More Soap Making Information! Terms and How-To

Anne Marie at Soap Queen has another video about making cold process soaps.  It discusses terms (just what is "trace?") and other basics.  She's holding back on the recipe, though, because she wants you to focus on the basics before you get caught up in the specific ingredients.  Here is the video!


How to Make Cold Process Soap: Basic Terms, Episode 2 from Soap Queen on Vimeo.


Isn't this great?!  If this doesn't seem like all that much fun to you, or too much work, or you just have too much other stuff going on (gee, is life too hectic?) to do this, visit The Yard Woman online or in Tubac, Arizona to get my soaps.  You can also find my soaps at http://www.lucindasnicethings.etsy.com/. 

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."

Mark Twain

Soap--Cutting and Curing--It's Kinda Magic

In my previous posts, I talked about getting your soaping equipment together and the soap making process.  I also linked to some nice videos, websites, and other blogs that give great information about making cold process soap. 

Now--where did we leave off?  Oh, yes, the soaps were in the molds.

Once you've let your soap sit in the molds for a day or two, it's time to get them out of the molds.  If you use oddball things for your molds, some release the soaps better than others.  Some last longer than others.  Some soaps cooperate better than others (oatmeal and honey is nice, shea butter is, well, stubborn). 

This is a photo that I showed earlier and you can see the various molds that I used for this batch of oatmeal and honey.

Not shown here are some "real" molds that are budget molds that I got at Brambleberry and Snowdrift Farm.  I line them with freezer paper with the shiny side facing the soap.  That helps the soap release easily.  Those molds are very nice, but they must have been saved for another soap (like the stubborn, but luxurious shea butter soap).  I'm just not sure how long they will last with the heat of the cold process soaps.  After a few batches, they're starting to warp.  I'm saving my pennies for one of the nice wooden molds!

I also use a drywall mud tray as a mold (at the top in the photo above).  It's not flexible at all, so I make sure to line it with freezer paper so my soap comes out.  It makes a pretty big bar of soap if you fill it or it makes a nice hand sized bar if you fill it just over half way. 

The "hospital" molds are very flexible plastic so I can flex them like an ice cube tray and convince the soap to come out pretty easily. 

The microwave dessert mold works well with some soaps such as oatmeal and honey, but not so well with others, such as shea butter.  And those molds work only two or three times before they break while you're trying to push the soap out.  They make fun looking soaps, though.  My mother loves to help make more of those molds available to me by eating the dessert out of the "molds!"

The silicon candy molds or baking pans (not in the photo) make great soap molds.  You have to support them on a flat and level surface or you get slanted soaps.  If that's the look you want, great.  When you're ready to unmold the soaps in the silicon molds, you'd better be ready because those soaps are practially FALLING OUT of the molds!  Some of the soaps may still be a bit soft, so you may need to gently pry the sides of silicon pans away from the edges of the soap so the soap doesn't come apart. 

Once you get the soaps out of the molds, you need to cut them.  I use a stainless steel dough scraper.  I cut my soaps about 1" thick.  They shrink a bit while they're curing, I'm pretty sure. 

After you cut them you need to let them cure.  That means sit.  Not used.  FOR A MONTH!!  Or maybe more. 

I put my soaps in cardboard box lids with paper towels or freezer paper in the bottom.  I turn the soaps every so often so all sides get exposed to the air.  Here are some boxes stacked up with soaps!

I keep my soap recipe with the soaps along with the date that the soaps came out of the mold.  That way I'll know when they should be cured and ready to be used. 

The little ball soaps are shea butter soaps that wouldn't come out of the molds easily.  When you make shea butter soap, make sure your molds are really prepared well to allow that soap to come out of the mold.  Otherwise, you end up with lots of little soap balls 'cause you had to use a spoon to scoop it out of the molds and a broken spatula 'cause you tried to pry the shea butter soap out of the mold.  Sigh . . .

Above shows patchouli in the top--smells good!  Honey and oatmeal is the orangish soap in the bottom.  I guess the particular honey I used made it that color.  Plus it's still pretty soft at this point.  A month later, it's mellower in color. 

The smell from the soap curing room (the back bedroom) is nice when you go by . . .

Here are some hearts from the silicon candy mold that makes tiny soaps:

You can see that one or two look a bit "drunk."  Those were the ones that weren't level.  A couple have "patches."  Those didn't come out of the mold so easily.  After I took those two out, I put the mold back and waited until the next day to take the rest out.  That worked much better!

After the soaps cure, then they're ready to be used.  If you want, you can use a vegetable peeler to peel off the rough edges (save the shavings for the laundry!), add some pretty decoration and a label and then you have something like this!

Now, I'm not saying I know it all, 'cause I don't!  Not by a long shot.  I have lots to learn and try new things every time I can.  What I do is pretty basic stuff, but they sure come out creamy and nice to my skin!!

Thanks for visiting and, if you have any ideas for future soaps, please let me know!

My Soapmaking Process

I love to make soap from scratch.  I use the cold process method where you first mix water and lye (you can't make soap without it!) and then melt and mix oils.  Then you mix the lye water with the oils.  Then this magic thing happens to make soap.  Well, it's not really magic.  It's science, I guess.  It's called saponification--where the lye mixture and the oils get together to make soap.  This soap is really, really nice.  It's not so drying or irritating as the bars you buy in the grocery or drug stores. 

When you make soap, you need to get your stuff together.

Getting everything ready and in one place ahead of time makes life much less stressful when the soap starts to become soap in the pan (which is just out of the photo) and you need to be ready to pour it into molds. 

As you can see, I make soap outside.  I started doing that because I didn't want lye fumes or any spills in the kitchen.  When I use the metal table outside, I don't worry about the inevitable spills.  And cleanup is very easy.  When the weather's bad and I NEED to make some soap, I've made it inside.  I ran the kitchen exhaust fan and opened the kitchen window and had no problems.  I prefer to do it outside, however.

This is my batch of honey and oatmeal soap, some of which is on sale in my  etsy and artfire shops. 

Once I get the lye mixed into the water in the glass measuring cup and let it start to cool, I melt the oils in the stainless steel soap pot.

Once all the oils are melted, you need to cool the lye water and the oils.  In the picture below you can see that the lye water mixture is HOT.  That's another science thing.  Lye mixed with water makes a chemical reaction that makes it HOT!!

And you take the temperature of the oils . . .

When they get to the right (close) temperature, you CAREFULLY pour the lye water into the oils.  Then you start mixing.  Since life is short, you should use a stick blender to mix your soap.  Otherwise, it takes a very long time and your arm gets very tired.  Duct tape may be required on your stick blender when you use it for soap rather than the soups for which it was intended.

Then you run the blender for a bit and then use the blender as a spoon for a bit.  You don't want to burn up the blender motor.  Once it starts to thicken and you can see the image of the blender on the surface of the soap mixture, it has reached or is reaching "trace." 

This is when you add your special ingredients.   Like ground oatmeal.

Then you add the honey.

Then you pour it in your prepared molds (preparing the molds is part of what you do before you get started!).

Then you put all your molds with your fresh soap mixture in a box lid to help contain drips or spills.  Some soaps you insulate with towels, but soaps with honey don't want to be insulated.  So this oatmeal and honey soap isn't blanketed. 

And, yes, some of those molds are "interesting" things from the hospital and the hardware store.  They make good soap molds. 

The soap rests in the molds for a day or two or three.  Until they're ready to come out relatively easily.  That's another blog topic. 

Next . . . CLEAN UP!!

Clean up isn't that big of a deal, but it is a bit messy and oily, so keep your apron and gloves on.  Sometimes I save the mess until the next day because then it's SOAP!! 

There are a few more steps, but we're at a stopping point for today. 

As I explained in an earlier post, there are great places online to learn about making soap:

Majestic Mountain Sage

Teach Soap

About.com Soap and Candlemaking

If this just seems like waayy too much mess and work, then please visit my shops linked above to check them out and purchase soaps already made!!

Next week I'm planning to make more soap.  On the list of soaps to make are patchouli, peppermint and oatmeal, and maybe rosemary and peppermint. 

What other soaps do you think I should try?  Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Make sure you leave your email address.  Why your email address?  Well, if I select your soapy idea and make up some of those soaps, I'll email you to get your mailing address.  And I'll send some of those soaps your way!!  Now put your thinking caps on and let me know . . .