My First Soap!
Hey Reader!
This week I am talking about a brand new thing I decided to try learning! Soap making! I am not going to be doing it totally from scratch - mostly because of the blindness issue. See, soap made from scratch uses lye, and lye can cause blindness if not used correctly. I wanted to make it totally from scratch, but when I went to Lowes, the 100% lye drain cleaner was out of stock. The fact that the product used to make soap is also used dissolve hair should give you a clue how dangerous this stuff is.
I read a bunch of blogs and articles about soap making. Soap Queen has one of the best tutorials I could find on making soap from scratch and I do want to try it someday. However, I also like my eyes and flesh right where they are, not to mention there are hundreds of cool soap making tutorials and plans on Pinterest that use soap base.
I did yoga the other day, and I will be honest with you - but just you and don't go telling other people. I'll be honest with you in that I didn't take yoga very seriously. I mostly thought about it being stretching to Return to Innocence and other dirgey music. That being said, I tried it and the next day my ass felt like I had ridden 50 miles on a bike. I assume. I obviously don't ride 50 miles on a bike very often - or ever. I didn't take yoga seriously. I still don't love an exercise regiment where people contort their bodies and try not to fart for three breaths, but it is a legitimate exercise and I can get behind that. Not literally of course, because of the farting.
The point is, I didn't take yoga seriously and was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't the absolute worst. That is sort of how I feel about the not-from-scratch soap base making process. I was initially skeptical that this would even be a craft worthy of the blog. I mean, at the end of the day it's just melting shit and pouring it into a mold. It turned out to be a little bit more complicated - but not much. It was a fun little project and my results were visible right away (unlike the lye-based process which requires the soap to cure for weeks!).
Anyway, lets talk about the project. Firstly, with any new project you have to get all the supplies needed. I have some experience with the heavy buy-in for a new project. I have picked up at least 5 new things this year and its only March. The supplies I needed were:
Soap base - I went crazy and bought one of every kind of soap base they had.
Soap mold - I bought a fancy mold but I read online that you can line boxes or use milk cartons if you want
Soap colorant
Soap fragrance
Soap cutter - I could have used a blade, but there was an opportunity to buy a new toy so I did
It wasn't the most expensive buy in I have ever had for a new project, and it would have been cheaper if I had more of a focused plan. As it was, I bought 3 types of fragrance, and two packs of color. Had I known my plan from the start I would have only bought what I needed.
I looked at what I had and decided to make an Orange Creamsicle soap. Who doesn't want a soap that you might accidentally mistake for food.
I started by melting my shea butter soap base. I chose that because it is the only base that I had that was opaque. I have a honey based base and a glycerine base for future projects. This part of the project really reminded me of making chocolates.
The instructions had me using a double boiler - which I didn't even realize had other uses besides making chocolate - or using the microwave. I cut a little more than a third of my soap up and put it in a bowl to be microwaved. Technically, you could just cut that base up and start using it - but it wouldn't be fun.
This is part of why I don't love using a base. It is really a project where all you are doing is putting lip stick on something and making it look prettier, but whatever it is still fun.
That bowl full of milk might look tasty, but that's just shea butter melted soap base. I added a few drops of orange fragrance. There were instructions about how much to add, but I don't have a scale yet so I didn't know the weight of my soap. That's another thing: soap making is all about weights - not about liquid measures. Learning. So I added this orange scented mix to my mold and was too impatient to wait for it to cool so I popped it in the freezer. I don't know if that is good or bad, but that lack of patience is another reason I shouldn't make soap from scratch. Mistake 1: Don't test your mold by pouring water in. The mold is not water tight. Soap is thicker than water.
The rest of the soap got the same treatment, but then on top of my orange fragrance, I added orange colorant. It took a LOT of colorant to start looking the orange color I wanted. I was nervous that pouring hot soap on top of the partially cooled soap was going to create a swirl. I wasn't trying to get a swirl effect, I needed sharp lines. If I had been more patient, the white layer would have been totally solidified before I started making the orange. It actually still turned out ok though! (spoiler alert)
I then left to go get brunch and pick a fight with two irritating people sitting next to me who tried to say I was getting a little loud. It's a bottomless mimosa brunch people, why you got to be that way. Whatever, I am not still mad. It has been weeks, to still be mad at them would be absurd. Especially now that I am all doing yoga and stuff.
The soap was all ready to come out! You will notice there is a little bit of white coming up the orange there. That is where I poured the orange in and it looks like it melted the white and created a little swirl. It is pretty localized though, so when I cut it up I just made sure I kept the one that was not 100% perfect.
I got to use my awesome new soap cutting tool and created 5 bars of soap. I like tho keep them simple looking. I think it makes it look more home made. I gave 3 away and no one has reported blindness yet, so I think it works.
I have a bunch more ideas of what kind of soap I want to make. I have two bins of soap base left so I can make those next time I am running low on soap.
Next week I am talking about making another person's gift so get excited!
Keep making cool stuff!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
This week I am talking about a brand new thing I decided to try learning! Soap making! I am not going to be doing it totally from scratch - mostly because of the blindness issue. See, soap made from scratch uses lye, and lye can cause blindness if not used correctly. I wanted to make it totally from scratch, but when I went to Lowes, the 100% lye drain cleaner was out of stock. The fact that the product used to make soap is also used dissolve hair should give you a clue how dangerous this stuff is.
I read a bunch of blogs and articles about soap making. Soap Queen has one of the best tutorials I could find on making soap from scratch and I do want to try it someday. However, I also like my eyes and flesh right where they are, not to mention there are hundreds of cool soap making tutorials and plans on Pinterest that use soap base.
I did yoga the other day, and I will be honest with you - but just you and don't go telling other people. I'll be honest with you in that I didn't take yoga very seriously. I mostly thought about it being stretching to Return to Innocence and other dirgey music. That being said, I tried it and the next day my ass felt like I had ridden 50 miles on a bike. I assume. I obviously don't ride 50 miles on a bike very often - or ever. I didn't take yoga seriously. I still don't love an exercise regiment where people contort their bodies and try not to fart for three breaths, but it is a legitimate exercise and I can get behind that. Not literally of course, because of the farting.
The point is, I didn't take yoga seriously and was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't the absolute worst. That is sort of how I feel about the not-from-scratch soap base making process. I was initially skeptical that this would even be a craft worthy of the blog. I mean, at the end of the day it's just melting shit and pouring it into a mold. It turned out to be a little bit more complicated - but not much. It was a fun little project and my results were visible right away (unlike the lye-based process which requires the soap to cure for weeks!).
Soap base - I went crazy and bought one of every kind of soap base they had.
Soap mold - I bought a fancy mold but I read online that you can line boxes or use milk cartons if you want
Soap colorant
Soap fragrance
Soap cutter - I could have used a blade, but there was an opportunity to buy a new toy so I did
It wasn't the most expensive buy in I have ever had for a new project, and it would have been cheaper if I had more of a focused plan. As it was, I bought 3 types of fragrance, and two packs of color. Had I known my plan from the start I would have only bought what I needed.
I looked at what I had and decided to make an Orange Creamsicle soap. Who doesn't want a soap that you might accidentally mistake for food.
I started by melting my shea butter soap base. I chose that because it is the only base that I had that was opaque. I have a honey based base and a glycerine base for future projects. This part of the project really reminded me of making chocolates. The instructions had me using a double boiler - which I didn't even realize had other uses besides making chocolate - or using the microwave. I cut a little more than a third of my soap up and put it in a bowl to be microwaved. Technically, you could just cut that base up and start using it - but it wouldn't be fun.
This is part of why I don't love using a base. It is really a project where all you are doing is putting lip stick on something and making it look prettier, but whatever it is still fun.
That bowl full of milk might look tasty, but that's just shea butter melted soap base. I added a few drops of orange fragrance. There were instructions about how much to add, but I don't have a scale yet so I didn't know the weight of my soap. That's another thing: soap making is all about weights - not about liquid measures. Learning. So I added this orange scented mix to my mold and was too impatient to wait for it to cool so I popped it in the freezer. I don't know if that is good or bad, but that lack of patience is another reason I shouldn't make soap from scratch. Mistake 1: Don't test your mold by pouring water in. The mold is not water tight. Soap is thicker than water.
The rest of the soap got the same treatment, but then on top of my orange fragrance, I added orange colorant. It took a LOT of colorant to start looking the orange color I wanted. I was nervous that pouring hot soap on top of the partially cooled soap was going to create a swirl. I wasn't trying to get a swirl effect, I needed sharp lines. If I had been more patient, the white layer would have been totally solidified before I started making the orange. It actually still turned out ok though! (spoiler alert) I then left to go get brunch and pick a fight with two irritating people sitting next to me who tried to say I was getting a little loud. It's a bottomless mimosa brunch people, why you got to be that way. Whatever, I am not still mad. It has been weeks, to still be mad at them would be absurd. Especially now that I am all doing yoga and stuff.
The soap was all ready to come out! You will notice there is a little bit of white coming up the orange there. That is where I poured the orange in and it looks like it melted the white and created a little swirl. It is pretty localized though, so when I cut it up I just made sure I kept the one that was not 100% perfect.
I got to use my awesome new soap cutting tool and created 5 bars of soap. I like tho keep them simple looking. I think it makes it look more home made. I gave 3 away and no one has reported blindness yet, so I think it works.
I have a bunch more ideas of what kind of soap I want to make. I have two bins of soap base left so I can make those next time I am running low on soap.
Next week I am talking about making another person's gift so get excited!
Keep making cool stuff!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
Comments
Post a Comment