geminisc = soapmaker addict deluxe?

After close to a year of freaking out and dawdling, I finally got around to making soap on the weekend.

Specifically, cold process soap.

They say that soap making is an addiction. I thought I was addicted to mmu and miy lotions, makeup, cleansers etc.

But nothing prepared me for soap.

Within 24 hours I had made 3 batches. They are currently drying and curing and should be ready to test and use in about a month.

If I had been brave and started making soap when I had originally started getting a hankering for it, I'd have so many bars to use now.

Instead I've still been buying soap, and making sure they fit all my criteria can be a bit tricky. Natural vegetable oils (no lard), only essential oils, no fragrance oils, a hard bar that doesn't melt too fast in the shower, a luxurious feel, glide and lots of bubbles. And most importantly I don't want to feel dry afterwards.

I can ask the soapmaker if she has something like that, but if she says no, then I'm kind've stuck, because I don't want to go back to industrially made soap.

For the past year I've been reading a number of places to get started. Some of the highlights included:

Millers Soap
SoapDish (online forum)
Bunches and bunches of books on soap making.

I decided that I wanted to make a castille (olive oil) soap because not only are they supposed to be milder and better for your skin, they are supposed to have a lovely luxurious feel to them. I also happen to have 4 litres of it sitting in my lab, so I may as well use that, than my more expensive 100 and 500ml oils (coz once they're gone, I need to go and order more).

I also added castor oil and coconut oil for hardness and bubbles.

I ran my figures through a soap calculator to sort out how much lye I would need to use.

This is the recipe I ended up using:

300 grams olive oil
10 grams extra virgin coconut oil
10 grams castor oil

106 grams water
40.08 grams lye

First you put the lye in the water. In my case I put it into a stainless steel jug that I picked up at a second hand store (I got a second one with a lid, because I decided I was worried about the pretty patterns on the one I originally bought might fade if it went into contact with lye for prolonged periods of time).

First time I put the lye in, I accidently got a little whiff of the fumes from the lye and water chemical reaction.

OMG.

I felt like my lungs were on fire!

I quickly put the jug as far away from me as possible, and marched out to the front door where I left the jug to cool down.

I then went to line my moulds.

I have read that you can use old milk cartons (washed of course) as soap moulds. We had a milk carton in the fridge, but I wasn't prepared to scull half a litre of milk in order to get the mould. Instead, I noticed in our recycling box there was a 1 litre plastic bottle that had previously held mineral water.

I grabbed it with glee and set about cleaning it up so I could use it as a mould.

Next up was weighing and melting the oils together.

When the temp of oils was around 70 degrees celcius I took the bowl off the stove and went outside to get my lye jug. I felt the base, and it was no longer warm. I put my thermometer in, but it didn't really register anything.

I couldn't remember if the temperature of lye and oils were supposed to be the same or not, but I figured, this was only a small batch, so let's see what will happen. I switched my stick blender on, poured in the lye slowly and proceeded to whizz the stick around the bowl.

I blended with the stick blender on and off until it got a thick puddingy-like. This is what is known as 'trace' in soap making terms. If I put the stick blender out of the pot, there'd be a little imprint from the blender in the bowl.

I then added scent. In my case this was twenty drops of cedarwood and twenty drops of rosemary essential oil and blended some more. I found out later that this wasn't really enough scent, and that chances are it won't make it through to the end. So something to remember for next time (add more scent).

After some more blending, the soap looked like it was starting to gel together a bit so I stopped.

I then grabbed a funnel and poured my soap mixture into the mineral water bottle.

Next up, I went and put some towels around it, put the lid back on and put in the corner.

Next morning when I went to check on it, the soap had solidified into a bar of sorts =D

Batch One on the $1 Shoe Rack to cure..

2 comments

Last night I went and cut the bottle apart, and then cut the soap into about 5 pieces. It cut through like dense cheese........ mmMMmm.... the colour is like a pale yellow, and I swear if I didn't know it was soap, I'd take a bite... LOL.

It's still a bit mushy and powdery like, but I can't wait to try it!

After my first pour, I ended up feeling so excited that I immediately went about putting together a second recipe.

My second batch I used olive oil and some grapeseed oil that I had infused with rose petals about a year ago. I haven't used the oil for anything, so figured I could use it to test out on soap making.

Second batch I got a bit braver and decided to try to do some pretty coloured swirls. When I got to pour stage, I only poured out abt 3/4 of the soap. The remaining quarter I added some ultramarines/oxides, mixed it altogether and then poured it in random strokes over the top. Then I grabbed my knife and swirled the soap around.

Batch 2 with purple professional swirls

Result? Really professional looking swirls. Or at least I thought it was.

The second time around I ended up using an old baking tin about 12 cm deep. I had picked up two from a garage sale a while ago when collecting soaping paraphenalia. I lined the tins with baking paper so that 1. the soap won't stick to the mould and be hard to take out, and 2. The tin looked a bit rusty, so I wasn't even sure if it was stainless steel. So I figure the baking paper would be a good insurance against icky reactions.

I was a little worried about the second batch. It took a lot longer to set, and at one stage when I uncovered the towels to look at the soap, I nudged a bit too hard, and now there is a icky dent in it =(

The soap also cooled down a lot faster than my mineral bottle soap, and I was worried that something had gone wrong, as I didn't let the soap trace to super thick gel pudding.

It is still sitting in the tin (I won't upend it until tonight) but at least when I checked it late last night it was starting to set a bit more.

The third batch I did last night.....

This time I added cocoa butter. =D =D =D

This time I added a bit more scent. 40 drops of rosemary essential oil and two glops of patchouli essential oil. Not very professional, but I was too excited to weigh out. Lazy and bad, I know.

I also did swirls on the third batch but added more colour. This batch is darker than my first. I'll be curious to see how it turns out. I wrapped this one up super tight and put it in the living room (warmest room in the house when the reverse cycle is on).

Batch 3 with dark blue swirls (even though it looks exactly like batch 2)

I checked on it this morning, and it seems ok?

I will see if it's ready to cut tonight or tomorrow night.

While both batch 2 and 3 have baking paper to line. I haven't done it proper with cuts or anything, so I'm pretty sure when I upend these they will be a bit wonky on the edges.

I don't care though. I think I'll be so thrilled that I made my own soap - and that these two batches have swirls in them, that I think the world could cave in, and I'd die happy soaping up in the shower... LOL.

Right now my first batch is laid out in a cardboard box on baking paper waiting to dry out. I found out that it's actually better for air to circulate all around the bars. So I'll move them over probably to the $1 shoe rack I picked up last weekend. I cleaned out my 'walk in wardrobe aka spare bedroom' on Sunday afternoon, and chucked a whole bunch of shoes (I'm trying to be ruthless). So it turns out I won't need to fill up the third shoe rack after all. That, and there'd be no room to put my third shoe rack in that room.. haha. So instead, I think that it will be a nice soap dryer for me.

I think I've found a new addiction.

In other news, Hubby wont' be home tonight, and hopefully if I have time, I have plans to sew. I might just move the sewing machine out to the living room to do it. My lab is full of soap and miy stuff atm, and I don't really feel like moving it all to do sewing. But the cushions need to be given new coverings urgently...

Naturally I left my camera at work on the weekend so there aren't any pics. But I'll make a point of documenting tonight to show you guys tomorrow. Heck, I might even get around to making another batch......... mebbe.........