Translate

Sunday 10 July 2011

Today I made...

home made soap from scratch by the cold process method.

Well actually it was Tuesday when I made these but I only got to cut into it today. It was fun but scary to make as I had to use a lye solution to saponify the oil mixture which resulted in soap. I must admit I don't really like the fragrance very much (I think it is called Linden Blossom) but decided to use it in case I mucked up the batch. I am a bit more confident to make the next batch in a few weeks with the other fragrance (the one I prefer) that came in the kit. I didn't add any colour to this batch, but the next batch will have green clay added to it.

It was really fun but I heated the oil a little too hot so it all took a long time to get to a the temperature required to mix with the lye water. Ok so the cutting is dodgy but I am sure this will improve too. Also I'm not sure how much these will shrink as the curing time is when the water component evaporates away. We can also cut the pieces in half later on if they are still too big. The darker marks are loofah shred. DH fashioned me a cutter out of  bamboo and wire fishing trace. Now that I see the photo it looks a bit like a 'kill' kit especially with the latex gloves on the left of shot. I can assure you the ONLY thing we dismembered was soap.

I did lots of net researching and read a few e-books about soap making before I did this project but the best resource was from soapqueen tv. There are four videos in the cold process soap series and I watched them all at least twice before I started.

Now I just need to wait and wait for 4-6 weeks to let it cure before we can use it. Lucky I am getting more patient with age.

No comments:

Post a Comment