An Experiment by Request

Well, I put out there is anyone wanted me to try any techniques or anything, and I got a reply on Facebook that someone wanted me to try changing my recipe some and do an experiment with a few different things.  The challenge was to make a soap that was primarily olive oil with 20% or less of palm and coconut oil.  She also wanted me to add some salt and sugar to the recipe to see how it changed things.  It will likely be hard for me to gauge all the changes because they all happened at once, so I can't say for certain which did what.

Anyways, the recipe I chose to use was 60% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 15% palm oil, and 5% Shea butter.  I also added a teaspoon each of sea salt and sugar (as usual, I was making a fairly small batch 1.25 pounds of oils, so I used a little less then a teaspoon of salt and sugar per pound of oils in the recipe).  Things went together smoothly and I mixed the lye with the oils at about 110° F.  Things reached trace fairly slowly even using a flowery fragrance, and remained relatively thin while I separated my batter for coloring.

I chose to do an in the pot swirl as I was not sure how things would come together with the new recipe.  I would have had plenty of time if I wanted to do something more complex though.  I used green oxide and titanium dioxide for the colorants.  I was able to unmold the soap after 14 hours, but it was still very soft.  I usually cut right after I unmold and had to wait another three hours before I could cut it and it was still pretty soft then.  I believe this will need a slightly longer curing time then I usually have, but it is not like I am lacking in soap to use right now.

The results of the experiment were a soft and very smooth feeling soap.  I am not sure about the lather of it at this point or how long it will take to cure.  It feels damp to me at this point.  I am otherwise happy with the experiment and time will tell on the rest.

In other news, I dropped off a batch of soap with some testers last night. I think overall they went fairly well, but I am not as sure what this group of people like for scents. I also plan to bring the soaps to my gaming group this weekend and seeing if some of my friends there are interested in some as well. I was also offered some goat's milk to make soap with as well, so I will have some more new testing to do in the near future. I hope to hear back from my friends about the soaps they have tried and have some more feedback on ways to modify my recipe(s) to make soap that works well and is still moisturizing and such. I am not sure I am the greatest to tell if a soap is too drying as a lot of times my skin tends to be a bit more oily, so getting others impressions will be good for me!

Mountain Lake Soapy Goodness

Well, after taking a night off from making soap, I came back and had another success.  I ran out of castor oil again, so I made another soap with just olive, coconut and palm oils.  I also think I know part of what my problem is with my soap coming to trace so fast and moving so fast, in general.  I believe that I have been mixing my oil and lye a bit warmer than I should and that it has been causing the acceleration.  Last night I specifically mixed cooler and had more time to work on my tiger stripe pattern without rushing through it.

With one issue down, I also wisely had lined my mold the day before so it would be ready for last night.  I was really ready for a change!  I mixed my oils and had my colorants ready, then came and looked through some posts on the Soap Making Forum while I was letting things cool off.  I think my only real complaint about how things came together in the actual soap making process was that I was very messy in pouring my soap and got it everywhere.  I managed to get most things cleaned up, but my shiny new mold had not been looking shiny and new anymore!

Anyways, for my soap, I used Mountain Lake fragrance oil from Peak Candle Supply.  For colorants, I used titanium dioxide and cobalt ultramarine.  I did the tiger or zebra stripe pattern again, and I think it was my best attempt at it, even as messy as things were.  I will let you decide though!

I believe the next soap I will have time for will be on Tuesday and it will likely be one of the soaps I send for the swap.  I am likely not going to post pictures of it, but I may find some other things to post pictures of or post about in the meantime.  I know I don't have a huge following or anything, but I was wondering it there are any soaps that anyone who reads this would like me to try or has suggestions for.  I am somewhat limited by finances on some things, but I have most color choices at this point.  As for fragrances, I have some and will see what i can do if there are any special requests!

Excitement to Disappointment

 Well, I had an interesting soaping experience last night.  I had a soap that did not speed up on me and was actually slow coming to trace.  It was kind of weird having time to work with it.  I was really in a groove and added the fragrance oil to the portion of the batter I wanted it in and it did not accelerate on me.  I then added some black mica and it turned grey, so I added some activated charcoal as well.  I had plenty of time to do all that and things were going great.  I turned around to pour my soap in the mold to find out I had forgotten to line it.

I was able to remedy that situation quick enough, and got the mold lined.  My soap was thickening as I poured it, but it was no worse then some of my others had been.  I figured I would practice another mica swirl on the top and I was very happy with the way it worked.  All things considered, everything came together really well and I was really looking forward to checking out my soap this morning.

The disappointment came when it was time to take it out of the mold and it was still a little warm and soft.  I could not resist taking a peak to see how it looked and was disappointed to see that the black I had worked so hard to get had morphed into a drab olive green on the outside.  This was not a feature to me.  The inside of the soap seems to be a light gray at this point while the outside has remained olive green.  Time will tell if it will stay that way.

Overall, I would say that it was still a successful soaping experience. I would like to know why this soap behaved so differently then my other soaps have. I used my usual recipe and soaped at the same temperature I usually do. I guess I may figure it out eventually, but for now it is a mystery to me.  I may or may not be making another soap tonight.  If not, I will definitely make one tomorrow.

My Ugly Soap

Well, my first soap ever was a disaster (well, it was lye heavy and makes a nice laundry soap, so not a total failure), but since then I have been mostly happy with most of the soaps I have done.  That is until the one I did last night.  It isn't terrible, but it is not what I wanted either.  I was trying to get something that had a sort of camo appearance to it, but with different colors then camouflage usually has.  I wanted a red, brown and green.  The problems I had were that my soap thickened up too much too fast yet again and that the red and brown were too close together in shade, but I wasn't sure how to change it much with the thickness of the batter already.

So, I guess my soap isn't too bad, but to me it is fairly ugly as it is nothing like I envisioned it to be.  It is fairly blocky instead of being as random as I would have wanted it to be.  There is one thing I can say that I love about it though, and that is the scent.  I used Peak's Cinnamon and Balsam and I am in love with it.  I love spicy scents and the hints of a woodsy fragrance in the background just make it more appealing to me.  So, anyways, here is my ugly soap!

In other soaping news, I made my soap for the swap and I am happy with the way it turned out, but I am not going to post pictures until after the swap.  I hope that it holds up well through curing and shipping and all.  I have plans for a second item that I will be making for the swap as well, but I need to wait until some supplies arrive from Wholesale Supplies Plus.  I have one order that I placed with them that should be shipping soon, and another one that is due today.  I need to wait for the one that has yet to ship sadly.

Today's shipment should hold a couple new fragrances, some more titanium dioxide, yellow oxide and ultramarine blue.  I have a plan already for making a soap with the blue today or tonight.  The way it is looking it will be tonight, as I also have to visit my partner in the hospital today and my order just arrived now.  (I was just about to say it hadn't arrived yet and the UPS delivery guy showed up at the door)  I should be back tomorrow to show you something with blue.  It would be nice to have something with a new color!

Sorry!

Sorry I did not post a cut picture like I said I was going to yesterday.  The day was pretty busy for me and I just ran out of time with all the errands I had to run.  I also was not able to make my soap for the soap swap yesterday either.  I ran out of parchment paper so had to run to the store and pick up some freezer paper to line my mold with.  By the time I got back home, it was time for me to run out to the hospital and visit my partner.  I seemed to always not have enough time to post or make soap!

So, I think the mica swirl for the challenge came out very well, even if it was late to actually turn in for the challenge.  So you know, I used Nag Champa to scent the bottom portion of the soap and left the top part with the red mica swirl unscented.  The brown portion is colored with brown oxide.  So without further ado, the mica swirl!

One of the other things that I did yesterday while I was running around madly, was mail out some soaps to my friend Matt in Washington and mail out some stuff including soap to another friend.  I was up until about 4:00 am the night before designing and cutting out the labels.  I think I can make the labels faster now that I know what I am doing.  Cutting them out on the other hand and looking good when they are done may take more talent then I have.  I have mentioned not being able to cut a straight line before... well, my ability to cut a circle is worse!

Anyways, these are some of my round soaps all wrapped up pretty (or as pretty as I could get them), and ready to be shipped out.  They are due to arrive with my friends on Wednesday and I am hoping that they get favorable reviews.

Lots of Soap Pictures!

As promised, I have a picture of the soap that I cut yesterday but did not have a picture of.  This was the Juniper Breeze soap with an in the pot swirl done in green oxide.  This was the soap that I poured Friday night and managed to make such a mess with.  All things considered, I think it looks fairly nice if I do say so myself.

This second soap is one I did late last night after visiting my partner in the hospital.  I attempted to do another tiger swirl and it was not quite as successful as my first one (at least to me).  As with many of my soaping attempts, it thickened up faster then I would have liked and by the time I got to the top I was sort of slopping it into the mold.  I also noticed that the black in this started to show natural color around the edges and seemed to have some crackle effect to it.  I am not sure if it overheated or what happened.   I might have to post on the forum and ask about it.  I seem to be getting that more since I have been putting the mold inside the box to preserve the tops of the soap.   It may be an effect of that or something else entirely.  This is scented with Blackberry Sage and colored with green oxide and black mica.

This third picture I debated not posting as this soap is sort of a trial for my soap for the swap I am hosting.  I would kind of like to keep what I am doing a surprise, but I know myself well enough to know that I won't be very good at it!  This soap is also my (late again) challenge from the Great Cakes Soapworks week three challenge.  The challenge was to do a mica swirl on the top of a soap, so this is my first attempt at a mica swirl.  The soap is still in the mold and wet, and will likely look rather different after it has gelled, but I wanted to give you a preview picture.

Two Soap Night

So, last night I had to take my partner to the  hospital for problems with depression.   This left me feeling pretty stressed out myself,  so I dealt with that stress by making soap of course.  I had run out of castor oil, so had to modify my normal recipe.  I had decided I wanted a purple color, so I used alkanet root powder.  I had not finished my infusion,  so I added half a teaspoon at trace.  

I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly everything worked out.  I used the fragrance oil Country Garden from Peaks Candle Supply.  The powder mixed in easily enough despite me spilling a fair amount on my stick blender.   The resulting soap turned a nice dark purple,  but that shade may change as the soap cures. 

The second soap I made last night was scented with Juniper Breeze.  I used green oxide and did an in the pot swirl.  This soap I poured into my PVC mold as my log mold was already being used.  I had done some rearranging in the kitchen and the place I normally used for keeping my mold steady had been removed.  I found a place to put the mold after it was filled, but did not know how to brace it to pour.

I then got the (not so) brilliant idea to hold it against the sink and brace it with my stomach.  I soon realized that holding the mold upright, pouring soap, and holding the bowl of soap batter is easier said than done.  I managed to get most of the soap into the mold without making too much of a mess.  I will likely post pictures of that one tomorrow.  I have taken it out of its mold, but still need to take pictures of it.

In other news, I got an order of essential oils in this afternoon.  It was only two essential oils (lavender and lemongrass), but they were both eight ounce bottles.  I also was able to put in an order with Wholesale Supplies Plus last night thanks to my friend Matt (aka Jethal from EverQuest 2).  So a big thank you to Matt!  I would also like to thank Elizabeth from the Soap Making Forum for all the help she has given me with the soap swap that I am hosting.  She has been great at keeping me on track and remembering the little things that I might otherwise forget.