potassium hydroxide should be run through a lye calculator before use. Copyright Notice! All content provided on this Web site, excluding button icons,  graphics, images, noted original author's works is the copyright of Rebecca Erisch, and is protected by applicable U.S. and international copyright laws. Information may be used for personal use only. Any other use--including display, distribution, modification, republication, reproduction, or transmission--of the content on this Web site is strictly prohibited. Copyright (c) 2005 Rebecca Erisch. All rights reserved.                          Miscellaneous Recipes                                           J'son's Soap Rocks I pour the m&p into some tall container, paper cup, or long rectangular plastic box. Actually I mostly use the container I buy my glue sticks in (from Costco). It doesn't really matter because you are going to cut it up into chunks anyway. For example...I pour clear and cover with saran wrap and put in fridge for about 20 min. Take out, remove plastic and pour a different color, and repeat until you have your mold full. Sometimes I pour just a tiny layer of black when it is hot so it doesn't create an even line. It goes into the previous layer. Every one is different, depending on what main color or rock you want it to look like. Some have no clear in it. When the mold is full...I patiently wait until the next day. If you freeze it, you could cloud up your clear. It will also break apart your layers when you cut it. Then the next day I cut into chunks. Each chunk it pared until it resembles a crystal or rock. I then either run under water (with gloved hands) and rub the sharp cuts so that it will look like a polished rock or I spritz with alcohol and rub. Grandma Herald's Laundry Soap Flakes           *               1 quart cold water         *               12 ounce sodium hydroxide         *               1 cup sugar         *               1/2 cup borax         *               2 quarts washed strained grease         *               1 cup Ammonia         *               scent     Pour water in earthenware jar. Pour in lye and stir with wooden stick. Let stand till cold (will take around an hour). Put sugar and borax into an earthenware or enamel vessel and stir  well. Pour warm grease into borax mixture and stir well. Add ammonia and stir. Add cooled  lye solution to grease mixture. Stir until mixture thickens to fudge consistency. Pour into a mold and let stand overnight. (Use a paper box lined with waxed paper). The soap hardens  in a few days. Grate the soap finely into soap flakes and use.   Washing fat drippings: Put fat in a large pan with 2 times the amount of water and one sliced  potato, washed but not peeled. Boil hard for 30 minutes and strain into another pan. Cool for   24 hours. Cut fat off the top, hold under faucet to wash off scum which forms at the bottom.   The fat is now clean and free of salt. Favorite scents: Sassafras, wintergreen, pine.  Vegetable dye can be used to color the soap. Laundry Cleaner and Fabric Softener           *               1 cup soap flakes         *               1/2 cup borax         *               1/2 cup vinegar, in rinse cycle     You may have to fiddle around with the amounts to fit your machine and type of laundry. This   should cut down on rashes from detergent. Fabric softeners are just waxes that melt in the    dryer, and evidently they are bad for fabrics, cottons especially (I can't stand the little oily spots they leave all over t-shirts and cotton knits).  Bleach your whites about once a month with 1-1/2 c. chlorine bleach, instead of 1/2 c. every  wash.     Liquid Laundry Soap           *               2 1/2 gallons distilled water         *               1 sodium hydroxide, can         *               7 cups lard, melted         *               1 cup Ammonia         *               2 cups borax, or Borateem         *               3 cups whisk or similar liquid detergent booster     Mix in 5 gallon crock or plastic bucket. Add enough water to fill pail. Stir a few minutes till  reaches consistency of chicken gravy. Stir a couple times a day until it thickens. It will get   like thick lotion and turn white. You can add 1/4 c liquid bluing if you like. Amount to use  depends on type of water and size of load (no better directions given). Source: Countryside  and Small Stock Journal, Vol 79, No 3: HOMEMADE SADDLE SOAP  by Elsie Spry To make inexpensive saddle soap at home, you'll need two pots, one of stainless steel or heat resistant glass ... a stainless steel spoon ... short, wide mouthed jars or empty commercial saddle soap containers ... beeswax ... pure flake lye ... castile soap shavings ... water ... and pure gum turpentine.  (Beeswax and pure flake lye can be found at a hardware, candle, or grocery store.) In the steel or tempered glass pot, combine 6-1/4 parts beeswax, 10 parts pure flake lye, and 10 parts water.  Caution: pure flake lye can burn and corrode skin, clothes, and furniture, so be careful!  Boil this mixture for 5 minutes, stirring constantly with the stainless steel spoon. Next, in the second pot, melt 2 parts castile soap shavings with 10 parts water, mixing them with the well rinsed spoon.  When the soap liquefies, add it slowly to the lye-and-beeswax mixture, blending evenly until fully combined. Next, remove the pot from any heat and stir in 15 parts of turpentine. (Watch out: turpentine is highly flammable.)  Pour immediately into containers; cover and keep in a cool, dry place.  The soap can be kept indefinitely.  If you prepare the recipe with one part equaling one tablespoon, you'll have enough to fill four 8-ounce jars. When you use saddle soap, have two soft flannel cloths on hand.  Soak and wring out one until almost dry, dip it into the soap, and rub the leather with a firm circular motion.  Rinse that cloth in warm water, wring out, and then use it to remove any excess lather.  Use the second dry cloth to polish the leather to a soft luster ... and say good-bye to ugly looking leather goods! Washing gel:           *           105 ml spring or distilled water         *           10 ml melilot hydrolat         *           20 ml equisetum hydrolat         *           25 ml chamomile (roman or german) hydrolat         *           75 ml cocobetaine         *           20 ml aloe vera gel         *           4 drops clary sage EO         *           2 drops grapefruit eo         *           4 drops spearmint eo         *           4 drops peppermint eo         *           2 drops lavender eo         *           2 drops lemon eo         *           10 ml Xanthan you can substitute clary sage eo with chamomile eo. I also put in a dab of food coloring to make it green and GSE to preserve it. It is mild and cool, it wakes you up. Mechanic's Hand Cleanser         *           Grind up a bar or two of your soap...         *           1 c.. Borax         *           1-2 t. pure turpentine         *           1 t. sweet orange EO         *           1 c. ground soap With very clean hands, work the turpentine and EO into the borax until there are no lumps left, then work into the soap. Keep it in a wide mouthed jar or tin that's easy for him to open when his hands are greasy, and which you won't mind getting black on the outside. Don't forget to put a nail brush and pumice stone out with the hand cleanser.Shucky  Jelly Jars Holly 3/4 c. boiling water 1/4 c. cold water 1 packets Knox unflavored gelatin 2-4 tsp. Fragrance oil 1/2 oz. vodka Add the gelatin to the boiling water. Whisk until gelatin is dissolved. Add cold water.  In a small bowl mix the vodka and FO. Add to gelatin mixture. Pour into jelly jars.. this recipe makes 2 (1/2 pint..I think!) jars ;) They will set up on their own but it takes forever.. I just throw em in the fridge for a few hours so I don't have to wait so long.  My mom likes to decorate the inner lid with potpourri or dried flowers that have been dabbed with a bit of the FO that is in the jar. Then she cuts out a small square of tulle or net and places that over lid.. then add screw-on lid over this.. looks really nice!! Salt Glows Great exfolliator for dry, dead skin...really polishes the body. If your going to make these for gifts or to sell, you have to have a separate bottle for the oils and eo's and include recipes on how to prepare the glow at home. Directions for use: Pre-warm the bottle of fragranced oil. Add to the salt and mix well with your hands to break up any clumps. Standing in a dry shower or bath tub, massage the salt into your skin, using gentle circular motions. This is messy, so any that drop on the floor of the tub, pick up and keep rubbing into your skin. When you've done your entire body, (excluding face and neck), fill the tub or start your shower and let the water rinse off the salt. Ingredients: 2 cups sea salt                      1 ounce of carrier oil (such as grapeseed, apricot kernal, sunflower)                      6 drops pure essential oil Next Page