petrolejka
Well-Known Member
I haven't made soap in about a year or so and didn't really miss it. But then few days ago I got the automated email from here if I am still making soap. I logged on, started to read all the posts and now I miss it very badly. I feel slightly obsessed :mrgreen:
So yesterday, I made a batch of soap.
Recipe I used was
30%Coconut
30% Olive
30% Walmart shortening (the one with beef)
10% Canola
1.5oz dewberry fragrance oil
2tsp agave nectar
1 or 2 tbs of dried calendula petals
1tsp sage powder
less than 1tsp paprika
cocoa powder for pencil line (never done this before)
total weight of oils 50oz
Everything was great, I had the lye water ready, and everything was set up. I had all the oils on the stove on low. Just waiting for them to melt. Somewhere in the process I felt like the oils are not melting fast enough and put it on high. Then forgot about it.
Come back to it few minutes later and the heat from the pot was unbelievable. Heated the oils to 300F .. oops#1
So had to put it in an ice bath because the lye water was almost at a good temperature.
Ended up mixing it at 120F, higher than what I am used to, but that's ok.
My plan was to make a lower layer yellow with the calendula petals, then use cocoa powder for pencil line, then do orange layer and swirl green into it.
When I put the fragrance in the whole thing turned bright orange ... oops#2
I went ahead with my plan anyway.
I blended the oils just enough so it was all mixed, separated into 3 containers. ANd did the calendula petals first. It didnt want to reach trace at all. Took a bit and even then it was only at medium trace, poured it anyway, dusted with cocoa powder.
Did the other two colors. Well since the first layer wasnt thick enough I broke the pencil line with the second layer ... oops#3
And finally... when I came up with the recipe, I looked at the total weight of oils and thought that is the perfect amount for my mold. Yup, forgot about the water. So I ended up with 4.8lbs of soap, barely fit in the mold ... oops#4
I unmolded this morning and it still looks gorgeous to me even though the orange and green layer swirl didnt really happen (it looks like). Can't wait to cut.
Sorry for such a long post, I am just super excited about soaping again :mrgreen:
edit: couldnt wait and cut it, as I knew, the pencil line is gone in the middle, which is fine. Looks interesting. This second picture shows the colors really well too.
made another soap a day later (because addiction) tried a different recipe and used mistletoe fragrance and sage powder for in the pot swirl
won't let me post a picture of that one, says I have 4 images on here already, which I dont .. weird
So yesterday, I made a batch of soap.
Recipe I used was
30%Coconut
30% Olive
30% Walmart shortening (the one with beef)
10% Canola
1.5oz dewberry fragrance oil
2tsp agave nectar
1 or 2 tbs of dried calendula petals
1tsp sage powder
less than 1tsp paprika
cocoa powder for pencil line (never done this before)
total weight of oils 50oz
Everything was great, I had the lye water ready, and everything was set up. I had all the oils on the stove on low. Just waiting for them to melt. Somewhere in the process I felt like the oils are not melting fast enough and put it on high. Then forgot about it.
Come back to it few minutes later and the heat from the pot was unbelievable. Heated the oils to 300F .. oops#1
So had to put it in an ice bath because the lye water was almost at a good temperature.
Ended up mixing it at 120F, higher than what I am used to, but that's ok.
My plan was to make a lower layer yellow with the calendula petals, then use cocoa powder for pencil line, then do orange layer and swirl green into it.
When I put the fragrance in the whole thing turned bright orange ... oops#2
I went ahead with my plan anyway.
I blended the oils just enough so it was all mixed, separated into 3 containers. ANd did the calendula petals first. It didnt want to reach trace at all. Took a bit and even then it was only at medium trace, poured it anyway, dusted with cocoa powder.
Did the other two colors. Well since the first layer wasnt thick enough I broke the pencil line with the second layer ... oops#3
And finally... when I came up with the recipe, I looked at the total weight of oils and thought that is the perfect amount for my mold. Yup, forgot about the water. So I ended up with 4.8lbs of soap, barely fit in the mold ... oops#4
I unmolded this morning and it still looks gorgeous to me even though the orange and green layer swirl didnt really happen (it looks like). Can't wait to cut.
Sorry for such a long post, I am just super excited about soaping again :mrgreen:
edit: couldnt wait and cut it, as I knew, the pencil line is gone in the middle, which is fine. Looks interesting. This second picture shows the colors really well too.
made another soap a day later (because addiction) tried a different recipe and used mistletoe fragrance and sage powder for in the pot swirl
won't let me post a picture of that one, says I have 4 images on here already, which I dont .. weird
Last edited:
Forget about the popcorn and no one needs to tell you - you'll smell it. :sad:
