Cherry blossom hand soap

[Cinnamon Square]

I've been making soap as a hobby for about 18 months now. Today, for the first time, I've had a batch go exactly how I wanted it to (bearing in mind it's not finished saponifying or been cut yet!).

A friend of mine wanted to learn the process, so I used a familiar recipe, a reliable fragrance, a high water lye solution, and everything at room temp, to keep it as slow moving as possible.

I've had soap go through gel phase before but have never actually seen it happen as I usually keep it covered. But the mould was overfilled by maybe 1mm so we couldn't put the lid on. I've CPOPed uncovered and witnessed the gloriousness of gel phase. Looking forward to unmoulding and cutting tomorrow or on Saturday. Will add some more photos then but am overexcited about how pretty it looks now and how beautiful my kitchen currently smells (FO is Cherry Blossom by Gracefruit).

Freshly poured:

Gel phase starting:

Full on gel phase

 

[Andy7891]

that's really cool, I want to try CPOP.

 

[Cinnamon Square]

CPOP is great when you want to ensure gel but your room is usually cooler or don't have a heat pad. I'm a hobby soaper and generally just make soap for me and a few friends/family so haven't invested in lots of equipment. Just remember to tell anyone you live with you've got soap in the oven, otherwise someone might switch it on to cook dinner without checking to see if there's anything in there first. Speaking from experience

Unmoulded and cut this morning, approx 44 hours after pouring. I usually soap with a 35 or 40% lye solution but this was 25% so used to being unable to unmould much quicker! Noticing a fair amount of glycerin dew on this one too.

We were experimenting with colours - pink, silver and uncoloured but the silver hasn't really come through very well. I know this recipe will cure to almost white by itself though so it may show up more in a few weeks.

I split the two loaves in half horizontally because my friend was after some huuuge bars that are suitable for her builder husband with his massive hands and just slicing the loaves normally wasn't going to cut it

Normal-sized bars for me on the left, her double-sized bars on the right:

 

[KiwiMoose]

Gorgeous! What a drastic colour change too!

 

[lsg]

Nice swirls!