Going to make soap for the first time EVORRRRRrrrrrrr

[ericllucas]

Whole Foods has it. Look for Spectrum brand. It's hydrogenated. And a bit pricey. But if you're anxious to get started, it might be worth a splurge.

I went to Whole Foods and they told me they didn't have any hydrogenated oils. Would you kindly post a UPC or sku.number here please?

 

[SoapyD]

Whole Foods has it. Look for Spectrum brand. It's hydrogenated. And a bit pricey. But if you're anxious to get started, it might be worth a splurge.

I went to Whole Foods and they told me they didn't have any hydrogenated oils. Would you kindly post a UPC or sku.number here please?

It's in the baking section, and it's tricky because it's labeled as "all vegetable shortening." Here's the Amazon link so you can see what it looks like:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FA1DG4/ref ... B001FA1DG4

 

[IrishLass]

[It's in the baking section, and it's tricky because it's labeled as "all vegetable shortening." Here's the Amazon link so you can see what it looks like:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FA1DG4/ref ... B001FA1DG4

Yep- that's the same kind I can get at my local Wholefoods Mkt. My regular grocery store has even started stocking it in their 'natural foods' section.

IrishLass

 

[cheesenoodle]

Got all the oil.

Got the coconut oil by Spectrum from Whole Foods. I don't know if it's 76 deg, 96 deg, or fractionated though. Any ideas?

Edit: It's 72 deg (bottom of the page FAQ)
http://www.spectrumorganics.com/?id=15#j197

 

[cheesenoodle]

SOAPING IS UNDER WAY!!!

We added the Almond Oil, Oatmeal, and Essential Mint Oil at trace (skipped the honey) like the recipe called for. It took a good amount of mixing to incorporate all that stuff at trace so it must be even more difficult if you were to do it after gelling.

Took probably 15 minutes to get to trace. We doubled the batch to 32 oz.

One thing I noticed was that coconut oil was 28% for this recipe, and I've read that anything over 20% would dry your skin out, but we'll see.

Now it's in the crockpot on low. I put 32oz of water in there and it maxed out at 140F so that's good.

What I'm not sure about is whether or not to stir after trace/during cooking. We're going to leave it there and just let it gel on its own, it's a little reassuring to know that the crockpot only gets to 140F on low. I've read that some people stir during cooking, but others say not to because you end up getting clumps of gel as opposed to a nice uniform gel from the edges to the center. What do you all think?

O baby

 

[Sunny]

What I'm not sure about is whether or not to stir after trace/during cooking. We're going to leave it there and just let it gel on its own, it's a little reassuring to know that the crockpot only gets to 140F on low. I've read that some people stir during cooking, but others say not to because you end up getting clumps of gel as opposed to a nice uniform gel from the edges to the center. What do you all think?

O baby

I like I said I stir the whole time off and on. It doesn't affect the gel for me at all. The whole thing WILL gel in time, that's the point of HP, and I don't have clumps or anything.

Do it whichever way you want this batch, and next batch maybe try the other way and see what you think? Personally I can't have the soap sitting in there by itself doing its thing, I need to get in its business and stir it!

 

[cheesenoodle]

Nice, thanks for the info. We just checked the temp of the outside edge of the gel - it was 185F!!

I had put water in the crockpot on low and measured the temp which maxed at 140F, but forgot to take into account the reaction between the lye water and the oils, which probably jacked up the temperature.

So we just turned the crockpot off. After reading what you said, maybe it's worth just stirring up at this point to disperse the heat a little better. Hopefully there won't be any chunks in there from overcooking.

 

[cheesenoodle]

Ok, so after about 1 hour it's completely gelled. Stirred it up and it looks pretty good but going to let it go a little longer just incase.

I have an urge to add more oatmeal at this point - 1/4 cup oatmeal to the 32oz oil didn't seem to amount to as much as I had thought it would be. Hmmmm

 

[ericllucas]

Ok, so after about 1 hour it's completely gelled

How does it look today? Did you add more oatmeal?

 

[IrishLass]

Warning! Soap box alert ahead! :wink:

One thing I noticed was that coconut oil was 28% for this recipe, and I've read that anything over 20% would dry your skin out, but we'll see.

That's all a matter of personal preference/skin-type. And formulation, too........i.e.depending on your superfat and/or how you formulate your recipe, you may find coconut oil in soap to be delightfuly non-drying even at high usage rates. For instance, one of my 'keeper' recipes calls for 100% coconut oil with a 20% superfat and it doesn't dry me out at all. The 20% superfat prvides a nice counterbalancing cushion to the saponified coconut's uber cleansing powers. My other 'keeper' formulas use anywhere from 25 to 31 to 70% coconut just fine. Much depends on how you formulate.

I just thought I'd mention that because a lot of soaping info on the web and in some soaping books make blanket statements such as what you heard, 'anything over 20% coconut is drying', as if it's some kind of written-in-stone soaping law that all soapers must obey without question or else dire consequences will occur, but it's not. Yes, it's true that coconut oil is a powerful cleanser in soap, but there are ways to tame the wild beast.

Okay, soap box alert over. You may continue. :wink:

IrishLass

 

[cheesenoodle]

This is about 30min into cooking after trace:

After full gel (an hour) we started stirring it:

Then it was left around 100-110F for another 1 hour 20mins. During that time it was stirred occasionally. So, a total of 2 hours 20min cooking. This seemed like overkill, but we wanted to make sure it was done, then we had dinner which kind of extended the cooking.

For the first hour it was probably 140F-180F, then the heat was turned off, and once it fell to 100-110F, it was left for an hour and 20mins. It looked like this after the 2 hour 20min cooking-after-trace mark:

At that point we were convinced it was prettttttty done. There were some lumps in it, probably from the edges getting to 180F in the beginning, but also because some soap was left on the upper edges of the crock pot, and probably dried out faster/more than the rest of the batch. I think next time itll be important to keep it all as one and not let it smear on the edges and be left there to dry out. It wasn't too lumpy, but still, there were some lumps in the end.

After scooping most of the good stuff out, we were left with some drier portions on the edges and stuff, so I scooped it with my hand and mashed it into a soap cake to keep separate from the main batch since it was drier:

This is the main batch, probably a 5"x5" square, 2" to 2.5" deep:

We put saran wrap on the top, not sure if that was necessary but we were afraid of ash.

So, a day later, the soap cake isn't cracking or anything. The main batch seems nice, a little harder than it was yesterday, but only a little harder.

If you press the main batch, you can indent it with your finger, it's almost like pushing your finger onto some hard white styrofoam or something - softer than I thought it would be.

So now the question is whether or not to cut it up tonight or let it be (will it get harder as it is? Not sure.)...

Smells nice and pepperminty though, pretty cool. We ended up doubling the amount of oatmeal. The original 32oz recipe called for 1/4cup, so we ended up doing 1/2cup.

We tested some of the fresh soap last night, really nice and lathery and a good amount of bubbles. Didn't seem to dry the hands too much although it did have 28% coconut oil in it!

These things smell really pepperminty, you could get away with half the peppermint EO I bet and it'd still be decently strong.

Next time won't cook it so long and will add at full gel and not trace

--------

So this is the soap. Wanted to find a nice cutter tool but after going to every grocery store on earth, and bed bath beyond, we just made one out of a soup can. It cut a little wonky but who cares. They probably have something that does the same at an art store, havent really checked for that though.

This is what it looks like 2 days after being cut. It seems to be firming up nicely so far. The whole basement smells like peppermint. We're drying them on racks, not on a pile like in the picture.

This turned out really well for a first batch I think, the quality of the soap is pretty awesome in terms of lather and bubblyness and cleaning your hands so far.

I'd say these are totally Christmas-gift quality!

Thanks for all the help!!!

Going to make another batch soon, stay tuned, soap homies

 

[judymoody]

If the soap is cool and is the consistency of a firm cheese then you can cut it. It will firm up during cure as water evaporates.

 

[soapbuddy]

Looks good to me. I normally stir throughout the cooking process. I cook mine for about an hour.

 

[cheesenoodle]

Edited out, combined with post above

 

[Hazel]

Congratulations! Those look great and I love the wonky cut. It makes them look rustic and like something you'd find in a store which sells natural products ( :roll: yeah...there's that word again but you know what I mean).

 

[cheesenoodle]

Ok, I uploaded a picture that is more representative of what they look like, a little whiter and a little less yellow. OH YEAH.

My girlfriend is worried about me

 

[judymoody]

They have a nice natural wholesome look.

And your girlfriend won't be looking at you funny any more once she tries your fabulous soap!

 

[cheesenoodle]

Ha, she was only half kidding, but it's our fabulous soap, she helped and was actually the one to inspire all of this !! =D

 

[cheesenoodle]

Made this the other day, they were cut a couple days ago.
The smell faintly orangey. It's nice. They look nicely smooth and creamaay

Recipe:

 

[cheesenoodle]

This is the third batch so far, freshly cut
Peppermint Coffee Tea Tree Soap
Definitely a little harder and set faster than the previous batches.
Less bubbly because of less coconut oil and more palm oil this time, I guess
But it's still good and it's cool because it has tea tree oil and coffee in it, o yea
Looks whiter because of more palm oil and less olive oil I think.
The other earlier batches were much yellower.

Put it in a nice little cardboard box that was lying around. The 36oz batch just fit.

Recipe:
Tea tree calculation: Since most topical tea tree recommendations
are at 5% teatree solution, I took the 3% essential oil rule we've been using as a reference point lately and took 5% of it, which makes the actual soap a
5% teatree "solution"

[Edit: I think what would have made it an actual "5% solution" would have just been to do 5% of the total oils. The above calculation doesn't really make sense if you want a 5% tea tree oil soap, oops]