First soap!

[SpanishlivinginUK]

Hi everybody!
I have been going trough the forum for the last couple of weeks learning from all your experiences.
I remember my nan making soap when I was little and my entire family used it to clean all around the house, literally, for everything! From counters to clothes.
I have asked her what her recipe and it is

3L of olive oil
3L of water
500g lye

It takes her over two hours to get it to trace, but the soap is amazing!

From all research I have done, and as I would like my first soap to be for personal use, not household, I have decided to make a simple olive and coconut soap. After deciding to get 5% superfat I put it through the calc and came up with

750g olive oil
250g coconut oil
330g water
140g lye

It was a breeze to make, it is now in its moulds and I cannot wait to get it out!

Wait until I tell my nan about using a hand blender.... All hours she could have saved stirring a big bucket with a stick.....

I'll let you all know how it goes with my first soap! And I'm sure I'll have many questions to ask you all!

Endika


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[lsg]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your first soap. The stick blender does make the job of soapmaking a lot quicker and more pleasant.

 

[judymoody]

Welcome to the forum!

How great that your nan inspired you to make soap! And I congratulate you for taking the initiative to formulate your own recipe.

I was curious so I ran your grandmother's recipe through soapcalc.net. I am not surprised it cleaned well as it's pretty lye heavy (3 liters of olive oil at 0% SF would require only 373 grams of lye). So fine for the household, not for the body. I'm also not surprised that it took forever to trace as soap calc recommends only about 1 liter of water as opposed to three.

I'm not trying to put your grandmother down. I'm just always curious about how these traditional recipes compare to our modern soapmaking methods. I'm sure she will be thrilled to try some of your bar soap.

 

[SpanishlivinginUK]

Thanks!
I might one day try my Nan's recipe, just to see how easy would it be with a blender, might scale it down to a smaller batch tho!

One of my friends i just told on the phone about the soap told me she would love to have some, and if I make more could put some eucalyptus oil in it to help with her acne???
To help her skin would it be better to make it less fatty? Maybe 3%SF? And how much essential oil would I need? Add it after trace???

Now I'm just thinking constantly about what to do next! Addictive!


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[judymoody]

Acne-prone skin generally does better with mild, conditioning soap that soap that is more cleansing, IME. A mostly olive oil soap with a bit of castor and coconut oil, nicely superfatted, perhaps made with goat's milk would work well. For facial soap, I'd keep the scent load low, especially if dealing with sensitive skin - perhaps at 1% of your soaping oil weight.

 

[kazmi]

Congratulations! Isn't it exciting making your first soap! I can tell your addicted already....like the rest of us :wink:

 

[SpanishlivinginUK]

And here are my lovely bars! I don't have a cutter so I used fishing line? Not very even but first attempt!



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[Twiggy]

Very nice! I love that creamy white look on soaps! I think that is kind of perversion when it comes to the soap, it doesn’t matter witch form or color is it – I just LOVE to see other people soaps!

The only thing I would do different is to lay a paper towel between the bars and metal dryer, to limit their contact with metal while they are curing. That’s my personal preference, and I’m not sure if other soapers will agree, but it just seems to be better - for me

 

[Saswede]

The soap looks great! An enviable first batch!

I agree with the advice you've already had regarding a soap for acne prone skin ..... Keep the soap mild to avoid stripping the sebum (natural fatty layer) off the skin, because if you "over cleanse" and remove the sebum layer, the skin starts over-producing oil to replace it - which exacerbates the acne. So I would suggest that you use a low percentage of CO, high OO (so give it a good, long cure), and I'd probably keep it fragrance-free or scent with thyme EO (as it may have some effects against the bacteria that cause acne, based on the results of a clinical trial done in the UK a couple of years ago).

There are some additives you could also consider, from activated charcoal (which adsorbs excess oils and impurities), to a clay (perhaps French green clay/ Argiletz, which adsorbs excess oil) to using carrot purée to replace the water in your recipe (carrots are rich in vitamin A, and add lovely creamy, richness to the soap). Honey might also be interesting, because it acts as a humectant, so the soap won't leave the skin feeling dry.


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[SpanishlivinginUK]

Thanks for the ideas,
To replace water with carrot purée do I just measure the weight of the purée and discount it from the water??? How about carrot juice??
I have tried making another soap today but it traced so fast I could not mix in the cocoa powder I was hoping to use.... I think I got a bit excited with the blender.... Lol
The idea was to make a soap with vanilla essence oil and cocoa powder, now it's just vanilla gloop! Let's see what comes out!




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[Saswede]

You could use frozen (or chilled) carrot juice or carrot purée instead of your entire weight of water for your recipe. I prefer to freeze the purée (which is what I usually use), and add the lye slowly to keep the temperature as low as possible - in the same way that I would make a milk soap.

To make the purée, just boil or steam some fresh carrots till they're fairly soft, and purée them with your stick blender. You could pass the purée through a sieve before freezing or chilling, but I don't think that's necessary because the lye will liquefy any small "lumps" of carrot that may still be there, so you shouldn't end up with any bits of carrot that could go moldy in the soap.


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[TVivian]

Very impressive!


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[squyars]

Mmmmm. Carrot puree. I know what tomorrow's experiment is going to be.

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[Skatergirl46]

It looks great! I love nice white soap! Welcome to the addiction. Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

 

[ocean_soul]

Such lovely, creamy looking soaps! Good for you.

 

[savonierre]

Congrats on your first batch it looks wonderful.