I am completely exhausted! Headache and everything. I made two soaps today, for the first time in many years. What a stress!
I tried the heat transfer method for the first time. It sort of worked, sort of not. My hard oils did not melt completely. I think it was due to two things. My recipe had 80% hard oils and 20% soft oils, so it was a lot of hard oils to melt. And my oils also were quite cold.
I eventually gave up and stick blended it to get it to melt. Then added my soft oils and stick blended some more. Everything looked fine until I sectioned the batter in four cups. It was lumpy! Okey, back in the pot and stickblend more, and more, and more. And I got sort of panic. This will thicken up like crazy, and how am I supposed to manage to make two soaps out of it in time, I thought?!
And it was a recipe I threw together last evening, never tested before. That was also a worry. And full of lard, that I have never used before, because it has not been available.
Well, it behaved very nice, too nice, actually. So I got serious worries about false trace after it was in the molds. Because the soap was plenty fluid. And I had 80% hard oils and a 40% lye solution, plus my olive oil was almost fridge cold. But luckily I think it became fine, it has not separated yet or anything.
I just wonder, how can people be so tidy and clean when making soap? I don't get it. I made a mess all over. Like extreme mess, like never seen before in history.
And I have lye burns on my hand. Yes, I used gloves, three pairs in a row, but had to take them off at the end. They got messy and oily, and everything just slipped out of my hands. I could not even unscrew the stickblender. Mess, mess, mess, everywhere.
I guess those tidy people are experienced, and I am for sure not. And I expect the soap will thicken up too rapidly, because that is what I have experienced the most in the past. So I get a little panic even when everything is super fine. But now I know that todays recipe really behaves, and if I will make it again I don't need to panic in advance, and can take my time and try to be more clean and tidy.
My recipe was:
38% lard
25% shea butter
20% olive oil
17% coconut oil
Dual lye (6% KOH), 40% lye concentration, 3% superfat, citric acid at 1% of oils, sodium lactate, sugar and kaolin clay.
It was sort of fun to make soap again. But more exhausting than fun, actually. I guess that is partly because I make such a mess and have too much cleaning to do. But I look forward to cutting it tomorrow. That is always the best part.
