Soap Making 101

[Farmfresh]

No actually I love the 100% olive oil soap. I use a pure olive oil, as they say Extra Virgin and Virgin are actually not as good in soap and also the pure is cheaper!

Part of your problem with small batches is keeping them warm. Soap needs an insulated period where the soap stays warm. It helps the chemical process. When it cools off too fast you have problems.

 

[me&thegals]

I got my order of essential oils from Brambleberry yesterday! Wow!!! Even the shipping was not too bad, and the prices were incredible! I'm used to paying small-town co-op prices for EOs. These were about 12 times cheaper. I am so excited.

The kids, DH and I had sniff-test contests last night. (ok, call us geeks) I had the kids read all the labels, then I hid the labels and had them test them all out. It was really fun!


So, here's my recipe offering. I have made this 3 times with variations in the liquid (once with GM and water, another time with just GM and another time with GM and carrot juice). It is really, really nice soap. I love how SS it is in that many of the ingredients come from my farm.

EIEIO (revised from The Soapmaker's Companion, Susan Miller Cavitch)
13 oz coconut oil
13 oz olive oil (save aside 1 cup oil)
13 oz palm kernel oil
6 oz lard
5 oz corn oil
5 oz sunflower oil
2 oz beeswax
_______________
Total oil: 57 oz

4 egg yolks, room temp
1/4 cup mixture of dried oatmeal (ground), wheat germ and cornmeal
12 grams grapefruit seed extract (optional preservative that I did not use)
7 tsp pure EO or FO (optional, and I did not use)

Total liquid: 19 oz (suggestion is 6.25 oz goat's milk/12.75 oz water)
Lye: 8.25 oz

Fats and oils: 100 F
Lye solution: 85 F

Add lye to water, mix well and let cool to 85 F. Mix egg yolks into set-aside 1 cup olive oil (oil at 85 F). Heat goat's milk gently to 80 F (I did not do this but instead chilled it as much as possible) and drizzle into the lye solution. Immediately add the milk/lye mixture to the oil (100 F), beating briksly. After 1-2 min of blending, drizzle in the well-blended egg/olive oil mixture, stirring briskly the entire tiime to present the egg yolks from curdling. At trace, add the oats/corn/wheat germ. Enjoy!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Sounds like you guys had fun!

I tried to do soap again last night and this time, success!!
Armed with my new(old) digital postal scale, DH's phone for a unit converter (ounces to pounds & ounces, the way the scale reads) my stick blender and the other supplies needed, I cleared off my space & started to work.

It went just like I'd imagined it! And I had a blast!! I will definately do it again.

DH came into the kitchen to get his cuppa and found me under the kitchen table, peering under the blankets, giggling at my warm, slowly hardening soap. Here it is about to be tucked in.

 

[okiegirl1]

Congrats Noobie!!

isn't this fun? I'm kinda glad I'm not in it as much as I used to be because I used all my "extra" money (whatever that means) to buy more soap supplies. It is an addicition!

so happy for you.

 

[me&thegals]

Noobie--That is awesome!! What oils did you go with this time? I love the part about you giggling. Next comes the incessant sniffing. Can I sell soap that has my nose prints in it?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Thank you Total fun! DD said I looked like an alien with the goggles on.
I used the cheap soybean oil, as the only olive I had on hand was my cold pressed, extra-virgin. I noted that soy & olive require the same amount of lye, so, in I jumped. Otherwise, the recipe was henny's modified castile recipe.
I made it plain with no fragrance, as a test you see. This will be our soap.
But it smells nice anyways. Fresh and clean.

Next I'm gonna grab some cheap olive & make the castile & scent it. Sugar cookie, patchouli or peppermint, cause I have those on hand.
About how long does castile have to age to be useable? I'd like to give a few bars as Christmas presents, but don't know if I have enough time to age it.

 

[Farmfresh]

Olive oil castile seems to harden up pretty quick for me. I would give those gifts and just let the recipient know that the soap will be more mellow and better if they can wait a few weeks to use it.

 

[me&thegals]

Thank you Total fun! DD said I looked like an alien with the goggles on.
I used the cheap soybean oil, as the only olive I had on hand was my cold pressed, extra-virgin. I noted that soy & olive require the same amount of lye, so, in I jumped. Otherwise, the recipe was henny's modified castile recipe.
I made it plain with no fragrance, as a test you see. This will be our soap.
But it smells nice anyways. Fresh and clean.

Next I'm gonna grab some cheap olive & make the castile & scent it. Sugar cookie, patchouli or peppermint, cause I have those on hand.
About how long does castile have to age to be useable? I'd like to give a few bars as Christmas presents, but don't know if I have enough time to age it.

I keep reading that any soap needs at least 4 weeks, but I have used some of mine sooner. My carrot and coffee soaps definitely need more time to cure.

As for castille, a recent thread on thedish.com stated at least 6 months, better 1 year!!

I really, really love that fresh soap scent, nothing added. I made the EIEIO soap recently, only this time with honey. I think about 1 T of honey for the whole batch. I cannot believe how strongly that tiny bit of honey smells! It is so yummy!

I keep hearing about patchouli. How would you describe the scent?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Hmmm, maybe I'll go back to cookies & do the soap next year, after I "perfect" my technique. I've already got a ton of cookie tins.
Patchouli... hmmm. Have you ever been in a head shop or hippy boutique?
Like that.
Seriously though, its a little sweet, a little woodsy/musky, a little spicy. My favorite scent.

 

[Carolyn]

this is very interesting. We starting making soap for sale 2 1/2 yrs ago and it keeps us very busy. We make goats milk soap from what they call the Walmart recipe, kinda tweaked it a bit, we got a box of palm kernal flakes so we use that now instead of coconut oil, until it is gone and then will probably go back to coconut oil. We do hot process although I am going to do some CP to cut out with cookie cutters for Valentines Day for the Massage and Day spas that stock our soaps. Our soap is very nice, although some soapers think that HP soap is ugly, our customers really like it. We have a woman that buys 10 to 15 bars at a time for her little boy who has severe skin problems and has tried a lot of things including prescriptions, but a lot of soaps or cleaners have alcohol or petroleum byproducts. We told her this won't be a magic product, BUT it helps him because he can wash and not get burned from the soap so it does help heal to a certain extent and she doesnt' have to fight to get him to wash his hands or even take a bath because what they were using hurt him. My DIL and her mother have severe exzema, her mom had cracked burned hands and had a terrible time finding soap, but she tried it buys up to 20 bars at a time so she doesnt' run out and carries her soap with her. We use our own goats milk, coconut oil or palm kernal flakes, sunflower oil or olive oil, lard, lye and EO's and FO's as well as unscented. We have found that people who are sensitive to fragrances can use our soap even with FO's. We could play a little more and might try using more olive oil and back down the coconut oil and palm kernal flakes because they are a little drying. We find a lot of people like the 2 oz bars, although we sell 4 oz and 6 oz(for the guys in the oil fields) this works for us so we aren't going to mess with it-repeat customers . I might try a few new lines with herbs, but we milk goats and "promote the goat" for everything. We make shea butter also and some people put shea into the soap, but there are people who are alergic to shea, so we keep it simple.