A year on

[dxw]

Olive soaps take months to fully cure, turn almost completely white, lose most (but not all) of the olive scent and get rock hard.
...
It has been aged about a year.

You were absolutely spot-on. My almost-year-old olive oil soap is now a lovely hard white (larger block in image).
One batch, my first-ever soap making effort, has also introduced me to what I take to be my first DOS (smaller block).

 

[penelopejane]

Dxw
Re: DOS
Have you worked out a better storage area for your soap than your shed?

I find (and your climate is pretty similar to ours but yours
is a bit cooler) that you need to cure high OO soap about 3 months on racks then you can put them in cardboard boxes with some air flow. Curing space needs to be cool with good airflow or if the airflow isn’t good, a place where a fan can be used on really hot or humid days. Not where there are great temperature fluctuations. An open shelf in a room on the south side of your house that doesn’t get E or W sun.

Hygiene, while scoffed at by some, is important especially for aged soap - gloves when handling (every time), regularly cleaning the cloth they sit on, not sitting them directly on steel or timber, don’t unmold them on dirty surfaces. Keep dust to a minimum.

Use distilled or filtered water in your mix. Don’t use lavender FO or EO.

It is really disappointing to cure a soap for 12 months then to discover DOS.

Ps: good work on being patient about waiting for your Castile to cure. Keep some for another 6 -12 months and you will be a convert forever!

 

[dxw]

A year ... and 20+ batches of soap … later. Reporting in.

My soapmaking has remained utilitarian, not pretty, for personal / family use. There's an element of self-justification in that statement, because my efforts at pretty have ended up ... well ... utilitarian

Highlights:
- Watching my early batches, especially yellow-green olive oil soaps, gather character with age … and watching the blocks shrink;
- Discovering cinnamon and oatmeal and the delight that combination can bring;
- Pumice and kiwi-fruit seeds, and just how much a little abrasion helps to clean;
- DOS, just today, and glycerin rivers, which look great;
- Menthol crystals;
- Building myself some round moulds with poly-piping … and explaining away the apostrophe-shaped soaps that result when gale-force winds toss your not-yet-set 'round' soaps-in-moulds to the floor;
- Hand packaging and labelling soaps and soap bundles as Christmas presents (So much more time than making the soaps but way worth it).

Yesterday I made my fifth batch of cinnamon-oatmeal soap. It has evolved over time but is far-and-away the family favourite. My daughter tells me there was an entire university 'dorm' of young women smelling of cinnamon earlier this year. I will claim artistry and quality over the brutal economic circumstances that beset students living away from home.

All our family is receiving hand-packaged bundles of hand-made soaps: cinnamon-oatmeal general body soap; smooth creamy peach soap; cleansing menthol soap; and a pumice-enhanced Gardeners' Soap. I individually wrapped (using a light non-woven interfacing fabric) and labelled the blocks and then combined them in red-and-green ribbon secured organza 'bags'. Observant recipients will notice a wayward 'lorem ipsum' text field on some of the labels, oops, but other than that it all looks pretty good and fits very well with my preference for hand-made over purchased gifts.

Two photos are during-the-manufacturing shots from my Christmas collection ... and one of my first efforts at round soaps, including the apostrophes.
Next effort is going to be a liquid /cream soap ... gulp!

Thank you all for your help. Happy soaping and a wonderful Christmas/ New Year.

 

[penelopejane]

Congratulations your soap looks great!
Love that your daughters friends like it too.

 

[Hendejm]

GREAT account of your first year in soap-making! It’s gratifying to read your account all in one message. And it makes me hopeful and I am encouraged by your journey through soapmaking. And it’s creating family memories! That’s far more rewarding than anything money can buy. You make me proud and I don’t even know you

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hiya DXW, from further up the land in the heart of dairy farming country. Great to see your journey. I've only been soaping for a couple of months, but really happy so far with my initial batches, which have cured sufficiently for testing now and I'm loving trying out all my recipes. My third batch was a cinnamon and oatmeal - and it's the only one I've yet to try. All my 'scrappy' bits have gone to friends for testing and I've only got 'nice' bars left that I don't want to cut up to test myself. What is your recipe?
This is what I used:
Apricot Kernel oil 25%
Castor Oil 10%
Coconut Oil 20%
Canola Oil 10%
Shea Butter 15%
Olive Oil 20%
5 % superheat
Plus 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon and 1 tablespoon ground oats.

If I make it again I will change my base recipe somewhat, as I i'm using different ratios of oils now, and have recently introduced soy wax as a substitute for palm/animal fats. The result is a very nice, creamy, bar of soap!

 

[SaltedFig]

Apostrophe soap!

Merry Christmas to you and yours dxw
(and thanks for the Christmas soapy story )

 

[dxw]

Apostrophe soap!

I am trying that 'silver lining' thing. Apostrophe sounds much better than catastrophe, which is how it looked strewn over the floor the morning after the storm.
That photo was intended to have my apostrophes bracketing three Dorothy Soaps - Dot, Dot, and Dot, the ellipsisters. Boom, boom! You probably had to have read the book

Hiya DXW, from further up the land in the heart of dairy farming country.
All my 'scrappy' bits have gone to friends for testing and I've only got 'nice' bars left that I don't want to cut up to test myself.
What is your recipe?
... and have recently introduced soy wax as a substitute for palm/animal fats.

Hi KiwiMoose.

I was up your way for a week in October, and a few days a few weeks ago. I will wave next time

With teen 'kids' I have no shortage of willing users and testers, although I find myself using more of the less-perfect ones. I also take the occasional bundle in to work and people pick-and-choose and report back.

My 'recipe' is not really a static thing, and morphs with my mood and what I have available. The kids kept asking for 'stronger' cleansing soaps so I've settled on a moderately high coconut oil recipe for this one. The last batch contained emu oil … mostly because I could (Aussie heritage y'see).

My most recent batch was mostly similar, without the emu. It was 1200g of oils with 410ml of 30% lye, approximately 2% superfatted. The oils were:
- 30% coconut oil;
- 15% olive oil;
- 10% lard;
- 7.5% sweet almond oil;
- 7.5% castor oil;
- 5% each almond butter; mango butter; cocoa butter; shea butter; sunflower oil; and rice bran oil.
With that I used 8g of ground cinnamon, 70g of ground-up rolled oats, 2 heaped tspn of powdered dried orange peel, 35ml of cinnamon leaf EO, and 20 drops of clove bud EO. Compared to the previous batch I reduced slightly the amount of ground cinnamon, I ground my oatmeal a little finer, and I added in some orange peel powder.
It is currently two 65mm diameter, glorious smelling, logs sitting on an airing rack waiting to be sliced.

I've not tried soy oils or wax in anything yet, but that sounds a good idea.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Oh - meant to say I used a frankincense EO in my one. Haven't tried an actual cinnamon EO - did you find it accelerated trace? I think I would like to do more of the cinnamon oatmeal ones, and whilst the ones I made do smell slightly of cinnamon , I'm sure an EO would improve that.

 

[dxw]

Oh - meant to say I used a frankincense EO in my one. Haven't tried an actual cinnamon EO - did you find it accelerated trace? I think I would like to do more of the cinnamon oatmeal ones, and whilst the ones I made do smell slightly of cinnamon , I'm sure an EO would improve that.

My batter traces pretty quickly, but that's not a problem as even if it's quite gloopy it pours into the vertical tube moulds fairly nicely. Mine is quite strongly cinnamon scented but I like that.
Take care with your shape choices on that one though. Irreverent son titled my first, more preform or amorphous, batch 'dog turd soap'. Thankfully the unmistakeably scent overpowered whatever visual misgivings anyone might have had.

OMG ... your rocks rock. They're awesome. Two xmases ago I gathered a bundle of Hutt River rocks and some Resene sample pots, to produce a collection of Minions for gifting, but they were nowhere near up to the beauty of those guys. The dots are fantastic, and the turquoise dots so striking … a bit of peacock and a bit of kina. well done.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Sorted:

I love strong smelling soap - especially cinnamon. It's in my shopping cart already on Pure Nature

OMG ... your rocks rock. They're awesome. Two xmases ago I gathered a bundle of Hutt River rocks and some Resene sample pots, to produce a collection of Minions for gifting, but they were nowhere near up to the beauty of those guys. The dots are fantastic, and the turquoise dots so striking … a bit of peacock and a bit of kina. well done.

Thank you DXW

 

[dxw]

Sorted:
View attachment 34467
I love strong smelling soap - especially cinnamon. It's in my shopping cart already on Pure Nature

Cinnamon Leaf EO is quite a bit less expensive than cinnamon bark. Cassia EO is cheaper again, but I have not tried it (on order atm).

 

[Koric]

Don’t use lavender FO or EO.

Why no Lavender? I have my first batch curing for about 6 months now. I left it unscented but I was going to use Lavender EO on it. It's a test of the type of soap more then anything else.

 

[penelopejane]

Lavender is prone to DOS in both FO and EO.

For me, the risk is just not worth it.

 

[KimT2au]

Take care with your shape choices on that one though. Irreverent son titled my first, more preform or amorphous, batch 'dog turd soap'. Thankfully the unmistakeably scent overpowered whatever visual misgivings anyone might have had.

LOL, I have a biscuit (cookie for the Americans) recipe that my kids call Dog Poo biscuits as I tried (unsuccessfully) to pipe the once and they have never forgotten

I adore your apostrophe soap. If I had seen one at a market I would have bought it for novelty value if nothing else, they look brilliant.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Lavender is prone to DOS in both FO and EO.

For me, the risk is just not worth it.

I didn't realise that PJ. My sister is still insistent that I make a lavender soap. Would it be ok if I cured it and sold it within 6 months? When is DOS likely to appear?

 

[penelopejane]

You can’t tell if or when DOS is likely to appear. It is random even with lavender.

I had a few spots of DOS and so started a strict hygiene protocol of cleaning and only using gloves then I discovered it was just about only on my lavender soaps (I had one other case on a poorly stored bar of Castile that didn’t get any airflow).

I still clean everything regularly, use gloves to make and touch my soap and make sure they get good airflow as they cure. I am not saying lavender is the only cause but for me it was obvious that the lavender was just too risky to use.

 

[dxw]

Sisters!? Sheesh. It started out as a simple walk down our rugged south coast. It's evolved into a batch of volcanic black-sand hard-work soap now curing on the rack. No shortage of volcanic products here so the soap is grey-black, with black sand and ground pumice for scrubbing purposes. Maybe driftwood snippets, from the same beach, as embellishments. Soap is looking and smelling (basil was their choice) good, so even if it is a dud it's been fun dragging them into some holiday soap-making.

 

[shunt2011]

I've been making Lavender Soap (both EO FO) for over 8 years now and have never had DOS. I have however had a lilac get DOS twice (FO). Guess I'm just lucky.

 

[dxw]

… volcanic products here so the soap is grey-black, with black sand and ground pumice for scrubbing purposes.

A couple of hours before my sisters depart. Not much time for artwork - between long-walks, breakfasts, and afternoon shows - but I decided to drop the seashore theme and go with something a little more punchy.

I proudly present the SOAP OF DOOM: "Not for faces precious... even orcs's faces".

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