EARL GREY SHEA BUTTER SOAP
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds shea butter base
1 teaspoon bergamot essential oil
½ teaspoon lemongrass essential oil
½ teaspoon orange essential oil
2 tea bags Earl Grey(tm) tea
isopropyl alcohol
Makes 10½ bars. 1″ wide. Takes 3½ hours.
SPECIAL UTENSILS
soap mold
spray bottle
soap slicer (optional)
PREPARATION
Cut shea butter base into 1″ cubes. Add shea butter to 2 large glass measuring cups. Melt base in 30 second intervals. Stir after every time. Add essential oils. Let sit for 20 minutes. (This inhibits Earl Grey tea from settling to the bottom of the soap mold..) Add Earl Grey tea. Mix with knife until well blended.
Spray silicon mold with isopropyl alcohol. Pour melted soap into soap mold. If desired, lightly spray bubbles with isopropyl alcohol to make them disappear. Let soap sit for 3 hours. Use soap slicer to cut soap into slices 1″ wide.
TIDBITS
1) Earl Grey tea is named after the second Earl Grey. Bummer for the first earl. Anyway, the second Earl Grey was a British prime minister. He helped pass the Durham University Act. His reward? That college got named Grey College. The third earl did little of interest to us. Although, rumors persist that went undefeated in Parcheesi. The fourth earl served at Governor General of Canada in 1909. The Canadian Football League name its championship trophy after him, the Grey Cup. Clearly for about a century, this was a happening family
2) But so was the La Fong family. Harry La Fong invented the stackable balloon cube. Can you imagine a party without a tsunami of little kids screaming through La Fong’s StackablesTM? but it was Carl La Fong’s film career that really put Hollywood’s film making on the cinematic map. You might have thought that the inability to memorize lines would have stopped cold any acting career. But the owner, Earl Zane Grey, of FlautasTM Studios noticed La Fong’s calming effect on movie making, So, Earl Grey, hired La Fong. Whenever actors addressed characters who couldn’t be seen, they’d be speaking to the off-stage La Fong. Thus Carl La Fong became the quintessential Man Off Stage for decades to come. He even has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
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