We made soap today!!

Hey y'all!! I tell ya what today has been quite an adventure! This morning I realized that I didn't have just Palm Oil, that I had Palm Olein Oil and unfortunately I couldn't use it in the two recipes that I had originally planned so decided to go with a recipe that came highly reccomended. So my recipe consisted of Canola, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Castor Oil (yes it's used for soap making too), Olive Oil (Ok I had extra virgin olive oil, had to make due with what I had ), water, goats milk, lye.  Ok so lets jump in with pictures here, give them time to load. :))



Adding Lye to my water

Stir Stir Stir!

Lye Water is super hot..at this point it was 203F (95C) , temp kept climbing. As you can see the water is now clear which means all of the lye has dissolved. So we cover it and put it in a safe spot until it cools down which takes forever it seems. lol

We begin melting and mixing our oils and butters. Notice I had air bubbles then, but by the time the oils and butters cooled I had gotten most of the air bubbles out.

When both the oils and lye mixture were at temp, it was time to pour the lye into the oils and begin to blend the two.

See how it begins to change when the lye and oils have mixed together? I unfortunately kept get the stick blender stuck on the bottom , and had to keep lifting it a bit but continued on like a champ.

Ok this is right before it begins to hit trace, so I add goats milk and blend as quickly as I can. At this point I should have seperated the batch and added the fragrance oils too. I was also trying to remove the air bubbles as well.

Holy crud we've hit trace quickly and from there things went south a bit.

Ok we're missing the pictures where we added fragrance oils because we had to quickly seperate this batch and I had to have hubby scent one loaf while I scented the other. At this point it hit thick trace and we were racing against the clock and no time for pictures this time.

We managed to get everything blended and poured into the molds, and wound up using the two big target load molds. This recipe that I used was bigger than I really wanted to do to be honest with you. I wanted to do smaller test batches but you live and learn.

So on the left is hubby's soap, and mine is on the right. The left is scented with Magnolia Grandiflora, the one on the right is scented with Cranberry Yuzu.

So here is the next mistake that I make.

I add plastic wrap to prevent ash from forming on my batch, which can happen on occassion.

A few minutes later I notice my husbands loaf of soap beginning to look odd.

I decide to watch it for a bit because I thought maybe it was just gelling up but I thought it was odd because mine wasn't doing that. I also thought that maybe the fragrance oil he used might have discolored altho I didn't remember the description saying it would. So while I wait I search online to be sure.

I turn around and see this happening, realized that what I did was sorta insulate it I suppose. (someone can correct me if I am wrong). With goats milk it doesn't need to be insulated, otherwise it will superheat. Silly me forgot about that.

So I am hoping that I removed the wrap in time. You get a discolor when you use goats milk, and I used equal parts goats milk and water so I am hoping that this is what is going on. Needless to say the little swirlies on top aren't there anymore because it got crazy hot. Fingers crossed that it will be ok.

Ok so I am doing my blog in The Shoppe tonight keeping an eye on this batch. I wanted to get it done this morning, but I had to go out and purchase a couple of oils that I didn't have so that I could use this recipe. I am not sure if I will use this recipe again, it was way bigger than I anticipated and castor oil is way to expensive in my opinion. I am hoping that these produce the sort of luxury bars I am hearing that they do. If not, will just chalk it up to lesson learned.
Here's how the loafs look now that they have cooled off a great deal.



Hubby's Loaf
He says don't mind the soap on the edges like that, it gives the soap character right now. lol The only oddness I am noticing is his loaf seems to be sweating oil right now. I am hoping that it is only a temporary thing. Will keep checking on it.



My loaf at cooldown stage. :)


Both loafs have at this point hardened up. I pulled away a side of each mold to look and am pleased for the moment with the exception of the sweat issue with the other loaf. I am also noticing that the top part of the side is alot lighter then the bottom when I pull the side of the mold away from the loaf. I imagine by morning it will all change to one uniform color, I hope. I am also hoping that I will beable to cut it in the morning, instead of waiting til tomorrow evening. We'll see tho.

Well folks, its a little past dinnertime and I am hungry. :) Check in tomorrow for our next adventure when we cut our soap. :)

Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy



Tomorrow is the day!!

*waves* Hey y'all!! So glad you stopped in because we have some catching up to do! :)
 For starters, I received several shipments this week, I got my oils & butters, my target molds, my fragrance oils (which by the way are so yummy smelling I about fell out!), my burner, thermometers, & my stirrers. I also picked up some powdered goats milk, a stainless steel pot, a shop light, distilled water, bamboo skewers, and tiny plastic colorant pots in an organizer thingamabob. lol

The only thing I haven't received yet is my other stainless steel pot, my work bench, and my shipment from another supplier which is my glycerin, some colorant sampler packs, droppers, little scoopies and a couple of scents that I liked and wanted to try. One of which is Cucumber. You know, I have heard so many people say "I just want Cucumber scented soap, I don't like Cucumber Melon..why is it so hard to find?!?!" Thankfully there are a couple of them who are friends of mine that I am guinea pigging a batch of Cucumber Soap who are looking for just that scent. :))  Anyhow, back to my supplies, I got the cutest little mini hand held blender from Amazon to mix up my colorants! :)) I have never seen any appliance that small and that adorable. lol

Ok with all of this I had some bad news over the weekend. The bad news to all of this is there was one supplier that came highly recommended that offered something called pop mica's which is supposed to be the absolute best to use in soap making. Unfortunately when I went to order this past Monday they were sold out and stated that they would have more in on March 1st. Well I caught hint of a little bug that was going around the forums today that apparently the original manufacturer decided to discontinue the line. Terrible!!

So I have been looking around trying to find another supplier , and I found one but the prices were higher and they didn't have the sampler either. I don't want to buy a boatload of pop mica's and then find that I don't like them...everyone's taste is different, ya know? I'm also not made of money either by a long shot. So my search for the elusive pop mica sampler will continue. Will let you know how it works out. :)) Until then I have some other mica's and pigments in sampler packs from one of my above suppliers on the way..they should be here on Monday.
Now onto the exciting news!! Y'all are not going to believe what I am doing tomorrow!! Yup, thats right, I am making my very first batch of cold processed soap. Yayyyy! I am sooooo excited and can't wait!! Can I get a yee-haw?!?!?! lol  I have almost everything set up out there ready for us to "Double, double toil and trouble"! lol  
Our first batch is going to be a goats milk batch, it will be scented of course but unfortunately not colored because my samplers don't come in until Monday or so. I think it will be just fine without the color for the first time, because the goats milk in cold process discolors slightly anyway. Now I have heard tell that when someone does their first batch of cp soap that they should use a basic version and save the goats milk batch til they have gotten used to this method of soaping. Well, I'm not one to wait on something that I wanna do and follow the crowd. I like to jump in feet first and hit the ground running. I figure if the batch blows up, then lesson learned and I go from there, it is after all a test run. lol! Either way I am having fun and learning so what could be wrong with that? :))
Goodness it's getting late! I have to head to bed soon, but before I close this out for the night, it's picture time!!!

Safety Stuffs and Supplies :))

Right after my shipment arrived. Look at all those beautiful butters and oils!

My molds and tools that I set up on the shelves tonight to dry so they can be used for tomorrow. Like my new light in there? I am thinking about having my Daddy come out and do some wiring to make things easier for me in The Shop. :)

Ok folks time for me to turn into a pumpkin and call it a night. Hope to be back tomorrow with a full report on my first batch of soap!


Suds & Bubbles, 
Soapy

So Excited!!

*waves!* Hey Hey! So many exciting things to share with y'all! So, I got my building..now formally dubbed as "The Shop", and it was put in my yard this past Thursday. Color me excited!! The picture isnt a very good one btw, but as soon as my hubby uploads the one he took I will post it. :))


The Shop



I don't think I told ya'll before but I got my stick blender and my scales about a week agp. Yayyyyy!

Mr. Sticky

Scales

(yes I already got my fingerprints on my scale. lol!)

Today I also place my orders for my oils, butters, scents, colorants, and a few other tools that I needed. Up until now I had been searching the forums for a reccomended suppliers, and finally hit paydirt. After a bit more research I selected my suppliers. Yayyyy!
I have added to cart 11 oils and butters from two different suppliers, 12 scents, a couple of sampler mica's and pigments from one place simply because I needed the colors and they are good, but aren't what I really wanted which was pop mica's. I have heard the most fabulous things about pop mica's but unfortunately have to wait til March 1st to order those. I got the little spoons, and dropper thingamabobs, and then I went hunting for good loaf molds. Now I tell you..most loaf or log molds that people make you almost have to take out a loan for to get them. It is crazy I tell ya. There's one company that I am saving up to purchase from because there has been nothing but good stuff said about them, I just can't afford it right now tho. I did however come across some silicone bakeware from Target of all places that is perfect to be used for molds and at a very good price!! I got a few of them because I don't think I need a whole lot to start with. I also went on ahead and purchased my lye at about $9 or so for a 2lb container and went on ahead and stuck it out in The Shop. I didn't want to run the risk of anyone getting into it in the house.

I also got my safety gloves and goggles! One should never tackle cold process soapmaking without those key things. Add to that cutting boards, soap cutter (a manual one), a lye pitcher, and those big glass pyrex measuring cups.
Now I have heard mixed reviews about using pyrex for cold process soap making. Some people swear by it because it can withstand very high temps, others say its a risk because the possibility of any sort of glass being shattered by lye. I will eventually get a stainless steel pot, but for now I will trust my handy dandy pyrex. Will keep y'all updated on how that goes. :)

Oh...btw!!! I did get my glycerin stuffs too since I am very familiar with using that, and will be working with it while my other soaps are curing. I am really excited everyone!! Can't wait to do my first batch of cold process soap. Come back soon for new developments on my soapmaking journey!!

Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy

Suppliers & Other Stuffs

Hey y'all! Hope everyone has had a good weekend and that y'all enjoyed Superbowl!
So I have been going through my list of supplies that I am going to need, and doing price comparisons on suppliers, and it is amazing to me how the listings that I had a couple of years ago has changed so drastically. Thankfully tho I have come across a couple of good forums and found some highly reputable suppliers that have been recommended, and some that I should steer away from . I actually hit the mother load on one of the oil suppliers. I am still cross checking a couple of the base oils to see if they are better priced because I found another bulk supplier as well too a few hours later. (btw...I made up a price comparison database thingamabobber and I am so proud that I did it all by myself! Yayyyy me! )

The most expensive item that I need is molds from what I can see. I found an awesome mold place that makes test molds that come in a single mold or double..the double makes two to four bars of soap for when your testing your recipes. The only drawback is it's $86 but the mold looks to be well worth it. It's wooden and has silicone as well which makes it tons easier to unmold. Have thought about getting the long log one as well because it's basically the same price. I don't even want to attempt to make my own molds by hand...can just see it now, I would be posting one handed from the ER, and putting up pictures of my stitched up boo boos. It would not be pretty. lol

Anyhow, I am hoping to be able to place these orders this Friday...fingers crossed that it happens. I am hoping that I have it all timed to where the workshop is set up, and the supplies get here right after I have it set up so I can put everything in there. I did find out though that I will likely have to store some of the base oils that have to stay in solid form until use in the house over the hot months so that they stay intact...and I didn't want to do that. I wanted to keep everything separate. So I am looking for a cabinet that I can lock up and keep some things in there in my kitchen. Yeah I know, why go to the trouble of locks? Well I would much rather lock it up than to come home and find that the menfolk in my house have used some coconut oil to cook up a batch of taters and onions. Something tells me that would likely taste a bit nasty. lol Now don't get me wrong, coconut oil is food grade and can be used to cook something, altho I have no idea what. *shrugs* I just think that coconut and taters would be like eating strawberries dipped in a mixture of ketchup and mustard with a dab of texas pete hot sauce. It may sound very interesting, but you sure as heck wouldn't want to sample it. lol!

Well folks it's time for me to turn into a pumpkin for the night, I have a big day ahead tomorrow. I am so glad that you stopped by! Will post again soon!

Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy

Hey Y'all!

Hey y'all!*waves* Thank you for stopping by my brand spanking new blog! As you may have noticed ...*points to the sign above this entry* this blog has to do with, yup you guessed it, my journey into soap making! lol You can call me Soapy :)) . I live in the southern part of the United States , in the heart of North Carolina, way out in the country...but not on a farm, yet. lol I have 4 beautiful children, and a wonderful hubby...add a few animals to the mix and you have my family. ;-)

You may be wondering where does soap making fit into all of this. Anything soap making related has been a passion of mine for quite sometime now. I have only did the handmade glycerin for family use in the past, but I really wanted to get my hands dirty ( or clean lol) making old fashioned homemade soap instead of just glycerin. So I began doing research, and purchasing some books about making homemade soap from the ground up using various different methods and decided on doing the cold process. Unfortunately I had to put things on hold for a bit because my life became hectic. :(

Fast forward to 6 months ago. I came across some of my soap making books that I had put away and I began thinking...If I kept waiting for when the time was right to begin this, I would never start. So I started planning my soap making journey to start around the beginning of this year. So here I am now! :)) Within the next week I will be ordering my workshop, and supplies, and two weeks from now I should be making my first batch of homemade soap! I am excited beyond belief!!Yayyyy me! lol  I thought it would be fun to chronicle my journey on this blog, complete with pictures which should make things either very interesting, or quite funny. ;-)
So there you have it, my little intro into the blog world! Thank you so much for dropping in and please check in often to see my soap making adventures. :))
Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy