With Hoya flowers can I make fragrant soaps in the kitchen ?
Yes !! this is how with SHORT ANSWERS in 3 steps :
- the Soap :
[1] wearing gloves pour 1 weight of pellets of sodium hydroxide ( for dry soap ) or of potassium hydroxide ( for more liquid soap ) into 2 to 3 weights of water -
( but never add water to these chemicals, the reverse is an explosive reaction )
[2] mix with 7 to 8 weights of an oil of your choice
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| A food coloring gave the pinkish touch |
[3] heat to 80 - 100 celsius
( or at lower temperature but then wait longer an get a milder soap ) and stir until you get a paste. Avoid breathing the fumes, they are toxic. If some liquid remains ( skin damaging ) add more oil, which in excess can only increase the quality of the soap. You can add your own fragrant compositions in the mix, preferably when it is colder to prevent evaporation. Cooled soap can be re - hydrated to receive frgrances and re - dried.
For precise proportions, on the internet look for saponification charts that give the
corresponding quantities of sodium hydroxide and oils. But, as said above, if some liquid is remaining just add more oil and carry on the saponification.
Such homemade soaps retain their glycerin content, which is very useful for all skins, ( glycerin is a main ingredient in cosmetics ) and free of toxic ( or numerous ) chemicals they are safe for the children. More glycerin can be added, ( sold in shops as a soap making ingredient ) to soften the soap.
Some soap makers add glycerin up to 10%, to the total soap, . For a bubble bath much more glycerin in water will be added :
here is the precise ratio.
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Heat and added glycerin produce a viscous paste
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The saponification process is slow, even if accelerated by heat : three days to several weeks may be needed for the
soap to be safe . If used too early , even dry the soaps will burn the skin.
Children love making foam that is big, thick and makes bubbles that last. A good foaming agent derived from coconut is coconut diethanolamide. But all the glycerin ( from the homemade saponification of sodium hydroxide and oil , and that added to the paste ) will generate a lot of foam when in contact with water !
( pure glycerin can harm the skin by taking its moisture, so a dilution in water is needed )
In the picture below some paste from the stainless utensil was mixed in the orange bucket containing water and glycerine :
the result is a lot of long lasting foam !
- the Hoya flowers for the distillate : carnosa and in general white flowers of the Hoya genus have more scent. You want to make a steam distillation of the flowers : the result is an hydrosol with a rich fragrance, suitable for the making of cosmetics. Your hydrosol ( distillate ) , more complex than essential oils will contain water-soluble components of the Hoya flowers that may not be present in the essential oil; also essential oils are not as safe to use.
[1] inside a pressure cooker put on an elevated perforated plate above the water level at least 100 gr of fresh flowers if you aimed a production of 100 gr of hydrosol . About 160 fresh , hydrated flowers of Hoya lacunosa would be needed for this quantity of hydrosol :
more on the weights of fresh hoya flowers that are fragrant
[2] fix a copper coil of 3 meters long and 1 cm large on the opening of the pressure cooker
[3] lay the coil in a container of iced water, with the end outside of this container. From this end the hydrosol will flow out.
The distillate is produced by the condensation in the coil.
Read more with pictures on :
http://blog.cherylsdelights.com/2012/05/pressure-cooker-essential-oil-distiller/
Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores and other plant collections are for sale on
aleyagarden.com
Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com
Find all Aleyagarden posts on
http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com
The secret of making bubble baths lies in a simple process : take about 120 gr of a soap that has retained its glycerin content ( such as a homemade soap or a quality soap ), and mix it with about 950 gr of water and 85 gr of glycerin. Glycerin is available in bottles, shops selling ingredients for cosmetics and craft stores will carry it.
We see that the ratio of canola oil to NaOH pellets is roughly 7.6 ( ie 1 / 0.13 ) and water to NaOH is roughly 2.3 ( ie 0.30 / 0.13 )
But saponification still goes on after oil ( the acid part ) and sodium hydroxide ( a strong base ) have been mixed and heated in a pot. The mixture has to dry several days to be safe. It dries faster thin and flat on large plates. Then it can be hydrated with some water to form a paste that looks like on this picture. 
However if we are talking about flower trims that include the peduncles ( stalks, the part inside the red circle on the picture ) , we prevent a new flower bud from forming later at the trimming point. 
Aleyagarden has three sorts of Hoya known in the trade as Hoya multiflora : on the top picture multiflora big flowers , on the second picture below : multiflora Thai ( left ) , and multiflora Philippines ( right ). Hoya multiflora Thai has narrower leaves and orange flowers, http://www.aleyagarden.com/hcutmuphcutiv.html ; Hoya multiflora Philippines leaves are larger and the flowers are yellow :http://www.aleyagarden.com/hcutmuthcut.html
