First attempt with the Ciaglia Method

[SoapyBenjamin]

I tried the Ciaglia Method for the first time a couple days ago... Fairly pleased with the results.

• I used one white bar of soap as the donor bar, per every ten bars of colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)
• I peeled the lard bars with a potato peeler and then stick blended in the oil until they reached the desired speckle size
• Cold processed, typical recipe, no surprises
• Once you wet them (or steam them), that ash goes away, and leaves only the speckles

I expected saponification to happen much more quickly because of all the surface area with the cured soap speckles, but no acceleration happened. YMMV...

Next experiment will be with dark speckles on a light colored bar of soap.

 

[AliOop]

Those look great - like colored concrete. Love it!

 

[Phantomina]

@SoapyBenjamin could you please tell more about this method? I think I am misunderstanding your recipe above as a not super fluent English speaker

 

[Ekuzo]

@SoapyBenjamin could you please tell more about this method? I think I am misunderstanding your recipe above as a not super fluent English speaker

I'm not Benjamin, but I think I can explain.

This is similar to confetti soap ‐ parts of finished soap are used in new soap. The difference here is the old soap is not only peeled/shredded, but also stick blended into the oils of the new soap. And from what I understand, he used 1 white old bar per batch of 10 new colored bars ‐ you can see the white parts inside.



Here's a short video showing the method - with more colors and bigger parts of the old soap

 

[Phantomina]

• I used one white bar of soap as the donor bar, per every ten bars of colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)
• I peeled the lard bars with a potato peeler and then stick blended in the oil until they reached the desired speckle size
• Cold processed, typical recipe, no surprises

So he used 1 bar of white and shredded it.
But the rest 10 colored bars he also shreds and mixes with white one and then he adds it to new batter. Or the 10 colored bars he mentions are the new batter. Just this word game here gets me confused a bit.

 

[Ekuzo]

So he used 1 bar of white and shredded it.
But the rest 10 colored bars he also shreds and mixes with white one and then he adds it to new batter. Or the 10 colored bars he mentions are the new batter. Just this word game here gets me confused a bit.

No worries! The 10 colored bars are the new batter, only the 1 white bar gets shreded in this case.

Edit: At least that's what I think, I hope he corrects me if I'm wrong

 

[Phantomina]

No worries! The 10 colored bars are the new batter, only the 1 white bar gets shreded in this case.

Edit: At least that's what I think, I hope he corrects me if I'm wrong

See, I have understood exactly the oposite

 

[Phantomina]

• colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)
• I peeled the lard bars with a potato peeler

Here is the problem, the word 'lard' being used 2 times for different steps

 

[Ekuzo]

Here is the problem, the word 'lard' being used 2 times for different steps

Well, when I first saw it, I noticed the white spots in the colored soap - and I was like, okay, that's it. Plus he says at the end 'Next experiment will be with dark speckles on a light colored bar of soap.', so I assume it's the opposite this time - light in dark. The photos show the new color batches and the same kind of white soap blended inside, but this time next to them (from the same batch, but unused).

And then, I saw the same lines you quoted, and tbh their interpretation can be a little confusing (like, maybe both the white soap and the new colored batch were lard based?).

But I think when he says 'I used one white bar of soap as the donor bar, per every ten bars of colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)', the description 'lard & lye only, no scent') is about the white soap, the donor soap (NOT the colored bars) - because that's what this line begins with, explanation of the soap he used to put inside.

Another part that may be confusing is when he says 'I peeled the lard barS with a potato peeler'. You may be thinking, wait, the white bar was supposed to be one, the colored ones are more - is he peeling them? But from what I understand, since there are 2 different types of colored soap, (green and blue) I guess there are at least 2 different batches with each using 1 white bar - so when he said barS he meant he used at least 2 white bars in this case, not that the colored ones were shreded.

That's the conclusion I came up with, I hope I got it correctly

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Phantomina Here's a good older thread on the Ciaglia Method, with links to helpful YT videos and lots of examples of soaps people have made using the method.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/ciaglia-method.87836/

It's a great way to use up soap odds and ends and miscellaneous FOs.

 

[AliOop]

So he used 1 bar of white and shredded it.
But the rest 10 colored bars he also shreds and mixes with white one and then he adds it to new batter. Or the 10 colored bars he mentions are the new batter. Just this word game here gets me confused a bit.

He did one white (lard only) bar per every ten colored bars (regular recipe).

Assuming that he made 30 total bars, that would be 3 white (lard only) bars that were shredded and added to the batch.

Make sense?

 

[Phantomina]

Well, when I first saw it, I noticed the white spots in the colored soap - and I was like, okay, that's it. Plus he says at the end 'Next experiment will be with dark speckles on a light colored bar of soap.', so I assume it's the opposite this time - light in dark. The photos show the new color batches and the same kind of white soap blended inside, but this time next to them (from the same batch, but unused).

And then, I saw the same lines you quoted, and tbh their interpretation can be a little confusing (like, maybe both the white soap and the new colored batch were lard based?).

But I think when he says 'I used one white bar of soap as the donor bar, per every ten bars of colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)', the description 'lard & lye only, no scent') is about the white soap, the donor soap (NOT the colored bars) - because that's what this line begins with, explanation of the soap he used to put inside.

Another part that may be confusing is when he says 'I peeled the lard barS with a potato peeler'. You may be thinking, wait, the white bar was supposed to be one, the colored ones are more - is he peeling them? But from what I understand, since there are 2 different types of colored soap, (green and blue) I guess there are at least 2 different batches with each using 1 white bar - so when he said barS he meant he used at least 2 white bars in this case, not that the colored ones were shreded.

That's the conclusion I came up with, I hope I got it correctly

Oooh boy, I think you are right. I am satisfied with this.
Finally we can focus on the actual method

 

[Phantomina]

@Phantomina Here's a good older thread on the Ciaglia Method, with links to helpful YT videos and lots of examples of soaps people have made using the method.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/ciaglia-method.87836/

It's a great way to use up soap odds and ends and miscellaneous FOs.

Thank you so much for the effort.

 

[Phantomina]

Make sense?

Yes

 

[AliOop]

Yes

Yay!

(gotta love how we are all talking about @SoapyBenjamin like he's not in the room).

 

[Phantomina]

Yay!

(gotta love how we are all talking about @SoapyBenjamin like he's not in the room).

I bet he will have a good laugh when he reads this

 

[Ekuzo]

Oooh boy, I think you are right. I am satisfied with this.
Finally we can focus on the actual method

I did an overkill explanation... again

I bet he will have a good laugh when he reads this

He be lurkin', watchin' us suffer

 

[KimLynn]

Well, when I first saw it, I noticed the white spots in the colored soap - and I was like, okay, that's it. Plus he says at the end 'Next experiment will be with dark speckles on a light colored bar of soap.', so I assume it's the opposite this time - light in dark. The photos show the new color batches and the same kind of white soap blended inside, but this time next to them (from the same batch, but unused).

And then, I saw the same lines you quoted, and tbh their interpretation can be a little confusing (like, maybe both the white soap and the new colored batch were lard based?).

But I think when he says 'I used one white bar of soap as the donor bar, per every ten bars of colored soap (lard & lye only, no scent)', the description 'lard & lye only, no scent') is about the white soap, the donor soap (NOT the colored bars) - because that's what this line begins with, explanation of the soap he used to put inside.

Another part that may be confusing is when he says 'I peeled the lard barS with a potato peeler'. You may be thinking, wait, the white bar was supposed to be one, the colored ones are more - is he peeling them? But from what I understand, since there are 2 different types of colored soap, (green and blue) I guess there are at least 2 different batches with each using 1 white bar - so when he said barS he meant he used at least 2 white bars in this case, not that the colored ones were shreded.

That's the conclusion I came up with, I hope I got it correctly

Exactly. I’m confused, too.

 

[AliOop]

Our brains all work so differently... I understood exactly what he was saying. So probably I am not the best person to try to explain to someone who found it confusing, because I'd just confuse them with more of the same.

 

[Ekuzo]

I got it at the beginning, but as I tried to explain, it got more and more confusing - to the point it started to seem much more complicated than it actually is

For anyone still wondering - we came to the conclusion he SB'ed white soap shavings into the oils for the new batches. The new batches are blue and green colored soap, respectively. That resulted in white spots within the colored batter for both batches, which is visible in the photos Benjamin posted. And.... I think Phantomina still has some questions, but... is too afraid to ask, thinking it may get even more complicated

Still waiting for his confirmation though.... and what if there's actually a third option and we got it all wrong?