JJBlaine
Member
I'm waiting on my first few soaps to cure before I make any more, but I really want to soap now. Lol. So, last night, after finally reaching the end of Songwind's thread, I decided to try my hand at shaving soap. I planned on 3 small batches - the original recipe, the second with Shea & cocoa butters as a SF, and a third with lard.
The first went quite well, and I was pretty pleased with myself. On to batch #2. Like a good little soaper-in-training, I ran it thru the lye calculator. I got everything melted and stirred up from mashed potatoes to a creamy mixture. I covered it up and all was well in my soapy little world. Or so I thought.
Fast-forward ten minutes to when I go to stir it up. My poor silicone spatula was no match for the hard waxy blob that now occupied the bottom of my crock. I marvelled at how that little 5% of oils set aside could make such a drastic difference in the texture. As I battled the blob in the crock, I began to think it just couldn't be right.
I looked at my notes... I had forgotten to change the 38% water to 25% lye concentration. Oops!
I added in several tablespoons of water and tried to mix it in. The blob just rolled around in the water. I pulled out the potato masher and started churning away. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I heard the blob giggle as it adhered itself to the utensil, leaving the water behind. (So that is what soap on a stick looks like!)
I decided to pull out the "big guns", aka, the mixer. The blob was no longer giggling. I quickly realized that maybe I added a touch too much water, because the blob did what soapy blobs do. My pot filled up with a lovely, thick foamy lather, which would be quite becoming of a shaving soap if not for all the mini-blobs.
I moved on to stick blender, which, surprisingly, worked really well at defeating the mini-blobs and knocked the foam down by about a third. I crossed my fingers and left it to cook out the surplus water I had added in and hoped the foam would melt down.
After about 3 hours, about another third of the foam had disappeared, and I figured it was about as good as I could hope to get. I plopped it into a bowl, and added my glycerin, SF, FO, and a little mica to see how well the additives blended in.
To my amazement, I was able to work out the last bit of foam by kneading it all together by hand. It felt very much like the first batch. The color looked evenly distributed throughout. I couldn't even see any tell-take white spots of mini-blobs, which I fully expected. When I put it into the mold, it appeared to be the same volume as the first batch.
If not for this forum, and all I have learned here, I would have just tossed it out and started over at several different points. It would not even have occurred to me to try and save it, much less have thought of what to try.
So, thank you to all who so generously share your talent and experience! And, to new soapers like myself, I hope that you too will take your oopsies in stride and see what they can teach you. I know I learned a lot more from the batch that went sideways than I did from the first that went perfectly.
BTW, I Never did get to the final batch, but at least now I have something to do the next time the longing to make soap becomes irresistible.
The first went quite well, and I was pretty pleased with myself. On to batch #2. Like a good little soaper-in-training, I ran it thru the lye calculator. I got everything melted and stirred up from mashed potatoes to a creamy mixture. I covered it up and all was well in my soapy little world. Or so I thought.
Fast-forward ten minutes to when I go to stir it up. My poor silicone spatula was no match for the hard waxy blob that now occupied the bottom of my crock. I marvelled at how that little 5% of oils set aside could make such a drastic difference in the texture. As I battled the blob in the crock, I began to think it just couldn't be right.
I looked at my notes... I had forgotten to change the 38% water to 25% lye concentration. Oops!
I added in several tablespoons of water and tried to mix it in. The blob just rolled around in the water. I pulled out the potato masher and started churning away. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I heard the blob giggle as it adhered itself to the utensil, leaving the water behind. (So that is what soap on a stick looks like!)
I decided to pull out the "big guns", aka, the mixer. The blob was no longer giggling. I quickly realized that maybe I added a touch too much water, because the blob did what soapy blobs do. My pot filled up with a lovely, thick foamy lather, which would be quite becoming of a shaving soap if not for all the mini-blobs.
I moved on to stick blender, which, surprisingly, worked really well at defeating the mini-blobs and knocked the foam down by about a third. I crossed my fingers and left it to cook out the surplus water I had added in and hoped the foam would melt down.
After about 3 hours, about another third of the foam had disappeared, and I figured it was about as good as I could hope to get. I plopped it into a bowl, and added my glycerin, SF, FO, and a little mica to see how well the additives blended in.
To my amazement, I was able to work out the last bit of foam by kneading it all together by hand. It felt very much like the first batch. The color looked evenly distributed throughout. I couldn't even see any tell-take white spots of mini-blobs, which I fully expected. When I put it into the mold, it appeared to be the same volume as the first batch.
If not for this forum, and all I have learned here, I would have just tossed it out and started over at several different points. It would not even have occurred to me to try and save it, much less have thought of what to try.
So, thank you to all who so generously share your talent and experience! And, to new soapers like myself, I hope that you too will take your oopsies in stride and see what they can teach you. I know I learned a lot more from the batch that went sideways than I did from the first that went perfectly.
BTW, I Never did get to the final batch, but at least now I have something to do the next time the longing to make soap becomes irresistible.
