Small batches idea

[MGM]

I'm pretty pleased with myself for coming up with this system: for the past few weeks, I've been testing the same recipe, but playing around with colours and fragrances. I made quite a few in bar moulds, but I wanted to be able to practice swirls and colours in loaves, too.

I was struggling with making loaves too large, until I came upon the perfect 3-bar size: a milk or egg white container. My recipe is 9oz of soap (based on the soap I made in my first soap-making workshop in November), although you could fit a few more ounces in the container if you wanted. Eventually I'll start changing up the oils to try different things, but for now, I wanted to get a handle on colour combinations and FOs that discolour, as well as produce inventory, but not too much (and especially not too much bad inventory).

I mix the oils for a few batches at a time and store them separately in jam jars; on the day of, I mix the lye separately so I don't need to worry about measuring/pouring lye water (but I do it all at the same time, so it's fast).

The cartons can be a bit weak, but I found they're firmer if I place them in my wooden mould.

Next step, once I've made some headway in my large FO collection, will be to mix up the oils a bit see if I can find a recipe I like better (or when I run out of current stock).

Anyway, maybe this will help someone else who doesn't want to make full loaves. Photos are of the pre-cut blocks, as well as some cut ones.

 

[earlene]

Great work, MGM. I used milk cartons many times as molds before I started buying molds. Putting them into the wooden mold is great idea.

 

[MGM]

Great work, MGM. I used milk cartons many times as molds before I started buying molds. Putting them into the wooden mold is great idea.

Yeah, I lucked out with them fitting in my wooden mold. I do remember reading a post from @Dawni , I think, about all the different containers she uses, but that was before I realised that I did not need to be making multiple subpar soaps in a 1kg mold! ;-)

 

[MGM]

SPOKE TOO SOON about how clever I was...Remember how I was controlling a bunch of variables so that I could just play with colour and fragrance? And then, remember how I went against pretty much everybody's suggestion of NOT using my weird lard soap as confetti in new soaps? Well, I decided to put the lard confetti in a 100% lard soap (so easy!) and I made two loaves (the 2 on the right). They are great in theory: the grey one (sandalwood amber FO) has fine chips of the white soap and the one that is currently pale is scented with 2 discolouring FOs, so between that and the big chunks of what looks like white chocolate, will be called Cherry Chocolate Cookie. Will be whispered in my dreams only, I'm afraid, as this is how they cut!
Because I was always using the same recipe, and because over the past 6 batches, the soap was very slow to set (2 days in mold, 2 days or so to cut), I never bothered rushing to unmold or cut. But the 100% LARD SOAP wasn't slow to set....at least, not that slow, apparently. But I had totally forgotten that this was a different recipe.
Anyway, because they smell good and because I'm stubborn, I will still use these big rough chunks that look more like shale than soap. Where's the stone contest when I need it??

 

[SoaperForLife]

Good idea using the small egg cartons for test batches! Years ago I purchased several small silicone molds from WSP that work well for test batches http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/small-loaf-silicone-mold.aspx

 

[Mobjack Bay]

As a new soaper, I’m totally on board with the small batch approach. I also don’ like to buy things if I’m not sure that I will use them. During the first weeks of soapmaking I was looking at every container in the house as a potential mold, but none of them were straight-sided. One day I noticed an out-dated Trivial Pursuit game at the thrift store that I could see would yield multiple small box options - the outer box (bottom and lid) as well as the inner boxes that hold the cards. I ended up with 6 smallish “molds” that are fairly rigid and holding up well to repeated use. I also found a wooden tray that’s working well as a small slab mold. I was gifted some chocolates and the small box they were in works well to make four small cube soaps. I’m still experimenting, too, and the soap is starting to accumulate, which is a good reason to keep the test batches small.