Hello from VA!

[juliab86]

Hi everybody. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Julia and I'm new to soap making. I've made 6 batches so far and learn something new every time. I love the experimenting and using different materials. Before soap making, I made lotions, lip balms, salves and scrubs.

I've been using this forum as a resource for a while and already found answers to my many questions. I look forward to learning!

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. I think we learn with almost every batch.

 

[AnitaB]

Hi there! I'm fairly new here too! Just made my 1st batch of cp soap over the weekend.

 

[juliab86]

That's so exciting!

Hope yours turns out better than mine. My first batch (90% Olive Oil/10% Castor Oil) had a cookie dough (or maybe cheesecake) texture when I took it out of the mold. Probably because I didn't let it reach more than a light trace, or more likely because it didn't gel because I didn't insulate and took it out too soon. Tried the same recipe again the next day and it turned out great.

What did you make?

 

[AnitaB]

That's so exciting!

Hope yours turns out better than mine. My first batch (90% Olive Oil/10% Castor Oil) had a cookie dough (or maybe cheesecake) texture when I took it out of the mold. Probably because I didn't let it reach more than a light trace, or more likely because it didn't gel because I didn't insulate and took it out too soon. Tried the same recipe again the next day and it turned out great.

What did you make?

Well I would say that just yet :???: I signed up for a soap making class onlne, in my 3rd lesson I had to make two methods of soap. First being a Hand Milled and second cp. So here is the link to my cp post here on the SMF
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f34/newbie-w-2-part-question-water-m-p-shea-butter-34974/

Anyway, reading your post I think I didn't let it get a hard enough trace myself. Because as you can see in my pix it does look lke cheesecake all crumbly. I probably un-molded it too soon about 27 hrs is what I gave it and cut it. Let me know what you think I dd wrong. I also don't know about the insulating process.....

 

[juliab86]

Yours looks so much better than mine did! Mine was an unusable messy glop that I had to throw away.

Again, I'm new to this too, but yours looks like it might be fine once it cures. It will probably harden. I have yet to work with shortening, but your recipe looks good numbers-wise.

As for insulating, I didn't read enough instructions before I did my first batch and didn't put plastic wrap over the top of my molds. You do that, I found out later, to let the soaps heat so they can gel. I'm sure someone on this site can explain gelling better than I can. Anyway, I didn't do that and my first batch never heated and gelled. And I got a gloppy mess.

I have yet to have a batch go crumbly. Probably the more experienced soapers on here will know what happened. In my opinion, this does not look bad at all for a first batch!