Exhaustive list of newb questions

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SoapMakerDeluxe

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Hi all,

I'm new to soapmaking (recently ordered my first soapmaking kit from BrambleBerry.com) and have been going thoroughly through some recipes to make sure I don't make any wrong turns when the time comes to make the stuff.

I went through her basic recipe, and wrote down any Q's I had remaining after that.

I'm a big stickler about knowing my lye safety, so I was hoping you could indulge my exhaustive questions here:

1. What should the temperatures of the lye-water and oils be before I mix them? How close should they be?

2. Should I get separate thermometers to use in each the lye and oils as I prepare them to reach those temperatures?

3. It seems that most people do their lye + water before doing the fats, because you can set aside the lye water and let it cool in the meantime. Is that the way to go?

4. What are the best mixing bowl and stirring spoon materials? I'm leaning towards stainless steel.

5. Does the stick blender need to be any special type, or is any plastic stick blender good enough?

6. Material for gloves--should be rubber, right?

7. If I pour too much lye when weighing, what's the safest way to get some back into the bottle? I imagine just carefully pouring it back?

8. What's a good way to clean my lye water container after using it? I've seen hot water but isn't vinegar or a vinegar-water solution better?

9. How do I clean everything that touched lye or lye water afterwards? Like the thermometers and spoons?

10. If I use a spoon to mix lye water, can I use it later to smooth off the top of my traced (and freshly poured into a mold) soap? Just curious if any lye water residue could affect the soap.

11. I saw to hand-wash stuff afterwards with hot water and detergent. What detergent? Does it matter?

12. When I cut the soap out of the mold the next day, is it safe to touch and use on a regular surface? And in cutting, can I use a regular knife that's washed a regular way?

13. How often should I turn soap as it cures?
 
Welcome to the world of soapmaking. I may be able to answer a few of your questions.

1. I soap with room temp or colder lye and oil. I have done this so many years I honestly do not remember what the suggested temps are
2. You can use the same thermoneter
3. It is just more convienent to mix the lye solution first so it can start cooling
4. I prefer hdpe buckets for mixing. Rubbermaid bowls also work well or stainless steel
5. Nope, any sb will work but I highly recommend one with a stainless steel shaft and blades. I had a plastic one break off a portion of the outside blade area of the sb and had to dump the entire batch since I did not realize it until I pulled it from the mold
6. I use Nitrile. If you look up gloves on an industrial supply site you will see ones that are chemical resistant. I can only use nitrile.
7. Yeah
8. rinse it out with water
9. Wash them
10.Rinse off the spoon first
11.Nope
12. If it is still zappy I would put it on a hdpe or wood cutting board, which you will use for nothing other than soap. You can use a regular knife and wash it with soap and water after use
13. If sitting on a solid surface to dry I would turn once a week. If on a rack it is not necessary to turn

For the most part working with lye is common sense, and respect it for what it is. I prefer rubbermaid pitchers and set it in the sink with mixing my lye solution in case it decides to go wonky.
 
Hello and welcome,

You may want to introduce yourself in the introduction forum so others can welcome you. Also, there is a search function that you can find answers. I also suggest you read, read, read to gain as much information as you can. Especially if you want to start formulating your own recipes etc. www.millersoap.com is a good place to start with recipes. Alwasy be sure to run any recipe through a lye calculator.
1. Lye/Oil Temps should be within 5-10 degrees of each other. 90-110 degrees is pretty standard for beginners.

2. You can use the same thermometer for both. Just rinse it.

3. You can do your lye/water or oils in whichever order you prefer. I generally do my lye first.

4. Plastic (PP5 or 2), stainless and silicone are my personal favorites

5/6. My personal favorite is a stainless shaft stickblender and any gloves will work fine. I use nitrile.

7/8 Carefully pour or use a spoon to put it back in the container / do so over the sink.

9-11 I wipe out any residual batter with papertowel or an old towel then wash in hot soapy water. Dawn works best of all I've tried.

12/13 I usually wear gloves when I cut my soap. You can use a regular kitchen knife and wash it when done. I don't turn my soaps but I do cure them on a well ventilated shelving unit.

Or what Carolyn said.....we were posting at the same time
 
P&G Dawn detergent works very well on soap equipment. it's good for cutting grease, your major clean-up problem.

Keep lye away from vinegar and other acids. Remember that science project with the vinegar + baking soda? vinegar + lye is a much bigger reaction. water+lye is a pretty big reaction as it is. Rinse a lot before washing.

Glass breaks.

those big old rubber gloves are awful to use.
 
1. What should the temperatures of the lye-water and oils be before I mix them? How close should they be?

I dont know, I put my hands against the containers and wait till they both feel about the same, and not too hot - a bit above feverish. I learned early on that exact temps are not critical so I stopped obsessing

2. Should I get separate thermometers to use in each the lye and oils as I prepare them to reach those temperatures?
You can if it makes you feel better, but see above

3. It seems that most people do their lye + water before doing the fats, because you can set aside the lye water and let it cool in the meantime. Is that the way to go?
Sure, that's what I do. In fact I do the lye + water and then do everything else - melt the fats in the microwave, line the mold, mix or prep the colors and any add-ins, measure out the scents
4. What are the best mixing bowl and stirring spoon materials? I'm leaning towards stainless steel.
SS works fine. I use HDPE plastic and silicon utensils
5. Does the stick blender need to be any special type, or is any plastic stick blender good enough?
Any type should work. Ideally it will not introduce bubbles when it whizzes, and have a metal guard, but even stick blenders that aren't ideal work fine. IMHO having a spare is more important than having one "ideal" stick blender
6. Material for gloves--should be rubber, right?
I use latex, that's just me - I hate loosing tactile dexterity. Long sleeves help too
7. If I pour too much lye when weighing, what's the safest way to get some back into the bottle? I imagine just carefully pouring it back?
yep. I use cheap disposable plastic cups, they are bendy enough I can pour lye back into the jar if needed
8. What's a good way to clean my lye water container after using it? I've seen hot water but isn't vinegar or a vinegar-water solution better?
Its not plutonium, just put it under a slow running tap for a few minutes to dilute and rinse. There are only a few drops of lye water left in the container - diluting it solves any issues
9. How do I clean everything that touched lye or lye water afterwards? Like the thermometers and spoons?
running water is my favorite - see above
10. If I use a spoon to mix lye water, can I use it later to smooth off the top of my traced (and freshly poured into a mold) soap? Just curious if any lye water residue could affect the soap.
I would rinse it first - see above
11. I saw to hand-wash stuff afterwards with hot water and detergent. What detergent? Does it matter?
I scrape as much as possible out and into the mold, then I wipe with paper towels, then I put into the dishwasher. Some people leave the stuff with soap batter in a bucket for 24 hours, then its soap and you can just add hot water and scrub away
12. When I cut the soap out of the mold the next day, is it safe to touch and use on a regular surface? And in cutting, can I use a regular knife that's washed a regular way?
Depending on the soap you can cut in 2 hours for a salt bar up to 4 days or more - don't un-mold and cut until the soap is no longer soft. In my experience, once it is hard enough to cut its usually safe to handle, I zap test to be sure (do a search for "zap test"). Some people like to wear gloves for the cutting so as to not leave any fingerprints, or if the soap is still zappy. Thin bladed knives work best for cutting nicely, wash it in a regular or irregular way :).
13. How often should I turn soap as it cures?
For your first batch you will handle and sniff and turn your bars every few hours. As you get more batches curing you may slow down to checking them as little as once a day :) If they have good air circulation and are not laying down, they don't need to be turned. In theory they could not be moved or checked for the entire 6 week cure, but I've never heard of that
 
Thanks everyone--I've noted all of these answers in my "master doc" and am finding them really helpful. I figured some of the questions would be obvious / redundant so thanks for taking the time to help me out. Greatly appreciated.
 
Thought I'd chime in. Being new myself, I always appreciate as many people's views and methods as I can get.

1. What should the temperatures of the lye-water and oils be before I mix them? How close should they be?
I keep my oils melted and if I can stick my finger into it and it's nice warm and doesn't burn, that's the temp. Under 100 I'd say. So long as the hard butters and fats are well melted and incorporated.
Lye water, I hit it with a thermometer once and so long as it's under 110, I'm good. Getting to where I don't check anymore. I just feel the outside of the bottom of the stainless pot it's in. Feels nice and cool/warm, not hot hot, eh I'm good.

2. Should I get separate thermometers to use in each the lye and oils as I prepare them to reach those temperatures?
Nah, just rinse off so you don't saponify going from lye water to fats. Little bits of Soap floating while trying to stick blend smoothly isn't good.
*helpful hint, I keep about an inch and a half of distilled room temp water set aside in a handled measuring cup. If I stir off my lye bowl scraping the sides, the spatula goes into this water. If I scrape my fats bowl, I stick the spatula into it. It's a rinse bucket of sorts to keep my station neat and tidy while mixing it together. The SB sits in it after I SB to trace, too, until it's dishes time. I then SB this water to clean off the blades, and then proceed to hand wash in the sink afterwards.

3. It seems that most people do their lye + water before doing the fats, because you can set aside the lye water and let it cool in the meantime. Is that the way to go?
Yeah, I do this.

4. What are the best mixing bowl and stirring spoon materials? I'm leaning towards stainless steel.
Stainless steel med bowl lye water
Stainless large bowl oils and fats
Cheap plastic handled measuring cups from Wal-Mart to separate batter. These are working great, no sign of melting issues or the sort. They don't have a number on the bottom, so I gambled but seem to have won.
small measuring cups, cheap set of 1/3 cup 1/2 cup 3/4 cup and 1 cup, for mixing colorants
bright colored wood handled spatulas from, yup, Wal-Mart
Small Wisk, coated non metal

5. Does the stick blender need to be any special type, or is any plastic stick blender good enough?
I have plastic SB from walmart dot com, and read eventually the lye and or heat can crack the bottom of it. If I make a career out of this, I'll of course need to upgrade my equipment. For now, this works great! I was starting a new hobby, and couldn't justify spending hundreds to start. So I went cheap, for now.

6. Material for gloves--should be rubber, right?
I get a box of latex gloves, the blue ones. I think they're latex, may be vinyl. Either way, I don't use those yellow dish gloves, just the "doctor" ones. I also hate wearing long sleeves. In the south here (the states); it's freaking hot. I took extra long man socks and cut the end off. I slip those up my arms when I'm wearing a tank for arm protection.

7. If I pour too much lye when weighing, what's the safest way to get some back into the bottle? I imagine just carefully pouring it back?
I measure lye out the bottle (bb lye flakes) with a tablespoon into a 1 cup sized measuring cup (on scale of course). I can tap a flake in easily to replace if too much was added.

8. What's a good way to clean my lye water container after using it? I've seen hot water but isn't vinegar or a vinegar-water solution better?
I fill my dishes with water in an empty sink, and after soaping I use dish soap and my gloved hands and "do the dishes" as you would any dishes
Vinegar causes an exothermic aka heat reaction. In other words it heats before it neutralizes. No vinegar, just flush all with water

9. How do I clean everything that touched lye or lye water afterwards? Like the thermometers and spoons?
Sink, gloves on, dish soap and water. I tried to run in the dishwasher, but by the time I got all the chunks off, I figured might as well have hand washed. So that's what I do now.


10. If I use a spoon to mix lye water, can I use it later to smooth off the top of my traced (and freshly poured into a mold) soap? Just curious if any lye water residue could affect the soap.
Yeah, probably is fine since it is touching oils that haven't fully saponified yet, but I don't without rinsing quickly. Either in sink with a brief gloved hand swipe to get residue off or in my handy rinse bucket I mentioned.

11. I saw to hand-wash stuff afterwards with hot water and detergent. What detergent? Does it matter?
I use Palmolive just because my hands break out with other dish soap, so it's what I have laying around. Dawn would probably work too.

12. When I cut the soap out of the mold the next day, is it safe to touch and use on a regular surface? And in cutting, can I use a regular knife that's washed a regular way?
Well if in fridge or freezer, it may still be zappy. I found cutting the next day has almost ruined my soaps. Just too darn soft. Wait 2-3 days and it should be great. Zap test first if concerned.
I use a kitchen knife that has become my soap knife only now. Knives really are crummy for cutting I've learned. I am going to invest into a cheese cutter here soon.


13. How often should I turn soap as it cures
People recommend once a week. Being new I can't stop messing with them, so they get turned several times a week lol. Rack and no real need for it.
 
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*helpful hint, I keep about an inch and a half of distilled room temp water set aside in a handled measuring cup. If I stir off my lye bowl scraping the sides, the spatula goes into this water. If I scrape my fats bowl, I stick the spatula into it. It's a rinse bucket of sorts to keep my station neat and tidy while mixing it together. The SB sits in it after I SB to trace, too, until it's dishes time. I then SB this water to clean off the blades, and then proceed to hand wash in the sink afterwards.

Nice idea, thanks.

Also, about the temperatures of the lye and the oils, I'm gathering that it doesn't really matter all *that* much--i.e., it doesn't need to be exact, so long as they're within a certain margin of each other. Is that your experience?
 
When it comes to cheap stick blenders that are plastic they no longer become cheap if you have to toss out a whole batch because a piece of the guard decided to break off and you did not see it. One small piece of plastic in a bar of soap can do some real damage to the skin such as a severe laceration requiring stitches. Dr bills are not cheap... All hobbies become expensive
 
You don't have to wait for the oils and lye/water to cool off, either. I use the heat transfer method. I mix my lye to my water, stir til dissolved, then add the hot lye/water to the solid oils, and mix to melt. Then when melted, add that to the liquid oils. Stick blend to trace.(But then I don't make swirls or other fancy stuff.)

If you have any intention of making liquid soap, get a stainless steel stick blender. The plastic housing around the blade can get so hot it spreads out and your blade hits the bottom of the bowl.

Wooden handled spatulas are not a good idea as they can splinter in your soap. Finding bits of wood in soap will not make people feel safe with your soap.
 
As others said. Some mix hot lye water into their fats still solid to melt. That's not 10 degrees of difference, I wouldn't think. Others use room temp cool lye water. To melt things like cocoa butter, it needs to be around 93-101 degrees. Tallow (suet) melts between 113-122 degrees, so I read. So room temp lye water and melted fats and you have more than a 10 degree difference.

My learning curve is ever growing and changing. I'm new at this still. My current method, after experimenting with 8 batches so far, is the oils totally melted over a low as low can go burner. Once melted, cool until I can stir it and stick a finger into it and not get burned. Fats and butters still remaining melted. Having mixed the lye water, once it cools enough the outside stainless steel feels warmish but touchable and comfortable, probably winds up 80-90 degrees if I have to guess, I'm good to start mixing. Cooler temps help with slow trace too I believe and allows for more time to swirl. If I use goat milk, I keep it as cool as I can to remain melted and lye about 80.

I was all sciency at first, but once you get the hang of it you can experiment and find what works for you. There isn't only one proper method and that's it, I've learned. There's many options that can get you an end result of beautiful soap.

Just don't try to use a fragrance that is said to cause acceleration, and think you're faster than it and attempt a peacock swirl with it :think::shock::shifty::oops:
You probably aren't and will be disappointed. Another post another day I suppose.
 
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