And now for something completely different...

Incrtalent · Jul 31, 2007

Let's talk about that soap-mold/soap making thing. I saw someone mention they should charge around $20/hr for labor, and that they could make about 20 bars of soap in that time. Good grief! What I want to know is...how? I'm currently using single-cavity molds, (3-4 per mold). I love the finished look of the soaps, but between the microwave and the mold, I can only do about 6 soaps an hour this way. Maybe I'm moving too slow!

Do you recommend slab-type molds? I do have a coupld of these. The only trouble is, they require ALOT of soap to fill them! In fact, I've questioned whether or not I could actually microwave that much soap at one time!

Come on, guys. Solve this mystery for me.

Tabitha · Jul 31, 2007

I assembly line my soap to get them done quicker.

I line up 5 pyrex cups (from the dollar store), I melt 5# of soap (3 minutes) in my huge pyrex bowl & when it's melted I pour 1# in to each of the 5 smaller cups that are lined up (1 minute) . Add fragrance: (3minutes) In the 1st I add 1 tbsp fragrance a, in the second I add 1 tbspn fragrnce b & so on, then I swoop back through w/ my colors (3 minutes) , cup 1 gets blue, cup 2 get green & so on, I stir, stir, stir (1 minute) & then pour (3 minutes) the 1st cup into 4 butterfly molds, pour tyeh second into 4 seahorse molds, etc etc & I have 20 bars of soap in maybe 20 minutes. Pop them in the freezer.

Kill 20 minutes: Go paint your toe nails, defrost something for dinner, make a 4# batch of sugar scrubs, etc

Unmold your soap (5 minutes) , pop them into cello bags (3 minutes) , tie w/ a pretty ribbon (5 minutes) & apply your premade labels (3 minutes) .

You have got about 11 minutes left to clean up your mess.

If you want to make your soap fancy, layered, swirled, etc, you can use your 20 minutes of time in the middle to do that.

If you do not want to melt that much at one time, you can just put 1# in a measuring cup, pop it in the microwave for 1 minute, when you pull it out put the 2nd cup in the microwave for 1 minute. While the second cup is melting add scent & color to the first & pour, when you are done the second cup will be ready for you, pull it out of the microwave & put the frist cup back in w/ another pound of soap & keep switching back & forth this way so You are not standing there waiting for the soap to melt you are working on the previous batch. Make sense?

Incrtalent · Jul 31, 2007

Great juggling!

Sounds like you've got this down to a science. The multiple Pyrex cups is a super idea.

Part of what is taking so long is that I melt at 15 second intervals. It takes FOREVER. Can I just melt for a minute or more without damaging the soap?

Tabitha · Jul 31, 2007

You will get an idea for how long how much takes to melt. You will be able to look at a lump of soap in a glass & say *Oh, that'll take about 48 seconds to melt".

It's like people that whip a lot of shea butter, they can hear when the shea is thick enough-LOL!

I zap 1# for 1 minute. I zap 8oz for 40 seconds, etc. You will get a feel for your microwave. If its bubbling & frothy on top, zap it a bit less next time.