Soap Makers Help!

[redhead83402]

Thanks for the suggestions!!
~ maybe I just have to bite the bullet & order the Lye online from Camden Grey ~ sigh~ it will just take that much longer ~ & I was hoping to have the soaps ready for Christmas gifts, but that may not be a possibility now. Before giving up totally on local sources, however, I read online somewhere that other hardware stores may actually carry the Roebic Crystal Drain Opener, so I will be out & about today looking for those. Wish me luck!!

If that fails ~ have any of you ever ordered the lye off of eBay? I see that it's the 2nd cheapest method, but I worry that it may not be 100% pure.
~Red

 

[redhead83402]

BB ~ Those soaps look AWESOME! I like the rustic look myself ~ I think it lends itself very well to saying ~I am homemade goodness!~ :-D Also, wow, you have to pay for the water? I think water must be at a premium there. Perhaps we here in Idaho don't fully appreciate our water situation, despite it being a very arid desert. I guess the underground (natural aquifers) water is readily useable, even if not much falls from the sky. We pay $13 a mo. for water in town, & most folks out of town have their own well. At anyrate, what I really wanted to say was, I think it's so wonderful what you & your friends are doing with your local church group. Strong communities make a strong nation. :-D

cheeptrick, Missprissy, NP, & all others who have contributed to this thread ~ Thank you so very much, your advice is fantastic! I never new that soapmaking could be so awesome! Honestly, I had only ever been exposed to the Melt & Pour variety, & I always had a touch of disdain for it, as it seemed rather.... well... fake. Or maybe the right word is...pre-fab. Not that it doesn't make some lovely soaps, but it's just not in the same catagory as concocting your own from start to finish.

And with that said ~ I am off to find sodium hydroxide. guess I will order some from Camden Grey to get the ball rolling, & then go on a local search fest.
~Red

 

[cheeptrick]

Camden Grey is very easy and the form to fill out is no bother. It takes 2 minutes to fill out and fax. And after your order is shipped you could have your lye in 4-5 days. That gives you plenty of time to make soap and fully cure for 5 weeks...I have sold soap at 5 week cure before...no worries. I do test PH on these batches just to be sure. Never sold a bar testing at more than 7 ph...which is the same ph as tap water. Apples have a 5.5 ph and actually OUR own skin is also 5.5...but everyone is different. My apple jack peel is made with organic apple cider from a local orchard...it does wonders for my complexion!! Our skin adjusts PH with each product we use...which is why our beauticians tell us to switch shampoo's every couple days. You'll seriously notice a difference with cold process soaps...I no longer need to use lotion or moisturizer....although, I still do for fragrance...because perfumes are very bothersome to me. I actuallly have very sensitive skin and when I switched to my cold process soaps my skin problems went completely AWAY! I also LOVE that when I get out of the shower my skin actually BENDS normally...I do not feel the taut skin I used to have with the 'detergent' commercial soaps.

Another HINT....if you use Dyes in your soap....seperate your batches like your laundry!! So your molds do not bleed into each batch...I've still got a RED MOLD.....which is NOW only used for my RED batches!! Designate each mold for a certain shade or color of soap. I also have a blue/purple mold and a WHITE one!! FYI!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Wow, I can't believe I missed all the excitement! BB, I'm glad your milk soap turned out all right, and that cheeptrick was around to "talk you down."

I'm with MP, I would not have stirred it--all of my batches are that color during the gel phase. BUT, I do like cheeptrick's non-gelled method's results a lot, so maybe I should try that more often!

Here's a (blurry, sorry) picture of a batch of my milk soap gelling:

This was a recipe I think I called "Silky Milky" or something like that--it had a TON of goat's milk, honey, and raw silk fibers (dissolved into the lye mixture). It got really hot really fast, but I didn't let it burn. Here were the finished bars (wow, I took crappy pictures that day):

I do my mixing exactly the way you did--with a stainless steel bowl set down into an ice bath, adding lye very gradually.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
Water can be expensive here. With millions of people living in this area that receives about 13" of water each year (mostly in the months between November and March) water can be a costly thing. My lot at home is only 6400 sf and our water easily costs $40 a month - and I only water my lawns once to twice a week. Imagine that at a church on acres! The upside to living here is that heating and cooling costs are a minimum. At almost 4 pm right now as I type, it's 79 degrees. Lows in the mid-50s overnight. It's the least we can do to for the church to help pay the extra water we use. In this area of small lot sizes, it's a joy to have a 1/4 acre to garden on!

Thanks again for the compliments on the soap. This has been a wonderful learning experience and I'm grateful for the advice and suggestions you all have provided. That, and for putting up with all of my questions!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Wow Ninja! That looks like a yellow cake mix with a dark chocolate filling! The results sure were nice, tho!

Well, with Cheeptrick talking me down and it all working out OK, I'm good to go again on another milk based soap, perhaps this weekend. I'm beginning to run short on lye, so I may have to place another order soon. I have more things I want to make than I have lye for!

 

[ninjapoodles]

One thing I wasn't clear on from your picture (and you might not even know) is, was that while the batch was heating up, or after it had fully gelled and was cooling back down again?

On another note, I covered my batches with plastic when I first started out, but gave that up eventually. I was trimming the very tippy-top off for packaging, anyway, so if any soda ash formed, it didn't matter. Now I just put a loose-fitting wooden lid across the top, if anything.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
Ummmmm.

Hmmmmm.

I don't know.

I had that cardboard lid over it so what you saw in the picture is shortly after I uncovered it to look. Then, I left the lid off of it and the gel went almost all the way to the edges. Which direction does it normally go in?

 

[MissPrissy]

I cover mine until I think they are just getting to the gel stage then I take the cover off and expose them to cool air.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
OK, then! You caught it during the heating-up process. It starts in the middle, and gels toward the corners--the process is reversed during cool-down. The trick is to make sure it gels ALL THE WAY into the corners, and then to get it started cooling as quickly as possible, especially if you used milk. I use fans sometimes. I'd leave off the plastic covering on top, probably.

One big mistake that I had to make once before I learned to prevent it is starting the cool-down before it's gelled all the way into the corners. You get to where you can kind of anticipate the rate of heating/cooling, but if you jump the gun, then you will have gelled/ungelled portions of soap within the same bars. It doesn't affect the usability of the soap, but the colors will be different, and it comes out looking "half baked."

If you want to try cheeptrick's method and prevent gel, I'd start with a slab mold. A thinner, flatter batch, naturally, won't hold as much heat as a thick block, so it would be easier to prevent gel.

Down here in Arkansas, I don't think I've ever successfully prevented gel in a batch of milk soap, no matter what I tried.