First soaps!

[FlybyStardancer]

I have pictures of my first soaps!

First ever soap is a cp bar. 100% coconut oil, 20% superfat. I added sugar and citric acid (with a calculated lye balance) to hopefully help with my hard water, and cornstarch. The two stars were then poured off, and I added 7g each sweet orange and tea tree EO before pouring the rest. The topping on some of the scented bars is just some oatmeal I tossed in the mold because I like oats in my soap and I thought "why not?".

Second soap ever is my first liquid soap. It's meant to be laundry soap, so I'll have to see how it does! 75% coconut oil, 25% canola. Added a borax solution to neutralize the lye excess. I may add more borax later, not sure yet. Half will get to sequester until I run out of storebought laundry detergent, the other half will get to sequester longer. Funny thing is, while it was cooking the paste made me think of butternut squash puree!

 

[lsg]

It looks like both the solid and the liquid soap turned out very well.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thank you! I'm super-happy with the bar soap, and the liquid soap had me sweating. I was having trouble deciphering the different stages and the clarity test. I think all will be well, though! And the orange color in it is amazing. I never would have expected that from only 25% canola!

 

[kikajess]

Super first soaps! The bars look soooo creamy. Liquid soap intimidates me, but I really want to make some laundry soap, too! Congratulations!

 

[savonierre]

Way to go, they all look perfect.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Super first soaps! The bars look soooo creamy. Liquid soap intimidates me, but I really want to make some laundry soap, too! Congratulations!

The standard recipe for liquid soap is basically hot process soap, with a different lye and an extra step or two (diluting and neutralization). The hardest part for me was testing to see if saponification was done. I wanted it to be done much earlier than it actually was!

Way to go, they all look perfect.

Thanks! Techniques could be better, but that's all part of the learning curve. Not bad for first attempts, anyways!

 

[Lildlege1]

Both look awesome!!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thanks!

 

[lenarenee]

They look good and creamy! I'm so glad your first soaps turned out so well!!

Did your liquid soap recipe need the other type of lye - Potassium instead of sodium? I'd like to try liquid soap some day; but sounds like a lot of work.

 

[seven]

congrats on ur first soaps. i love 100% co with to the roof SF.
i have yet to try making ls. it's still a bit scary atm, much like when u were a stranger at cp, and the whole lye biz is damn scary!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

They look good and creamy! I'm so glad your first soaps turned out so well!!

Did your liquid soap recipe need the other type of lye - Potassium instead of sodium? I'd like to try liquid soap some day; but sounds like a lot of work.

Thanks! I can't wait to be able to try them out. This whole cure time is going to drive me crazy. lol

Yes, the liquid uses potassium lye instead of sodium. And it is more work than cp bars, but not that much more than a hp bar. And I've seen a cp variant on liquid soap that I want to try as well, which would be interesting.

congrats on ur first soaps. i love 100% co with to the roof SF.
i have yet to try making ls. it's still a bit scary atm, much like when u were a stranger at cp, and the whole lye biz is damn scary!

Thanks! Honestly, I don't find working with lye to be that scary. Then again, I was a science major at university and the labs (especially chem ones) aren't really that different from soapmaking. Go ahead and dive in! It's the same technique, with a different metal ion in the lye, and adding in more water at the end. And if you do a slight superfatting, then you don't even need to neutralize! (I wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no superfatting in my ls, but that's because it's going in a laundry machine.)