Starting My Soaping Journey

[KiwiMoose]

I buy the distilled water from Countdown and keep it in the fridge. Also freeze some into ice cubes and I use 50/50 cubes and water for my lye mixture. Then while it's 'doing its thang' I put the jug inside another jug with cool water in it to hurry it along while i get the oils ready.

 

[KiwiSoap]

Update: As per szaza's experience (pour at emulsion, left in cold) they are still fluid this morning, so I am CPOP-ing them (pre-heat oven to lowest setting, 50°C, put soap in oven, turn oven off). Am out for the morning so they will be left undisturbed until later.

 

[KiwiMoose]

How's that CPOPing coming along?

 

[KiwiSoap]

So .. I put it in the oven to this morning before I went out, and checked about 6 hours later: the tops had properly set this time and I got a bar out but, ooop -- the side collapsed and smeared away! Not too badly, but the oven wasn't available anymore so I left the lot in a warm spot in the garage (sunny day).
Was just checking when you messaged (how did you know? ) and that bar has fully set now and the other bars are getting close but as I tested the pulling the silicone mould away on the last one I saw it wasn't quite ready, so I'm leaving them til I get back from work tomorrow when it should all be happy.

That bar I smeared was going to be cut into pieces anyway for testing over time, so I cut it before it was too hard. It looks and feels like slightly warm white chocolate, I took a photo but it is just a white blob against the chopping board. Hopefully a proper reveal tomorrow!

 

[KiwiMoose]

but the oven wasn't available anymore so I left the lot in a warm spot in the garage (sunny day).
Was just checking when you messaged (how did you know? )

1) Yes - I complete understand the garage on a sunny day. Ours must get up to about 35 degrees I'm sure!

2) I'm a soap-psychic

 

[KiwiSoap]

Update:

 

[KiwiMoose]

Sooo nice and creamy looking. You must be well pleased with that Paul!

 

[Steve85569]

I would leave #3 on your list and just add an equal amount of fine grained salt to oil into the recipe. Salt Bars!
Just don't walk away for a few hours and come back to cut them. That recipe will set up hard in an hour or two.
Cure time is LONG but well worth it.

Congratulations on successfully obtaining the addiction of soaping too!

 

[Dawni]

I would leave #3 on your list and just add an equal amount of fine grained salt to oil into the recipe. Salt Bars!
Just don't walk away for a few hours and come back to cut them. That recipe will set up hard in an hour or two.
Cure time is LONG but well worth it.

Congratulations on successfully obtaining the addiction of soaping too!

Or just use individual molds

Again, love the soap Paul, congrats!

 

[KiwiSoap]

I would leave #3 on your list and just add an equal amount of fine grained salt to oil into the recipe. Salt Bars!
Just don't walk away for a few hours and come back to cut them. That recipe will set up hard in an hour or two.
Cure time is LONG but well worth it.

Congratulations on successfully obtaining the addiction of soaping too!

Thanks Steve, I am still curious about how a 100% CO soap will treat my skin so your suggestion of testing that as a salt bar is a good idea! Are you suggesting 100% salt? In my reading I've seen 20% to 40% to 50%, but not as high as 100%. I'd ask what to expect, but that's what experimenting is about!
I think I'll make one batch of 100% CO with 20% SF, then divide into bars with 0%, 20%, 40%, and 100% salt. If pure 100%CO is too much then at least I can learn more about salt bars at the same time (I'm counting on at least one bar in there being a success!) I'll be using individual soap moulds as @KiwiMoose suggested so that avoids the cutting problem.

Thank you, on top of the addiction to soapmaking (or the enthusiasm for, available time and space being the limiting factors but the weekend is nearly here..) I've been encouraged into the addiction of soap mould owning, thanks again @KiwiMoose! I hope that your own soaping adventures are going well!

 

[KiwiMoose]

We aim to please!

 

[lenarenee]

Update:
View attachment 37131

Beautiful simple bars, I love it!

 

[KiwiSoap]

Beautiful simple bars, I love it!

Thank you Lenarenee! I'd say, "just wait until you see what I do next" but I suspect they'll be simple bars for a while yet (I gotta focus on one thing at time, at the moment that's Recipe), hopefully still beautiful though!

Oh, I do have new moulds on the way, ("just wait until you see what I do next!"), but they're travelling snail mail so it'll be a while before I get to use those.

 

[KiwiSoap]

Update: Batch 2, 100% Coconut Oil 20%SF with sea salt
I'm at it again! (Finally!). This recipe was 100% CO 20%SF and at @Steve85569's suggestion I made salt bars at different levels of salt. I also followed @Dean and @KiwiMoose's advice and used 50% of the liquid as ice, this worked a treat! It only leapt to half the temperature as last time and by the time I'd finished measuring out my salt and melted the coconut oil it was at the right temperature for soaping. I did find that some of the NaOH formed a hard disk at the bottom of the lye solution container, so I stir-stir-stirred it and it dissolved.

To make the most of this batch, and find out about different levels of salt, I used four different levels: 0% (pure CO soap), 25% salt, 50% salt, and 100% salt (relative to the oils weight). Note. that fine sea salt was used (H/T KiwiMoose again!). This time I took the soap batter to medium trace (I think, H/T @Dawni), which happened a lot faster than take Olive Oil to emulsion (as expected). Still no colours or fragrances -- boring, I know -- but interesting seeing the difference between the oils used. The soap batter was then distributed between the mould for the 0% salt, and separate containers for the different salt bars, salt folded through the batter using a spatula, and poured into their moulds. I need to not fill the moulds as much.

So, lots of lessons practiced and learnt, thanks for all your continued help!

Pix as proof: 100% Coconut Oil, 20% Superfat with Fine Sea Salt

Differing salt percentages: 0%, 25%, 50%, 100% (left to right)

Set in a smaller moulds, increasing salt percentage left to right

The smaller moulds yielded much cleaner results, probably because I left them longer than the bars which I unmoulded earlier to cut in half to be handsoap-sized. Apologies to my plant, it never asked to be involved in this.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Gorgeous! So white!
I hope you got your plant's permission before posting

 

[KiwiSoap]

Third Batch in the Mould: KiwiMoose's Poly-Oil Bar
This morning I made a batch of KiwiMoose's soy wax bar, a bit of a jump for me using not only new ingredients, but multiple ingredients! I carefully followed through my list of instructions, checking everything off the list. The soap batter may have been a bit cooler than optimal (49°C, where 52°C+ would be better) and, combined with my curiosity what the batter would look like if I took it just a little bit further, (I don't know why today of all days! A little distracted perhaps), the batter was a little lumpy as I moulded it. No fragrance, no colour (I thought about doing a coloured portion, but it was lumpy already). It is currently sitting, un-insulated, in the garage.

Will check on it later, and photos in due course

Update on earlier soaps:

• Batch 1 (Zany's Seawater Castille, 14 days old) may have developed a light soda ash
• Batch 2 (100% CO 20%SF + salt, 7 days old) has a light ash over it. At a few days old, glistening beads appeared all over this batch, but appeared to be reabsorbed after a day or two.

Seawater Castille, 100%CO 20%SF + 0% salt, +25% salt, +50% salt

 

[Meena]

I know you are trying to keep it simple right now, Paul (kudos!), but just want to throw this out:
I always color my batches, even if just one solid or a mix of 2, so I can tell the curing soaps apart. If I had all white soaps, I would go nuts. When 4 of them are in the shower and 2 or 3 at the sink, they will not have the benefit of your labeling system anymore, and you will have a hard time knowing for sure which soap is which as you test them.

You don't have to go for high art or award-winning swirls, just pick 1 - 3 colors per batch that will look different than bars you already have made. I log the colors (and pattern, if necessary, i.e., "angle pour") on the page I've written my recipe and other notes on so I can reference back to them easily. Just my 2 cents.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I know you are trying to keep it simple right now, Paul (kudos!), but just want to throw this out:
I always color my batches, even if just one solid or a mix of 2, so I can tell the curing soaps apart. If I had all white soaps, I would go nuts. When 4 of them are in the shower and 2 or 3 at the sink, they will not have the benefit of your labeling system anymore, and you will have a hard time knowing for sure which soap is which as you test them.

You don't have to go for high art or award-winning swirls, just pick 1 - 3 colors per batch that will look different than bars you already have made. I log the colors (and pattern, if necessary, i.e., "angle pour") on the page I've written my recipe and other notes on so I can reference back to them easily. Just my 2 cents.

I'd never thought of that - but you're right Meena - when they're in the soap dish, how would you know? I've coloured from day one so it had never crossed my mind.

 

[KiwiSoap]

Thank you Meena, good suggestion, I did have the intention of adding some colour to this but let the soap get away on me. Fortunately my first two soaps are quite distinct from one another, gorgeous cream vs stark white (and also distinct forms) but this third bar is an unknown exactly where in the spectrum it will land. I will approach my next soap with a colour plan, this time I just needed to soap!

Update: KiwiMoose's Soy Wax Poly-Oil Bar

Unmoulded the next day, the bars came out really cleanly (I unmoulded two bars yesterday for cutting, 5 hours after moulding, crumbling the edges in places). The bars have a few air bubbles around the edges, I forgot to burp the stick-blender first, and possibly from pouring the batter too thick, or maybe I didn't tap the mould hard/long enough. The finish is otherwise smooth.
H/T to @Dawni for the photo layout suggestion (apologies for the scungy chopping board, the plants are on holiday), and @KiwiMoose for her recipe and advice; and many thanks to them both for their support!

 

[amd]

^^^ I.love.these. I just love them. As much as I enjoy playing with colors... there is so much beauty in a white bar of soap. So, if I'm following this thread correctly, the soap above is a soy wax soap? Did you use this recipe?

Sorry if I'm being obtuse, I'm genuinely curious about the recipe, the soap looks delicious! *don't eat the soap*