Soap Makers Help!

[yinepu]

Beautiful soaps! Love them all!

Wow, my head is still spinning. I was making a goat milk w/oats soap this evening with some new fragrance oils (to me) --- 'chocolate chip cookie' with a splash of 'vanilla hazelnut' (neither is something I'd buy, but I got them in trade box).
I mixed oils and lye/milk mix at room temp, stick blended to bare trace, added FO and stirred it in.
I split the batter in 2 containers with the intention of adding cocoa powder to one. In the seconds it took to reach for the cocoa powder, the batter was hard and hot as fire! I was able to scrape/dig/glob/mash the mess into the mold in what that might come out as layers.
I've never had soap act like that. Was it the 'chocolate chip cookie' and/or 'vanilla hazelnut' FO's? That was just freaky!

Probably the vanilla in the vanilla hazelnut.. it has a tendency to cause soap to seize depending on the manufacturer...

 

[MzPlacedHippie]

Someone mentioned using clays...they make a great shaving soap! Provide that extra slip. Add at light trace and be ready to move cause the will thicken your mix fast. A little goes a long way and many add great natural color.

I haven't made a batch in soo long. You guys made me miss it.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

In talking about making goats milk soap stay white, this person does it really well in her YouTube Video. This is the link for 1 of 3.

I can't wait to start making my own. I make candles now so this shouldn't be too much more complicated.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

I prevent gel phase in milk based soaps because when the soap goes thru gel phase the milk heats UP again and completely kills any properties in the milk that would be beneficial to our skin that the first heating in the lye didn't kill. Many soapers prevent gel in milk based soaps...it is like NP stated...just a personal preference. But I just want to reiterate for those folks just starting out, that soap is forgiving and you can work with it during setting up stage. I do have a commercial mold that I have actually put in the refrigerator that prevents the soap from gelling completely. If I desire a bar of soap that is full of glycerin....I actually speed up the GEL phase. And yes...I have put my molds out in the sun on a HOT HOT July day and achieved GEL without blowing up the mold.

So the stages can be sped up or slowed down to achieve different textures/hardness of soap.

Soap does not need to gel to become soap...it is a common misconception with some. I know many in the industry who prevent the gel in their milk based soaps and this was taught to me. No milk is spoiled in my milk based soaps by the gel phase and you truly can tell by the smell of the soap when you cut it. The lather is very CREAMY white. Try it...both ways. I have customers who like the browner milk soaps...and customers who prefer the white bar. And my essential/fragrance oils do not flash off during the 2nd heating of gel phase. I notice the bars that I prevent gel phase in actually hold on to their fragrance much longer than my gelled soap.

So try either way....take a bath...test the bars...see which one you like better.

So can you explain how you keep it from gelling? Hope you didn't cover this as I am only on page 35 of this thread!! I plan to start gathering my supplies.

The next question I have that hasn't been addressed yet is clean up. I come from a candle making back ground and know that cleaning up things can be tricky, because soap and water and soy wax down the drain won't work well and we will be moving to a place that has a septic system (never used one before in a house). Do you just wipe out the buckets that you stir in. What do you use to stir if it isn't a stick blender? Metal whisk? How to clean soap off a stick blender? Since it hasn't Saponified yet then can it still burn? What types of ph testers do you use? We have mini paper strips at our house currently, but we test liquids with it, I don't think it would work on soap.

I am checking into the TSC on Ebay right now! You ladies are great! This is like reading a book. I can't wait to see what happens with the garden and the soap selling for church!

 

[swirler]

I'm not on septic. For cleanup I wipe the pots/spoons thoroughly with paper towels or newspaper, and double-bag that in the rubbish (Come to think of it, I could probably rip these up after standing and put them in the compost?). Then I leave the pots stand for 24 hours in a safe (pet and child free) place, so the residue is simply soap instead of burning fresh liquid soap. Then wash in very hot water with a little regular dishwashing detergent. Occasionally I'll put some things in the dishwasher so long as they're well wiped and have stood for a day.

My stick blender I'll clean while fresh, just washing with gloves on in very hot water with some diswashing detergent. First though I wipe it with a paper towel, then plug it in and zizz it in hot water, which gets most of the muck off.

To stop gelling you need to cool the soap quickly, so make room in a fridge or freezer to put the soap immediately. I confess I never do this, as I like the appearance of well-gelled soap, so I'm more like to insulate well, put out on the patio in midsummer, or do a low-temperature CPOP (Cold Process Oven Process: put oven-safe molds full of fresh soap into the oven on a very very low temperature (about 60-80 C) for an hour or two. Be sure to have a tray beneath them and keep an eye out for volcanoes.) The only time I won't do this is with extremely fragile fragrances like citrus EOs. Most of my fragrances and EOs hold up just fine to this treatment.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

Aww chiknwhisperer, sorry to hear about your chocolate soap. Maybe you could rebatch it? Do you think that you forgot to add one of the oils or added to much lye?

I make sure to make notes on every batch I make now. I include what recipe I used, fragrance and amount, any extras I added, what temps I soaped at, my superfat %, how strong my lye solution is, how the soap behaves while soaping, did it gell all the way, discolor, accelerate trace. If there is anything I don't like about the soap, I make a note of that too. If anything goes wrong I write about it, what I think caused it and what I can do to prevent it. I think they the notes have already helped me in two cases. First was the cinnamon swirl. I now know to soap cool, use full water and do not insulate.

I can't wait to see your Castile soap with rose petals!

I wanted to share this really cool article I found that really informative about discounted water cold process.

http://www.rivercitysoaps.com/dwcp/dwcp.pdf

Something I like to do with my candles is to make a spreadsheet in Excel (or write one) with blanks on it for oil percentage candle size, color used, and where I purchased my scent from, temp I poured at and such. This way, I don't have to remember what info I want to write down, I just fill in the blanks. It is one less thing to think about! Just make a section with a few lines with each of things above, then they pop easily into a 3 ring binder.

 

[Morgaine]

Haven't been on here in forever lol!

When wanting to prevent gel, it also helps to use less liquid.

 

[Renee']

Has anybody tried to replicate the Aveda scent? I LOVE the scent and I would like to try to make some goat's milk bar soap with this scent. I found on-line that the Aveda scent is composed of the following: lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, rosemary, peppermint, and orange, but I have no idea where to start on the ratios. Any suggestions, help, recommendations, etc. will be sincerely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Renee

 

[Wasson6Pack]

I'm interested to know if anyone here makes salves and dish soap? I make laundry soap and would like to expand so I don't have to buy dish soap and hand soap anymore.

 

[Renee']

I have not seen any dish soap or salve recipes.

Did you want bar or liquid hand soap?