First soap

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

nutterly_uts

Active Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
37
Reaction score
26
After working my way through the beginner forum (still going) I am ready to give this a go :)

I am starting with this recipe tomorrow. I do have a fragrance oil (beginners curse of wanting to do it all haha) but I'm thinking I might do this batch plain and then repeat it mid week with the fragrance to compare. I can't find any info on the supplier page about the fragrance so I hope its one that behaves :) It's a christmas one from aromantics if anyone has any tips :)

First soap.jpg
 
That's way more balanced than my first soap! You've obviously done a bit of homework :)

For my tastes, I'd probably go 15%-20% on the coconut oil and 25%-20% on the olive oil but that's just my skin type. If you have any caster oil lying around, I find 3%-5% added makes almost a perfect soap.

Looks like you're doing just fine though. Looking forward to the photos!
 
That's way more balanced than my first soap! You've obviously done a bit of homework

Its a recipe that crops up time and time again in the beginner forum as a good place to start so I'd be pretty foolish to ignore all that advice I think :)

For my tastes, I'd probably go 15%-20% on the coconut oil and 25%-20% on the olive oil but that's just my skin type. If you have any caster oil lying around, I find 3%-5% added makes almost a perfect soap.

That sounds like a good adjustment to try after the 2 soaps I already have planned :thumbup: the addiction is already starting haha
 
Its a recipe that crops up time and time again in the beginner forum as a good place to start so I'd be pretty foolish to ignore all that advice I think :)

That sounds like a good adjustment to try after the 2 soaps I already have planned :thumbup: the addiction is already starting haha

I've never used lard but I like OO in soap and stick to max 10% CO so I like the recipe as it is. I do like 5% Castor oil in soap.
 
First soap chilling (or not :)) in the oven.

Wow that was fun!! I don't think this one is going to be a soap to talk about in the future though :) I am fairly sure this is because
a) my soap pot is too big and was too big a surface area v depth
b) the temps are 1c approx here so its a cold house
c) my oils were not hot enough
d) trace look a long time to come

From start to finish the whole process took me about an hour - I had premelted the oils and already measured out my water so this was to line my mould, measure the lye, mix it all and clean up. I'd guess just under half that time was spent mixing and pouring.

I definitely need to work on lining my moulds better. . roll on the lovely silicon mould I've ordered!

Pics below are my first lined mould, how little the lye water filled the pot, my oils and then finally the finished soap. I should have got a photo of the consistency I think but hopefully that'll show something :)

20170122_200516.jpg


20170122_201539.jpg


20170122_201544.jpg


20170122_202813.jpg
 
Good job :thumbup: ... I totally get the excitement, I made my 1st soap last week too... i liked making soap so much that I am not gonna stop anytime soon. :D
 
Unmoulded and cut

Coconut oil and lard both need to be melted well before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. It looks like there are a couple of spots on your soap where this wasn't done but wow you made soap and it looks great! Congratulations.

Yes the warmer all the ingredients the faster it traces. But it's good to have time to work with soap. As long as you get light trace (at this early stage in your soaping career) while mixing it will set up in the mold.
 
Coconut oil and lard both need to be melted well before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. It looks like there are a couple of spots on your soap where this wasn't done but wow you made soap and it looks great! Congratulations.

I melted everything earlier in the day and it had started to cloud back up. I did re-melt it but I didn't mix the oils bar a quick stir with a spoon which I think is where it went a bit wrong :)

I've remade the same recipe tonight with some lavender added although this time they are in little bar moulds. Smells AMAZING and I can't wait! I'm finding that this recipe seems to take a long time to trace but I don't think that is a bad thing - presumably if I was playing with colors and scents that fast tracing scents would speed this up, and that slow trace would make it easier to layer colors etc?
 
I melted everything earlier in the day and it had started to cloud back up. I did re-melt it but I didn't mix the oils bar a quick stir with a spoon which I think is where it went a bit wrong :)

I've remade the same recipe tonight with some lavender added although this time they are in little bar moulds. Smells AMAZING and I can't wait! I'm finding that this recipe seems to take a long time to trace but I don't think that is a bad thing - presumably if I was playing with colors and scents that fast tracing scents would speed this up, and that slow trace would make it easier to layer colors etc?

Yes you have to heat it and use it straight away.
A long trace recipe is great for certain techniques.
SB a bit more if you want it to harden quicker.

After you use your soap in the shower you might want to rethink the bits on top. They are scratchy and they are a nightmare to clean out of the shower.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top