# First batch of soap the right way lol



## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

Just finished the 50% lard 35% olive oil and 15% coconut oil.
I thought during mixing process I would get thicker but it didnt, hope its still ok. Was wondering how many days I should wait to brake the mold?
And yes I weighed everything with a digital scale.


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## shunt2011 (Jun 3, 2016)

If it gels then you should be able to unmold in 12-24 hours. Did you use a stick blender to mix it?  By hand can take a long long time.


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

I did it by hand so probly a couple of day right?


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## Navaria (Jun 3, 2016)

I believe she meant mixing by hand could take a long long time for it to reach trace (get thicker). As long as you got it to at least emulsion it will go ahead and saponify. How long it take to unmold will depend on if it gels or not, as Shunt said. What kind of mold did you use, and what did you do with it after you put the soap in the mold?


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

I put it in a Tupperware bowl it was still runny after the olive and coconut oil was added. But it was at a mid trace when I added the oils. I mixed it very well


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## shunt2011 (Jun 3, 2016)

I'm confused, what do you mean it was at mid trace when you added the oils. You would combine all the oils with the melted lard before adding the lye/water to it.  Then you mix it to trace or at least emulsion before pouring it into a mold.  

Then you would cover/insulate it to get it to gel. Gelling it makes it easier to unmold. Especially from a Tupperware bowl.


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## Navaria (Jun 3, 2016)

May I ask why you added the olive and coconut oil after you mixed the lye water with the lard? I'm guessing from the way your post reads that's what you did. What was the weight of all your oils and the weight of your lye? I think I have an idea of why it's so thin, but I just want a little more information to make sure.


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

The water:lye ratio was 2:1. Lye was 2.2 oz. Lard was 8 oz. Olive oil was 5.6 oz and coconut oil was 2.4 oz.

I thought I could add my oils at trace but ig I messed up lol


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## doriettefarm (Jun 3, 2016)

Pics or it didn't happen!    Glad to see you tried again with better equipment & supplies.  You could have melted/mixed all oils together before adding the lye solution and saved yourself a step.  Not saying what you did won't work . . . it should be okay as long as you achieved emulsion after adding the liquid oils at trace.  I would think with that much lard in the recipe you should be able to unmold within 24hrs (depending on how deep the Tupperware bowl is).  You can also try freezing the soap so it becomes solid enough to unmold if it's too squishy in the center after a few days.


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## Navaria (Jun 3, 2016)

Whew! I was afraid you only had enough lye for the lard you added originally lol. Lard recipes take longer to get thick, but they will eventually. There's no need to add your other oils after you add the lye. Don't get me wrong, you can but you don't have to. With some recipes, you could end up with your batter getting too thick, and have trouble getting the other oils to mix in fully. It sounds like your on the right track now though


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

The mold is only 1 inch deep or more


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## dibbles (Jun 3, 2016)

Yay for you! The others are right - no reason to wait to add the oils at trace. Melting your hard oils and adding your liquid oils before you add your lye solution will make it a lot easier for you, especially if you aren't using a stick blender.


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

Awesome give my wrist some muscle lol


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## doriettefarm (Jun 3, 2016)

If your Tupperware mold is that shallow, I bet you will be able to unmold and cut tomorrow morning.  My lard soaps are usually slow to trace but set up pretty fast after pouring.  Some folks wait until trace to add fragrance or essential oils but I typically melt all fats and add FOs/EOs to the melted fats at around 100 degrees F.  Some EOs have a low flashpoint and will evaporate if you add them at higher temps.  You really should get a stickblender and save your arm muscles!


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## Seawolfe (Jun 3, 2016)

Just wait to unmold it when you can poke it and it doesn't dent, but don't wait too long or it can be hard to cut.
And congrats!! We do love to see pictures


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## sliginion (Jun 3, 2016)

I will get a stickblender hehe... oops I mixed the lye and lard at ab 140 degrees. Hope it wont matter much
And I dont know how to add pictures to help with the stage and processes
Ooo I figured out the picture part yay


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## doriettefarm (Jun 3, 2016)

140 degrees is pretty warm but if you didn't add any sugars or milk it's probably fine.  That's pretty much why I mentioned adding FOs/EOs at a certain temperature because you don't want them to disappear!


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## sliginion (Jun 4, 2016)

Oh ok awesome. Is it possible to make soap with food coloring, like a drop or two but not a whole lot?


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## Navaria (Jun 4, 2016)

Depends on the color. If I remember correctly, red does ok, but blue will turn purple. I *think* yellow fades a bit, and green morphs too, but I can't say for sure. The only ones I've actually used are red and blue. The others I just read about. Plus all 4 will fade if exposed to bright light. If you're just wanting to play with a bit of color and it's for personal use go for it. For anything more complex, you really do need to get soap colorants or dyes


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## sliginion (Jun 4, 2016)

Ok ill give it a try thank you


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## IrishLass (Jun 4, 2016)

Congratulations on your first batch done the right way!  How do things look today?

As the others said, just add all your fats/oils together before adding the lye solution. When I make soap, I melt my hard fats first, and then I add my liquid oils to them before adding my lye solution. Sometimes, I even add my fragrances to my melted fat/oil mixture before I add my lye solution.

As for heating the lard to 140F, I've heated mine to 160F before (by accident) and it came out perfectly fine. 

Although it's not 100% absolutely necessary for making soap, a stick-blender is most definitely a soap-maker's best friend. It'll save you time, and your wrist will thank you. 

Here's a handy tip on how to use a stick-blender when soaping- use it very sparingly. They are so powerful that intermittent 5 to 10-second bursts every now and again (in between hand-stirring) are all that's needed to bring the soap batter to trace in a timely fashion. Oftentimes, many brand new soap-makers make the mistake of continuously stick-blending the soap batter non-stop until trace is reached, but the only things that will accomplish are burning the stick-blender's motor out and causing things to move too fast.


IrishLass


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## Seawolfe (Jun 4, 2016)

You can also use things like turmeric for an orangey tan, carrot juice, red palm oil or paprika for orange, cinnamon or coffee for browns, powdered activated charcoal for black.  Search natural colorants in the soap forum - they can be tricky, and many fade, but it's fun.


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## penelopejane (Jun 4, 2016)

Food colouring liquids are not suitable for CP soap making. Buy your colourings from a soap making supplier and they will be CP soap stable. 

Seawolf's list above is great for natural colouring. Pumpkin is another one that works. 

Save yourself some time and effort and search this site for natural colours that don't work - there are a lot, learn from others experiments.


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## sliginion (Jun 4, 2016)

Awesome thank you!!!
I need another simple recipe to try ive made 2 batches of the last one. I made the second one today and the trace came alot better after mixing my lard and oils. Yay!!!


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## doriettefarm (Jun 4, 2016)

You can definitely use herbs, spices and other kitchen ingredients for color.  I've used turmeric, paprika, annatto, parsley, pumpkin, avocado and cocoa powder to color batches.  

What are you hoping to gain by using a new recipe at this point?  Not asking to be snarky but your first 2 batches still need time to cure before you can try them out and decide what to tweak.  Although I can totally relate to your exuberance and the desire to make more soap!  You really need to test those first batches and see what you do/don't like about them.  Then we can recommend changes to the original recipe or maybe a completely new recipe to suit your needs.


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## lenarenee (Jun 4, 2016)

sliginion said:


> I need another simple recipe to try ive made 2 batches of the last one. I made the second one today and the trace came alot better after mixing my lard and oils. Yay!!!


 
What oils do you have on hand? Olive and coconut? You could try a Bastille soap; (Castille is 100% olive oil, bastille has a high olive oil, plus other oils) Maybe 75% olive, 20 coconut, 5 castor. If you don't have castor, just change the coconut to 5%. It's a very different soap from a lard soap, and takes a long, long cure before it comes into its own.

ETA: takes longer to get that recipe to trace because of all the olive oil


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## sliginion (Jun 4, 2016)

Im going to wait until these other batches have cured
I have coconut oil, olive oil, and lard right now
Im planning on get castor oil and coca butter next


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## Susie (Jun 5, 2016)

Try this:

Lard 65%
Olive Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

You can buy castor oil at Walmart in the pharmacy area in the laxatives.  It is $2.86 for 6 oz at my local Walmart.  This is a good comparison recipe to the one you made already.


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## sliginion (Jun 5, 2016)

This is the first batch of last recipe
Its still hardened like I thought it would (weird)
Softer bar I think thats y


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## gdawgs (Jun 5, 2016)

Susie said:


> Try this:
> 
> Lard 65%
> Olive Oil 15%
> ...



I made a batch of your recipe a couple weeks ago.  I even named it "Susie's Recipe"  Can't wait to try it out.


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## dibbles (Jun 5, 2016)

sliginion said:


> This is the first batch of last recipe
> Its still hardened like I thought it would (weird)
> Softer bar I think thats y



Look at your pretty, white soap! It looks like you were able to use Soap Calc, so I'm glad you figured it out. I noticed that your lye concentration is 50%. That is pretty adventurous for a first batch, so I'm glad you didn't have any problems. Personally, I usually use 33-40%. When I started soaping I used the default 'full water' setting, and sometimes still do. There is nothing wrong with what you did, as long as you understand that 1:1 (water:lye), or 50% lye concentration is as low as you can go to have the lye completely dissolve. Also, if you ever start using fragrances in your soap, a low water lye solution like that can cause a lot of trouble with acceleration.


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## shunt2011 (Jun 5, 2016)

Nicely done first batch.  Congratulations!!!


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## sliginion (Jun 5, 2016)

The water ratio I did was 2:1
4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%


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## IrishLass (Jun 5, 2016)

Looking good!


IrishLass


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## penelopejane (Jun 5, 2016)

sliginion said:


> The water ratio I did was 2:1
> 4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%




So you didn't follow the soap calc sheet you printed out?
The water/lye ratio there shows 1:1
Lye concentration 50%


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## dibbles (Jun 5, 2016)

sliginion said:


> The water ratio I did was 2:1
> 4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%



I see. If you change something like that, I would reprint the recipe with the change or, at the very least, mark down what I did differently from the printed recipe right on that sheet so I have it for reference in the future. Six months and a few batches of varying recipes later, and you probably won't remember what you did should you want to repeat it. At least I've learned my memory isn't that reliable


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## sliginion (Jun 5, 2016)

I did the soap calculator with the 2:1 ratio I jus didnt take a picture of it
Do I have to get all pure.oils or.can I jus go to the grocery section at Wal-Mart?


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## doriettefarm (Jun 5, 2016)

Many of the oils you find in Wal-Mart are just fine for soaping.  They should have lard, olive, coconut, sunflower, castor (in the pharmacy section) and possibly some specialty oils like grapeseed, hazelnut, pumpkin seed, etc.  You might even find palm oil in the form of hydrogenized palm shortening.  I doubt you'll be able to find any decent butters (shea, cocoa, etc) at Wally World but you might get lucky at a health food store.


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## BattleGnome (Jun 5, 2016)

sliginion said:


> Do I have to get all pure.oils or.can I jus go to the grocery section at Wal-Mart?




Walmart is fine for soaping, just check ingredients for oil blends so you can be accurate in your calculations. Soaping 101 has a video about soaping using dollar store oil for a soap, the bottle she picked up was a blend and she shows the ingredients/how she broke down the blend for soap calc.


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## Susie (Jun 5, 2016)

I buy all my oils at Walmart or Sams.  Saves me lots of money on shipping.


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## sliginion (Jun 8, 2016)

Well its been ab a week and these r the last three batches and ive washed my hands with all three batches, no burns or anything. I think they turned out really nice.


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## penelopejane (Jun 8, 2016)

Congratulations. Your soap will get better over time, as it cures. I wouldn't store them on a metal tray, metal and soap react and metal tends to cause DOS. So it would be a good idea to separate them with a cloth or parchment paper, at least.


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## sliginion (Jun 8, 2016)

Ok I will asap thank you


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