First ever CP Soap.

[AF_SOAP]

So I wanted to try my hand at soap making because I am never fully satisfied until I have one hobby after the next.

I made my first soap today with just shortening(vegetable aldi brand), water, lye, and peppermint/Eucalyptus EO.

The amounts were
Shortening 31 oz
Lye 4 oz
Water(distilled) 10.25 oz
Peppermint/Eucalyptus(trace) 20 drops of PEO and 5 drops of EEO

It turned out...good I think for my first ever time making soap. My main purpose was to make a "Wake me Up" soap.

I was just getting into it because I want to eventually work my way up to shave soaps. I use the ol' fashion Merkur's and yes I am young. It is just how I prefer to shave.

My real question though, is I did a zap test and got a tingle on my tongue. Is this normal as I just did pull this out today around 5:00 PM CST? Another question I have is how long do you think the cure time is...4 weeks?

 

[Obsidian]

Congrats on your first soap, they look good to me Give them a couple more days before you do another zap test, they are still young. 4 weeks is a good cure time 6-8 is better.
I'm not sure the well the scent will stick around though, generally you would use 1/2 oz by weight for every pound of oils in your recipe.

 

[AngelMomma]

They do look good. I like my soaps cured for at least 6 weeks. No matter how many times I try a soap at 3 or 4 weeks.......I always like it much better at 6.

 

[AF_SOAP]

Thanks! I am not in any hurry so I can wait that time ha ha. I think the peppermint EO change it to that color(what I call dryer lint pink) because I think its suppose to be an off white if I only used shortening.

 

[Obsidian]

Shortening makes a pink colored bar, not sure why but it does. It may lighten a bit in time.

 

[Soaplily]

Oh yeah, those babies probably tingled. I cure mine for 8 weeks. It's my magic number for most of my soaps, which is bizarre because I'm an odd number kind of gal!

Sarah

 

[Lin]

I was wondering about the color! It looks flesh colored on my screen lol. Interesting that shortening does that.

 

[xyxoxy]

Yeah I'm curious about that color too. It looks like soaps made with pink kaolin clay.
Vegetable shortening is usually some combination of soy, cottonseed, and sometimes palm oils. All of which should result in a white or beige soap depending on whether it gels or not. And those essential oils are clear aren't they? Weird. Are you sure there is no animal fat in that shortening?

But anyway, it is not at all unusual for soaps to zap for a day or two after they are unmolded. If they still zap next week you may have a problem. But I suspect they are just fine. You can try them in 4 weeks... but you will like them better in 6, and even better the longer you wait.

When you get more comfortable and are ready to dive into shaving soaps, be sure to look at adding clays to your batch. There also used to be a very detailed tutorial on here about making cream soaps using KOH.

Congrats on a successful first batch,

 

[dcornett]

Congratulations! They look like mighty fine first soaps. :wink:

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Good job!

As others have said, longer is better. I often use a bar after 2 weeks to see how it goes - gives an idea of how it is, but it does not last very long at all. I don't like giving soaps away until the 4 week mark which is when I consider most of mine "finished" and ready to go.

 

[AF_SOAP]

Thanks for the feedback! I was wondering if anyone knew of a recipe that I could make for rebatching purposes? As in I make this large batch, let cure, and then cut it remelt it and add other things to it. Basically I want it to give as gifts eventually and would like to be able to tailor it towards that individual(scent,color,texture,exfoliants). I am looking for a recipe for a soap that readily excepts a wide range of additives well during rebatching if someone could point me in that direction.



Thanks guys again!

 

[cmzaha]

I would have used .72oz total of your EO combination (2.25%) for a wake up soapie. Not all shortening turns pinkish such as 100% palm oil shortening.

 

[cmzaha]

Thanks for the feedback! I was wondering if anyone knew of a recipe that I could make for rebatching purposes? As in I make this large batch, let cure, and then cut it remelt it and add other things to it. Basically I want it to give as gifts eventually and would like to be able to tailor it towards that individual(scent,color,texture,exfoliants). I am looking for a recipe for a soap that readily excepts a wide range of additives well during rebatching if someone could point me in that direction.

Any soap can be rebatched, but try rebatching a couple of times before you make a big batch of unfragranced uncolored soap for such purpose. Rebatching is hard to color and not really the easiest way to make soap, plus the fact you are making the soap twice. Why do that when the soap will not be nearly as nice as a cp that is even colored a single color, even an hp soap is nicer than a rebatch soap

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

Congratulations on your first soap, Once you make your first real soap you will be hooked, Try experiment with other oils next time to see what other kinds of results in lather you can get, It will help you get closer to creating the perfect shaving soap.
Let that soap cure some more. Good luck and have fun.