I know, I’ve been saying I would try it but I kept putting it off and putting it off…
But I finally did it with my daughter’s help! And Christine helped at the parts when I would freak out about something going awry. Let’s just say it’s a learning curve!
We did NOT take pictures of those few hours. I looked like a fly with my safety goggles on and half the time they’d fog up which was fun, but good news, we made it through with no skin or eye burns (or any other burns). Nothing bad happened at all, though we chose to keep it very simple and followed the recipe by the .00 oz. As the recipe says, it’s 4.62 oz of lye for a reason…not 4.61, not 4.63. You gotta be perfect here, apparently!
We had four very minor issues:
- My brand new scale from Walmart only had .0 and not .00! UH OH! See the above paragraph to note that this is a really bad problem! Luckily I had a scale I use for horse feed so I went to the feed room to grab it and clean it off.
- The coconut oil was only partially melted so we had to melt in on the stove which then put the oil too hot. PATIENCE is a must in soap making.
- The recipe was poorly written and a bit confusing, especially after watching Youtube videos that showed very different techniques. Thus my small freakout where Christine had to come in and read the recipe and help me out.
- We learned a good lesson…never get cheap ice cube trays. You have to freeze your milk ahead of time so they lye doesn’t cause things to heat up too high and ice cube trays were recommended. However the super cheap trays do not bend, so popping the ice cubes out was impossible. We had to take time to set them in hot water and melt them enough so that we could get them out, which kind of interfered with the whole ice cube thing in the first place.
Nothing bad really happened though. It was a loooooooong process, maybe two hours, but I think when I make more (possibly today!) it will be much quicker, maybe even half the time. The longest part is the curing!
PLEASE do not think this is any kind of recipe or guide because you will probably hurt yourself and you will definitely not end up with useable soap, but just for a basic idea of how you make soap:
- Put the lye gently and slowly into the ice cube bowl, stirring a lot and waiting a lot so it doesn’t heat up too much.
- Mix the oils and heat up to no higher than 100 degrees F.
- Pour the oils into the lye mixture.
- Use the immersion blender (never had used one before!) to mix and thicken. This takes TIME. And patience! And as I like to say, “Lord give me patience and give it to me now!” Yes, patience is not one of my strong suits which is why soap making is SO GOOD for me. I’ll learn some day!
- Mix in the fragrance oils if you’re using any. I did cuz who wants boring old unscented soap when you could have fun smelling soap? Except I’m super sensitive to the fragrances I purchased online and they give me an immediate headache in spite of being pretty natural. Next time I’ll stick with essential oils instead, which are known to not be as fragrant. Oh well.
- Pour into molds.
- Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
- Remove from molds
9. Cut it if not in individual molds.
And the worst step ever:
10. Cure for 4-6 WEEKS. Err…did I mention patience is not a trait I have mastered? Four to six what now? Sigh. Well at least I started this project early enough that my pumpkin scents will still be relevant.
And that’s basically it! Anyone want some soap? 🙂
