Coffee soap and my 2nd night soaping

[misslavey]

So last night I had some real beginners luck, so I figured I'd go ahead and do another batch tonight. This time I went a little more complex, using olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil and castor oil. Instead of water, I used a strong brewed coffee, and at trace I added some unused coffee grounds. It actually looks great so far, but time will tell if this works out.

It wasn't until I used up the last of the plain coffee for brewing that I realized I used tap water rather than distilled water. Do you think this will give me problems? I didn't notice anything 'off' about the lye-coffee solution.

I'm also hoping that the clear plastic mold I used will be okay too.

http://imgur.com/a/uDEKV <--- Pics

 

[judymoody]

They look very nice. If you have trouble getting the soap to release from the molds, try popping them in the freezer for a few hours.

Coffee, BTW, needs to be ground very fine in your soap or it can feel scratchy. If it ends up too scratchy for use in the shower, it can work great as a kitchen soap or gardener/mechanic soap.

 

[misslavey]

Good to know.. I didn't grind it up anymore than it already was, hoping they were small enough to not hurt much. I'm giving some to a man who definitely needs a lot of exfoliating anyway

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Well done. Tap water won't matter. If it's too scratchy for body parts, I'm sure it will be nice for hands and feet. Coffee kills cooking odours on hands. :wink:

 

[dcornett]

Looks like they turned out very nice...congrats!!

 

[Relle]

Are you using a S/S saucepan ? It looks like teflon coated in the centre.

 

[misslavey]

It is steel on the outside, but has a nonstick inside. Probably Teflon. It came from my aunts storage unit, and my mom was just going to toss it, but I salvaged it so that I didn't taint any of our normal cookware with my soaping. Is Teflon bad?

 

[dOttY]

Can't offer any advice in regards to the teflon, but it's been discussed that the red silicone can affect the colour of soaps. I don't know if it will bother this batch, but just keep in mind if you soap light colours that it can discolour....

Looking forward to seeing your soap unmolded

 

[Relle]

You are better off using a full S/S saucepan and not with the teflon as small unseen peices could break off into the soap. I use a 5 litre plastic bucket, that works well .

 

[misslavey]

The first batch I did, I used a plastic ice bucket thing because my batch was smaller and when I tried using a stick blender in it, it wanted to fly out of the pot. Looking at the underside of the pot, it looks like it's been well used, but the inside of it looks pristine, so I don't think it's actually a real Teflon coating and I maybe don't need to worry about it chipping.

If I want to make bigger batches than the one I made tonight (22oz) I would definitely be using a different pot, because that one isn't very big at all. My only concern right now is with the plastic mold that I used, because it didn't actually indicate whether or not it could be used with CP soap, but considering people line their molds with plastic bags sometimes, I think I may be safe. Time with tell though..

 

[misslavey]

Also, someone told me my soap looked like gravy in the pics, which actually frightened me a little!

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Ditto on not using teflon as it's aluminium underneath. Just a small scratch will put your raw soap batter in contact with aluminium (not good) and you don't want to risk flakes of teflon in soap either. If the pot has a good surface now, then you probably haven't done any harm this time but I just use a small plastic bucket usually.

I use (cheap) red silicone mini muffin pans for soap and so far it hasn't discoloured. :wink:

 

[dOttY]

Wow, that's good to know Jenny. I haven't used my red silicone because so many had not so good things to say about it.

Thanks!

 

[chibilightangel]

Nice looking soap and I'm looking forward to seeing the hearts out of the mold.

As to a pot or container for mixing your soap, an 8 cup pyrex type measuring cup does fine for batches easily up to 32 oz (2lbs) (at least, works fine for me). don't use pyrex for mixing the lye because of the temperature gradients however.

 

[Dragonkaz]

Your soap looks great! I love the coffee soap I've made ... love the colour and I've also put some fine grounds in mine ... only a small amount.

It's recommended to not use teflon coated and definitely not if there's aluminium under it, as a dangerous gas will be produced if caustic soda comes into contact with aluminium.

I used pyrex for a few batches, until I read a few threads about issues around pyres and caustic soda. I still occassionally use a pyrex jug when colouring a large amount of soap, otherwise they're just for measuring oils in.

It's recommended that all equipment that comes into contact with caustic soda or oils once the caustic soda has been added ... is made of stainess steel or plastic.

 

[misslavey]

OH MY GOSH! I just took a peek at the soaps before I head off the work and even took one out of the heart mold to check it and they came out WONDERFUL! I will have to take pics when I get back from work.. I'm so excited!

Thanks everyone for your input about the pot I used

 

[trishwosere]

I don't know if they are made of the same type of plastic or not but the clear ones you are using look almost identical to a set I had and, unfortunately after the second time of using them, I tried to take out my soaps and the mold just shattered. I'd bought mine from a very large crafting company in the U.K and when i told them what had happened they said that they were intended for M&P soaps not C.P, so beware just in case they are the same type.
On the other-hand your soaps look amazing...lovely

 

[BlueValkyrie]

Well done - Looking forward to seeing more pics

 

[misslavey]

On the left is my first batch, on the right is the coffee soap! It doesn't actually smell much like coffee, but it looks like cookie dough.. so I went to the craft store and bought some cookie scented FO to use with it in the future. They didn't have a coffee FO

Sorry for the messy stove top.

 

[misslavey]

Woops, forgot that I left the 2nd mold inside the freezer when I went to remove them from the molds, only just now realized it about 5 hours later :shock: