Ok, please don't run off feeling queasy at the thought, and take a look at my pictures and the logic behind cheese in soap! I have to thank Janie from Selkies for this idea, a few of us soapy folk have been trying this out, and quite successfully too!
so, why would anyone in their right mind want to make soap with cheese in it? Well, you can make soap with milk....goat's milk, cow's milk, coconut milk, almond milk. The list goes on. Cheese is made from milk, right? Janie from Selkies pondered the difference between using milk and 'a nice runny brie' as a soap additive. Milk gives the finished soap a wonderful creamy lather, thanks to the sugars and proteins. Cheese has the same constituents as milk, so why not? It could go one of two ways. I'm hoping it doesn't go the stinky, pongy glutinous mass way, and more the wonderful creamy solid successful bar of soap way.
I have opted to try cottage cheese. Why? Why not. Other guinea pigs have chosen soft goats milk with herbs and a nice slab of Wensleydale and cox's apple juice (freshly pressed). Both have come out of the moulds looking and smelling like soap, but as they are too fresh to test, we won't know what the cheese has added to the qualities of the soap for a few days yet.
lovely creamy emulsion of soap plus cottage cheese in the crock pot
poured into the mould, sort of caramel colour
cut block in half the next day, nice natural colour. smells great courtesy of tomato leaf fragrance
(cheese & tomato, right?)
A small test piece gives a really lovely creamy, bubbly lather, nice & fluffy & rich. I will be giving a few bits away in a cheese soap swap in the next week or so, so we can compare & contrast! I'm so glad I did this!
