Your first soap

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Mine was from a youtube video. I followed the recipe exactly and went way better than I expected. It was HP, and I think I used olive, canola (eww), coconut. I got my first supplies at Natures Garden, and still remains my favorite soap store.

I used a brown, and I swear my soap looked like spam, but it felt nice, and I used it all, gave some to family and friends.

But I had been doing MP for many years before that. Only from stuff I bought at the craft store! :Kitten Love:

Never it occurred to me there specialty stores, until I started digging soap from scratch. Now I feel so silly.

I also love BB, and before I did anything, I watch all soap queen videos.

Oh Also! I have been very lucky to never produce lye heavy soap. Just lucky, but maybe I should not say anything .... because now it will happen!

:???:
 
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I made my first batch of soap in 2003 at age 60. When that ran out, I made another batch a year later. I then joined a soap making forum (HCS) in April 2004 and have been hooked ever since.

I started soaping for 2 reasons: I found a book on making soap in the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble -- just about the same time as my favorite DHC Mild Face Soap went up in price! Again! I read the ingredients on the label, read the recipe in the book through a few times, and thought, “I can do that!” LOL.

As it happened, the DHC was a transparent and so all of my first soaps were rebatched with alcohol, some transparent, some opaque. What can I say? I didn’t know transparents were one of the trickiest soaps to make. Who knew?! Those were the best soaps I ever made.
 
My first soap, in November of 2012, was a recipe straight out of Capper's Farmer magazine. No research, no thinking about it, I just saw the recipe and dared myself to make it, fully expecting it to not work. It was OO and PKO and I made a 4 pound loaf, not even understanding how much soap that actually was. I had zero idea what vetyver smelled like, but I ordered it because I liked the name, and I think it said something about grass, and green, and fresh in the description. I was shaking and hyperventilating the whole time as I was making it because, seriously......lye?.....that's so dangerous! When I cut that soap the next day and tried a sliver under running water and it actually lathered up and was soap and smelled good and I knew what was in it, I was so incredibly overjoyed that I knew this was only the beginning of an obsessive adventure. Once I started to look into learning more, I was kind of appalled that I had even made one batch before starting to learn. I had treated it more like a baking recipe than a science experiment. I now have so much more respect for the science behind it, and after doing this for 5 years, I still have so much to learn. I love that every batch of soap is its own adventure. Every. Single. Time.
 
My first batch was a 1lb Castille. Basic beginner stuff, right? Not only did it partial gel, it tested WAY alkaline, even after a 2 month cure. I had to wear gloves when I scrapped it. It was a horrible, chemically bad mess. There was no saving it. Bright side: if you start at the bottom, you can only get better haha
 
My first batch was a work of art. Really, something to be revered, and a gold standard by which all soap recipes should be based. I formulated it perfectly, then acquired only the finest ingredients, and sailed through the process with ease and confidence; the accelerated work of a true master. The end result brought friends and family to tears, and they all instantly looked and felt better by using it, and clamored for more of this wondrous substance.

Well, then I woke up and made it. The first batch was a goat's milk soap with lavender EO and oats that weren't ground finely enough, so they certainly brought family and friends to tears but not necessarily for good reasons. I purchased almost everything from health food stores in small quantities. The 39.5oz batch ingredient cost was $37.02, and this didn't include all the tools, bowls, and utensils I'd purchased just to get to the starting line.

Once the soap was in the mold I crammed it into the freezer, worried about the milk scorching. Then I spent the next 9 hours fretting about it not being able to saponify, so I took it out. Then for a couple hours I worried about it overheating again, so put it into the refrigerator. This led me to thinking I'd monkeyed far too much and had ruined the whole chemical process, so I took it out again, let it sit in the mold for 2 days, and warily stared at it like it was radioactive material every time I walked by. Eventually I took it out of the mold and cut it, inspecting every piece for lye pockets or other mishaps (not that I really knew what I was looking for). While it wasn't GREAT soap (60% OO, 25% CO, 10% apricot kernel oil, 5% castor), it did actually become soap in spite of it all, and thus my love affair with this hobby began.
 
2 years old to the month.

A Bastille blend that sucked when I first used it but was kinda nice after a year. I just put a bar in the shower to test the two year mark.

I had done some Soap Queen research (hadn't branched out from there yet) and formulated my own recipe. It was at least 80% olive with a hazelnut oil SF. I knew that I couldn't pick my SF like that but wanted to do a ITP swirl without separating batter so I colored the hazelnut yellow and poured it in the pot last. The hazelnut floated to the top of my bars but eventually soaked in. Part of me wants to dig up the recipe to try again but at the same time I don't really want to make the space to cure it long enough to make it nice.

IMG_0550.jpg
 
HowieRoll said:
My first batch was a work of art. Really, something to be revered, and a gold standard by which all soap recipes should be based. I formulated it perfectly, then acquired only the finest ingredients, and sailed through the process with ease and confidence; the accelerated work of a true master. The end result brought friends and family to tears, and they all instantly looked and felt better by using it, and clamored for more of this wondrous substance.

Well, then I woke up and made it.
Click to expand...
Haha. Ya got me! I was falling for it right up until you wrote, "Well, then I woke up and made it." The only thing I can say is, been there, done that! lol
 
I was looking for a solution to my son's and DH's eczema.
A friend gave me some hand made soap that I tried but was mushy after a few uses.
A year later I found the remaining soap in the cupboard and being frugal thought I should use it up.
It was pure castile and than about 1.5-2 years old. It was fantastic.
It made an almost immediate difference to my DH's and son's skin problems. I was hooked.

My first batch under the tutorage of my friend was pretty good.
I still have some 30%/30%/30%/10% Olive/Palm/Coconut/Castor. Hard, bubbly, long lasting and nice.

Being a very slow learner it has taken me almost two years to find a good recipe for my skin and learn the basic process of making consistently good soap.

HowieRoll said:
My first batch was a work of art. Really, something to be revered, and a gold standard by which all soap recipes should be based. I formulated it perfectly, then acquired only the finest ingredients, and sailed through the process with ease and confidence; the accelerated work of a true master. The end result brought friends and family to tears, and they all instantly looked and felt better by using it, and clamored for more of this wondrous substance.

Well, then I woke up and made it. The first batch was a goat's milk soap with lavender EO and oats that weren't ground finely enough, so they certainly brought family and friends to tears but not necessarily for good reasons. I purchased almost everything from health food stores in small quantities. The 39.5oz batch ingredient cost was $37.02, and this didn't include all the tools, bowls, and utensils I'd purchased just to get to the starting line.

Once the soap was in the mold I crammed it into the freezer, worried about the milk scorching. Then I spent the next 9 hours fretting about it not being able to saponify, so I took it out. Then for a couple hours I worried about it overheating again, so put it into the refrigerator. This led me to thinking I'd monkeyed far too much and had ruined the whole chemical process, so I took it out again, let it sit in the mold for 2 days, and warily stared at it like it was radioactive material every time I walked by. Eventually I took it out of the mold and cut it, inspecting every piece for lye pockets or other mishaps (not that I really knew what I was looking for). While it wasn't GREAT soap (60% OO, 25% CO, 10% apricot kernel oil, 5% castor), it did actually become soap in spite of it all, and thus my love affair with this hobby began.
Click to expand...

100 likes!

So funny and so relatable and so true.
I am so glad not everyone turns out the perfect soap the first time and I'm not the only one who frets about the process. :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
 
My first soap was ... about two years, I think?

It was extremely basic. No scent and no color. I didn't have a proper mold, so I used a big plastic tub from the dollar store. It made a ton of soap. My only mistake was that I lined the top of the soap with a plastic bag (and towel) to let it set over night.
When I went to unmold it, it had ink numbers on the soap printed on from the trash bag.

ImageUploadedBySoap Making1503863573.488933.jpg
 
Today Was The Day

Today was actually my first time making soap. Boy oh boy! I took soooooooooo long preping and I was all over the place but I learned something and had some promising results. I ended up making 3 batches (about 1-2 bars yielded per batch) and each one came out so different. In the first batch, my lye solution was too cold. I saw ONE...O. N. E. YouTube video, out of ALL the videos I watched, articles I read, I saw one, use ice in the water to add the lye to, and for some reason I did too. Fail! It took a long time to trace (unless it falsely traced) and I'm sure it was separated after some time in the mold. Batch #2: the lye solution was WAY too hot and I think my oil temp was rather on the low side. This was hard to bring to trace but I put it in the mold. The last batch was dead on! It came to trace beautifully and seemed to be just what I was looking for. Since I figured out the right temps to mix the lye solution and oils to bring to trace on this one, I got risky and used orange & rosemary essential oils for half the batch and Bramble Berry's Island Escape with coconut flakes for the other half,just to see what would happen. I'm concerned the coconut might be too scratchy and it became super thick after adding the extras. Oh well. It was only the first day of many. Wish me luck!
 
Mine was an easy 80/20 OO/CO bastille. The only fancy things I did to it was use coconut milk as the water in an ice bath, and add some Orange 10x EO. It was not pretty but everything went fine, and after a few months' cure I had a very nice soap. The bars I used later on after a years' cure were fantastic. I still have one bar left after about 2.5 years of soaping, and I'm still a little too sentimental to use it!
 
My first soap was made in April of 2013, from Sherry's Fantastic Soap recipe at millersoap.com I used hot process, 1 lb of oils in a non-aluminum muffin tin bought specifically for soap making (which I haven't really used much since). I've learned a lot since then, and just recently started branching out to more fluid hot process, and I've started trying different essential oils / fragrance oils. Still opting for no colorants.

firstSoaps.jpg
 
I was and still am into frugal living, recycling anything, reusing etc etc so I stumbled upon blog with a post about soapmaking.
Due to skin problems, allergies to SLS etc, I was already buying bar soap so I made a decision to try and do it myself.

Recipe was basic, 75% OO and 25% CO. I added lavender buds from my garden and EO I purchased at the pharmacy. I will later find out that both of those are no nos, as I got mouse poop soap with zero fragrance.
It was a nice bar of soap, it emulsified nicely, I stirred it with the spoon, probably forever, didn't want to to invest in SB just in case I don't like it haha. It even gelled in the end. I thought something went wrong and actually had to google what that meant.

I went online and bought actual supplies, found the whole trinity recipe, and designed my current recipe over the next few years. :)
 
Mine was Castile from Norma Coney's book, in about 1999. No colour, no fragrance. I didn't have stick blender in those days, and seemed to stir it all afternoon to get it to trace. It turned out lovely soap. (I have the edition where she says add the lye to the water)
 
Hot process castile. Uncolored, unscented - made a worksheet that was 3 pages long to document EVERYTHING. Even had weekly weights with only missing a few for 6 months. I made it in one of the red ED silicone molds and still have 1 guest sized soap left.
 
My one was....terrible. I cheaped out and didn't get a stick blender. I used cheap plastic molds and cheap oils. BUT I wanted my soap to be good so I added activated charcoal with tea tree oil thinking that I was going to succeed...the soap never came to trace. It was separating but because of the activated charcoal I didn't know. Since the batter seemed thicker I just poured. It sat on my desk for a month before I decided that it wasn't going to turn into soap and threw it out. My next attempt was over a year later because it had been such a waste
 
I researched a lot before making my first batch using a very basic lard/olive/coconut/castor recipe. I used a Pringles can for a mold and bought everything locally. It turned out pretty well with no mishaps. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or sad I can't look back and laugh at the experience!
 
My first batch was shaving soap. I got the recipe and all the supplies from Soap Makers Resource. The molds were Pringle's chip cans. The recipe has a high percentage of OO so it took a long time to cure, but it did turn out to be good shaving soap with thick lather. That was about 4 years ago. I still have a few bars left.
 
My first soap was a 100% coconut oil 0 super fat for laundry. From a website recipe. Had no idea about lye calculators, but it was for laundry only, so I survived. This was after reading all about the horrors of NaOH and being afraid of making soap for a couple of months. Then I realized I work in a lab and have been working with it for years.......
 
My first batch of soap was 55% coconut oil because I wanted lots of bubbles. Was intending it for hand soap. I made it in a sauce pan outside over a fire with no stick blender. I think it was about 200 grams of oil. Ended up cooking most of the water out and had to keep adding water. Turned out pretty nice for what it was aside from white spots.
 

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