My second batch of soap! 🙂

[FragranceGuy]

I unmolded my second batch of soap today and it appears to be another success!! I developed this recipe specifically for my girlfriend who has very sensitive skin (I mentioned my intentions to do this in another post) Her name is Jessica and she often teases me that when I say her name I rush the “i” so I’m calling this recipe JessKa’s soap ❤ Thank you to all the Lardinators out there who inspired this recipe, especially @Zany_in_CO I decided I’m only going to make 1lb batches for a while until I improve my skills and find recipes that I like..

JessKa’s Soap (1lb)

Lard: 60%
Olive Oil: 26%
Coconut Oil: 14%


Essential Oils (15g):

9g Eucalyptus
4g Orange
2g Cypress

This ☝ smells therapeutic, fresh and deep. It’s very clean an invigorating. I LOVE it!!

I mixed my lye solution knowing that it would cool faster than my first batch of soap (2.5lb oils) and it did, even faster than I thought! I melted my solid oils until they reached the same temperature as the lye solution and then poured them into my mixing container with room temperature olive oil. Doh! The temperature of my oils dropped too fast. So I put my oils back on the heat and brought them all to the same temp as the lye, poured them into my mixing container and... they dropped again! Doh!! So, I heated my oils AGAIN until they were 12 degrees higher than my lye and boom, both my oils and lye solution were exactly 120 degrees when I mixed them Now the fun part! I got trigger happy with the stick blender when I was making my first batch of soap. This time I was determined to stay disciplined, pull in the reins and use only 2-3 short bursts with the blender followed by stirring. It took a long time to reach trace. Lard definitely has a nice, slow and steady emulsion rate. Now I know that I can blend a little more when working with lard. I added my EO at a very light trace, mixed well and poured into my potato chip container mold at light trace. I tapped as many bubbles out as I could, but didn’t get them all. The soap wanted to stick to the plastic mold, but I don’t believe that will be an issue when I build my own mold and properly line it. Because it took me so long to reach trace my temperatures had dropped significantly and I was only able to achieve partial gel phase despite insulating my mold with towels. BUT, I’m grateful because I get to see how this recipe looks both gelled and not. I learned a lot, had so much fun and consider it a success ☺ Thank you all for the insights, guidance and encouragement I’m already thinking about my next batch of soap Pictures to follow...

 

[Zing]

Way to go!! You sound like you are hooked -- no turning back now! I love all these details. In several weeks' time, I'm sure both you and Jessca will enjoy it. Your scent is intriguing. I'm not a big eucalyptus fan (too 'medicine-y') but many of my friends are demanding it. I'll have to try your blend.

It's only been these last few months that I've been challenged with gelling -- probably because it is winter in Minnesota where we rejoice at a high of 0 degrees temp. I've had good luck with turning on a heating pad for an hour or 2 under towels. I've also recently tried CPOPing (do a search here) where you pre-heat your oven at 170, put your soap in, turn the oven off, turn the oven light on, and try your mightiest to not. open. the. oven. door!

I have never worked with animal products so I do not know what the temp requirements are. When I started, I used to obsess over the temperatures of my lye solution and my oil mixture. Now I just touch the containers and if they are just warm to the touch, I start the magic.

So excited for you, man! Now for some reason, I have to go get some chips....

 

[lsg]

Nice white soap!

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I unmolded my second batch of soap today and it appears to be another success!! I developed this recipe specifically for my girlfriend who has very sensitive skin (I mentioned my intentions to do this in another post) Her name is Jessica and she often teases me that when I say her name I rush the “i” so I’m calling this recipe JessKa’s soap ❤ Thank you to all the Lardinators out there who inspired this recipe, especially @Zany_in_CO I decided I’m only going to make 1lb batches for a while until I improve my skills and find recipes that I like..

JessKa’s Soap (1lb)

Lard: 60%
Olive Oil: 26%
Coconut Oil: 14%


Essential Oils (15g):

9g Eucalyptus
4g Orange
2g Cypress

This ☝ smells therapeutic, fresh and deep. It’s very clean an invigorating. I LOVE it!!

I mixed my lye solution knowing that it would cool faster than my first batch of soap (2.5lb oils) and it did, even faster than I thought! I melted my solid oils until they reached the same temperature as the lye solution and then poured them into my mixing container with room temperature olive oil. Doh! The temperature of my oils dropped too fast. So I put my oils back on the heat and brought them all to the same temp as the lye, poured them into my mixing container and... they dropped again! Doh!! So, I heated my oils AGAIN until they were 12 degrees higher than my lye and boom, both my oils and lye solution were exactly 120 degrees when I mixed them Now the fun part! I got trigger happy with the stick blender when I was making my first batch of soap. This time I was determined to stay disciplined, pull in the reins and use only 2-3 short bursts with the blender followed by stirring. It took a long time to reach trace. Lard definitely has a nice, slow and steady emulsion rate. Now I know that I can blend a little more when working with lard. I added my EO at a very light trace, mixed well and poured into my potato chip container mold at light trace. I tapped as many bubbles out as I could, but didn’t get them all. The soap wanted to stick to the plastic mold, but I don’t believe that will be an issue when I build my own mold and properly line it. Because it took me so long to reach trace my temperatures had dropped significantly and I was only able to achieve partial gel phase despite insulating my mold with towels. BUT, I’m grateful because I get to see how this recipe looks both gelled and not. I learned a lot, had so much fun and consider it a success ☺ Thank you all for the insights, guidance and encouragement I’m already thinking about my next batch of soap Pictures to follow...

.

Fragrance Guy Well done'

 

[AliOop]

Very nice looking soap, and I bet it smells wonderful!

I echo what @Zing said: don't stress over getting your oils and lye to the same temp. Many of us here actually "master batch" our lye solution, which means making up a large amount in advance. Then we measure out what we need and use it at room temperature. The oils are usually somewhat warmer, but again, temps aren't super important most of the time, and especially not when you are working with the basic oils you listed above.

Some oils do need to be at a higher temp (most butters, and also PKO), or they will give you a false trace if you mix them with room temp lye. But even that smooths out as the saponification reaction begins to happen and the batter heats up as a result.

So don't make yourself crazy trying to achieve a certain combo of oil/lye temps to encourage gel. When soaping with a cooler mix, a heating pad is a wonderful thing to encourage gel. Sometimes just insulating well will be enough. Others like using their oven, but I can't stand the fragrance smell that transfers to my food.

Ok, I'll stop there... not wanting to overwhelm you, nor to distract from your excellent accomplishment. Great job!

 

[FragranceGuy]

@Zing Yes, I’m definitely hooked! Soap making has captivated my imagination in the same way that fragrances captivated me years ago. The fact that both paths cross is like providence. Before I ever considered making my own soap I was buying lots of commercial soaps and categorizing them. One evening at the house I disappeared from the living room for 20 minutes. When I was making my way back I crossed paths with Jessica who was looking for me. She was like “Where were you?” I matter of factly stated “I was smelling soap” It made sense to me

I’m also not a huge fan of eucalyptus, but Jessica is, so I decided to give it a run. It’s so funny you described the scent as medicine-y because I thought the same thing when I was mixing the fragrance and I thought “how would I spell mediciney?” I like your spelling better I wanted to round it out with citrus and cedarwood, but I’ve heard that lemon doesn’t usually last long in soap and I was out of cedarwood. I noticed that cypress has a similar vibe to eucalyptus and orange is a little more grounded than the bright citrus aromas so I went with it. I went heavy on the orange with anticipation that it’ll fade with curing and light on the cypress for the opposite reason. I guess I won’t know until it’s cured and I smell the lather. If you do experiment with it and you like it please share any improvements you make! Fragrance behavior in soap is new to me. Thank you and @AliOop for easing my worries about temperature. It’s nice to know I don’t have to reheat my oils over and over And thank you @lsg and @Peachy Clean Soap for encouraging me That goes a long way for a noob like me..

 

[Tara_H]

I matter of factly stated “I was smelling soap” It made sense to me

Makes sense to me too! I've definitely been known to disappear for a while because I've been waylaid by soap...

 

[FragranceGuy]

Makes sense to me too! I've definitely been known to disappear for a while because I've been waylaid by soap...

It’s hard to explain to people who aren’t passionate about soap..

 

[dibbles]

Yay for batch 2! They look great.

Eucalyptus and orange are a very nice combination. If the orange fades more than you like, try a folded orange EO. I use 10x from Bramble Berry. I've also used 6x from Camden Grey with decent results. If you want a lemon(ish) EO go with litsea cubeba (aka may chang). It is lovely, although not as bright as lemon EO, and not a completely straight-up lemon smell. Aside from bergamot and $neroli$ it is probably my favorite EO. Lemongrass is another lemony alternative, but I don't like it nearly as well as litsea.

 

[FragranceGuy]

Yay for batch 2! They look great.

Eucalyptus and orange are a very nice combination. If the orange fades more than you like, try a folded orange EO. I use 10x from Bramble Berry. I've also used 6x from Camden Grey with decent results. If you want a lemon(ish) EO go with litsea cubeba (aka may chang). It is lovely, although not as bright as lemon EO, and not a completely straight-up lemon smell. Aside from bergamot and $neroli$ it is probably my favorite EO. Lemongrass is another lemony alternative, but I don't like it nearly as well as litsea.

I’m going to blind buy the litsea. I’m intrigued by this lemon-ish fragrance I’ve never heard of. And folded orange is on the list too. Thanks dibbles!!

 

[dibbles]

I’m going to blind buy the litsea. I’m intrigued by this lemon-ish fragrance I’ve never heard of. And folded orange is on the list too. Thanks dibbles!!

The pressure is on! Let me know what you think of it when you get some.

 

[FragranceGuy]

This soap has cured for over 8 weeks. It’s VERY hard, no DOS. It does smell “lardy” after it gets wet. I think the smell is primarily due to the brand I used (armor) because my next batch doesn’t smell like lard (I used snow cap on my second batch). A side note, I think eucalyptus EO might not jive too well with lard smelling soaps. I think it might even exacerbate it. Here’s a SUPER newb question, does anyone else’s lard soaps have a slightly greasy texture to it after curing? My first soap batch was CO and crisco, gelled at a high temp and it had a glycerin river/rustic texture. My next two batches of high lard soap (50-60%) both have a VERY slight greasy film. In other words, if I were to handle them with bare hands, I would leave shiny fingerprints that would be visible if moved under a certain light. Even if my hands were virtually devoid of oils, they would still smudge the soap a bit. Forgive my newbness, but is this normal?

 

[FragranceGuy]

General lighting vs reflective lighting. It’s almost like the way you can’t notice a scratch on your watch until the light hits it just right. But mostly I’m wondering about the glossy-ness you might expect from high lard soaps. Thanks!!

 

[AliOop]

Here’s a SUPER newb question, does anyone else’s lard soaps have a slightly greasy texture to it after curing? ... In other words, if I were to handle them with bare hands, I would leave shiny fingerprints that would be visible if moved under a certain light. Even if my hands were virtually devoid of oils, they would still smudge the soap a bit. Forgive my newbness, but is this normal?

Yes, that can be the case, depending on what other oils and additives were used in the recipe, and what SF you used. If you add goat milk or colloidal oats, and/or keep the SF down to 3%, you are less likely to end up with that melt-on-contact surface layer.

 

[FragranceGuy]

Thank you @AliOop My last batch of high lard soap is 3% SF. I’m curious to see how that one looks at 8 weeks.

 

[stephswan]

Congrats on your 2nd batch! new soaper myself here and I am addicted. Made my first batch last week (started small too bc of this community - 16oz) and i have honestly made a new batch every day this week. Looking forward to more of your scent creations! (i'm just buying premade FO's now and mixing them).

 

[FragranceGuy]

Congrats on your 2nd batch! new soaper myself here and I am addicted. Made my first batch last week (started small too bc of this community - 16oz) and i have honestly made a new batch every day this week. Looking forward to more of your scent creations! (i'm just buying premade FO's now and mixing them).

Thank you! And WOW!! You’re really hitting the ground running making so much soap That’s great. I’ve found this forum more helpful than I ever imagined. Eventually we’ll be teaching the newbs too. I’m certainly never going to stop making soap