My very first batch

[Sabelkat]

Hello everyone!
Just made my very first batch yesterday. Yey! It is now sitting on a shelf in the kitchen. Read somewhere it should be in a warm place, is that right? Do I need to cover it with cling film or a towel or something? It's made from 80% olive and 20% Cocos. When do you think, I should take it out of the mould an cut it up? And my final question (for now) :mrgreen: when do I know its safe to use?
Hope someone has time to answer my questions

Kindly, Katrine

 

[Seawolfe]

You must stand over it arranging the blankets and then peeping under them, while intoning "eeeeeeeeeee I made soap!" for a few hours more
If you wish it to gel, sure cover it up. If you don't, then don't. It will be fine soap either way. If its dusty or the cats might lick it, drape some clingfilm loosely over it. but it should be fine as is.

I unmold when its quite solid when I press on the top - usually after 24 hours and I usually cut it then, but Im an impatient weasel. Theres a thread around here exhorting us to wait to cut so as to lessen the drag marks when we do. Im not sure if Im that adult yet.

Everyone says we must let the soap cure for 4-6 weeks before you declare it truly ready, but I always seem to start testing them at week 3 for CP soap. It is technically safe to use if it passes the "zap test" - wet your finger and rub it on the soap a little and then dab at your tongue. If the top of your head crinkles and it feels like you've just licked a battery, it hasn't finished saponification yet and definitely not safe. Technically its harsh but safe after saponification has finished, but better to let it cure a few weeks.

Is your "20% cocos" cocoa butter? or coconut oil?

 

[Sabelkat]

You must stand over it arranging the blankets and then peeping under them, while intoning "eeeeeeeeeee I made soap!" for a few hours more
If you wish it to gel, sure cover it up. If you don't, then don't. It will be fine soap either way. If its dusty or the cats might lick it, drape some clingfilm loosely over it. but it should be fine as is.

I unmold when its quite solid when I press on the top - usually after 24 hours and I usually cut it then, but Im an impatient weasel. Theres a thread around here exhorting us to wait to cut so as to lessen the drag marks when we do. Im not sure if Im that adult yet.

Everyone says we must let the soap cure for 4-6 weeks before you declare it truly ready, but I always seem to start testing them at week 3 for CP soap. It is technically safe to use if it passes the "zap test" - wet your finger and rub it on the soap a little and then dab at your tongue. If the top of your head crinkles and it feels like you've just licked a battery, it hasn't finished saponification yet and definitely not safe. Technically its harsh but safe after saponification has finished, but better to let it cure a few weeks.

Is your "20% cocos" cocoa butter? or coconut oil?

Wow! Think You so much for the great answers. Ill try to be patient:think: cocos means cocoanut Oil, sorry. My phones dictionary is set to 'Danish' :???:

 

[Seawolfe]

Ah! My hubbys favorite soap right now is one of my first - 30% coconut oil and 70% olive oil, 5% superfat, unscented and uncolored. I find this recipe a bit too drying and plan to try one closer to yours next, with and maybe superfat to 6-8%
You will have a very nice soap

 

[Sabelkat]

Siiiiigh! It's hard as a rock. Impossible to cut. Just flakes off. I want to make my own soap in ordre to save money, so I hope I'll be able to do something with it after all. My initial plan was to make an all purpose liquid soap. Do you recon that will still be possible? Or was this just money out the window?

 

[AnnaMarie]

Hi Katrine.
Congrats on your first batch! You may get a variety of answers to your questions based on the wide variety of experiences and opinions
As far as where your soap sits I think that depends a bit on whether or not you want it to gel, but your soap should be fine in the kitchen as it is your first batch and you're probably not thinking about "gelling" yet. It's usually a good idea to cover your soap when you "put it to bed". Some people use a towel or two, and I've read plastic wrap is fine on Soap Queen. Well-insulated soap will help the gelling process (a personal preference). Covering your soap right away helps prevent soda ash. Before I cover mine I spray the soap with isopropyl alcohol to help prevent soda ash.
Some people unmold their soap after a day, some after 2 days, and some soap needs to be unmolded after a few hours or it gets too hard to cut, but all this depends on your ingredients. Look at your soap. If everything looks good and it's not runny or funny looking, and if it's firm and has been at least a day then you are fine to take it out and cut it.
When is it safe to use? Assuming you ran your recipe through the lye calculator and super fatted then it is technically safe to use after several days (do the zap test to make sure it's not lye heavy.) BUT....you really should let it cure for a number of weeks. Somewhere between 4-6. The longer a soap cures the better it is. This has to do with letter as much water evaporate out of the soap as possible.
I hope this helps you out. Have a lot of fun!
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[jules92207]

I thought it sounded like a perfect first recipe, I am still learning too.

 

[Sabelkat]

I didn't understand the whole superfat deal, so I just skipped it. Mabye I shouldn't have? Oh so many things to learn...

 

[AnnaMarie]

I guess the cocoa butter made the soap really hard :-( :-( Well, probably you want to get acquainted with rebatching if you want to salvage it. I hard a similar incident with a recipe recently that I realized should have been cut within 8 hours after the fact. I had a lot of broken soap.
Don't be afraid to go back at it again. That's how we learn!
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[Sabelkat]

Thanks, Anna Maria!

 

[Sabelkat]

I was planning on rebatching so I hope it will still be possible

 

[grayceworks]

Yeah, some recipes get very hard very quick. You can try with a hot sharp knife and see if that helps, but if not, you can just rebatch it.

If you shred it with a cheese shredder or something similar, and add a tad bit of water or milk with it into a crock-pot, and melt it down (don't overcook it), then you'll be able to re-pour it (kinda glop it, actually) into the mold, and then cut as soon as it's firm enough to handle, before it gets too hard to cut. Which will be pretty quick with rebatching it. Might still be a tad warm even.

If your recipe did not include any amount of superfat, now would be a time to add a bit of extra oil as well. Can you post the exact recipe you used with the lye amount? What lye calculator did you use? did it show a number in the superfat area already?

Congrats on your first soap! I know it will be wonderful!

 

[AnnaMarie]

Just grate it up with a cheese grater. I've rebatched one time, and it wasn't a rocket science. I think you will be able to do so with yours. If you make the recipe again then you'll know to cut a lot earlier . By the way, I'm going to make the broken soap recipe again here in a couple days. The soap itself was great. I'll bet yours is too
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[Sabelkat]

Is it now or after curing that I rebatch it? I was hoping to make it into a liquid soap. To much to hope for as a beginner?

 

[AnnaMarie]

You can rebatch right away. Making it into a liquid soap? Hmmmm.... This is a different branch of soap making that involves a different kind of lye. I haven't delved into that one yet.

 

[Tienne]

Siiiiigh! It's hard as a rock. Impossible to cut. Just flakes off. I want to make my own soap in ordre to save money, so I hope I'll be able to do something with it after all. My initial plan was to make an all purpose liquid soap. Do you recon that will still be possible? Or was this just money out the window?

Do you mean you wanted to use THIS soap to make liquid soap out of? (As in grating it and mixing it with water, borax and washing soda or such?) If so, it will still be usable for that purpose. I'm sorry to hear it's flaking on you. Before you do grate it up, (if that was your plan) try first cutting the soap in wider pieces and use a very thin knife. Find a knife with the thinnest blade you can and try cutting with that and do it before the soap gets even harder. It's odd that that recipe should be so hard, so soon, though.

And don't worry. If you measured out your ingredients correctly, the soap isn't a lost cause and if it doesn't zap after a few days, it will still be perfectly usable. You won't need to throw it away, just give it a few days. It may not end up looking like you had hoped, but it will still be good.

Oh and we all love pics! If you can, please don't hesitate in posting a pic of your first-born (soap). I know we'd all love to see the little darlin'... and welcome to the wonderful world of soaping!

Edit: Even if the soap does still zap after few days, don't despair. Even that is fixable. (Rebatching) It'll all be okay in the end, I'm sure.

 

[Sabelkat]

Ok here goes my recipe:
20 oz olive Oil
5 oz cocos oil
8 oz water
3,5 oz naOh.

No superfat sincerament I didn't understand how to....

 

[AnnaMarie]

Holy guacamole! Just ran your recipe through soapcalc.net and your hardness number is super high (75) as well as your ins number- 238! No wonder your soap hardened so quickly! Super fatting is either adding extra oil or less lye (depending on how you look at it), but the idea is that there are more fat molecules then lye molecules. Go to Brambleberry website and use their lye calculator. It's simple and very appropriate for a new soap maker. When you get to the bottom set it up for 5% super fat (you can play with the number and go higher if you'd like).

 

[AnnaMarie]

Just ran it through Brambleberry's lye calculator and see that your recipe is already super fatted, so your issue is just cutting within a few hours.

 

[AnnaMarie]

Honestly, I would check the soap hourly when you make it again. Have fun!
Cheers!
Anna Marie