Deanna, I have a question...

[ilovesoap2]

I would like to make this my first soap and I plan to make it today but have 2 quick questions.

For the lye, should I use a measuring cup or should I be using a scale?
Also, I do not have a proper loaf mold but I cleaned up a milk carton and suddenly I'm wondering if it's a good idea, with all the lye draining that happened, pr should it be ok since I'll hand stir and hopefully no broken emulsion? I have a 12 cavity silicone mold so a little confused as to which
may be the best to use. Thanks all.

 

[eyeroll]

I can't comment on your mold question since I haven't made this particular soap, but I can say you should always weigh your ingredients; it's much more accurate than measuring by volume.

 

[ilovesoap2]

@eyeroll thank you
With this one recipe the only thing they may have weighed is the lye. I want to follow the recipe to the t so thought I would check.

 

[AnnaMarie]

For this particular recipe you will only weigh the lye and measure everything else. This is a "break the rules" recipe that I found that comes from Spain. Just follow the instructions on the blog link given for this on the first page or two of this thread, and you should be fine. This was one of my first batches of soap after a lot of research. I was trying to find something old school. This is a fun recipe! . Have fun soaping!
Cheers!
Anna Marie

Also, on the mold, go ahead and use what you have- milk carton or silicone. I used a shoe box when I first made this If you plan on hand stirring then your soap shouldn't weep a lot. That being said, I would still put soap old towels under your mold "just in case". Be sure to let us know how it turns out!
Cheers!
Anna Marie

Here's the link again:
http://spanishjourneys.com/oliveme/2009/06/08/make-your-own-pure-castille-soap/

 

[ilovesoap2]

Thanks Anna Marie.
I spent sometime on that blog yesterday. Made me wanna go find
a bamboo stick

 

[AnnaMarie]

Lol! I fortunately had a bamboo spoon that got donated to the cause:smile:

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Update on my milk-and-honey castile! Measured it today, at a week-and-most-of-a-day. It's lost approximately 14% weight (from 1197g to 1032g), is not zappy (though tastes nasty), has a layer of ash, and is still pink. So, this might be a way to keep colors that typically morph from morphing! Only time (and maybe repeated experiments) will tell...

Also, most of that weight loss seems to have been since I unmolded and cut my bars. I weighed the bars alone separately, once right after cutting and then today. That was a 12% difference.

 

[DeeAnna]

OH, NO .... REPEATED EXPERIMENTS! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrgggghh!!!!!!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

But all good little scientists repeat experiments!

 

[AnnaMarie]

I would have to agree with Stardancer, DeeAnna ;-)

 

[MzMolly65]

Well, my homely olive-oil soap -- the batch that cleaned my oven -- is still losing weight, but not as fast.

Can you send your soap over to clean my oven? (and maybe help me lose weight too)

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I'm also thinking that the issue of encouraging gel vs. not plays a bigger role in whether the soap weeps in the mold... Like most of the early attempts, I used a stick blender to blend up mine and got the thick-break-pudding, but unlike the rest I didn't aggressively chase gel with insulation or CPOP and mine didn't experience any weeping.

And mine also seems to be a few days behind DeeAnna's in evaporation, but I wonder how much that has to do with location... In the house proper it wasn't really evaporating, but after I cut it I put the tray out in the back enclosed porch, and that drastically speeded up evaporation.

 

[MzMolly65]

My soap is so far, successful. No weepy-ness at all. I checked it this morning and it's firm but still sticky to the touch so I think I need to leave it another day before trying to cut it. Let's see if I can control myself that long :lolno:

Here's where I admit I played with things a bit .. *hangs head in scientific shame*. I did make 4 round bars of pure, untainted recipe so don't punish me too much. Then, since I already have quite a bit of plain, white, unscented soap already, for the balance of the mix I added eucalyptus EO and a bunch of square embeds and poured it into the loaf mold.

Looks good so far, excited to see it cut and test it. How long should this recipe cure before using?

 

[seven]

i just wanna say it out loud that i am dyyyiiinnggg to try the soap :!: esp. since i found there was no zap at all on both the tofu soap and the good soap.

*must be patient

the question is: is this soap safe to sell?

not saying that i wanna sell the batch that i have now, i mean, the recipe itself, with a -40% SF. the blog said to wait 2 weeks, while a normal castile's suggested cure time is 6 months. hmmm....

 

[DeeAnna]

"...the question is: is this soap safe to sell?..."

If and when it tests skin safe, lathers well, and meets your other criteria for a salable soap, why not?

"...I used a stick blender to blend up mine and got the thick-break-pudding, but unlike the rest I didn't aggressively chase gel with insulation or CPOP and mine didn't experience any weeping...."

Good point, Stardancer!

"...How long should this recipe cure before using? ..."

Gosh, that's a question I wish I could answer too! Hey, AnnnnaaaaaMaaaaariiiiieeeee???

 

[AnnaMarie]

Welllllll....... I wil, fully admit that I didn't cure this that long when I first made it (a few weeks maybe???) I also was a brand new soaper who didn't know to do a zap test and was still learning about lye. I lucked out as a new soaper with this recipe- plain and simple! I am now coming back to it a number of years later with a lot more knowledge under my belt and a desire to know if lye heavy soap really is bad if cured properly, and why THIS recipe makes good Castile as opposed to others I've tried. I've tried to do it the RIGHT way a number of times and the final result is yuck! in the shower (yes, I drain it and keep it out of water). All this to say that I'm not really sure how long to cure it. I'm expecting my phenol-stuff any time now, and I'm anxious to test the PH. I will report on it then to try and give everyone an idea of cure time. I'll be testing a batch that's about 2 months old.
Cheers!
Anna Marie

Ok people, I just test the ph. Clearly, even after 2 months the soap still needs to be cured- unless I'm reading this ph thing wrong. A sample of my regular recipe soap was clear, so I am assuming pink isn't ideal. The soap on the top is the fresh batch and the bottom soap is the older batch. The older batch isn't quite as pink as the top whereas the top was bright pink right away, so this gives me hope that Kevin Dunn is right, and that these extra lye molecules will get eaten up over a good, looong time

By the way, the new bar was tested close to the surface and the old bar was tested in the middle.

and the middle of the new bar was even darker then these two. I am thinking a good year for these, but I hear that many soap makers cure their castile that long anyway.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Trying again! This time with an olive/soy blend to use up the last of my soybean oil. I'm using two micas that are supposed to discolor, to test what happened in my first batch! I added milk powder again, but left out the honey in this one. I SB'd the 50/50 oil/water-milk mixture, but have been hand-stirring since I added the lye. I think pre-emulsifying the water and oil may have been the wrong choice. Oh well.

And this is a biiig batch! 1000g oils. It just baaaaarely fits in my soaping bowl!

 

[doriettefarm]

Newbie poster here but I'm fascinated by this thread. One of my first soaps (pre-stick blender) was a castile soap. Even with a good, long cure I wasn't too impressed with it . . . slimy lather and all.

Very curious about the lye heavy recipe and how long it will take to reach an acceptable ph level. The closet chemist in me wants to know if a zap-test is good enough or if ph testing is gospel.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Yeah, like I thought afterwards. If you use a SB to blend the water into the oil, you need to SB to finish it. Working on it during commercial breaks while I watch SHIELD.

Keep your stick blenders faaaar, far away from this recipe. Any SB emulsification at all will lead you you needing to continue. I'm actually a tad worried about this breaking and weeping. It didn't seem as well emulsified as the castile had been, even after it reached the plasticky pudding stage.

Also, as to the question of morphing... I tried the other two morphing micas in my sampler pack. These two both morphed, though they're still pretty.

This is being left on the counter with a fan blowing nearby. I'm hoping it doesn't weep, and that the mold doesn't leak, but it's sitting on paper towels layered over plastic wrap in case it does.

 

[MzMolly65]

I am thinking a good year for these, but I hear that many soap makers cure their castile that long anyway.

Whaaaaa???? So if this takes a whole year to cure (like my other castile) what was the point of all that lye? I thought it was so we could use it sooner. Is it just to reduce the slimy feeling? I never find castile slimy the way other people do.

ETA: I have no patience and cut my soap. It's like firm tofu with a slightly slick feeling but I think it will dry nicely. I popped one bar out of the cavity and while it came out easily, it tore a little on the edges so I left the rest for another day or two.