Soap - Easter Weekend Project

I've always been very afraid of the whole soap making process due to the Lye part.  Yes it may be the influence of too many horror movies but I finally decided it was time to... well... get over it!

The most important part is to be prepared with all the right safety gear as the Lye can burn in any form!

1. A long sleeve shirt
2. Safety Glasses
3. Chemical resistant gloves
4. Safety Mask

When adding the Sodium Hydroxide to the water it is important to turn your face and way and not inhale.

Make sure you use the gear when cleaning up!

Okay so now I have the scary stuff out of the way here is some additional things I learnt along the way that aren't always mentioned in the blogs I visited

1. Use a Soap Calculator to double check the Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) and water needed 
2. Adding Sugar or honey to a recipe super heats during the Saponification process so do not insulate!
3. Use equipment that is dedicated to making soap
4. If possible mix in an area separate to anywhere food is handled and in a well ventilated area
5. Think about how you are going to dry the soaps.  I bought a little roller trolley to stack them in.  Standing them up ensures you get plenty of air around all sides of the soap (well except the bottom of the soap)

Top to Bottom: Honey & Oat, Calendula & Lavender
Orange & Peppermint, Grapefruit & Calendula
Blizzard, Scraps from the ends

Now from the recipes

First up was Calendula & Lavender.

I bought this one in kit form from Go Native.  These kits are awesome, especially if you are nervous about making soap, and have very helpful instructions.  I purchased mine with a thermometer as this is key to hitting the right temperatures.

Thankfully I thought ahead and purchased some additional ingredients so I could spend the weekend exploring the world of cold process soap making!

Next up is a recipe from Humblebee and Me called Blizzard Soap.  Humblebee and Me have lots of Soap recipes but for a second attempt at soap making I thought a basic one would be good.  Most of the recipes are based on a 500g loaf which is a little small for the loaf mould, ran the calculations through the SoapCalc for a 750g, 700g is the perfect fit however I wanted a little left over to add to another recipe.

This recipe has Kaolin Clay, Titanium Dioxide, Peppermint and Cajeput added at trace.  I love peppermint so this was a great second choice.

I had put a little bit of the blizzard loaf in a second mould to cut up for the third recipe.

The third recipe is Orange with bits of Blizzard soap through it.  It smells like orange syrup cake with a hint of peppermint.

Number four is Honey and Oats

Just remember for Honey recipes not to insulate as the sugar super heats the process.

This smelt fantastic when I cut it up.  It was quite soft so needed to cut it upside down otherwise the oats scraped down the soap and left an uneven cut.

The fifth recipe is another from Humblebee and Me - Grapefruit & Calendula.

I used red mica for the pink colouring.

Here are some additional pics from over the weekend.

The Lye solution is very hot so take care! 

I measure everything at the start so it's easier when I'm blending
all the ingredients

Went old school to make the colloidal oats and
ground using a mortar and pestle

Oils and Butters before melting