Soap Making 101

[savingdogs]

if there is still lye, your tongue gets a weird feeling. If it just tastes like soap, supposedly it is cured. I don't know how accurate it is.

 

[gettinaclue]

I've tried the "zap test" - where you stick your tongue to the soap and if your tongue is zapped - like sticking it to a battery, you can't use it yet. The lye is what zaps you, so if you get zapped, don't use it on your skin. The smaller amount of lye, the smaller the zap.

I did the zap test on my castile a day after I unmolded it. Man, was that ever a mistake. It was an experience I will never forget.

 

[MorelCabin]

I think I used a soap that wasn't ready yet, a few years ago. Burned my face pretty good and I never bought home made lye soap again after that. I thought it was because I was allergic to the lye in it. I am partial to really great smelling glycerine soaps, however:0 lol

 

[freemotion]

Ok, how did you get yours cut so well, Free? I took my soap out of the mold today (mold worked great!) and when I cut it I left it on the cookie sheet, which wasn't the flattest or most solid surface, so it was not the most successful cutting I could have had.

It's pretty crumbly. Is that normal? Should I let it come to room temp before cutting?

Well, I've never refrigerated mine, so I will guess that it made yours set up a lot faster so it got to the brittle stage much faster. I check mine the next morning or afternoon....24 hours at the latest, usually. I unmold it on cardboard as you see in the pic and put that on my counter so I have a solid flat surface with a tiny bit of give (the cardboard.) Then I use a knife with a long but very thin blade and cut very slowly. It should have the texture of firm fudge or cheddar cheese, and it sticks to the knife and I have to slide the knife off it usually. It is usually still too soft to use the veg peeler on it...I let it sit at room temp for a few more days before trimming and putting it away for curing. Your soap will still wash like soap even though it didn't cut as pretty.....maybe try a batch without using the fridge and see how it goes.

 

[Farmfresh]

I would think that speck is more likely an impurity in the milk or the fat.

Usually un incorporated lye is usually more like slimy pockets in the soap. I for one am NOT a "zap tester". Prefer to wash my hands with a new batch first and see how that goes before anything. Then I like to let my soap age as long as possible. When we tore out our old kitchen cabinets I mounted one of them in my work room in the basement. Then I put wire shelving inside of it. It is a great place to dry and age my soaps.

As for cutting my bars I use a glorified cheese wire for that. I made a soap slicer by tying some plastic coated jewelry wire between a couple of sturdy sticks. I wrap the wire around my just un molded soap, cross the wire on itself and then pull. It slices pretty neatly.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Ok thanks for all the great tips. I definitely will make another batch and not refrigerate it. I think I'll do a double batch this afternoon and maybe try a different mold too. I really like the more square look your soap has, Free.

I did touch my tongue to it last night and didn't get zapped, but it did taste pretty soapy.

 

[calendula]

What types of fat did you use and how much aggieterpkatie? The texture of your soap reminds me of a batch I made once. I had added suet to it, and big a proportion of it compared to the other fats, so it wound up being very hard and crumbly.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Ok, here's the recipe I'm going to start with:

9 oz (255 g) coconut oil
21 oz (595 g) olive oil
9 oz (255 g) fluid milk
4.1 oz (116 g) lye

Here is the recipe I used.

 

[calendula]

Well, the oil amounts seem fine, guess it wasn't that. Maybe it did have something to do with it cooling to quickly.

 

[savingdogs]

I've seen Morgaine on the soapmakers Help thread at BYC say to take soap like this and grate into chunks and put it in a later batch as like decorative flakes in the soap, or to "rebatch" soap by reheating it, she has a method she describes over there. I've never tried that.

Making goat milk soap really white is supposed to be a challenge so the fact that your soap is so light colored is probably testimony to using cooler cooling methods if you want lighter soap, but I'm no expert on recipes. I have just used and adapted the "Easy Crisco Soap" recipe and never have tried any other oils yet, this first kind keeps coming out good.