First CP soap!

[eleraine]

I finally got around to making soap over the weekend and was bubbling with excitement this morning. After unmoulding and cutting the bars up, here's what I got:

It has olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, mango butter, rapeseed oil, grapeseed oil and at trace, I added in vanilla oil & grapefruit essential oil.

I have a question though - would curing change the colour of a bar? Make it more translucent, opaque, darker, lighter, whatever?

 

[debbism]

First, let me say that they are just lovely. Congrats.

The color won't change much - I find colors do tend to lighten up during the curing time but uncolored soaps seem to stay put.

The vanilla might go brown on you though if you didn't use a stabilizer but that will depend on the vanilla content of the FO.

All in all.....I think they are perfect

 

[Scentapy]

Nice & creamy!! GREAT 1st batch!

Don't be suprised if they do brown up a little bit - its the Vanilla.

Where did u buy your Grapefruit EO? I just made a Grapefruit EO &
Peppermint EI soap & I wasn't overly crazy about the Grapefruit. Just wondering what u thought about the one you got?

 

[Scentapy]

Correction: EO; not EI. Darn phone!

 

[IrishLass]

Lovely soap! Congratulations!

would curing change the colour of a bar? Make it more translucent, opaque, darker, lighter, whatever

Curing won't make the soap more transluscent or opaque, but gelling or not gelling will do so. Gelled soap turns out slightly transluscent, while ungelled soap turns out opaque. Gelling or not gelling can also affect the lightness or darkness of colored soap.

Colors can sometimes change during cure, but it's mostly due to the fragrance oil or certain other additives, especially fragrance oils that contain a high amount of vanillin, as debbism and Scentapy mentioned. Those will gradually turn brown during cure.


IrishLass

 

[semplice]

Very nice! I also did my first batch of CP soap this weekend. I can't wait to unmold and cut it!

 

[Dennis]

Very nice!

 

[Sunny]

pretty great job!

 

[eleraine]

Thank you so much for the compliments! I think I shall update this thread with a pic in about a week's time. What do you guys think?

@Scentapy, I got my grapefruit EO from a local supplier here in France. Tossed in about 7ml of the stuff. At first I thought it was a bit too strong but now after unmoulding and cutting, the bars smell quite nice. My hubs likes it a lot. I didn't use an anchor tho so am hoping most of it won't just disappear! (Don't worry about the error - I make them all the time!!!! )

@IrishLass, I don't know if mine gelled - when I took a peek about 2 hours into curing and on and off after that, it looked...urm, normal? I soaped at around 50°C for both lye and oil and my batch is pretty small - 500 gms of oil. So maybe that's a factor?

 

[carolyntn]

Congratulations!! What a beautiful first batch - so nice and creamy. Now the hardest part - waiting until you can use them!!

 

[ChrissyB]

That's beautiful soap for a first go, I wish my first batch looked like that!!
Can I just make a suggestion? You've got a lot of different oils in there....I think to get a better grasp of what each oils offer a bar of soap, it's a good idea to start simple...a simple 2 or 3 oil recipe...and then go from there. But maybe I'm just saying that because I've come full circle....used every possible ingredient out there and now am back to basics!

 

[Dennis]

Are you sure this is your first batch? :shock: It is really nice. You must have studied the project a bit before jumping in. I remember being scared to death that I was going to do something wrong. It turned out ugly but ok and made me want to do more. I still have some of it and it's so, well, plain. But to me it was a great success. Yours is a fantastic beginning.

:

 

[Maythorn]

These are all beautiful first soaps. How I wish my first try had looked like that! I wonder if adding vanilla oil might make them get darker as they cure. Usually vanilla anything does for me.

 

[eleraine]

@ChrissyB, thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking of doing just that for my next batches. Great minds think alike! I had to use so many different oils & butters because I didn't have enough shea, was fooling around with SoapCalc, dumped in vanilla oil and Grapefruit EO as my superfat/"flavour". Will try working on a basic 3-oil recipe the next round when my supplies come in.

@Dennis, I think yours look fab anyway! I took quite a while to do this - about a month at least of thinking, working out recipes, etc.

 

[Dragonkaz]

Wow ... your first soap looks amazing! Congratulations and welcome to this great addiction!

 

[green soap]

These are beautiful. My first batch sure did not look anything like that! Well, my first batch was ruined because I first used an American recipe and thought ounces meant volume, not weight, so it was lye heavy. I actually rebatched and used it, but it was fugly. Then I switched to grams for everything, now life is better. My second batch did not look anything like yours either! or third, fourth.....

I wanted to ask how you get the nice bias waviness on top. A crinkle cutter? but how to you hold the soap at an angle?

 

[eleraine]

I wanted to ask how you get the nice bias waviness on top. A crinkle cutter? but how to you hold the soap at an angle?

It's actually my silicon mould that's responsible for the waves. The bottom is not smooth hence the shape of the loaf when I moulded it. Below is the pic of the loaf when I unmoulded it.

 

[Dennis]

Ohhhhh, I like that. Where did you get the mold.

 

[Dragonkaz]

Those waves are one of the reasons I mostly use silicon loaf moulds.

Dennis in Australia they're sold in our supermarkets and department stores. These loaf moulds hold about 700-750 gm.

 

[eleraine]

Ebay coz it's cheaper than buying here. I reckon you should be able to find similar stuff in supermarkets where you are.