Ok, as promised, here is my disastrous first attempt. As background, I was using up some infused oils; olive oil infused with paprika, turmeric, annatto, turkey rhubarb, vetch, sweetgrass, hemlock, and borage. I also had some older lard, a tiny bit of tallow, and some soy wax (probably didn’t need to use that up). So, I made up a recipe, calculated the lye, and was off to the races (not). The batter was pleasant enough, the colors were okay, and the technique was doable. I used up some Loving Spell fragrance that had been hanging around. I did not gel this soap.
The soap came out very crumbly and seems lye heavy. I tried a lather test and I thought it would at least be a little bit conditioning - it is not. There could be a million reasons why it failed - I’m not analyzing it - it is being shredded and salted out. Good practice anyway!
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