Soap

So, we've discovered the wonder world of hand-made soap. I bought some lavender soap from someone I know while at Birka this past January, we used it, loved it and then Ken just bought two more from the same person. This got me thinking that I should probably learn to make our own soaps.

So fast forward a little, after having done some reading, I've decided that I'm going to follow the instructions provided on this blog article by orthogonalthought.com. Its clear, concise and best off all it has pictures.

First things first, I need ingredients. So I headed off to Walmart for supplies and was very happy to discover that I could get everything but the lye there. I decided to buy cheap utensils and bowls that I can use specifically for soap making as I don't want to mix the regular kitchen supplies with lye...

My shopping list ended up looking like this:

• 100% Lye - bought from Ace Hardware under the drain cleaner brand on Rooto.
• Olive Oil - yes, the stuff you use for cooking.
• Coconut Oil -Mmmmmm, sounds good enough to eat!
• Caster Oil - found in the pharmacy dept. as a laxative.
• Distilled Water -do you know whats in your tap water?
• Digital Thermometer - obvious, is obvious.
• Measuring Jugs - plastic and heatproof.
• Hand Whisks - not buying an electric one until I know I'll make more soap.
• Plastic Spatula - for stirring the soap mixture.

Once everything was to hand and the hubby was sent packing it was time to experiment!

First things first, measure out the lye crystals and mix it into solution so that it could cool down while I prepared the other stuff. This actually happened very easily and without any mishaps. Everything was done in the sink so that I had a controlled working space and I could immediately flush things with water if needed.

Next up was the oils. I measured out all the oils and melted them together using the microwave as directed but I feel that next time I will only heat the solid oils and use the others at room temperature as they took a while to cool down.

Then its a waiting game. The instructions said to mix the lye-solution into the oils when they're at about 110F and within 20 degrees of each other. When I mixed mine (impatience) they were within 20 degrees of each other but the hotter of the two was at about 130F Hopefully this won't turn into an issue. I mixed them for about 45 minutes and achieved what I would consider to be "light trace", a kind of soupy, gravy consistency, before pouring into my mold.

And then it just sat there for two days. I did notice what I would consider a little "excess oil" on Saturday night but by Sunday morning it had absorbed back into the hardening block. This morning I pulled it out of the mold and sliced it into "bars" and it looks like I think it should. Now it just needs to cure for 4 weeks.

All in all it seems to be a success. I stupidly haven't taken any photos though so that will have to wait for the next batch I do.