Hi – did my first solo loaf soap…
The weather is still spectacularly awful, so spending as little time outside as possible.
I’ve been watching some design techniques on youtube and tried one out yesterday.
The colours were meant to be more boldly black and yellow – the fragrance is honey.
I did some more soap this evening and again the colours were not what I envisioned. This will take some practice.
I also started cutting my honey soap wrong to show off the pattern. Once I figured that out it looked much more interesting. (Clearly I need to bang the mould down harder to get rid of those bubbles)
Plus I suck at cutting!!
Eventually I will need to look at getting or making a template with a wire cutter. Also – I think this needed another day curing as I muffed it in a few places. I’ve left a chunk of it to try to cut tomorrow to see if it behaves any better.
A reader mentioned her interest in how this is done!
If you are keen – I’d really recommend going to a workshop to start with. Its just great to talk to someone who really knows what they are doing and get some hands on experience first before going out to buy all the ‘stuff’
While I can’t share Sharons recipe, I can give you the gist of the process below. (There are several websites that have recipes to follow which is good, as you can choose what kinds of oils and if you want to use goats milk etc)
Unfortunately I have not really taken many photos of the stages I am going through as its just not convenient to stop and de-glove and grab camera haha.
The caustic soda/lye is the awkward bit. You’ve got to be so careful with handling it. Good ventilation, no danger of kids/pets getting into it while it is cooling off.
I’ve got it in crystal form and I add it to the water (NOT the other way around)
As soon as the lye hits the water it reacts fast! Heats up and you DON’T want to breath it in! Gloves/goggles are the go. I mix it in with a spatula and go back after a while to remix. (It needs to cool for an hour or so)
You need to get your other bits and bobs ready – the oil, fragrance, colours, (milk) moulds – as once the process starts you need to keep going.
Oh – and a stick mixer!! Very important.
All equipment I use is not used for cooking regular food.
Once the lye goes into the oil (and my case milk) it undergoes a chemical change – and becomes way less dangerous. (as in pretty much not at all)
You need to mix it with the stick mixer until it becomes thicker and leaves a trace on the surface (again this is all best seen) Its actually quite wonderful to watch!
Before it reaches that stage I have normally added the fragrance and set some mixture aside for colouring as well.
Then its all poured into the moulds – colours mixed in as artistically as you like and left to harden.
I can normally take them out of the moulds the following day but they need to cure at least a month before using. So hopefully I am doing all these right!!
The longer they cure, the longer they last in use.
Its not actually difficult – more a matter of getting your stuff together and knowing what to do. Certainly the class with Sharon gave me the confidence to dive in and make it by myself!
Anyway, thats all from me. I think we still have rain ahead, reckon there will be a few more indoor days for me.
Cheers!
