[image links are broken after several hosting moves, hoping to find backups somewhere]
(anyone get “Manic Monday” stuck in their heads thanks to my title? sorry about that)
Soaping Saturday actually ended up being Soaping Friday Afternoon because I had my kitchen clean and knew as soon as Saturday morning breakfast hit, it would not be so clean. But the soaps got cut today, so it’s all good!
This is going to be an image heavy post, mostly due to my wanting to practice with my new camera, plus of course wanting to take pictures of my soap. I learned a lesson during this batch, you’ll see further down…
Here’s my molds, all lined and patiently waiting to be put into service:
Lye water in cold sink water to cool off faster. I am out of coconut and goat’s milk so it’s just distilled water this time. Looks so innocent doesn’t it? Before it entered it’s cool bath, it sat on the stove top under the vent to suck out all the fumes.
Oils (palm, olive, coconut, castor & cocoa butter) waiting for the above lye water to hurry up and cool off.
Cocoa powder and blue ultramarine for coloring, and my 3 scents picked for this session, all fall/winter types (this is the beginning of my lesson today)
Having only 2 hands, I wasn’t able to get any of the process (someday!), but here they are in the molds (top to bottom: Winter Wonderland, Sweet Pumpkin Spice, Oatmeal Stout).
It was 90 degrees in my house (even in Oregon it’s miserable this time of year without a/c) so they started gelling almost immediately – the first one below is the Winter Wonderland, so hot it’s cracking, and the next is at full gel stage (after I used the back of a spoon to close the crack).
Here they are Friday evening, unmolded…my silicone molds are starting to bow out after 60 batches (can you see the end of the closest is rounded?), it’s time to invest or make some wooden ones.
The next 3 will show a close up of my massive air bubbles, I’ll explain below what I did wrong and why it won’t happen again!
Winter Wonderland:
Oatmeal Stout (the kids love the “camo” effect, I’ll have to remember this one):
Sweet Pumpkin Spice:
The bubbles happened because I spent too much time on each batch after creating the one big batch. Even though I started at a very, very light trace, by the time I had the first one separated out (40oz of the raw soap), scented, separated again to color half, it was starting to get thick… so you might imagine how thick the other 2 were by the time I got to them, especially having to rinse the stick blender off so I didn’t transfer scents and colors. The thinner the soap is when it’s poured, the easier it is to ensure no air bubbles.
Next time I’ll do individual batches. And work much faster.
Now, the cut soaps (in all their air bubbly glory):
- Greenhouse Materials - January 23, 2025
- Bacon Cheeseburger Mac - January 22, 2025
- Manure in Composting - January 22, 2025