Cleaning up after first successful attempt at soapmaking

[JazzKitten]

Hi folks
I made a batch of cold process lye based soap last night with used cooking oil following quantities from a couple of recipes I found here on the internet.
It seemed to turn out OK - still not set but it has lightened in colour and I hope with time it will fully set.
My question - the bowl/jug/spatula and other equipment I used was so greasy I had to use soda crystals to clean it. In fact the whole thing made a right mess of my utensils and washing up bowl - I used quite a bit of soda to clean it all up as washing up liquid wasn't cutting it (ha)
Is this normal or have I done something seriously wrong?
Wendy

 

[lsg]

I usually wipe out my soap containers with paper towels and then wash all the equipment and containers in hot water with dish washing detergent. You can fill your containers with hot water and put the equipment such as stick blender attachment, etc in the containers and let them set overnight and wash them with hot water and dish detergent the next day.

 

[earlene]

No, I recall my extremely oily bowls and utensils when I first started making soap and wondering why it was so darned oily and such a mess to clean up, too.

What I have found over time, is that it doesn't seem to be so bad anymore. I can't be sure if I've just become really used to it, or if my soap stuff really has had less oily residue over the years. I think it is the latter, but it could be the former and I have just become desensitized to it.

In any case, there are a few things to help with this problem that you might try.

One is to use the least amount of containers possible, for weighing out, mixing, etc. Less containers with oily residue.

Another is to make sure to mix well inside the container before pouring, to make sure more of the oils from the vessel are well incorporated into the soap batter. Use a spatula to do this and not a stick blender. Just scraping around the inner edges to get all the oil incorporated makes a difference.

When pouring the soap, use the spatula to scrape out every last drop of soap batter (less to clean up later).

Wipe your soapy containers with throw-away material (for example, lightly used paper towels - I save lightly used paper towels for wiping up greasy/oily stuff, thus less waste). THEN, I store the container(s) & utensils overnight (or longer) in a safe place where my cat cannot stick her nose into it (nor could a child if one were in my house.) This gives any leftover raw soap the chance to complete saponification, before clean-up, meaning less oily residue when I wash up.

If oily residue persists, I usually spray with alcohol or vinegar prior to applying a de-greasing dish soap into the container & wipe that around before adding very hot water. I use a long handled scrub brush & apply to liquid dish soap to that for the process. Usually a couple of very hot rinses and a finishing soak in hot soapy water, followed by a thorough rinse and it's all good.

I always wash soapy stuff together and NOT with any other items that I don't want to cross-contaminate. I also always wash the lye solution container separately because I do not want oils in that container. Never use your lye solution mixing container for oils (thus no oily residue in that container).

Another thing you can do, is to use a weak lye solution to soak inside the vessel with the oily residue. My mom taught me at the age of 18, to clean greasy grimy stove parts (my O'Keefe & Merritt stove was easily dismantled for this purpose) in a pre-soak of weak lye solution in my utility sink. I guess it was something she learned from her mom & dad on the ranch where she grew up. Even a weak lye solution is a good de-greaser. But I am not sure many soapmakers bother with this method, an how many of use have huge utility sinks anymore? I know the last time I had a good sized sturdy utility sink was in my house that I sold back in the mid 1980's.

 

[TheGecko]

My question - the bowl/jug/spatula and other equipment I used was so greasy I had to use soda crystals to clean it. In fact the whole thing made a right mess of my utensils and washing up bowl - I used quite a bit of soda to clean it all up as washing up liquid wasn't cutting it (ha) Is this normal or have I done something seriously wrong?

It's normal. I use Dawn and it's supposed to cut through any kind of grease, but I found myself using a ton of it and rewashing dishes. @earlene has a lot of great suggestions. A lot of people think that soap makers scrape their bowls and utensils as to not waste any batter...while true, we also do it to save on the washing up. Paper towels, newspaper, old hand towels are good. You can just set all your equipment in a tub for 24 to 28 hours and by then, the batter will have saponified into soap. I use MicroFiber towels. I don't know what it is about them, but they suck up all the batter and whatnot and then I can easily rinse them in some soapy water, then toss them in the washer.

 

[GemstonePony]

What everyone else said, but also, good silicone spatulas that are suited to the size/shape of the container are the quiet heroes of my soaping endeavors and cleanup. Even if I'm doing a fancy pour where scraping out my container into the mold will ruin the design, I will scrape everything off with a spatula into another mold. Containers that just held mica dispersed in oil get scraped and wiped with a small piece of paper towel. I usually don't leave my dishes overnight, just because I need things put away sooner rather than later, but waiting at least an hour or two still makes a difference.

 

[cmzaha]

Spraying with alcohol really helps cut the oil in your containers. After washing my soap-buckets I occasionally spritz them with alcohol and wipe them out with a paper towel when they become too oily. I also use a degreaser such as simple green for washing everything at times when Dawn is not getting the job done.

 

[JazzKitten]

Thank you everyone! Some great suggestions there and I will try them out next time I make some soap. Really hoping this batch sets and I can turn them out of their moulds/cut into pieces and let cure.
Glad it wasn't just me dealing with a tidal wave of grease!!!!

 

[Zing]

I just want to make sure you ran your recipe through a lye calculator. It's an important step even if you find trusted sources (online, books). Since I started using sodium lactate, I can generally unmold 24 hours later (I'm impatient!).

Ditto on all the above cleaning tips. And procrastination is your friend in this case -- wait 1 or 2 days and your residue will turn to soap!

Another hack I learned here was spraying measuring spoons that I use for measuring mica with alcohol.

 

[JazzKitten]

I just want to make sure you ran your recipe through a lye calculator. It's an important step even if you find trusted sources (online, books). Since I started using sodium lactate, I can generally unmold 24 hours later (I'm impatient!).

Ditto on all the above cleaning tips. And procrastination is your friend in this case -- wait 1 or 2 days and your residue will turn to soap!

Another hack I learned here was spraying measuring spoons that I use for measuring mica with alcohol.

Hi @Zing
thanks for this. I just used the same quantities of oil/lye/water that Uncle Jon used on his YouTube video although I converted to metric, I checked several times to make sure I'd got the conversion right!
Although I used rapeseed oil which is what generally gets called vegetable oil in the UK, that's the only difference - he used canola.

The soap still hasn't fully hardened enough to cut - I did it on Sunday evening. It does look as if it is hardening but it seems to be taking a lot longer than other people's!

Thanks again for all your help!
Wendy

 

[earlene]

I just want to make sure you ran your recipe through a lye calculator. It's an important step even if you find trusted sources (online, books). Since I started using sodium lactate, I can generally unmold 24 hours later (I'm impatient!).

Ditto on all the above cleaning tips. And procrastination is your friend in this case -- wait 1 or 2 days and your residue will turn to soap!

Another hack I learned here was spraying measuring spoons that I use for measuring mica with alcohol.

Yes, alcohol is superb for cleaning up mica spills, too. And it cleans up spilled AC as well. I love my isopropyl alcohol for all kinds of clean-up.

Hi @Zing
I just used the same quantities of oil/lye/water that Uncle Jon used on his YouTube video although I converted to metric, I checked several times to make sure I'd got the conversion right!
Although I used rapeseed oil which is what generally gets called vegetable oil in the UK, that's the only difference - he used canola.

The soap still hasn't fully hardened enough to cut - I did it on Sunday evening. It does look as if it is hardening but it seems to be taking a lot longer than other people's!

Thanks again for all your help!
Wendy

So does that mean you didn't use a lye calculator? When you use someone else's recipe exactly to their specifications, you should still use a lye calculator (errors in transcription, even verbal instruction errors happen ALL THE TIME.)

And especially when you alter a recipe, a lye calculator should ALWAYS be used. By changing out even one oil, your amount of lye will change and you risk making a lye-heavy soap. It could also go the other way and not have enough lye, so it could have a higher super fat, but either way, you don't know if you used the right amount of lye if you don't use a lye/soap calculator.

 

[Zing]

Hi @Zing
thanks for this. I just used the same quantities of oil/lye/water that Uncle Jon used on his YouTube video although I converted to metric, I checked several times to make sure I'd got the conversion right!
Although I used rapeseed oil which is what generally gets called vegetable oil in the UK, that's the only difference - he used canola.

The soap still hasn't fully hardened enough to cut - I did it on Sunday evening. It does look as if it is hardening but it seems to be taking a lot longer than other people's!

Thanks again for all your help!
Wendy

Shh, don't tell anybody but when I first started, I did not use a lye calculator. I was soaping for months before I accidentally stumbled upon this forum and learned about lye calculators. (I rechecked my beginning recipes and they were fine.) I hope you can unmold soon!

 

[JazzKitten]

Hi folks. No I didn't use a lye calculator because I didn't know it existed.
So, thank you for pointing me in that direction.
I just ran my quantities through the lye calculator and they came out the same as the quantities that I used, half NaOH to water at 400g liquid, 200g water and 1700g rapeseed oil.
I've moved the soap to my dining room rather than leaving it in our cellar - which does have a dehumidifier in it so it isn't damp, but is cooler than the rest of the house, so let's see how it fares in the normal temperature of the house.
Thanks again to everyone!
Wendy

 

[Eleanor Thorne]

Hello and ditto to what everyone has said so far.
Since rapeseed (canola) oil is the only oil used, and it is liquid at room temperature (RT), that is going to make a very soft bar, and will probably take a long time to firm up. I have found that if I use over 20% canola in my soap recipe the soap tends to be greasy and soft (unless I use palm kernel oil and some other harder oils, too).

Going back to the clean-up comments, I wipe out all of my containers that have soap batter remains with cloth rags (and wipe off the silicone spatulas with them, too) before washing in hot soapy water. (I don't soak...unless I run out of time to clean up that day. ) I put the rags in a plastic grocery bag and let them "cure" (since they are just cover in soap). When the soap batter on the rags has cured and I have a bag full, I throw them in the washer and reuse them. (I saw this idea many years ago on someone's soapmaking video, so thank you and credit goes to that lovely person.)

 

[JazzKitten]

Hello and ditto to what everyone has said so far.
Since rapeseed (canola) oil is the only oil used, and it is liquid at room temperature (RT), that is going to make a very soft bar, and will probably take a long time to firm up. I have found that if I use over 20% canola in my soap recipe the soap tends to be greasy and soft (unless I use palm kernel oil and some other harder oils, too).

Going back to the clean-up comments, I wipe out all of my containers that have soap batter remains with cloth rags (and wipe off the silicone spatulas with them, too) before washing in hot soapy water. (I don't soak...unless I run out of time to clean up that day. ) I put the rags in a plastic grocery bag and let them "cure" (since they are just cover in soap). When the soap batter on the rags has cured and I have a bag full, I throw them in the washer and reuse them. (I saw this idea many years ago on someone's soapmaking video, so thank you and credit goes to that lovely person.)

Thank you Eleanor - I think I might have to add some other oils then. I'll be patient with this as I thought using the cooking oil would be a great way of recycling it but I am happy to eke it out, and it will get used eventually!

Regarding the clean up, I really like the idea of using rags that will then contain soap, washing them in that soap to reuse! That ticks all my boxes of recycling :-D

Thanks again and I'll be patient with this batch - I'll probably experiment with other waxes and oils like beeswax or cocoa butter in the next batch.

Wendy

 

[Kcryss]

One more suggestion.
When I wash greasy plastic of any kind, I use 100% cotton dish clothes instead of my usual sponge. The new fangled micro-fiber, sponges, and anything not 100% cotton does not seem to grab the oils very easily.

It took me a few years to finally convince my daughter the virtues of 100% cotton. She is finally a believer.

 

[JazzKitten]

Thank you Kcryss! I'll try that out....

I took one of the moulded soaps out this afternoon as the ends looked set. While the block is set, when I tried to cut it, here's what happened....
What have I done wrong? :-(

 

[Zing]

I'm sorry that your first ever experience is not working out! Is it super hard? It looks like it is crumbling when you cut it which means you waited too long to unmold and cut. I don't know what type mold you use. I unmold, generally, in 24 hours when it feels like cheddar cheese (hard with some give) and the silicone sides easily pull away from the soap without pulling off soap.

I do not think you are doing anything "wrong." In general I stay away from one oil recipes (although the most famous one oil soap is Castille using only olive oil). Let's blame the recipe instead of you!

I am going to suggest using some basic recipes which have a high success rate -- and that will give you confidence.

When I was starting out, these sites were super helpful.
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...ck-to-basics-simple-gentle-cold-process-soap/
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/formulating-cold-process-recipes/
Keep us posted and good luck!

 

[Becky1024]

Thank you Kcryss! I'll try that out....

I took one of the moulded soaps out this afternoon as the ends looked set. While the block is set, when I tried to cut it, here's what happened....
What have I done wrong? :-(

Might also be the type of cutter you used. If you used a regular knife, the kind that is a V shape on the blade end, then that could have caused the crumbling. Soap cutters have a flat shape on the blade end, kind of like a flat bottomed U.

 

[JazzKitten]

Might also be the type of cutter you used. If you used a regular knife, the kind that is a V shape on the blade end, then that could have caused the crumbling. Soap cutters have a flat shape on the blade end, kind of like a flat bottomed U.

I did indeed use a knife - a bread knife actually.
The block was so brittle though, I wonder if anything would have gone through without it shattering.
Perhaps it's just because I left it to get too hard, mistakenly believing it was still squidgy because the end was tacky and yielding, or because I used a Tetrapak milk carton as the mould which didn't allow enough air to it or something....unlike the trough shaped loaf moulds I've seen.

I don't know - but what I do know is today I tried some of the shards of soap and they lathered up lovely, so what I'll probably do is grate the shards and use it like soap flakes! It will get used....then the rest of the big bar I'll probably use as laundry soap on collars and cuffs etc.

I did pour some of the batter into small round silicon soap moulds and weirdly they took the longest to go hard. Today I popped them out and they are fine, if a little misshapen! My batter was less pouring consistency and more 'plopping' consistency so I will probably use a less relief mould if I do a second batch and it turns out the same.

Thanks again everyone!
W

 

[JazzKitten]

I'm sorry that your first ever experience is not working out! Is it super hard? It looks like it is crumbling when you cut it which means you waited too long to unmold and cut. I don't know what type mold you use. I unmold, generally, in 24 hours when it feels like cheddar cheese (hard with some give) and the silicone sides easily pull away from the soap without pulling off soap.

I do not think you are doing anything "wrong." In general I stay away from one oil recipes (although the most famous one oil soap is Castille using only olive oil). Let's blame the recipe instead of you!

I am going to suggest using some basic recipes which have a high success rate -- and that will give you confidence.

When I was starting out, these sites were super helpful.
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...ck-to-basics-simple-gentle-cold-process-soap/
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/formulating-cold-process-recipes/
Keep us posted and good luck!

Hi Zing
thanks for your message - I think you're right, I just left it too long. I have ordered a proper loaf mould now and will try again. I don't think the milk carton idea helped.
I will try and add some other oil, or maybe a wax to batch 2. I think this soap I've made will be usable even though it's such a huge block!!!

Last night I took one of the shards from the crumbled block and gave it a go when washing my hands....it lathered nicely. It smells nice due to the lavender oil I added, so I will definitely be using it.

I'll make use of the lye calculator next time too - and I'll look at those Soap Queen links you sent.

More soon!!!!!
W