My First Batch of Soap.....and what I learned
Lesson#2: Lye gets upwards of 250 when mixed with water, it takes about 30 minutes. to cool down. Try to get you oils warm enough but not to hot. Oil will take longer to cool than the lye. If they aren’t warm enough the butters won’t melt or you may have to reward the oil mixture. The key is to warm them slowly not rush and use a thermometer. The lye and the oils need to be close to the same temperature when mixed.
While waiting for my two mixtures to get to the same temperature, My neighbor popped his head over the back fence and said “Hey what are you doing”, normally an innocent comment, but it was the way he said it, there was anger in his voice and it was abnormal for him to talk to us as his house faced a different street. So I immediately, I was worried. I told him I was making soap, and he said “Oh really, then what’s the pressure cooker for, I heard it yesterday, I think I need to call the cops.” Totally shocked I started looking around, what was he talking about, why would he call the cops, I wasn’t using a pressure cooker to make my soap! Then as my eyes land across the yard I realize what my nosey neighbor must have seeing and assumed watching me out his windows. Across the yard I had my canning station set up for the summer. So there is a table with random kitchen supplies, with a very large pressure cooker and a self standing burner to heat it sitting in front of it. Then, here I am standing in front of a table in my mad-scientist safety gear, with a container of lye, oils, other ingredients and more random kitchen tools and buckets. It dawns on me this jerk that never even bothered to say hi when we moved in 7years ago and hasn’t even said Hi over the fence since, is accusing me of making illegal substances in my backyard. I was immediately offended he’d just jump to that conclusion and that he’d evidently been watching me from his windows. After firmly explaining that the day before I had been canning tomatoes and today I was making soap, and that I could prove it to any cop. He walked away. No Christmas soap and plate of cookies for him this year.
Lesson 3: Be aware of your surroundings and what people may think they’re seeing if you choose to make soap outside.
Now that the lye and oil where at the same temperature I started to mix them to trace. Should take about 20-30from what I had researched.
Lesson 4: Research you oils in soap making and make sure your adding enough of each different kind to make a good bar of soap but also doesn’t take forever to trace.
I divided it in half. I added green and orange food coloring orange essential oil to one half. To the other u added cedar essential oil to the second half along with green food coloring and cocoa powder to give it a woodsy look. I stirred them both and poured them into square molds I had made from cardboard that I had lined with wax paper and set them on the shelf to cure for 4 to six weeks.
So, I’ve done all my research about how to make basic soap and read up on the dangers of working with lye. I’ve got my scales, measuring utensils and equipment along with the oils, fats and scents I’ve decided to use all laid out on a table in my backyard. I’ve sent my husband and son off camping and my daughters are at grandma’s for the day so I have no distractions.
Looking like a mad scientist in my goggles, apron and gloves up to my elbows I mix the lye and water. I am being careful not to splash, because according to my research lye can burn your skin and one drop can blind you. I move the spoon away to look into the bowl too see if the water and lye are clear. A tiny minuscule drop of lye water hits my bare calf. I can not express how much that one tiny pin sized drop hurt. It instantly felt like 10 fire ants had bitten me. It was a hot sweltering summer day so I was wearing shorts.
Lesson #1: No matter how hot it is out, in addition to wearing goggles, gloves, and an apron, you should also wear long sleeves and pants when making soap. You should also make sure you have a clean water source near by to flush any body part exposed to lye. The garden hose worked great.
Next, while I waited for the lye to cool to the appropriate temperature, I put my oils and fats into a pot to melt, after they were melted I turned off the burner, only to have to turn in back on again to rewarm the oils warm. Finally my lye was the right temperature but now my oil were 30 degrees to hot, so I start trying to cool my oils down as quickly as possible, which took another 20 minutes.
Lesson#2: Lye gets upwards of 250 when mixed with water, it takes about 30 minutes. to cool down. Try to get you oils warm enough but not to hot. Oil will take longer to cool than the lye. If they aren’t warm enough the butters won’t melt or you may have to reward the oil mixture. The key is to warm them slowly not rush and use a thermometer. The lye and the oils need to be close to the same temperature when mixed.
While waiting for my two mixtures to get to the same temperature, My neighbor popped his head over the back fence and said “Hey what are you doing”, normally an innocent comment, but it was the way he said it, there was anger in his voice and it was abnormal for him to talk to us as his house faced a different street. So I immediately, I was worried. I told him I was making soap, and he said “Oh really, then what’s the pressure cooker for, I heard it yesterday, I think I need to call the cops.” Totally shocked I started looking around, what was he talking about, why would he call the cops, I wasn’t using a pressure cooker to make my soap! Then as my eyes land across the yard I realize what my nosey neighbor must have seeing and assumed watching me out his windows. Across the yard I had my canning station set up for the summer. So there is a table with random kitchen supplies, with a very large pressure cooker and a self standing burner to heat it sitting in front of it. Then, here I am standing in front of a table in my mad-scientist safety gear, with a container of lye, oils, other ingredients and more random kitchen tools and buckets. It dawns on me this jerk that never even bothered to say hi when we moved in 7years ago and hasn’t even said Hi over the fence since, is accusing me of making illegal substances in my backyard. I was immediately offended he’d just jump to that conclusion and that he’d evidently been watching me from his windows. After firmly explaining that the day before I had been canning tomatoes and today I was making soap, and that I could prove it to any cop. He walked away. No Christmas soap and plate of cookies for him this year.
Lesson 3: Be aware of your surroundings and what people may think they’re seeing if you choose to make soap outside.
Now that the lye and oil where at the same temperature I started to mix them to trace. Should take about 20-30from what I had researched.
An hour later I’m sitting down still holding the mixer wondering if I’ve done something wrong or if I misunderstood what “to trace” meant or if I mixed it to long and now it won’t trace at all. So I turn the mixer off and go grab my phone and start googling soap trace and find out what trace should look like via you tube. I definitely hadn’t missed it but why wasn’t my mixture tracing. So I turn the mixer back on, mixing while watching you tube videos on soap making for beginners. I realize my big mistake was the oils I was using take forever to trace by themselves, I should have mixed in a butter or an oil that is solid at room temperature. Neither of which I have on hand. So my only choice was to keep mixing.
After an hour and 45 minutes, my mixture finally reached a slight Trace.
Lesson 4: Research you oils in soap making and make sure your adding enough of each different kind to make a good bar of soap but also doesn’t take forever to trace.
I divided it in half. I added green and orange food coloring orange essential oil to one half. To the other u added cedar essential oil to the second half along with green food coloring and cocoa powder to give it a woodsy look. I stirred them both and poured them into square molds I had made from cardboard that I had lined with wax paper and set them on the shelf to cure for 4 to six weeks.
6 weeks later they were ready. Not the prettiest soap but it cleaned the skin and lathered up. I learned right away when using orange essential oil no food coloring is needed it will turn your soap a pretty orange by itself, the green could barely be seen.The other batch had green swirls with brown specks, definitely not pretty but it smelled nice and was soap.
Mission accomplishment. I was proud of myself for trying something new, but a little discouraged by how long it took to make, but decided to keep going with different recipes. It was fun and I hoped as I tried more recipes I’d get better and hopefully faster.
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