My First Batch

[Paulmitic]

So, here it is... my first batch... ever. It was just a little test batch to see if I could make soap happen. I think I did, though now the hard part begins... Waiting. :-/ Who wants to give me the over-under on whether it will turn out properly or not?

9.6 oz. Coconut Oil
8.0 oz. Palm Oil
6.4 oz. Olive Oil
3.2 oz. Cocoa Butter
2.8 oz. Castor Oil
2.0 oz. Almond Oil

8.4 oz. Distilled Water
1.6 oz. Coconut Water
4.6 oz. Lye

I brought the oils and the lye-liquid together around 115F. Once I got it to trace, I poured about a quarter of it into a pitcher, and added some cocoa. I then poured my primary batch, and used the cocoa colored to attempt swirlage. The soap was wrapped immediately after this picture was taken and is now safely incubating.

I'll post more pictures as it develops. (Or fails to.)

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5991/soap21.jpg

(P.S. When I added the photo in the editor and clicked "host it", I received "You must provide a valid auth token or dev key. see http://code.google.com/p/imageshackapi/" Did I do something wrong?)

 

[Hestey]

Looks nice! Can;t wait to see pics of it cut!

 

[Hazel]

Congratulations on your first batch! Your soap looks fantastic! It sounds like everything went smoothly for you.

(P.S. When I added the photo in the editor and clicked "host it", I received "You must provide a valid auth token or dev key. see http://code.google.com/p/imageshackapi/" Did I do something wrong?)

I don't know what the message means. I haven't heard of anyone being asked for authorization or anything else. Maybe it was just a glitch at the time you were trying to upload the pic. Please let us know if it happens again.

 

[moosie]

congrats on your first soap, woohoo! I can't wait to see it cut. what type of container is that in? just wondering if you will be able to get it out

as far as photo posting, I'm not sure how to host here. I use flickr and just put in the image url between [ img ] tags. [/img]

 

[saltydog]

very fancy for your first soap, looks great!

 

[Paulmitic]

The Big Reveal!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I was planning on keeping the soap insulated for two days, but we got impatient after just one and decided to check it. I was shocked to find it had already solidified! Apparently small batches need a lot less time than big ones. Here are a couple of shots:

Right before we sealed it up my wife decided to throw on some almond slivers as an exfoliant. I figured the first batch was reason enough to try something new. I'm going to set most of these to curing, but I think I'm going to try hand-milling and liquefying a bar or two also.

One question: I've currently got the bars in a ziploc bag, should they be airtight or not? Wasn't sure if one was a better idea than the other.

 

[Paulmitic]

P.S. I'm totally bummed the coconut/cocoa butter didn't scent the oil more strongly. I didn't add any EO/FO and it smells a little like plastic.

P.P.S. In all of my research, no one ever mentioned that lye turns blazing orange when you add it to the water. For a moment I was concerned I was having a stroke.

 

[VanessaP]

When I add my lye to my water, it just turns a cloudy white, not blazing orange, even when I have dissolved sugar into my water. Now, if you had the coconut water with the distilled water, then added the lye to that, I suppose that could turn it orange due to a chemical reaction. But no, if you're using just plain water, I don't think its supposed to turn orange

They look lovely, and look like they smell great. But I don't know how usable they would be with the almonds on top. I'd be rather tempted to slice that off before a kid could snatch off the almonds. But then I have two little monsters, I mean toddlers, who like to grab everything.

 

[Hazel]

OMG! That looks edible! You did a great job. I'm a little concerned about all the almonds on top. They may be a bit scratchy so be careful when you use them. Also, it may not be a good idea to let them go down the drain so you might want to put something over the drain to catch them. This is just a suggestion but if you want an exfoliating almond bar then you might consider trying almond meal. You can find it at groceries in the baking aisle.

You don't need to keep soap insulated for 2 days. Generally, the batch would be saponified by the next day.

You don't want to seal the bars in plastic. The excess water needs to evaporate. Place the bars on a shelf or wherever you are curing your soaps. Turn them every day or so to expose all sides to air. I only do this for about a week and then I get lazy and only turn them once a week or a little longer. After they've cured, you could place them in paper bags.

Sadly, the scent of coconut doesn't make it through saponification. I've also heard the scent of cocoa butter rarely makes it through saponification, too.

I've never heard of lye turning orange when mixed with water. I've had it turn orange when I've added it to a dairy liquid. Where did you buy your lye?

 

[Paulmitic]

Thanks Hazel; good to know. It's "Duda's Red Devil Lye" I got it off of Amazon. I suppose it may have been reacting to the coconut water I mixed in, I had no clue it could do that.

 

[Hazel]

You mean coconut milk? If so, lye does turn orange in it. I've had the same thing happen to me that VanessaP mentioned about the solution turning orange even with adding lye to the distilled water and then adding the coconut milk into it.

Does the lye say 100% Sodium Hydroxide on the container?

 

[tkine]

Wow!

I want to EAT those! Are you sure they're soap?
Great job!

 

[judymoody]

Your soap looks good enough to eat!

For future reference, any food products added to soap should be ground fine or pureed. If they are too large, they might get moldy. Anything that is ground superfine in the soap, the lye should be able to preserve. The almonds will probably fall off the first time you use the soap. But they sure do look pretty.

I second the advice to keep your soap in a well ventilated place. This will allow for evaporation and extend the shelf life.

The orange color and the funky smell is almost certainly from the sugars in the coconut water caramelizing. The funky smell should cure out.

Congratulations on your first batch!

 

[Godiva]

Your soap looks good enough to eat!

I agree - looks like a candy bar! Yummy!

 

[sudbubblez]

They look like an edible confectionary. You mentined they smell like plastic, this can be because of the grade of plastic they were molded in. Some plastics will leech into their contents. If you continue to use that sorage container as a mold I would line it with saran wrap. It would keep the plastic from leeching into the soap.

You can also preserve more of the properties of the coconut water by dissolving the lye in the same amount of water (1:1 lye solution) and then topping off the remainder with coconut water after the lye solution has cooled. When the sodium hydroxide hits water it splits and is no longer sodium hydroxide. This reaction seems to bastardize the properties of the fluids NaOH is directly mixed into. Because soapmaking is chemistry you can get a different product just by changing the order in which the ingredients are introduced.

 

[Pamela]

That soap looks delicious.....I love making soap that looks good enough to eat!!! No calories