I just got done cutting my first CP soap! I am really happy so far with how it turned out.
I'm not sure if it gelled... I kept it in the mold for about 21 hours before I took it out and cut it. I just left it on my kitchen counter with some cling wrap/seran wrap placed on top lightly, not touching the actual soap. I didn't cover it, or do anything to insulate it. Will this affect the outcome of my soap in anyway?
It was only a 16 oz batch. I was able to get 5 bars out of it.
I scented it with all Wellington FO's. They held up nicely.
I handled it with bare hands as I cut and demold it. At first I didn't notice anything, but after a minute of holding the soap carrying them to a good spot to take photos, I felt a little bit of a burn on my finger. I washed my hands and put gloves on immediately. The gloves I have are very thick and hard to handle things with, so I thought I would give a go at handling the fresh soap bare handed. NEVER AGAIN! :shock:
Lol.
As I handled the soap bare handed though it felt SO CREAMY. I love it. I hope it stays that creamy as it cures the 6 weeks.
This is me starting to stick blend. I was really happy to see it get opaque immediately. I know it's supposed to do that, but everytime I try to do something it never turns out right. Lol. So seeing it get milky right away after stick blending was a great sign.
Here is my Shea Butter. It was really crumbly and dry looking. I've never seen Shea Butter before. But as soon as I touched it, it melted just from my body heat and felt really creamy. I really like Shea, I think I will continue to use it.
All the oils I needed I carefully weighed one by one all together into the bowl.
My lye water after it cleared. I didn't smell any fumes at all I was surprised. I stirred them together in the sink in case of "volcanic eruption" Luckily I did not have to deal with that.
Here is my lye I'm about to open and measure out. After I started pouring some of the beads jumped out on the counter, or maybe I was shaking just that much.
I think it was from static. Well it scared me. I had no idea what to do. I just swiped them in the trash with some dry paper towels. I hope I got them all, they are so tiny!
Here is all my ingredients.
I used Wellington FO's in: White Tea, Egyptian Musk, All Spice, and Sandalwood (Don't worry this one didn't smell like dirt hehehe)
I used purple ultramarine, but I didn't know at the time I needed to disperse it in water, so they are just spotted throughout my soap. Oops lol. The black I used was just a powder pigment. So it mixed up well with the soap.
Here is my equipment. Stainless steel 16 qt. stockpot (way too big for my 16 oz of oils). Stainless steel and silicone spoon. And my really nice stick blender. I would recommend this stick blender to anybody. It was really reallllly nice for only $28 from Amazon. It didn't splatter at all and it seemed pretty quiet to me.
I was really tempted to use a liquid other than water, but for my first batch I decided it would probably be better to start off slow with some regular distilled water.
And here is the final result! I think they look really nice for my first time. I'm kinda nervous to use them at the end of the 6 week cure time because I don't have anything to test the PH and I didn't feel comfortable putting raw soap with lye on my tongue. :shock: So I guess I will just have to find out the hard way.
Close up. I like the texture. I also like the specks of ultramarine. Even though they didn't fully cover my soap like it should have I think it looks nice.
One of the things I was looking forward to getting away from melt and pour and switching to CP was I get to swirl the tops! I love the swirly bumpy tops. It really adds interest to me.
Thanks for looking at my first adventure into CP soap making! It was really scary, but I think I have a smidge more confidence now for next time.
Here is my second batch I made yesterday: I decided to try three colors. It didn't come out the way I thought it would because I pushed my spoon into the two bottom colors, so I was thinking it would drag the purpley color down into the pinky/orange color (Oh and the pinky/orange was supposed to be red and the purpley color was supposed to be pink lol) but it didn't. I forgot to disperse my ultramarines again lol. Which is why the purpley color is speckled throughout. I kinda like it though. Maybe I won't disperse them anyway, not that I could even remember to.
I'm not sure if it gelled... I kept it in the mold for about 21 hours before I took it out and cut it. I just left it on my kitchen counter with some cling wrap/seran wrap placed on top lightly, not touching the actual soap. I didn't cover it, or do anything to insulate it. Will this affect the outcome of my soap in anyway?
It was only a 16 oz batch. I was able to get 5 bars out of it.
I scented it with all Wellington FO's. They held up nicely.
I handled it with bare hands as I cut and demold it. At first I didn't notice anything, but after a minute of holding the soap carrying them to a good spot to take photos, I felt a little bit of a burn on my finger. I washed my hands and put gloves on immediately. The gloves I have are very thick and hard to handle things with, so I thought I would give a go at handling the fresh soap bare handed. NEVER AGAIN! :shock:
Lol.
As I handled the soap bare handed though it felt SO CREAMY. I love it. I hope it stays that creamy as it cures the 6 weeks.
This is me starting to stick blend. I was really happy to see it get opaque immediately. I know it's supposed to do that, but everytime I try to do something it never turns out right. Lol. So seeing it get milky right away after stick blending was a great sign.
Here is my Shea Butter. It was really crumbly and dry looking. I've never seen Shea Butter before. But as soon as I touched it, it melted just from my body heat and felt really creamy. I really like Shea, I think I will continue to use it.
All the oils I needed I carefully weighed one by one all together into the bowl.
My lye water after it cleared. I didn't smell any fumes at all I was surprised. I stirred them together in the sink in case of "volcanic eruption"
Luckily I did not have to deal with that.
Here is my lye I'm about to open and measure out. After I started pouring some of the beads jumped out on the counter, or maybe I was shaking just that much.
I think it was from static. Well it scared me. I had no idea what to do. I just swiped them in the trash with some dry paper towels. I hope I got them all, they are so tiny!
Here is all my ingredients.
I used Wellington FO's in: White Tea, Egyptian Musk, All Spice, and Sandalwood (Don't worry this one didn't smell like dirt
hehehe)I used purple ultramarine, but I didn't know at the time I needed to disperse it in water, so they are just spotted throughout my soap. Oops lol. The black I used was just a powder pigment. So it mixed up well with the soap.
Here is my equipment. Stainless steel 16 qt. stockpot (way too big for my 16 oz of oils). Stainless steel and silicone spoon. And my really nice stick blender. I would recommend this stick blender to anybody. It was really reallllly nice for only $28 from Amazon. It didn't splatter at all and it seemed pretty quiet to me.
I was really tempted to use a liquid other than water, but for my first batch I decided it would probably be better to start off slow with some regular distilled water.
And here is the final result! I think they look really nice for my first time.
I'm kinda nervous to use them at the end of the 6 week cure time because I don't have anything to test the PH and I didn't feel comfortable putting raw soap with lye on my tongue. :shock: So I guess I will just have to find out the hard way.
Close up. I like the texture. I also like the specks of ultramarine. Even though they didn't fully cover my soap like it should have I think it looks nice.
One of the things I was looking forward to getting away from melt and pour and switching to CP was I get to swirl the tops! I love the swirly bumpy tops. It really adds interest to me.
Thanks for looking at my first adventure into CP soap making!
It was really scary, but I think I have a smidge more confidence now for next time.Here is my second batch I made yesterday:
I decided to try three colors. It didn't come out the way I thought it would because I pushed my spoon into the two bottom colors, so I was thinking it would drag the purpley color down into the pinky/orange color (Oh and the pinky/orange was supposed to be red and the purpley color was supposed to be pink lol) but it didn't. I forgot to disperse my ultramarines again lol. Which is why the purpley color is speckled throughout. I kinda like it though. Maybe I won't disperse them anyway, not that I could even remember to.
