I made my first ever batch of soap yesterday.  It was much easier than I ever thought it would be.  Honestly.  It did take about 20-30 minutes to trace, and that is with using my stick blender most of the time. 

I haven't unmolded it yet, but it appears to be setting up perfectly.  And it smells like……SOAP!  I cant' wait to try it out.

Oh, and using the lye really wasn't a big deal.  Super easy.  All the safety precautions are just because IF something went wrong it's better to be prepared.  Honestly, it went so smooth that I felt like I must be doing something wrong.  It sounded harder in the book.

Heidi

Suzette said:

Look out, Heidi!  I see an addiction lurking around the corner.  Soaping can take over your life!  There are all the pretty colors and fragrances.  And the oil combinations.  And the molds.  And…and….!

What oil did you use?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Suzette

HEH!  I pretty much knew that before I started.  I know how I am.  :o)  Here's the recipe I made.

2 cups water
2.4 oz lye 
5 oz Olive Oil
5 oz Vegetable Oil
6 oz Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is just too expensive for me to use more than that right now.  And I always have olive and veg. oils on hand.

Heidi

GeorgiaZ-  Right now I'm just trying to learn what I'm doing.  I do day dream about selling it someday though.  :o)  The coconut oil doesn't make it smell at all like coconut as far as I can tell.  It just smells like old fashioned unscented soap. 

GeorgiaZ said:

Thats good, I'm not crazy about coconut scent anyway.

What will you replace it with?  I'm all about saving money whenever possible. 

How many bars did this recipe make?

You can use any fat/oil for soap.  I have a book called “The Everything Soapmaking Book” by Alicia Grosso.  It has a chart in it to help you figure out how much lye to use for different fats.  There are also charts on line to help you figure it out too.

I'm not sure how many bars I will get out of this batch yet.  I'll let you know when I unmold it and cut them.  If I don't forget, I'm going to take pictures and post them in my blog when I do.

Heidi

For me, coconut oil was absolutely essential in my blends.  It makes great lather and helps to overcome the lack of lather in some of the other oils…olive oil, for instance.  If you've got an oriental market anywhere near you, it's worth looking there for a cheaper supply.  All sorts of Eastern cultures use it, so if they sell foreign groceries…they've probably got a cheap supply.  Once I really got into it, I started buying mine from a purveyer of concession stand supplies.  It's used in popcorn poppers.  It's really, really cheap when bought that way - 5 gallons at a time.  You'll be surprised how fast you'll use 5 gallons when you really get to soaping!  The trick is finding the uncolored, unsalted, unflavored coconut oil.  Many popcorn sellers like to use the stuff that looks like butter.  But, my concession vendor sold both - flavored and unflavored.   Luann is the brand they sold me.  You might also check with restaurant supply companies.  Many of them carry Luann products, and coconut oil is popular in commercial baked goods.  You'll be amazed at how different the many blends of oils behave.  Discovering your favorite is half the fun.  Be sure to get a good lye chart (Google Elaine White for one of the best)  when you start mixing your own blends, as each oil takes a different amount of lye….widely different, in some cases.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Suzette said:

……  Be sure to get a good lye chart (Google Elaine White for one of the best)  when you start mixing your own blends, as each oil takes a different amount of lye….widely different, in some cases.

Keep us posted on your progress!

My soap book has a good lye chart, and I actually did make my own recipe since I wanted to work primarily with what I keep on hand plus the coconut oil.  I will check the other places for coconut oil, thats a great idea. 

I had a super busy day, and had to get my soap unmolded and cut in a hury so I forgot to take pictures.  But I ended up with 12 medium small bars and when I washed the residu off my hands I was amazed at how well it lathered.  If that's due to the coconut oil, I will always use it for sure.

Heidi

 But I ended up with 12 medium small bars and when I washed the residu off my hands I was amazed at how well it lathered.  If that's due to the coconut oil, I will always use it for sure.

Heidi

I've often heard people complain that homemade soap just doesn't lather.  I always smile, because I know they simply used low-lathering oils when making it.  I've made soap from corn oil, and Crisco was part of my standard blend, so yeah….handy kitchen oils are great.

It's fun to watch other people explore this very exciting craft.  Come on in, y'all.  The water's fine.

Well, believe it or not…lard makes a nice bar.  I also like Crisco soap (it's heavy in soybean oil, so that might be a good substitute, although I never tried it.).  I grew to dislike the smell of hot lard in my kitchen, so I substituted palm oil (from the middle eastern food store) and liked that, too. 

What I do NOT like is soap made from 100% olive oil.  It's so low-sudsing, it feels slimey to me.  A lot of people like it, though, and equate the lack of suds to “mildness.”  Castile soap is olive oil soap.  I also found that my corn oil soaps weren't very sudsy.

It didn't take me long to get to the point that NONE of my soaps were 100% anything.  I used a bit of this for suds, a bit of that for firmness, a bit of another thing to help control soda ash, and sometimes would add things like walnut oil, almond oil, avocado oil, etc., in a little bit of excess so that the bar would have extra emollient qualities. 

I did have one exception to the rule.  We used to spend some time sailing.  I'd make 100% coconut oil soap to take on those trips, as it will lather in seawater.  I kept my daughter and her friends supplied in it when she was in the Navy, too.

One of my most popular bars was the cocoa butter soap.  I used 3/4 fully-scented cocoa butter (you can get it with the scent removed…or not) and 1/4 coconut oil.  That is a yummy bar of soap.  Unscented and uncolored…it's just delicious.

You've got so many avenues to explore with soaping.  That's why it's so much fun!