Sibi
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone! I've been lurking on this forum for several months now soaking up all the info I could on how to make soap. I thank all of you for your knowledge and readiness to share it with us new folks.
I finally took the plunge and made some soap on Monday evening. My first batch consisted of crisco and canola, coconut and olive oil. I punched my oils in the soapcalc to get the right attributes for my first batch. I had all my supplies close by and the hubby and son were in bed.
Of course I ran into a problem, what did I expect on my first batch??? It took forever for my lye and oils to come to the same (or close to the same) temp. Think I'll do it differently next time - maybe try going with room temp for both. Anyway, when I added my lye to my oils and started using my stick blender (which only has 1 speed - fast) everything started moving sort of fast. I believe trace happened quickly and I didn't recognize it because by the time I added my colors and fragrance the soap was quite thick and getting thicker by the minute. I had wanted to do a swirl but that wasn't possible. I had to scoop out my gloppy mess into the mold and flatten the top (I did this design thingy on top - sort of). I know that my soap went into the gel phase because when I checked it about 1/2 hour later is was hot and sort of translucent. I'm disappointed however at the results when cut. There are little holes throughout the soap and I think it's because I didn't flatten the soap enough when I put it in the mold and it left some air pockets. But it sure does smell nice and is quite hard already. I also did the zap test just to make sure it wasn't lye heavy and all is well in that regard.
Well, sorry to be blabbering on so much but it's my first batch and I'm excited and can't wait to do it again. I'm attaching a couple of pics so you can see what I mean.
Sibi
I finally took the plunge and made some soap on Monday evening. My first batch consisted of crisco and canola, coconut and olive oil. I punched my oils in the soapcalc to get the right attributes for my first batch. I had all my supplies close by and the hubby and son were in bed.
Of course I ran into a problem, what did I expect on my first batch??? It took forever for my lye and oils to come to the same (or close to the same) temp. Think I'll do it differently next time - maybe try going with room temp for both. Anyway, when I added my lye to my oils and started using my stick blender (which only has 1 speed - fast) everything started moving sort of fast. I believe trace happened quickly and I didn't recognize it because by the time I added my colors and fragrance the soap was quite thick and getting thicker by the minute. I had wanted to do a swirl but that wasn't possible. I had to scoop out my gloppy mess into the mold and flatten the top (I did this design thingy on top - sort of). I know that my soap went into the gel phase because when I checked it about 1/2 hour later is was hot and sort of translucent. I'm disappointed however at the results when cut. There are little holes throughout the soap and I think it's because I didn't flatten the soap enough when I put it in the mold and it left some air pockets. But it sure does smell nice and is quite hard already. I also did the zap test just to make sure it wasn't lye heavy and all is well in that regard.
Well, sorry to be blabbering on so much but it's my first batch and I'm excited and can't wait to do it again. I'm attaching a couple of pics so you can see what I mean.
Sibi
heating and cooling the first batches of soap till I threw that idea out the window and just soaped at room temp.
