I'm new here and to soap making. Been reading this forum for weeks and googling things, etc. Last night my husband and I worked together and made our first batch of plain, unscented soap using Goat's Milk as the liquid. Here is the recipe we used (wanted to use less Olive Oil and more Palm and Coconut oils, but didn't have enough PO and CO onhand so I increased OO):
45% Olive Oil
25% Palm Oil
15% Coconut Oil
5% Castor Oil
10% Shea Butter
We melted the oils, measured out fresh Goat's milk (straight from the goat that morning, hubby's coworker owns goats
), stuck the milk in a freezer bag in the freezer. Left the oils to cool until the milk was pretty slushy and chunky. Stuck a pitcher in an ice water bath in our sink and slowly mixed the lye little bits at a time with the milk, stirring well with each addition. It turned a bright yellow color but never stunk or looked curdled at all. We let the lye-milk mixture sit in the ice water bath until it was the same temperature as the oils (they were both about 100 degrees F). Mixed well with a stick blender, made sure to stick the blender in tilted and shook out all air bubbles (did this in the oil mixture before we added the lye mixture obviously!). Blended to what I thought was a good trace, looked like pudding consistency. Poured into a dollar store brand Glad container. Made little peaks on the top gently with a whisk a little since I knew we'd never get the top flat. I sprayed with alcohol (but then read on here that unless you use 91% or greater alcohol it doesn't do much to help prevent ash, mine was only like 50%, oops). I sat a piece of cardboard over the top of the container and covered with a towel, then sat the container in a spare room with the door shut. I was afraid to not insulate at all, but also didn't want too much insullation. That was around 7:00ish.
Here is what it looked like before I covered it with cardboard last night, after I sprayed it with alcohol (excuse the crappy cell phone pictures):
Around midnight, I couldn't help myself and checked it. I only had it uncovered for maybe 10 seconds, so I didn't take a picture. It was darker in color and looked like it was in the gel stage all the way through except for a few light spots on top. I assumed it just hadn't completely gelled all the way yet and put the cardboard back on top and the towel back over it.
This morning it looked like this:
It seems pretty firm, and looking at the sides and bottom through the sides of the container looks a nice uniform golden color (I realize it could still look funky in the middle when I cut it but I haven't done that yet). It still has the light spots on top, which have what looks like darker colored oil sitting in them. Since taking the pic I moved it onto the kitchen counter and took the towel off. It seems to have dried up some, but now appears to have soda ash on it I think. Does soda ash look sort of like little tiny, powder/crystals?
Any thoughts on what the spots/oil might be all about? Did it overheat? Maybe I should have just covered it with the cardboard and skipped the towel? Or could it be where the alcohol pooled up on the surface? Maybe I used too much.
Also, I believe it would be safe to cut 24 hours after pouring, is that right? Is that a good time to zap test or should I wait longer before doing that?
And this is purely cosmetic - but how do you get the peaks to stay through the gel process? Thicker trace?
Sorry this was so long, thanks to any who bared with me through all that!
45% Olive Oil
25% Palm Oil
15% Coconut Oil
5% Castor Oil
10% Shea Butter
We melted the oils, measured out fresh Goat's milk (straight from the goat that morning, hubby's coworker owns goats
), stuck the milk in a freezer bag in the freezer. Left the oils to cool until the milk was pretty slushy and chunky. Stuck a pitcher in an ice water bath in our sink and slowly mixed the lye little bits at a time with the milk, stirring well with each addition. It turned a bright yellow color but never stunk or looked curdled at all. We let the lye-milk mixture sit in the ice water bath until it was the same temperature as the oils (they were both about 100 degrees F). Mixed well with a stick blender, made sure to stick the blender in tilted and shook out all air bubbles (did this in the oil mixture before we added the lye mixture obviously!). Blended to what I thought was a good trace, looked like pudding consistency. Poured into a dollar store brand Glad container. Made little peaks on the top gently with a whisk a little since I knew we'd never get the top flat. I sprayed with alcohol (but then read on here that unless you use 91% or greater alcohol it doesn't do much to help prevent ash, mine was only like 50%, oops). I sat a piece of cardboard over the top of the container and covered with a towel, then sat the container in a spare room with the door shut. I was afraid to not insulate at all, but also didn't want too much insullation. That was around 7:00ish.Here is what it looked like before I covered it with cardboard last night, after I sprayed it with alcohol (excuse the crappy cell phone pictures):
Around midnight, I couldn't help myself and checked it. I only had it uncovered for maybe 10 seconds, so I didn't take a picture. It was darker in color and looked like it was in the gel stage all the way through except for a few light spots on top. I assumed it just hadn't completely gelled all the way yet and put the cardboard back on top and the towel back over it.
This morning it looked like this:
It seems pretty firm, and looking at the sides and bottom through the sides of the container looks a nice uniform golden color (I realize it could still look funky in the middle when I cut it but I haven't done that yet). It still has the light spots on top, which have what looks like darker colored oil sitting in them. Since taking the pic I moved it onto the kitchen counter and took the towel off. It seems to have dried up some, but now appears to have soda ash on it I think. Does soda ash look sort of like little tiny, powder/crystals?
Any thoughts on what the spots/oil might be all about? Did it overheat? Maybe I should have just covered it with the cardboard and skipped the towel? Or could it be where the alcohol pooled up on the surface? Maybe I used too much.
Also, I believe it would be safe to cut 24 hours after pouring, is that right? Is that a good time to zap test or should I wait longer before doing that?
And this is purely cosmetic - but how do you get the peaks to stay through the gel process? Thicker trace?
Sorry this was so long, thanks to any who bared with me through all that!
