Just finished making my first batch of soap!

[doriettefarm]

Use sodium lactate in the next batch, I promise it will help with those sticky corners

 

[Bamagirl]

Use sodium lactate in the next batch, I promise it will help with those sticky corners

I will definitely try it next batch (which will probably be soon!)

 

[snappyllama]

Congratulations! Your first batch looks lovely! You'll be well on your way to full fledged addiction soon.

 

[Spice]

With pleasure! You are not the only one. You will get over it and be able to enjoy making soap! I promise!

The first time I ever soaped, I was so scared of the lye that I had completely covered myself from head to toe, with only my eyes visible (peeping out from underneath my goggles). I looked like some kind of soaping ninja. lol By about the 4th or 5th time or so, though, I was able to shake off all my trepidation and about half of my makeshift hazmat gear, and soap with joy.

I've never lost my healthy respect for the lye, though. I still always wear goggles and gloves, and I always protect myself from breathing in the lye fumes while mixing it, but I'm no longer petrified of it. I just treat it with the healthy respect it deserves, and then carry on from there with confidence.


IrishLass

IrishLass is right, have a healthy respect for the lye. My first batch took me 2 hrs to pour my lye water; as my hands shook.
The thing I made sure of, I would create a habit of always wearing eye gear. All it takes is a small drop. I can live with the burning skin for a few mins....my eyes...are important to me. Good luck and hope to see the pics.:wave:

 

[navigator9]

How do I know when its ready to unmold?
I think I unmolded too early, but patience is something I will have to work on I guess Here's the pics of soap and the mold holder that my husband made me.

If your soap gels, it's ready to unmold the following day. I'm not good at delayed gratification, so I CPOP almost all of my soap, so that I can unmold it sooner. By the looks of the crumbled corners of your soap, I'm guessing it didn't gel. That means it's going to take longer to complete the saponification process. I usually wait several days to unmold soaps that haven't gelled. You can test them by pushing on them with your finger, but then, you risk denting them. Or you can zap test the with your tongue. If they zap, they're not ready. That's a pretty reliable test.

 

[Bamagirl]

Should I cover my soaps with cheesecloth or something while they are curing. Right now it isn't a problem as we have gotten so much rain in the last week, but later dust will be a big problem because I live on a dirt road.

 

[IrishLass]

Cheesecloth is fine since it's breathable.


IrishLass

 

[crumberly]

Congrats on your first batch! Woohoo! I just did my very first too last night, so excited to cut this bad boy.

I used Olive, Coconut, Palm and Castor oils for my first batch. I planned to tweak these slightly to try my 2nd and 3rd batches too as I'm like you and want to find a good recipe before I start adding scents. I'd love to know what you finally settle on.

 

[cerelife]

Bamagirl, the first time I made soap I was so nervous about the lye that I sat down and cried afterwards out of sheer stress!! But it really does get soooo much better the more you soap

IrishLass is right, have a healthy respect for the lye. My first batch took me 2 hrs to pour my lye water; as my hands shook.
The thing I made sure of, I would create a habit of always wearing eye gear. All it takes is a small drop. I can live with the burning skin for a few mins....my eyes...are important to me. Good luck and hope to see the pics.:wave:

YES!! I'm quite fond of my eyes and the ability to see! I despise wearing safety goggles but they ARE a necessity whenever you're handling lye OR raw soap batter. I take them on and off during soaping sessions (I usually make 4-8 batches at a time), but I always have them on when I'm working with lye and raw soap - and this includes carrying my full molds to where I leave them to do their magic and rinsing my lye pitchers. All it takes is one good splash to make you really appreciate them!!
Speaking of taking goggles on and off...make sure you take your gloves off BEFORE you take your goggles off! I had never really thought about this, but on one occasion after jerking my goggles off at the first opportunity after measuring and mixing several batches of lye (did I mention I hate wearing them?!), I started feeling a burning sensation on my eyebrow/ skin on the outer edge of my eye/my cheekbone when I put them back on. It was minor and I ignored it at first, but after a few minutes I couldn't ignore it any longer. Yep, apparently I had some lye residue on my gloves that transferred to my goggles when I pulled them off <head smack>. Not a huge big deal (just rinsed the area with cool water), but I did have a sweet little crescent shaped lye burn where my goggles were for about 24 hours. It was a good reminder to not do THAT again
I mix my lye water in the sink. I use one side for my lye pitchers and the other side for soaping. I buy those cheap $1 plastic tablecloths from Wal-Mart (in the party section) to cover my countertops and just toss them in the trash when I'm done. I'm messy AND a klutz, so I tend to get oils/mica/soap dribbles everywhere, so to me it's well worth a couple of bucks per soaping session to have it all contained on these and just toss them out afterwards.
Congrats on your first soap and welcome to the addiction!!

 

[cmzaha]

Just have a healthy respect for lye. If you are extremely nervous about it that is when accidents are apt to happen. It is much more advisable to mix your lye in the sink instead of carrying it from inside to out and out to in. The only spill I ever had was in the beginning when I thought I needed to mix lye outside, and tripped walking accross the deck. Please don't ask what my hubby had to say when he had to repair a section of our second story deck. Never mixed it outdoors again... I mix 2 gallons of lye at a time and just hold my breath until the fumes dissipate, but I live in a very open house, otherwise I would have an exhaust fan on. LOL, Mom always told me I finally got my tree house, which I loved as a kid

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

For those who don't wear goggles - please see this (while you still can!) Reminder - some things are mandatory
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57299

As for gloves, you might only get a wee splash of lye now and then, but sometimes the poo hits the fan and it suddenly is more than that, like the time my pine tar batch went to the consistency of butter in the pot and I had to get in there with my hands and drag that stiff batter out. If I hadn't have been warring gloves, that would not have been much fun at all

 

[Bamagirl]

I decided from the very beginning that goggles would ALWAYS be mandatory. And it wasn't bad wearing them, other than they fogged up when I came back inside. But I was already finished with the soap by then, so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[Bamagirl]

Things have been kind of crazy around here. We have had to have our field lines on our septic system redone, so I have been able to do very little with water in the past week, due to not wanting to put more strain on the septic system. So, today I finally washed my dishes from making soap the other day and guess what? I got suds!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited (crazy right?) when I filled up my mold with hot water and there were suds. It was like ok, maybe what I made will be soap after all!

 

[Steve85569]

Things have been kind of crazy around here. We have had to have our field lines on our septic system redone, so I have been able to do very little with water in the past week, due to not wanting to put more strain on the septic system. So, today I finally washed my dishes from making soap the other day and guess what? I got suds!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited (crazy right?) when I filled up my mold with hot water and there were suds. It was like ok, maybe what I made will be soap after all!

And the addiction takes hold......

 

[Spice]

For those who don't wear goggles - please see this (while you still can!) Reminder - some things are mandatory
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57299

As for gloves, you might only get a wee splash of lye now and then, but sometimes the poo hits the fan and it suddenly is more than that, like the time my pine tar batch went to the consistency of butter in the pot and I had to get in there with my hands and drag that stiff batter out. If I hadn't have been warring gloves, that would not have been much fun at all

Makes it all that more important.

 

[Bamagirl]

And the addiction takes hold......

yep, last night I was making pizza and for this recipe, we use velveeta cheese. Well when I took the cheese out of the package, I thought, hmmm that would probably make a good mold for a small batch of soap. Needless to say, it will be stored for future use lol.

 

[Bamagirl]

I didn't want to start a new thread, as I feel like I start so many . Now that I have done the first couple of batches, (body soap, mechanic soap and laundry soap) I am itching to do more. My problem is I am reluctant to mess with the recipe I used as even testing it at weekly intervals, I really, really like it. I know my next batch is going to be a salt bar, but I was kind of thinking of doing another batch of the original ( 50% lard, 30% olive oil, 15% coconut oil, and 5% castor oil) so that if I done a recipe I didn't like, I wouldn't be left without soap (I only made a 1.5 lb batch). In my mind, the original batch is so good that I wonder if it can even get any better?

 

[Susie]

You need to start tweaking that recipe to get it to where you love it. I would up the lard 5% and cut down the OO 5%. Then the next batch, change it by another 5%. Then you can test each percentage against one another. Or add 10% of some sort of butter. Whatever you do, make good notes and keep each batch separated. I used colors, scents, or designs to help distinguish batches from one another.

 

[LisaAnne]

Your soap is beautiful, congratulations!

 

[jtbailey1030]

ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS wear safety goggles while making your soap. I have been making soap for 2 years now. One day, I was trying to get a batch done before my daughter woke up from her nap. I was rushing and didn't wear my glasses. Wouldn't you know...as I was pouring the lye into the oils, a tiny tiny bit splashed up right into my eye. A film immediately formed on my eye and I couldn't open it. I ran upstairs and started to wash it out as best as I could and called 911. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital where they had to set me up on this eye rinse that continually washed my eye out for 30 minutes. They said because lye is basic, it can continue to eat away at anything it's in contact with. So they had to make sure to get it all out. After the ER I immediately went the doctor where they put dye drops in my eye to make sure all the lye was gone. The doctor said I was VERY fortunate because the lye just missed my cornea...I could have lost my sight. I had a pretty nasty burn on my eyeball for a few days but it ended up healing pretty quickly.

All to say... never ever assume lye solutions are safe and never compromise your safety precautions...because the day you don't, could be the day you have an accident.