What I do AFTER the kids are in bed…

Yup, that’s right.  I make soap.  And then I blog.  Tonight I’m going to tell you all about the soap making process – well, at least how I do it.  If you are interested in making a batch of soap, please don’t use me as your only resource.  There is ton’s of info out there.  I’m just writing about my experiences for fun and to show you the general process.  There are some really great websites out there like soapclalc.com, thesage.com, and millersoap.com.  “Thesage” and “millersoap” both have a ton of great recipes.  “Thesage” also has the best prices on ingredients that I’ve found, a wealth of helpful information, and an awesome selection of high quality fragrances and essencial oils.  They are also quick to respond to questions.  I can’t really take credit for finding “thesage.”  My friend Jenni (naturallycowgirl.com) told me about it.  On “soapcalc” you can plug in a recipe and it will tell you how hard, sudsy, cleansing, and conditioning your soap will be.  You can make your own recipe on there, or fine tune one you already have.  All three websites have detailed soap making instructions.

So here goes something…

First thing’s first – safety.  Get yourself some safety goggles and gloves.  Lye can get pretty crazy, so you want to be prepared.  Another good thing to have is a gallon of vinegar nearby – a tip that Jenni gave me.  If you do get lye on yourself, the vinegar will neutralize it.  It’s also good to wipe everything down with it after you’re done, just to be safe.  And I make my soap after the kids are in bed.  That way I don’t even have to think about one of them getting hurt. Here’s me being safe.  And Jake thinks my hair is weird.

I was able to order a lot of the stuff I needed to start this hobby from “thesage,” including gloves, goggles, bucket, soap spoon, fixed oils (sweet almond oil, caster oil, etc.) and fragrance oils.

To start, I use a digital kitchen scale to weigh my lye and water.  I do it in separate containers.  When they are weighed, I go outside and pour the lye into the water and stir.  If you are doing this and see a cloud come out of the water, don’t breathe it.  Trust me on this one.  And no, I did not go “oh, a chemical cloud.  I wonder what it smells like.”  I just figured that “mix in a well ventilated area” meant that I could do it by an open window.  Now I mix outside and make sure that I am up wind from the pitcher.  The up wind thing was Jake’s genius.  It’s funny, because he mentioned it like I was already doing it that way.  I thought “no duh, Sheri!”  And then I just nodded and gave Jake the ‘like I didn’t think of that already’ eye roll and pretended that I came up with it first.  Now I could ramble on and on about how I am a product of California’s broken public edyoukayshun system…nevermind.  Yes, so you measure all ingredients by weight.  I’m glad that I am so focused and able to stay on topic. This is my lye on the scale.

I leave the lye/water outside for a while to cool.  Ah, yes.  Lye reacts with water and gets very, very hot.  While the lye is cooling, I weigh all of my fats.

After the fats are weighed, I put them in a pot on the stove and heat them on low until they’re melted together.  After that it is important to get a hot man to stir the fats and make kissy faces.  You can’t borrow mine, so don’t ask

After the oils are all melted, it’s time to mix the lye in.  Some recipes give a specific temperature that both the oils and the lye have to be at when you mix them.  It’s sort of a pain, cause you have one thing cooling and one thing heating and you hope that they somehow synchronize.  Anyway, my recipe doesn’t have specifics on the temps, so my life is now a little easier.  I put the oils in my soap bucket and then pour the lye/water into the oils.  Don’t do it the other way around.  Oh, and pretty much any kitchen gadget that you use for soap, will become a soap gadget.  I learned that lesson with my super heat proof spatula that I always make eggs with.  One morning of scrambled awapuhi eggs and that spatula was banished from all food.

Ok, so here’s where everything went crazy fast, so I didn’t get very many pictures.  I mixed the lye with the oils and started stirring with my soap spoon.  Then I grabbed my stick blender (imersion blender).

Typically one would mix for a while and when the soap reaches trace (you pull the spoon or blender out, drizzle a little soap and it leaves a “trace” of itself on top), you add fragrance and anything else to make the soap pretty or nice.  Well, my trace happened pretty much instantly and in a major way.  I had to scramble to get everything in.  One of my all time favorite lotions was from my mom in law and it was fragranced with sandalwood and rose.  So naturally, I ordered sandalwood and rose fragrance oils from “thesage” and mixed them.  I also ripped open a teabag of celestial seasonings raspberry tea and poured it in.  Someone suggested it online to make the soap look neat, so I thought I’d try it.  Once everything is mixed and traced, it’s time for molds.  There are a ton of choises when it comes to molds.  You can use a wood box and line it with freezer paper, loaf pans, actual soap molds, pvc pipe, sewer pipe – whatever.  I’ve been using sewer pipe, but my aunt gave me one of those silicone muffin tins to try.  I guess it’s not really a tin if it’s made of silicone.  I greased that sucker up with petroleum jelly and poured my soap in. 

After the soap is in the mold, I cover it with plastic wrap.  If it is exposed to air, it will get a white ashy layer.  Next comes insulation.  I wrap the molds a blanket to keep it from cooling too fast.  OK, here is the part that I don’t fully understand yet.  When the soap is in the mold, it actually heats itself up in what they call the “gel” phase.  If the soap cools too quickly, it just doesn’t turn out right.  That’s why it’s important to wrap it up.  After about 18-24 hours, or whenever the soap feels hard enough and is cool, it can come out of the mold.  This is also when I usually cut it, if need be.  And here’s the finished product…

Soap has to cure in a dry place for 2 weeks or more, depending on the recipe.  The longer it cures, the milder and harder (longer lasting) it will be.

So that’s my new hobby.  Look’s fun, huh?  Time for me to put my feet up.