What soapy thing have you done today?

[KeepItSimpleSoap]

I'll try 1.5 water and 2 tsp's dissolved in hot water and add it when I add FO. Thanks to both of y'all. Soaping more frequently and varying temps/methods etc is helping me to build info as to what to expect. I'll write all my notes down.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Apparently the original Pyrex is not the same as present day Pyrex ( I read somewhere - maybe on SMF)? The brand has remained but the process for making their 'signature' toughened glass has changed.

You are correct. However, like I mentioned above, you have to be smarter than the glass, and not just Pyrex, but all glass bakeware like Anchor Hocking and others.

The new Pyrex glass is not shatterproof: The original Pyrex glass bakeware was introduced 90 years ago. Old Pyrex was a different chemical composition and was more resistant to thermal shock. It was made from shatterproof borosilicate glass and was pretty much indestructible. The new Pyrex glass items are made with a tempered soda-lime glass which has good thermal properties at both high and low temperatures, but it can’t handle temperature shock, as borosilicate glass could.

Make sure to read the instructions. To avoid cracking, do not expose your Pyrex cups to rapid temperature changes. Don’t put them directly on a burner and never put a hot cup on a very cold surface as the glass may explode. For the same reason, don’t take the cup directly from the freezer to the oven or microwave.

Source: 9 Features I Like about Pyrex Measuring Cups and 3 Features that Need Improvement/

 

[armadalesoap]

I tried my first ever charcoal line, looking forward to cutting it tomorrow!

 

[BritS]

I made my first lye masterbatch two days ago and used it to soap yesterday. It almost felt too easy.

 

[Dooleykins]

I made my first lye masterbatch two days ago and used it to soap yesterday. It almost felt too easy.

Right? That's how I felt.

Except don't make the mistake that I did and refrigerate it.

 

[BritS]

Right? That's how I felt.

Except don't make the mistake that I did and refrigerate it.

I think I saw a post about it. Needless to say, it's stored at room temperature, LOL.

I am, however, still waiting for someone to jump out at me with a seriously belated April Fools.

 

[AliOop]

I think I saw a post about it. Needless to say, it's stored at room temperature, LOL.

I am, however, still waiting for someone to jump out at me with a seriously belated April Fools.

Master-batching lye solution was a game-changer for me, too. I have limited spare time, and now I can soap without measuring NaOH, stirring it in, waiting for it to cool? Yes please!

I even went so far as to figure out how to use MB lye solution with the ever-popular ZNSC recipe, by figuring out percentages for the bicarb and sea salt used to make the faux sea water (so I don't have to make that ahead of time, either).

There are very few times that I have to make up a fresh batch of lye solution, and I love it! Now I also master-batch my oils for my main recipe, as well. Life is good.

 

[TheGecko]

A bit off-topic, but what is your method for master batching oils and lye?

I start with a 5-Gallon HDPE bucket that I picked up from my local supplier for $10.00USD. It has a pour spout in the lid but I don't use it.

I usually mix up about 40 lbs of oils/butter though the bucket would easily hold 50 lbs to 60 lbs...it's all about what I can comfortably move by myself (I plan on getting a rolling plant stand later).

Anyhoo...I melt/mix in 10 lbs of oil/butters lots because that is a much hot oils/butters I want to handle at a time. I use a Revere Ware stainless steel "dutch over" to melt my Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. I set the pan on a medium heat, start with the Cocoa Butter, then add the Palm and Coconut Oils. I then turn off the heat and add the Shea Butter in small chunks. By the time it's all melted, I have added the Olive and Castor Oils to the bucket and can pour in the melted oils and give it a stir and start the next batch melting. One final stir and the lid goes on.

When I'm ready to make soap, I open the bucket and grab my drill with a commercial paint stirrer attachment that I paid maybe $5.00 and give the mixture a good whiz. How good is dependent on the time of year. During the Winter, the mixture is about the consistency of cornbread batter, during the Summer it's more of a pancake batter. I make sure I stir all around the edges and the bottom of the bucket because Stearic Acid settles to the bottom.

I have a long handled ladle that holds approximately 4 oz. I have a spreadsheet on my wall that tells me how much oil/butter, lye solution and FO I need for each mold. So if I am using my 10" Silicone Loaf Mold, I know that I need 34 oz Oils/Butters, 14.24 oz Lye Solution (ready-to-use at 33%) and 2.13oz FO. I start with weighing out my FO since I use Kaolin Clay and disperse any colorants if needed. I then stir up the mixture, tare my bowl, scoop in four ladles, then weigh my bowl and adjust from there. I then pop it in the microwave at 30 seconds PPO which puts my Oils/Butters between 100F-120F. While the Oils/Butters are melting I weigh out my Lye Solution which is usually around 70F-75F (room temp) and add Sodium Lactate. I like to soap at cooler temps so I will put my hand on the bowl when it comes out and if I can leave it there, I go on to make soap or if I can't, I'll go toss a load of laundry in or doing something else for 10 minutes.

Master Batching is great if you make the same soap all the time...which I do. It takes me about an hour to make a 40 lb MB including clean up, but I save more than that with the convenience.

 

[Zing]

This is a similar to my recent post. I gave several bars to a different friend at Christmas and he also waits to open each bar until he needs it. He sent a photo of my Taiwan Swirl (lord knows that was one stressful month challenge!!) and was excited about my 'fancy soap.' So, you know what video I had to send him, right?!

 

[Dan9250]

I like the idea of master batching lye. I think I will try it, as this past week I made my lye solution a day early so I could add the colorant when the solution was cooled to room temperature. It was so easy having the lye solution made and available when the oils were melted and ready. Everything went so smooth I was done before I knew it.

If I remember the addition of sugar will accelerate the rate of trace. I believe this site covers the topic.

Sugar in Soap Making: How it Affects Saponification, Lather, & More- Plus, Why Every Recipe Needs It

I hope this helps.

 

[Dooleykins]

I start with a 5-Gallon HDPE bucket that I picked up from my local supplier for $10.00USD. It has a pour spout in the lid but I don't use it.

I usually mix up about 40 lbs of oils/butter though the bucket would easily hold 50 lbs to 60 lbs...it's all about what I can comfortably move by myself (I plan on getting a rolling plant stand later).

Anyhoo...I melt/mix in 10 lbs of oil/butters lots because that is a much hot oils/butters I want to handle at a time. I use a Revere Ware stainless steel "dutch over" to melt my Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. I set the pan on a medium heat, start with the Cocoa Butter, then add the Palm and Coconut Oils. I then turn off the heat and add the Shea Butter in small chunks. By the time it's all melted, I have added the Olive and Castor Oils to the bucket and can pour in the melted oils and give it a stir and start the next batch melting. One final stir and the lid goes on.

When I'm ready to make soap, I open the bucket and grab my drill with a commercial paint stirrer attachment that I paid maybe $5.00 and give the mixture a good whiz. How good is dependent on the time of year. During the Winter, the mixture is about the consistency of cornbread batter, during the Summer it's more of a pancake batter. I make sure I stir all around the edges and the bottom of the bucket because Stearic Acid settles to the bottom.

I have a long handled ladle that holds approximately 4 oz. I have a spreadsheet on my wall that tells me how much oil/butter, lye solution and FO I need for each mold. So if I am using my 10" Silicone Loaf Mold, I know that I need 34 oz Oils/Butters, 14.24 oz Lye Solution (ready-to-use at 33%) and 2.13oz FO. I start with weighing out my FO since I use Kaolin Clay and disperse any colorants if needed. I then stir up the mixture, tare my bowl, scoop in four ladles, then weigh my bowl and adjust from there. I then pop it in the microwave at 30 seconds PPO which puts my Oils/Butters between 100F-120F. While the Oils/Butters are melting I weigh out my Lye Solution which is usually around 70F-75F (room temp) and add Sodium Lactate. I like to soap at cooler temps so I will put my hand on the bowl when it comes out and if I can leave it there, I go on to make soap or if I can't, I'll go toss a load of laundry in or doing something else for 10 minutes.

Master Batching is great if you make the same soap all the time...which I do. It takes me about an hour to make a 40 lb MB including clean up, but I save more than that with the convenience.

This sounds really doable for me.

My current method is to weigh out all my oils into a large crockpot. Each large crockpot can hold 4kg of oils, which makes 4 loaves of soap. I then weigh out 1kg of oils for each batch and measure the lye and FOs/Mica separately for each loaf.

I have two large crockpots and my mom just gave me a smaller one, so I can heat up 10kg of oils at a time. That's as many loaves as I am comfortable doing in a session right now, so I think I'll stick with that for my oils for now.

I also bought a 16 gallon brew pot, but I'm not great with imperial measurements (I went to high school in Germany) so it is vaaaaaastly larger than I need right now.

Next, I am working on my method for masterbatching lye to speed up that part of my process.

Once I know which scents sell best in my market I plan on making multiple loaves of a scent at a time to further speed up my process. At that point I may get bigger molds and a log splitter but... $$$ I do have some old wooden drawers I've considered using.

 

[BritS]

I start with a 5-Gallon HDPE bucket that I picked up from my local supplier for $10.00USD. It has a pour spout in the lid but I don't use it.

I usually mix up about 40 lbs of oils/butter though the bucket would easily hold 50 lbs to 60 lbs...it's all about what I can comfortably move by myself (I plan on getting a rolling plant stand later).

Anyhoo...I melt/mix in 10 lbs of oil/butters lots because that is a much hot oils/butters I want to handle at a time. I use a Revere Ware stainless steel "dutch over" to melt my Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. I set the pan on a medium heat, start with the Cocoa Butter, then add the Palm and Coconut Oils. I then turn off the heat and add the Shea Butter in small chunks. By the time it's all melted, I have added the Olive and Castor Oils to the bucket and can pour in the melted oils and give it a stir and start the next batch melting. One final stir and the lid goes on.

When I'm ready to make soap, I open the bucket and grab my drill with a commercial paint stirrer attachment that I paid maybe $5.00 and give the mixture a good whiz. How good is dependent on the time of year. During the Winter, the mixture is about the consistency of cornbread batter, during the Summer it's more of a pancake batter. I make sure I stir all around the edges and the bottom of the bucket because Stearic Acid settles to the bottom.

I have a long handled ladle that holds approximately 4 oz. I have a spreadsheet on my wall that tells me how much oil/butter, lye solution and FO I need for each mold. So if I am using my 10" Silicone Loaf Mold, I know that I need 34 oz Oils/Butters, 14.24 oz Lye Solution (ready-to-use at 33%) and 2.13oz FO. I start with weighing out my FO since I use Kaolin Clay and disperse any colorants if needed. I then stir up the mixture, tare my bowl, scoop in four ladles, then weigh my bowl and adjust from there. I then pop it in the microwave at 30 seconds PPO which puts my Oils/Butters between 100F-120F. While the Oils/Butters are melting I weigh out my Lye Solution which is usually around 70F-75F (room temp) and add Sodium Lactate. I like to soap at cooler temps so I will put my hand on the bowl when it comes out and if I can leave it there, I go on to make soap or if I can't, I'll go toss a load of laundry in or doing something else for 10 minutes.

Master Batching is great if you make the same soap all the time...which I do. It takes me about an hour to make a 40 lb MB including clean up, but I save more than that with the convenience.

I really appreciated reading this. After I felt suspiciously clever with my lye masterbatch, I started eyeballing my oils and butters. I hope they know they’re next.

 

[armadalesoap]

Seems like an awful lot of work? I like the heat transfer method personally, but maybe that's 'cos I'm just a beginner. Mind you, my soap mould only makes 18 bars at a time so maybe you're doing it that way as you make far larger batches than me? Would be interested to hear the benefits of pre-making the lye solution.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

I bit the bullet and bought insurance today. Also bought sidewalls for my canopy because I'm doing a market on Saturday and the weather report is calling for rain. Bummer of a way to start market season 🌦

 

[Misschief]

I bit the bullet and bought insurance today. Also bought sidewalls for my canopy because I'm doing a market on Saturday and the weather report is calling for rain. Bummer of a way to start market season 🌦

Yup, my thoughts exactly. Rain in the forecast here, too.

 

[armadalesoap]

I'm not sure what I expected when I made this French clay soap but it's given me inspiration. It looks like mountains and clouds, totally by accident. That's why soap making is so much fun. I'm now going to try and make a Scottish mountain night scene based on this happy accident.

 

[TheGecko]

Seems like an awful lot of work?

How so? Don’t you get out your ingredients, weigh and measure, then put them away…every time you make a batch of soap? Even if you make two or three batches at one time, aren’t you still weighing and measuring each ingredient? It takes me almost as much time to carefully weigh out 11.6 oz of Olive Oil as it does 56 oz. By MBing, I can double the amount of soap I make.

I like the heat transfer method personally, but maybe that's 'cos I'm just a beginner. Mind you, my soap mould only makes 18 bars at a time so maybe you're doing it that way as you make far larger batches than me? Would be interested to hear the benefits of pre-making the lye solution.

Until recently, I was making batches in a 10” Silicone Loaf Mold…50 oz total or 10-1” bars. So why did I start MBing? Because I wanted to make soap. I work full-time and have a two-hour commute. My husband is also disabled…limited in what he can as far as housework is concerned and doesn’t drive. So some weekends I have time to make soap and other times I’m tired and would just like to sit a knit a bit. The hour it takes me to MB allows me to whip up a batch of soap after work if I want. On the weekend…I can easily fill both of my molds and do a test batch and later enjoy the evening with a bit of knitting.

The benefit for those of us who don’t use the Heat Transfer Method is that we don’t have to wait for our Lye Solution to cool down or do anything special to get it to cool down faster. I’m out of MB Oils/Butters right now, but if I wanted to go make soap right now, I would whip up a batch AND clean up in about 30 minutes.

 

[earlene]

Seems like an awful lot of work? I like the heat transfer method personally, but maybe that's 'cos I'm just a beginner. Mind you, my soap mould only makes 18 bars at a time so maybe you're doing it that way as you make far larger batches than me? Would be interested to hear the benefits of pre-making the lye solution.

I can still use the heat transfer method using my masterbatched lye. I did so just last week. I MB my lye at 50%, but soap at a low concentration. So when I add the additional water to my 50% solution, it does heat up. Not as much as if I was making a fresh batch of lye solution, but enough to melt the hard oils in my recipe (depending on the recipe, of course.)

I don't usually use the heat transfer method, but it still is an option if I decide not to pre-melt my oils.

 

[KeepItSimpleSoap]

@TheGecko I suppose since I'm only using one oil I wouldn't gain much from master-batching the LARD. My constant prep is rendering LARD. It's stored in as big as of containers that will fit in my refrigerator.

 

[earlene]

@TheGecko I suppose since I'm only using one oil I wouldn't gain much from master-batching the LARD. My constant prep is rendering LARD. It's stored in as big as of containers that will fit in my refrigerator.

No, I think not. The only time saver would be to store in batch size containers so you don't have to separate from a bigger container each time you make soap, but you probably already do that.