Soap Making 101

[calendula]

Coconut oil can be refined or unrefined. If you are going to put it in your food, I would definately get the unrefined type. The refined would be fine for making soap, but it totally lacks any coconut scent--it is refined, deodorized, and bleached, so it is not as desirable, though it's usually a lot cheaper than unrefined coconut oil. My coconut oil is generally solid, but it has a very low melting point, so if your house is warm, it may turn to liquid. That's all I know about coconut oil.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

So last night I made soap with Glenolam's recipe and tried 2 scents. I made a 4 lb batch with the "Goat Milk & Honey" scent, and a 4 lb batch with the "Lavender Vanilla" scent. They smell so good! I can't wait to un-mold them tonight. I think I need to break down and make some wooden loaf molds. I bought 2 food storage containers from the dollar store (I wanted to get a dishpan like you use, Free, but they didn't have them ) and the soap will have ridges around the outside. I could keep those for our use, but geesh that's a lot of "wasted" (unsellable) soap!

 

[freemotion]

Last time I went to the dollar store (I think it is Family Dollar maybe) they didn't have the dollar dishpans but had $3 dishpans. What's up with that?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Last time I went to the dollar store (I think it is Family Dollar maybe) they didn't have the dollar dishpans but had $3 dishpans. What's up with that?

They caught on to everyone buying them for soap!

 

[Damummis]

Has anyone used crayons to color their soap?

 

[glenolam]

Hey aggieterpkatie - great job on the soap! I'm glad the recipe worked for you!!!! You can always tweak it if you think it's too harsh or want a softer bar, just be sure to run it through soap calc to make sure you use the correct amount of lye.

Damummis - I wouldn't use crayons to color soap. They're made of wax and other weird stuff that might react poorly with the lye. Some people have tried food coloring, but from what I hear you have to use a TON of it and the color really fades over time.

There's a lot of things you could add to your soaps for color that you may have around the house. Stuff like paprika or beet pulp may work...google natural soap coloring methods or something like that and there's a lot of information out there about that.

I'm going to make another test batch of wine soap. I have wine that I boiled to get rid of the alcohol in the fridge so it's cool and my plan is to add that to the milk/lye mix and let it all cool together then add it to the oils. I'm super excited and can't wait to see what happens!

 

[Gallina Vecchia]

I have used crayons to color soap. I think it is about 1 inch crayon per pound of oil. Grate, melt and add at trace. Use crayolas for the best result (non-toxic, etc.) I really like using soapmaking colors better because it is less hassle and easier to mix.

Haha, beets turn your soap a dead mouse gray. What a let down that experiment was.

Take a look at the Majestic Mountain Sage blog and forum for tons of great ideas. The blog has pictures of soap made with household items for color, some worked, some did not.

Have fun, and use your favorite lye calculator.

 

[Damummis]

Got a little creative today and made White chocolate tangerine mousse soap. I made it after drooling over my favorite dessert.

 

[savingdogs]

That sounds yummy!

I used my Black Amber and Lavender soap today, the one that turned chocolate brown. Oh WELL, it has such a lovely scent, I feel like taking another bath.

 

[hillfarm]

Some of my recent dos.... the rose Eo soap, with pink mica swirls. Topped with organic dried roses and a bit of pink glitter.

and the apple harvest...

Working on a lavender loaf.