My First Attempt

[dibbles]

I love first soap pictures. Yours looks wonderful!

 

[user 58545]

Thank you

 

[Jorah]

Really awesome first batch, congrats. You might try mixing in a tall pitcher. For 1-kilo batches you might be able to fit the batter in a 3-4 liter pitcher; the tall shape makes it easy to submerge the stick blender and makes it easy to pour. I love the idea of the shoe rack, I'll have to watch for one of those in the thrift stores. I've been drying mine on a plastic storage rack, but I'm running out of room after two months of tests! (photo was from the end of my first month!)

 

[Jorah]

I so relate to your little mishaps. When we made our first soap, we didn't have a stick blender... I actually whisked and whisked like my life depended upon it LOL. The trace was not too thick, but the soap turned out not too bad. Then, we were gifted a good blender and oh, we weren't prepared! the trace got thick faster than we had anticipated and since we were using smaller moulds, we went to pieces! The soap itself was good (lovely texture and it gelled etc.), but the appearance, not so much LOL! We panicked and so there were gaps and bubbles etc. We now have a loaf mould, so I hope no more misadventures!

I made my first batch with a whisk held in a battery-powered drill. It took me about 15 minutes to get trace! When I got my stick blender, the trace came so fast it scared me, and I had to spoon the batter into the mold!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Congratulations on making a terrific first batch of soap!

 

[CecileBC]

Hi ! My first batches are only 3 months old, so I'm only new here !
My first attempts were full of air bubbles even after tapping the blender stick to the container. I think that some air still got trapped into the cup of the stick blender, thus making a profusion of tiny bubbles in the batter.... and then it's complicated to get rid of them !
Now I am extra careful when inserting the blender in the batter, sliding it sideways so that an air bubble could "slide" sideways out of the cup, and I also make sure there is sufficient batter on top so the blender is still covered when in action
I guess we'll get better and better with experience
Take care !
Cecile.

 

[user 58545]

Thank you for the great comments, really appreciated and very welcome

 

[Chaiat5]

I made my first batch with a whisk held in a battery-powered drill. It took me about 15 minutes to get trace! When I got my stick blender, the trace came so fast it scared me, and I had to spoon the batter into the mold!

Ohhh I relate!!!!

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Juniper12 It looks perfect! Congratulations on your first soap. Welcome to the addiction!

 

[user 58545]

@Juniper12 It looks perfect! Congratulations on your first soap. Welcome to the addiction!

Thank you Honestly I really enjoyed it and have several butters/oils/essential oils and fragrances for ones I would like to make.

I think for me the only downside is being in the UK and having so many regulations, like I can give it to friends and family no problems but I am sure they don't really want never ending soap even if its free and I can see me ending up with a stockpile of soap which I am unlikely to use all myself. Ideally (in time) would like to sell some just to cover the costs of the hobby but to do that I need to pay for a certificate thing and other things and just gets pricey, doesn't really seem to be a good middle ground for a hobbiest in the UK. Seems all or nothing.

Which does make me annoyed because I see people selling home made soap on Ebay in the UK and I know full well they dont have a CPSR, because I have asked some of them and I either don't get a reply or I get, whats a CPSR!

 

[Zing]

That is truly great looking soap! Congratulations!

If I might add a couple of things. I've been soaping for years and my soap shop looks sooooo vastly different from YouTube videos!

I'm not sure what's going on with your blender. If you don't know about burping, you have to burp it. Submerge your blender and tap several times on the bottom of your bowl until no more air bubbles pop.

When I started, pouring essential oils was a nightmare. I ruined a perfectly good scale. It is hard to describe in text but I'll try. Open up your essential oil bottle. Place a chopstick on top, across the opening. With one hand, hold both the chopstick and the bottle, keeping the chopstick tight on the opening. Pour. The essential oil will calmly trickle down the chopstick. One guess where I learned this trick.

Learning about blending is hard looking at YouTube videos. One, they frequently speed up the film. Two, they usually make very large batches compared to my single-loaf batches (I'm a hobbyist.) and need to blend more than me. I use my blender more like a spoon and stir. I give infrequent short bursts of 3 seconds each to reach thin trace. One guess where I learned this advice.

And careful with the batter splatters! If you have a large mess, you may want to wait 24 hours so that it has saponified more and the lye is less caustic. My dishes sit untouched for at least a day.

So, when's the next batch??!!

 

[user 58545]

Thank you for the comments I have ordered a new stick blender so hopefully will be a bit different, the one I was using I noticed was coming away slightly at the bottom which I expect was letting the air through the shaft.

Good tip for the essential oil thank you.

I did get some on the wall where the blender was still slowing down and I took it out too soon. Got a papertowel and cleaned it up pretty quick!

I am going to be doing the next one in the next few days when I work out what I want to make, I have some ideas but not entirely sure yet.

So I did want to do a coconut fragranced soap but trying to work out how to keep it white, some good comments on vanillin so might have to look into that.

I have done lemon, was thinking about orange but trying to work out a good fragrance to compliment the orange to keep the scent lasting for longer

And I have vanilla fragrance oil, would like to do something with that.

Where possible I am using essential oils as I do prefer the natural way of doings things however some scents just aren't available as essential oils so having to go the fragrance oil route

 

[melinda48]

No pics to show at the moment sorry but just wanted to reflect on my first attempt.

After asking lots of questions and gathering equipment and supplies I was ready to begin.

Following the instructions in a book I bought things went together well, lye water was err hot and cooling.

My bowl with solid oils and butters in didn't fit in the microwave so had to move them to a glass jug. The coconut oil melted straight away, the cocoa butter took a lot longer though!

Had a nightmare with essential oils, didn't pour very well from the 100ml container, ended up going down the side of the bottle, over the scales, over the table, on my gloves.

Anyway with oils melted and mixed and about the same temp as the lye water came time to really make soap.

So I have a Morphy Richards stick blender. I am in the UK so not sure if everyone knows the brand. Not going to lie it was brand new but sounded like an outboard motor, so not sure if its faulty.

Anyway started the blending and apart from the sound there was an incredible amount of bubbles being produced, which does concern me, also made the mistake of taking it out the mix before the blade finished spinning, so had to clean the walls after I had finished.

So the thing with watching videos is they are normally edited, you are never too sure how long they have been blending for. What is the average time? It felt like ages to me, I got it to a light trace and was happy with that but still a lot of bubbles for some reason. Poured into my mould and now its sat doing what soap does, well I hope it is.

Overall a good experience, nothing like the videos on youtube however!

Washing up done and if this works out then will be making plenty more though might need to look for a different blender.

As for the fragrance I have used may chang and lemon essential oils

Good advice when using a stick blender - pulse and stir (with a spoon); repeat. I was taught to never use the stick blender to mix the soap - always pulse and stir. You can just stir but it takes longer (a lot longer) but if you just pulse, it may set up quicker than you want.

 

[user 58545]

I was just following youtube videos and the book at the time. I think I asked the question previously how long you do it for as the videos are edited etc. Practice makes perfect

 

[melinda48]

I was just following youtube videos and the book at the time. I think I asked the question previously how long you do it for as the videos are edited etc. Practice makes perfect

Until it has reached emulsion or trace (whichever you are shooting for).

 

[Savage Daughter]

When pouring EO or FO, holding a toothpick or skewer against the lip of the bottle gives it something to pour down.

This is exactly the technique I started using after seeing one of Holly's soapmaking videos - I believe it was Holly - where she credited somebody else for this idea. Best idea ever I use a bamboo skewer or a stainless steel chopstick. Both are reusable & either works very well.

I also use it for pouring my liquid base oils, which prevents clean-up of greasy bottles, drips, raw material wastage & other related messes.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Ok well, not too sure. Feels like soap and smells like soap but after looking at the photos before uploading see lots of white specs, strangely you can't see them on the actual soap with the naked eye but the camera shows them, guess they shouldn't be there. Not sure where I went wrong, temps for both lye and oils were virtually identical at 47c or 116f

Anyway pics attached

I would say that this is a *very* nice batch of soap for you being a first timer, as well as the gong-show you had going on. I have seen far, far worse Looks to me like you are catching on quickly, paying attention to instructions, and will soon be turning out snazzy designs Personally, I first took a couple of classes in the beginning to get me on solid ground. After that, it was fairly smooth sailing. You might want to consider taking a class just to boost your confidence & watch someone else go through this process in person, following along. It does make things a great deal easier & a lot less nerve-wracking

I also think, like several other people mentioned, your mixing bowl was too big, hence the air bubbles. You want your fluids well over the end of your mixer, fully submerged.

I had stopped soaping for many years, my last time being in the 90s, and when I got back into it not very long ago at all, I had my own personal gong-show going on, believe me. And a major mess. I am now back to the point where clean-up is minimal, and soaping is not at all stressful like it was when I jumped back in. A few months later, I am selling my products to local stores. I think you'll do absolutely fine

Good luck