# My First Lavender Cold Process Soap Batch! (cut pics added)



## bridgetmoon (Apr 1, 2013)

Hey Everyone.

As promised, my first cold process soap batch mixed with Coconut Oil, Unrefined Lavender Oil, Palm Oil, and a a lil bit of shea butter 

Comments welcome


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## lsg (Apr 1, 2013)

Looks great, can't wait to see a picute of the cut soap.


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## Genny (Apr 1, 2013)

Looks very elegant  
When you cut it, try cutting it on it's side so the lavender buds don't drag down through the soap.  Also, just in case you don't know, the lavender will most likely turn brown.


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## Shannon_m (Apr 1, 2013)

Looks very creamy!! Can't wait to see cut pics!


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## Badger (Apr 1, 2013)

It looks wonderful!  Congratulations on your lovely looking soap!


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 1, 2013)

Hopefully, but god only knows how long it's going to take to cure  I also have brown lavender seeds already in the mix, i done the oils and fragrance about a week ago and wondered what to do with it, the plan was bath melts but failed with that so i turned it into a cold process soap ^_^ When it's ready i'll show you the pictures!


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## eyebright (Apr 1, 2013)

Pretty!


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## judymoody (Apr 1, 2013)

Looks very pretty!

What is unrefined lavender oil?  I'm curious.


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## Jessrof (Apr 1, 2013)

Genny said:


> Looks very elegant
> When you cut it, try cutting it on it's side so the lavender buds don't drag down through the soap.  Also, just in case you don't know, the lavender will most likely turn brown.



The buds will brown?! Bummer! I iust bought tons of buds to decorate my lav soap....


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## Genny (Apr 1, 2013)

Jessrof said:


> The buds will brown?! Bummer! I iust bought tons of buds to decorate my lav soap....



Yep, they brown due to the high ph of soap.  They end up resembling mouse poo.


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## Cherry Bomb (Apr 1, 2013)

Genny said:


> Looks very elegant
> When you cut it, try cutting it on it's side so the lavender buds don't drag down through the soap.  Also, just in case you don't know, the lavender will most likely turn brown.



Oh yes! I learned that first hand. Soap was a pretty cream and lavender color, after gelling it's now a brown and lavender color! Lol lesson learned!


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 1, 2013)

lol very funny but accurate! Is there anyway to get them back to purple, I've seen a good couple of cold process soaps with the buds and they have barely turned brown at all. mmmmmmmmm  Level of ph you say, i wonder what could of caused that 

But i did take a look earlier, and looked like that mouse had popped by for a visit  So far it's looking good and going fast


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## Genny (Apr 1, 2013)

bridgetmoon said:


> lol very funny but accurate! Is there anyway to get them back to purple, I've seen a good couple of cold process soaps with the buds and they have barely turned brown at all.



Nope, no way to get them purple again.  

I've seen a lot of pics of soap with lavender & rose petals on them that aren't brown.  When I questioned the soaper on how they kept them from turning brown, I was told that they didn't, they just took the pic before the flowers turned brown.


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## SoapPapaw (Apr 1, 2013)

Cosmo just posted the following on another thread.



Cosmo said:


> Just a little tip I've been meaning to share. To keep the lavender buds you sprinkle on top of soap purple, sprinkle it on after the soap has gelled and spray liberally with alcohol. The alcohol adheres the buds to the soap and helps them keep their color instead of turning brown. Works like a charm!
> 
> I have buds on top a lavender soap that have remained bright blue/purple for 6+ months now.



The soap looks real nice.


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## RocknRoll (Apr 1, 2013)

Looks good! Dont forget to show us pictures... we are all drooling over here!


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 3, 2013)

Right, so it's been 3 days now and i'm really puzzled by the pictures in what went wrong. can any one shed some light in what I've done wrong?  When i first took a look it, i saw this "brown honey coloured oily stuff" coming from it, smelt a little off to, so when i cut it, it came apart almost like really hard chalk


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## lizflowers42 (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no!  It might be your fragrance oil (you said unrefined lavender--so is it an essential oil?)


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 3, 2013)

No, unrefined, i pushed lavender through a strainer i think with just plain almond oil unscented to create the unrefined lavender oil. I think it could be possibly the lye, i touched some of it and it burnt, maybe not mixed or maybe too much


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## Genny (Apr 3, 2013)

Looks like lye & if it burned, then yeah, it's the lye.


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## Badger (Apr 3, 2013)

Yeah, definitely sounds like lye... on the plus side, you can make lavender scented laundry soap...


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## MaitriBB (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no, that's too bad!  

I wonder if one could toss lavender buds in purple/lavender mica before adding to the top of the soap?  Then it wouldn't be all natural but at least they might stay purple.


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 3, 2013)

lol, do you think if i used to much caustic soda? I ain't too good with percents i put for lye about 250 Grams, and water about the same i think. Oils of at least 150 Grams in total. mmm lavender laundry soap, how do i make that lol?


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## houseofwool (Apr 3, 2013)

Did you put the recipe through a lye calculator?  You want the amount of lye to be less than the amount of oil and you want more water than lye.


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 3, 2013)

No, i don't know how to calculate the percentages, i have tried using the calculators but i can't work how much i need of one As said this is my first batch, normally i work with melt n pour. Oh trust me, it's already in the bin, when washing the tub it was in i got a burn or 2, nothing major but way to much caustic soda. Does anyone know if mixing the manually might effect it, i thought i'd give it ago instead of buying a whisk but now i'm thinking i should of brought one.


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## sistrum (Apr 3, 2013)

edited:  if you are going to delete one of my replies just go ahead and take the other.


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## bridgetmoon (Apr 3, 2013)

look mate, you don't have to be so rude about it......


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## lizflowers42 (Apr 3, 2013)

I don't think they meant to come off as rude. Lye can be extremely dangerous and you were lucky to not have gotten critical burns!

I had trouble understanding lye calculators as well. There are lots of youtube videos that were very helpful to me in understanding them. Best wishes on your next batch-you will be a CP convert in no time!


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## Ruthie (Apr 3, 2013)

brigetmoon, no one is trying to be rude.  They are trying to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.  I'm not that good at math, so I use one of the online programs like soapcalc.  It does the figuring for me.  So if you want to learn to make cold process soap, do the reading and learning before you try the next batch.  It is worth the effort!


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## ruby61 (Apr 3, 2013)

Bridget we can help and we want to help.  We all remember when we first started and being disappointed by a bad batch.


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## Cherry Bomb (Apr 3, 2013)

Ok First things first: you will get this!!! It is confusing but we are all here to help you my friend! Lye is serious. I actually did not know that I had some on my long sleeve shirt when I was soaping and I used my arm to wipe my bangs out of my eyes and now I have a lovely chemical burn in the middle of my forehead. It's been there a week. Lye can do damage fast! 

Now: I like to use soapcalc so I will walk you through how this puppy works! I will use my first recipe because it was great for a beginner. I used Anne Marie's Lots of Lather located here: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...cess-soap/my-favorite-cold-process-recipes-2/

She used:
Coconut Oil 16 ounces
Palm Oil 16 ounces
Olive Oil 16 ounces
Castor Oil 2 ounces

You may be thinking: how do ppl get percentages? Well I am about to explain that to you. Here is the link to Soap Calc: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
I will explain starting with number 1 written in blue on this page.

1.) Choose *NaOH* for Sodium Hydroxide

2.) This is where you decided how large of a batch you want to make. I usually do mine in pounds but let's do this recipe in ounces. So select *ounces* and in the white box type in *50* because that is the total we get when we add our recipe up. This soap will roughly be 3 pounds. This is a lot for a beginner. Usually 1 pound (16 oz) is a great place to start. 

3.) This this number alone until you get more batches under your belt 

4.) For now leave superfat at *5%*. You can up this percentage as you become more comfortable with CP. In the fragrance area add how much FO or EO you are using per pound. I use Brambleberry's fragrance calc and decided from there. The link to their calc is:  http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator-Results.aspx. EO's are usually .5 ounces per pound. A good quality FO and EO supplier will have information/usage rates/reviews under their FO/EO names. Let's say we are using Lavender Bulgarian EO. Go to Brambleberry's fragrance calc, choose CP, Plug in 50 ounces and select your EO. A new page will come up and it's states that for a medium scent we need 2.25 ounces total. Divide that by three (3 pounds) and we get *.75 ounces per pound*. Plug .75 in your ounces per pound. 

5.) Here is where you choose your oils from a drop down box. Let's select our first oil as an example. Find Coconut Oil, 76 deg and select it. 

6.) Choose the + sign to add it to your soap recipe. Add all of the rest of your oils from your recipe in this manner. Beside the oil you add you will see % and lb. We don't know our %'s but we do know our lbs! So select the bubble under pounds. Area should now be highlighted green.  We know that 1 pound is 16 ounces. So next to Coconut Oil, 76 deg type 1. Next to Palm Oil type 1 pound. Next to Olive Oil type 1. Castor oil is 2 ounces. I use google converter and type "2 ounces is how many pounds?" I get this answer in return: .125 pounds. So next to castor oil type .125. 

7.) you will now calculate your recipe. This makes sure that all of your oils add up to 100%. All you need to do it hit calculate. If you're not at 100% then look over your recipe and see what you need to add to make 100%. If you are at 100% select view or print recipe! Are you ready? Let's do this!!!! 

Your recipe will look like the page I attached. The first set of light *blue* blocks will tell you about your ratios/totals/fragrance oil weight...etc.  the next set of *purple* blocks will tell you how much water you need and how much lye you need. Make sure you are using distilled water and make sure you ALWAYS weigh in grams. Also if you need to round up remember this: round up with water and round down with lye! 

The next set of *green* blocks will tell you about your oils and finally you now have some %'s that you can type into soap calc the next time you use this recap again  basically with %'s you just want to make sure they total 100. This will tell you how much oil to add and use the grams section for accuracy! 

Finally the last area will tell you about your soaps properties. I hope this helps. I know it's long but maybe you can figure it out and find it useful! Happy soaping!!!!


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## WallFlower (Apr 3, 2013)

Very nice! Love the lavender on top!


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## Lindy (Apr 3, 2013)

Very pretty...


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