Substitutions, oh my!!

*waves* I know y'all are suprised to see me twice in one day right? *laughs* I hope everyone has had a wonderful day! Crossing my fingers that I get most of what I set out to do tonight done before it gets too late. Oh, one thing, I decided to not do a batch a soap tonight. With everything I have been doing, I was just plumb tired to do anything else. So, lets get a move on and jump right in to the soapmaking from last night!
         Before I begin, I have to tell you that I was unable to get any pictures last night and let me tell you why real quick. I wasn't even sure if I was gonna make a batch last night. It was stormy out, and I had been going full speed ahead with errands and such, so I had thought to put it off til today. By the time I began making the batch of soap it was about 8:30pm , the hubby was busy with his stuff and couldn't be my photographer, and I was hard pressed for time to do it myself. I know, I know...excuses excuses. Next go round we'll get pictures.
         Ok, so mind you I didn't have the correct Palm Oil that I needed for one of the recipes that I wanted to do, so I was looking up substitutions and lo and behold someone said a good substitution was (now cover your eyes vegan peoples) Lard! Can you believe it? One of the things that you can find in any grocery store especially in the south (well except my local food lion, much to my shock and dismay they didn't have it, shame on them!). You can also find them in Walmart, which is where I had to go to pick it up. (Thanks Wally World for the Lard!)
        So I get to work, got my lye water mixture together and my oils melted which was coconut oil, lard, shea butter, avocado oil,soybean oil, sunflower oil. I decided against using goats milk last night for this batch.
So I got my lye water, and my oils cooled off real good, and poured my lye into my oils. I alternated between manual stirring, and the stick blender. Five minutes later it started to thicken up slightly.
      I then added my fragrance oil and continued with my stick blender. Well five more minutes later and the outside of the container still felt room temperature a bit and I was stick blending away. I thought maybe the lye and oils weren't hot enough but was too leery to put it all back in the pot on a burner so I kept on truckin.
      After putting the stick blender on full blast for about another five minutes it started to become like pudding does right before it thickens. I kept going and finally it hit a good trace so into the mold it goes.
So there it is in the mold and I am thinking to myself, 'I wonder if I botched this batch with too much lard.' I just wasn't expecting it to take so long to get to trace first of all, nor the temp to be so low. So after a few minutes of looking at it sitting in the mold , I get the idea to try to force it to gel in the oven. So in the house I go with my soap batter in my mold and put it in the warm oven.
     I sat right in front of that oven, checking on it every so often. One of my youngins asked me "Mama, what are you waiting for it to do? Dance or something?" lol I explained what I was hoping it would do, and my youngin kept vigil with me over the soap. ;-)  The last time I checked it, I hit pay dirt! I pulled the side of the mold away from the loaf and saw where it hardened and thought it was best to take it back out to The Shop, and insulate it. Said a quick prayer over it *winks*, then went inside to bed.
     This morning we get up , go out, and here is this lovely opaque loaf of soap! We unmolded and cut, and wallah!


Poke-a-long Soap ;-)

 So there you have it, another wild adventure on my soapmaking journey, stay tuned for more! hehehe
Well y'all, I am dog tired and have to do one more thing before I hit the bed. Have a good evening, and will post again soon!
Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy