My first & second CP

[Dorado]

I made my first CP soap 8 days ago:
50% Olive Oil - (organic, hand-pressed by a friend)
30% Coconut Oil
20% Palm Oil
10 grams of FO (def. not enough)
Superfat: 5%, Water 38%
I used Soapcal.net to calculate Lye.

Simple starter soap, had trace within the first 5 minutes, with a stick- blender, do not know why, maybe as fast as a result of hand-squeezed organic oil ?????
Poured mostly in a mould made of a milk carton, and the rest I improvised a little..
One piece of soap with grated coconut, One soap with pumice stone and turquoise color, 3 pieces of soap with red color and rose FO.
They all came out really good, exept, the turquoise came out purple !
The soap is now in a cool basement, 4-6 weeks before it is ready I think.
But I could not resist the soap today, so I made the zap test: No acid - just taste of soap. Tried the soap in the shower:
Nice foam, no scent (too little FO) creamy, a bit slimy, but it probably disappears after a few weeks in the basement. My skin feels nice, no use of body lotion today. I am quite happy with the outcome.

Now I am so ready for my second batch. A soap for my deeply-allergic son. Following lots of advice from Hazel (thanks), the recipe looks like this:

55% Olive Oil (infused with 125 grams of chamomile flowers, my choice)
25% Coconut Oil
10% Castor Oil
10% Shea Butter
No. EO, FO, or color
Superfat 8% (Hazel recommended 5%) 38% water (perhaps chamomile tea have not decided yet )
Have used Soapcal.net for calculating the Lye.

I started yesterday with 125 grams of chamomile flowers in a jar, doused with oil, the oil covering the flowers. The jar was 4 hours in the sun yesterday and became lukewarm about 113¤F / 45 ¤ dc.
Today, jar was also about 4 hours in the sun. Later, I will give the infusion low heat for 122¤F / 50 ¤ dc, cooling it down to room temperature and run the mixture through 3 layers of cheesecloth over night.
Tomorrow I'm ready for my second soap ….. so exciting….
I've read / studied so much the last few weeks, I think I will see flying soaps in my dreams tonight..........

 

[Guest]

Congrats on your first soaps. Just an FYI about the second batch for your 'deeply- allergic' child. Chamomile can be an allergen, and shea butter is from a nut. You may want to make sure he has no issues with them before you add them to his soap.

 

[judymoody]

Congratulations on your first batch!

Most people use fragrance at anywhere from 3-6% of oil weight. There are strict guidelines in the EU about limiting various types of fragrance in products for sale but as this is for home use, I don't think that applies. If you get into essential oils, be sure to read up on safe use rates, contraindications, side effects, etc.

I recently made a chamomile-infused goat milk soap for people I know that have sensitive skin. If you use chamomile tea in place of water, make sure it's completely cool. It may stink temporarily when the lye hits it and expect it to turn orange or dark brown. However, when you mix your soap, it will settle down to a creamy yellowish tan.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Hazel]

Congratulations! Lather tends to improve during curing so if you're happy now, you'll probably be thrilled later.

They all came out really good, exept, the turquoise came out purple !

What did you use for a colorant? Purple is sometimes a hard color to get since some colorants morph in CP. Is it a pretty purple?

 

[Dorado]

Thank you WHS. And thanks for caring
There are no issues with chamomile or nut oils See post 12 here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=32237

Thank judymoody.
I'm about to say the oil infusion now, It looks nice and clear. I've made chamomile tea, so it's certainly room temperature in the morning.
I have absolutely no intention on selling my soaps, so I'm not worried about the strict guidelines of EO in the EU.
I try, however, to know as much as possible about the ingredients I put in the soap.
I want to make my soaps as "clean" as possible, preferably with eco stuff.
I will close my nose when I'm mixing NaOH and Tea on the terrace tomorrow.
I'm not worried about the color, I just hope a bit of chamomile good properties are in the soap.

Thanks Hazel.
Don't know which turquoise color - bought this one: http://www.granvelada.com/119-colorante ... quesa.html. I am deeply disappointed, there is nothing either on the invoice or on the bottle, making it a color I only play with in my own personal soap. When I added the color to the soap, first it turned brown, the next day it was purple :!: . Do not know if it has something to do with the NAOH or the powdered pumice, I also added. :?:

 

[Guest]

youre welcome. just thougth i'd toss that out there. good luck with your second batch.

 

[Dorado]

Thanks whs

 

[Dorado]

Foto of my first batch,

[attachment=0:1e6la95t]Billede22-600.jpg[/attachment:1e6la95t]

Now, I also know, how to add fotos

 

[Hazel]

Don't know which turquoise color - bought this one: http://www.granvelada.com/119-colorante ... quesa.html. I am deeply disappointed, there is nothing either on the invoice or on the bottle, making it a color I only play with in my own personal soap. When I added the color to the soap, first it turned brown, the next day it was purple :!: . Do not know if it has something to do with the NAOH or the powdered pumice, I also added. :?:

All the bars look great and that's a gorgeous purple! I'd hang on to that dye because you could use it for swirling.

I don't know why it changed color since according the the site it's used for CP, HP and liquid soaps. It would be interesting to try it with more yellowish oils to see if it would turn green. It's too bad there isn't an ingredient list. I can only guess that it's not stable in CP - the lye causes it to change color. Maybe one day you can try it in an HP batch and see how the color turns out.

 

[Dorado]

I will deff, try a HP - later.
I love the purple color too, but - i made that soap for my husband, he wanted a scrubbing-soap.
I prefer natural colors = none
The OliveOil I used, was very thick, greasy and very green - a spanish freind pressed it for me, from his own eco olives.
I am surprised, the soap became so "whiteish" Lovely oil, I only had a bit.

Maybe I will try the turquise again, in a single soap tomorrow, if I can.
(I don't know, if you have notised, there is a tiny bit of ash only on the purple soap, lucky me, but doesn't matter I will steam it away.)

 

[Dorado]

Did it.
Did actually 2 identical, except I swapped Sheabutter with Almond Oil in the other, just to know the diff.
I Used the Lye calkulatoren for both of course, smalldifferences.
I made 1 kg of each. No problems - everything went smoothly. Traces after 8 & 10 min. Looking gooooood
They are now wrapped in towels in the sun, it will be interesting to see them tomorrow
forgot to grease the one mold, I wonder if I can get the soap out?
know more when they are removed from the molds.
So exiting .............. :clap:

 

[Hazel]

You'll have to post pics when you get them out.

What type of mold was the one you forgot to grease?

 

[Dorado]

It is a simple PVC tube, like we use for pipes.
BTW, I tryed the turqiuse color again on a small soap - first it was gray, then brown and now it is gray again with a hint of blue/purple
Exiting how it looks tomorrow afternoon.
Will post pics, when done.

 

[Pamela]

Great looking soaps Dorado...and that purple is amazing

 

[Dorado]

Thank You Pamela.
And after 8 days now, it is still the same,
Hopefully it won't change

 

[Dorado]

After 48 hours I have, with much difficulty, demolded the soap from pipes.
First 1 hour in the freezer then boiling water on the molds, finally a slice of cardboard and a tin of tomatoes and some of my husband's muscles.
The first batch of Sheabutter is just absolutely perfect, with a week scent of chamomile.
I'm pretty proud of this batch. :clap:

The second batch (1 kg) with Almond oil, I am certainly not proud of. :cry:
First I added 2 teaspoon TD in order to make the soap white. Disolved it in a tsp of water.
Added too late, soap mass was too thick to blend, so it is not properly mixed.

When I poured the soap mass in the cylinder pipe, buttom scratched, and I had soap all over.
Closed the bottom better and filled the soap in again - with difficulty.
The soap smells wonderfull of marzipan, but it's certainly not pretty, white spots everywhere, it must be melted down. :cry:

The rest of the soap mass (about 125gr) with almond oil and TD, I used for testing to learn.
It was really too late to test, since the mass was fairly thick, but I gotta learn. (I think leraning from your own mistakes are great)

- Pouring 1 ml of the earlier mentioned turquoise color in . The soap was first pink, then brown and finally gray with slight lavender tinge.
- Pouring 3 ml of FO in the small portion and it turned out to be really bad FO, the mass solidified pretty quickly. did get the mass down in some small silicone molds that I had sprayed with siliconespray. (won't ever use that FO again. Bad spanish product.)

The small now lavender colored soaps, was quite difficult to get out of silicone molds. They were too soft. They were not very pretty, and again, TD and color was not mixed properly. Never mind - I have to learn.

Have spent many hours reading here and at MillerSoap, so I decided to try micro melting to this small portion.
First I tried to steam the soaps, to see what steam did. Nothing . Now, with the steam moist, gave them 3x30min in Mic, without adding more fluid.

Placed the cup in a second container of nearly boiling water and stirred a lot. Pressed the remelted mass in silicone molds again, this time smeared with Vaseline oil. Waiting now for the outcome before I remelt the large almond loaf. Will read a littel more about how. Would love some advice :?:[attachment=3:1bjg2dlb]Billede03-600.jpg[/attachment:1bjg2dlb][attachment=2:1bjg2dlb]Billede05-600.jpg[/attachment:1bjg2dlb][attachment=1:1bjg2dlb]Billede06-600.jpg[/attachment:1bjg2dlb][attachment=0:1bjg2dlb]Billede07-600.jpg[/attachment:1bjg2dlb]

 

[Guest]

smells wonderfully of marzipan you say? Id say thats a whopping success!

 

[Dorado]

Thank you whs.
Yes, the Almond soap smells like marzipan, Shea soap has the consistency of marzipan.
Oh, my sweet tooth screams, I love marzipan.
I would now like to re-melt the almond soap - read something somewhere about to merge it with a new batch
- that I better find and read again before I go for it

 

[Guest]

youre welcome. i dont want to comment on the rebatching because i dont have much experience with it, but i think ive heard that depending on what you used for scent, the rebatching could alter it... though i think you may be able to add more? not sure... yeah, soap that makes your sweet tooth scream are wonderful things good luck with it.

 

[Dorado]

Thanks.
I did not add any scent to the Almond soap.
Only added FO to the lavender colored testsoaps.