Yay! I made soap!!

mx5inpenn · Jan 14, 2015

I hope anyway. I suppose I won't really know til morning. I used soap calc to make my own simple recipe with high conditioning, low cleansing and came up with 55% lard, 15% CO, 25% OO, 5% castor oil. I left the water and superfat at 38% and 5%. It traced really quickly, under 5 minutes, so I let it get a little thicker just in case since this batch is unscented and uncolored. Now it's all wrapped up, waiting.

I'm hooked already. I'm planning on a few more recipes with no fun stuff added to see which my family prefers. I'm gonna have a hard time waiting for them to cure before I get to play with the colors and scents though!

Hoping someone will give me a bit of advice on when to cut. As soon as it is able to be removed from the mold and hold it's shape is the way it appears in all I've read. Is that accurate?

KristaY · Jan 14, 2015

Congratulations! :clap: Your recipe looks good too. If you put it into a silicone mold it may take a couple of days to unmold and cut. If you used a lined wood mold you should be able to unmold and cut within 24 hours. Some of that depends on the temp and humidity where you live too. Good luck and post pics when you get it cut! :grin:

mx5inpenn · Jan 14, 2015

Thanks for the quick response!

Oh, I probably should have said what I used for a mold. I went with the Pringles can. My kids were only too thrilled that I let them have chips just so I could use the cans. Figured I'll have my husband make me a mold once I've figured out how big of batches I want to do.

snappyllama · Jan 14, 2015

Congratulations on your first soap!

You should be able to unmold it in 24 to 48 hours. It will tell you when it's ready - you don't want to smoosh it. I start to "test" my soap after a few days but cure for a least a month.

You can do really fun things with a pringles can, some color and a funnel. If you lined it, it can even be reused a few times (sorry kids!).