First effort

[dskoe]

Hi, I'm a newbie.
Last night I made my first soap:
Olive oil 40%
Coconut oil 30%
Lard 30%
Superfat set to 0
Fragrance 5% Grape seed oil with fresh basil pureed in added at first trace.

The lard ingredient came about because with the oils I had, using the soapcalc calculator the properties just didn't look good...too soft, not enough bubbles, etc. Since I wanted to get started I considered driving to town to buy Crisco, but then noticed the fresh box of lard in my fridge so...

I decided to use my Kitchenaid mixer with dough hook for stirring, realizing it might take longer, but I had no stick blender.

It certainly did take longer, and before it began to work, I switched to the whisk. I could control the temperature by using a heat gun on the side of the mixing bowl (stainless steel). I tried heating to 120F, and finally to 130F with continuous mixing until finally, trace!
I transferred the mixing bowl to a kettle of water for a double boiler, kept the water just at a simmer with occasional stirring until finally the mix began to transform. It never really foamed up, curds appeared, and then it became sticky and stringy, didn't "zap" my tongue so I placed it into the mold, a rectangular box made of melamine. I smoothed the top as well as I could, pressed on waxed paper and put it into the microwave with the temperature probe. It was ~160F, so I set the microwave to "hold" the temp, left it until bedtime, checking occasionally. When I went to bed it down, some spots had foamed up, messing up the surface, so I pressed it flat with my fingers and wrapped it in blankets.
It's now noon of the following day. I have dismantled the form and cut the soap and it looks pretty good, a nice green color, it doesn't smell like basil but OK. I pressed my scrapings into a tiny bar to try out and tried heat in the microwave to consolidate it, but it doesn't seem to be mixed enough. Some areas turn liquid while others stay solid. Same with one of my bars I cut which I was attempting to smooth. Differential melting.

Should I be concerned? Should I re-melt the batch and mix it better?

I'd appreciate any advice...

 

[lsg]

I think I would cut it up and put it in an old slow cooker to rebatch.

 

[dskoe]

Thanks.

 

[lsg]

You might want to reread my post. I changed it after I reread your post. LOL

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If you cooked it until it no longer zapped, then I don't see why you needed to keep the temperature up once you put it in to a mould. Where did this process come from?

Another thing to add is that when you are doing HP - cooking soap until it is saponified and then moulding up - you can add scents etc just before you mould up, rather than at trace. This helps to keep the scents stronger rather than adding it in at trace.

Agree with the above - give it time to rest out. Even HP'd soap needs a good long cure to get all the water out and to settle down in to a better structure

 

[Obsidian]

I'm confused, why are you microwaving you cut bars?

 

[IrishLass]

I am curious along with The Efficacious Gentleman and Obsidian as to why you are heating your soap past the no-zap stage. Once it doesn't zap anymore, no further heat need be applied.

IrishLass

 

[dskoe]

heating

Well, I'm new at this, so I've done some reading. Some people talk about keeping the mold warm to aid curing ie. wrapping in blankets, etc. I thought the Hold in the microwave would do a good job of that.
As for heating the bar, it was an (unsuccessful) effort to smooth the rough edge of the bar.

I added the grape oil-basil puree earlier because I became concerned about spoilage and thought putting it in earlier would sort of "cook" it and help preserve it. I don't think I'd try fresh basil again...it's just that my garden had so much, and it smelled so good.

 

[Obsidian]

Yeah, you can't cook the edges smooth. try using a vegetable peeler to clean up the edges. When you make hot process like you did, you don't need to wrap or keep the mold warm, thats only when making cold process.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Aye, it seems to be a mix of both methods. I hope that the soaps come out okay

 

[dixiedragon]

Be very careful about microwaving soap. You could end up with a soap volcano in your microwave.

Out of curiousity, why did you use 0% superfat?

 

[dskoe]

I used 0% superfat in the calculator because of the grapeseed oil I was adding near the end. I'm being careful with the microwave, but I think I've exhausted my curiosity about that method. It seems to heat only the edges, and you can't stir without shutting it off.

I decided to reprocess half of the batch as an experiment. It was good advice, but unfortunately I decided to include a couple bars of palmolive soap that I didn't like, but I thought would add properties lacking in my original effort. Stupid...it doesn't melt at anything like the same temperature. By the time I got it worked in, I added another original bar (making it 8 out of 14 bars reprocessed) to help bind it together. It's in the mold now. Time to go shower with my little sample bar, see if it works!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I admit, I am no where near as "Seat of the pants" as you seem to be, but I suggest running ideas by the lads and lasses here to save a lot of wasted time and effort.

Let us know how the soap goes - by the way, even cooked soap is better after a 4 week cure. Even better after more time!

 

[dskoe]

Damn, I just lost my whole post! This time I'll compose offline.

After showering with my sample bar, pressed together crumbs of original batch, I can say that it works. The bubbles and foam were not spectacular, but decent and lasted quite a long time on my wash cloth. Quite pleasant, but some scent would be nice. There's no basil scent noticeable. Afterwards, I feel pleasantly clean and my skin feels silky and nice. Perhaps a benefit of the grape-seed oil?
The re-batch with the added commercial palmolive bars is pretty crumbly, though there seems to be a core that adheres well. That palmolive is a very industrialized product with no relation to the original which was indeed palm-olive soap, developed by B.J. Johnson in 1898 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, later acquired by Colgate. This addition was clearly a mistake as the stuff was very hard to melt and the trying turned my original batch into discrete pebbles which didn't bond together well.
As you pointed out, Efficacious, I could have saved a lot of time and effort by consulting with experienced soapmakers first! I guess I just like to learn the hard way.
I see a crock pot and stick blender in my future. Or maybe just use cold-process. I was in a hurry and it seemed cooking would speed things up. I guess this attempt was a success in that I learned a lot, got a bit of useable soap for later, and a plan.

By the way, the reason I started doing this is that for years I have just used Dial soap and been happy enough with it, but after I read about what some of its ingredients are doing to our waters, I stopped buying it. I tried buying different brands of commercial soap to use, but found them irritating to my skin and with obnoxious scents. Since I have more time than money now, I decided to try making my own. If I get the knack of doing it, it make nice Christmas presents for my friends, too.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

 

[Jaccart789]

Im confused too. I have not heard of this method. You didn't use any superfat? Im curious how this turns out. Please post pics! I hope it comes out nice!

 

[shunt2011]

My husband was a dial guy. Once I finally got him to use a bar of handmade soap it was a no brainer. He won't use store purchased soaps anymore. His skin is in so much better condition. Used to be dry and flaky but he has no issues now. Going on 4 years for him now....he's one of my biggest fans and advocates. He's gotten some of the guys at his shop using it now. It just takes time to find the recipe that works best for you.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Making it yourself is the best way!

Get yourself a $10 stick blender - you'll need that for CP as well as HP. Then make up a batch with Coconut, olive and palm/lard (see the thread with the "go to" recipes) to get used to making soap in general. You can make 500g batches safely (smaller and your margin for error goes up a lot!) and scent with ordinary EOs, nothing fancy or expensive. Leave the infused oils and herbal additives alone for while, just get the process down, then play with different oils and then look at any additives.

It can be frustrating taking time, but it will really let you problem-solve if you don't take on too much or change too much as you go.

 

[dskoe]

Jaccart789, there actually is superfat, it's the 5% grape seed oil I added at trace. I did it that way because I wanted to use it to puree the basil. The only thing I got our of the basil is color, no hint of its lovely scent.

Shunt, I used to have oily skin, never dry. Now that I'm older it seems to have changed and is a bit more sensitive. My real reason for switching was the environmental one, but you may be sure I shan't go back!

 

[dixiedragon]

In the future, add all of the oils into the soap calculator, even if you are going to add them after the cook like the grapeseed oil.

If you want basil scent, you will need to get some basil essential oil or fragrance oil. You just can't get enough scent in infused oil to last through the saponification process.

 

[dskoe]

My "bounty". The smoother foreground ones are original batch. The speckly ones are the re-batch.
That's my quicky mold in the background, made in a few minutes from an old scrap of 3/4 melamine. It comes apart easily with a few screws, has sliding adjustable end inside and a "top" to press the top surface straight.