1 of 3. I’m definitely still feeling my way with the cold process soap. Experiment #3 is a rosehip soap — it starts with making a rosehip tea, and mine came out quite a bit darker than the one in the recipe. Which affected things later on, but I don’t think it’s really a problem? Just requiring a little flexibility — my end result doesn’t look anything like the recipe!
I also don’t really understand what all the different oils do yet. Some of the recipes I’ve been looking at have, like this one, several different oils — this one has coconut oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, rosehip oil, and castor oil.
My only prior knowledge of castor oil was some vague memory that people used to use it as a laxative? (Doctors apparently don’t recommend this: “castor oil is considered safe in small doses, larger amounts can cause abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea”)
But a little research indicates that it’s used a lot in skin care products, so I’m sure it has a good purpose there, but it’s going to be a long time, if ever, before I understand all this well enough to make up my own recipes! Luckily, lots of other people have done all the measuring and such for me, so I can at least practice with theirs.
The author also prefers tallow as a base, and I wasn’t really up for trying to source tallow, so I used her alternative coconut oil & shea butter base. Perhaps someday I’ll try tallow, but for now, I’m happy to just keep my soaps vegetarian. 
(Maybe not vegan — the next one on my list to try uses buttermilk….)
Original recipe: https://www.growforagecookferment.com/rose-hip-soap/
