First batch of soap the right way lol

[IrishLass]

Congratulations on your first batch done the right way! How do things look today?

As the others said, just add all your fats/oils together before adding the lye solution. When I make soap, I melt my hard fats first, and then I add my liquid oils to them before adding my lye solution. Sometimes, I even add my fragrances to my melted fat/oil mixture before I add my lye solution.

As for heating the lard to 140F, I've heated mine to 160F before (by accident) and it came out perfectly fine.

Although it's not 100% absolutely necessary for making soap, a stick-blender is most definitely a soap-maker's best friend. It'll save you time, and your wrist will thank you.

Here's a handy tip on how to use a stick-blender when soaping- use it very sparingly. They are so powerful that intermittent 5 to 10-second bursts every now and again (in between hand-stirring) are all that's needed to bring the soap batter to trace in a timely fashion. Oftentimes, many brand new soap-makers make the mistake of continuously stick-blending the soap batter non-stop until trace is reached, but the only things that will accomplish are burning the stick-blender's motor out and causing things to move too fast.


IrishLass

 

[Seawolfe]

You can also use things like turmeric for an orangey tan, carrot juice, red palm oil or paprika for orange, cinnamon or coffee for browns, powdered activated charcoal for black. Search natural colorants in the soap forum - they can be tricky, and many fade, but it's fun.

 

[penelopejane]

Food colouring liquids are not suitable for CP soap making. Buy your colourings from a soap making supplier and they will be CP soap stable.

Seawolf's list above is great for natural colouring. Pumpkin is another one that works.

Save yourself some time and effort and search this site for natural colours that don't work - there are a lot, learn from others experiments.

 

[sliginion]

Awesome thank you!!!
I need another simple recipe to try ive made 2 batches of the last one. I made the second one today and the trace came alot better after mixing my lard and oils. Yay!!!

 

[doriettefarm]

You can definitely use herbs, spices and other kitchen ingredients for color. I've used turmeric, paprika, annatto, parsley, pumpkin, avocado and cocoa powder to color batches.

What are you hoping to gain by using a new recipe at this point? Not asking to be snarky but your first 2 batches still need time to cure before you can try them out and decide what to tweak. Although I can totally relate to your exuberance and the desire to make more soap! You really need to test those first batches and see what you do/don't like about them. Then we can recommend changes to the original recipe or maybe a completely new recipe to suit your needs.

 

[lenarenee]

I need another simple recipe to try ive made 2 batches of the last one. I made the second one today and the trace came alot better after mixing my lard and oils. Yay!!!

What oils do you have on hand? Olive and coconut? You could try a Bastille soap; (Castille is 100% olive oil, bastille has a high olive oil, plus other oils) Maybe 75% olive, 20 coconut, 5 castor. If you don't have castor, just change the coconut to 5%. It's a very different soap from a lard soap, and takes a long, long cure before it comes into its own.

ETA: takes longer to get that recipe to trace because of all the olive oil

 

[sliginion]

Im going to wait until these other batches have cured
I have coconut oil, olive oil, and lard right now
Im planning on get castor oil and coca butter next

 

[Susie]

Try this:

Lard 65%
Olive Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

You can buy castor oil at Walmart in the pharmacy area in the laxatives. It is $2.86 for 6 oz at my local Walmart. This is a good comparison recipe to the one you made already.

 

[sliginion]

This is the first batch of last recipe
Its still hardened like I thought it would (weird)
Softer bar I think thats y

 

[gdawgs]

Try this:

Lard 65%
Olive Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

You can buy castor oil at Walmart in the pharmacy area in the laxatives. It is $2.86 for 6 oz at my local Walmart. This is a good comparison recipe to the one you made already.

I made a batch of your recipe a couple weeks ago. I even named it "Susie's Recipe" Can't wait to try it out.

 

[dibbles]

This is the first batch of last recipe
Its still hardened like I thought it would (weird)
Softer bar I think thats y

Look at your pretty, white soap! It looks like you were able to use Soap Calc, so I'm glad you figured it out. I noticed that your lye concentration is 50%. That is pretty adventurous for a first batch, so I'm glad you didn't have any problems. Personally, I usually use 33-40%. When I started soaping I used the default 'full water' setting, and sometimes still do. There is nothing wrong with what you did, as long as you understand that 1:1 (water:lye), or 50% lye concentration is as low as you can go to have the lye completely dissolve. Also, if you ever start using fragrances in your soap, a low water lye solution like that can cause a lot of trouble with acceleration.

 

[shunt2011]

Nicely done first batch. Congratulations!!!

 

[sliginion]

The water ratio I did was 2:1
4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%

 

[IrishLass]

Looking good!


IrishLass

 

[penelopejane]

The water ratio I did was 2:1
4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%

So you didn't follow the soap calc sheet you printed out?
The water/lye ratio there shows 1:1
Lye concentration 50%

 

[dibbles]

The water ratio I did was 2:1
4.4 oz water 2.2oz lye 99%

I see. If you change something like that, I would reprint the recipe with the change or, at the very least, mark down what I did differently from the printed recipe right on that sheet so I have it for reference in the future. Six months and a few batches of varying recipes later, and you probably won't remember what you did should you want to repeat it. At least I've learned my memory isn't that reliable

 

[sliginion]

I did the soap calculator with the 2:1 ratio I jus didnt take a picture of it
Do I have to get all pure.oils or.can I jus go to the grocery section at Wal-Mart?

 

[doriettefarm]

Many of the oils you find in Wal-Mart are just fine for soaping. They should have lard, olive, coconut, sunflower, castor (in the pharmacy section) and possibly some specialty oils like grapeseed, hazelnut, pumpkin seed, etc. You might even find palm oil in the form of hydrogenized palm shortening. I doubt you'll be able to find any decent butters (shea, cocoa, etc) at Wally World but you might get lucky at a health food store.

 

[BattleGnome]

Do I have to get all pure.oils or.can I jus go to the grocery section at Wal-Mart?

Walmart is fine for soaping, just check ingredients for oil blends so you can be accurate in your calculations. Soaping 101 has a video about soaping using dollar store oil for a soap, the bottle she picked up was a blend and she shows the ingredients/how she broke down the blend for soap calc.

 

[Susie]

I buy all my oils at Walmart or Sams. Saves me lots of money on shipping.