Soaping day....

[ClaraSuds]

And I made my first honey and cream soap. Milk carton mould (why not?) and it's in the oven trying to gel. All seems to go well. I made it with organic tallow that I rendered myself, organic honey and cream. Threw in some coffee grounds and cloves at thin trace then poured. Looks like it'll be a light tan colour, I didn't colour it with anything except the honey. No scent.

I'm thinking I'll try a marbled soap next. Trouble is I like scrubby stuff in my soap and marbling looks best without it. What to do, what to do.... :?
Just done an inventory and I've got enough supplies for 2 more batches. I've also got an excess of Mango butter, should I? What are you planning for your next soaping day?

 

[Lindy]

That sounds like a fantastic soap! I love tallow & Honey & Cream.... hmmmm may have to try that one....

 

[ClaraSuds]

Thanks Lindy,

I'm going to see if I can post pics when I cut it. I may have figured out this pics on forum thing. I just rescued it from the oven where it had fully gelled (and looks like tar with alien brains on top), overheating anyone? Its cooling down now so only a few hours until the big reveal.

 

[Lindy]

Fantastic! I find that honey and milk soaps heat up, lots and I just let them do their thing in the mould. Mind you I do that with all my soaps including my HP ones. You are so in for a treat once that soap is ready....

 

[ClaraSuds]

Getting it out of the milk carton was a snap, it didn't stick at all but I did need to tear the carton. No chance it was coming out without doing that. I cut this soap very warm and even then it wasn't easy to cut. I'm finding tallow soaps get extremely hard very quick. Hardened and cold the soaps feel very silky, not velvety like my other soaps did. The difference in feel is noticable. I miscalculated the milk fat and ended up with 13% superfat... :shock: Just hope the soap doesn't go off before it's cured. It's come out a nice caramel colour with dark brown flecks. The milk carton makes a perfect sized soap and I got 7 hefty bars from it. The perfect size for a batch for me. All my soaps look like of naff right now. No pretty colours, no pretty smells, no special moulds. I'll get around to that but I want to get the formula down first.

I hope this soap is as nice as I want it to be. My coconut milk soap, while fine for laundry, doesn't have the same feel as my first soaps did and I'm addicted to that feel. The coconut soaps feel kind of watery in the lather whereas my other soap is like whipped cream. I'm a bit reluctant to experiment much since I'll be disappointed if these soaps aren't as good. It's not the materials, it's the cure time. I don't want to be stuck with a shitty soap for 6 weeks while I use it up and cure another batch. :x Cows cream does have a smell in the finished soap. If you care about that you'll probably want to fragrance it. I don't care about it.

I went ahead and made another batch, this time a Mango butter SF 9% soap since I have a tonne of mango butter hanging around. It didn't noticably speed trace at all and I fragranced this one with my perfumery spoils. I attempt to make oil based perfumes with naturals. Right now the results aren't very promising but the upside is that my failed experiments end up in a big bottle of mystery fragrance, which I dump into my soap. Waste not, want not. :wink: