Soap Makers Help!

[Muggsmagee]

I am so glad I stumbled upon this thread...and will be subscribing to it. Looking to get our first goats for this reason (and cheese making!) and can use all the advice in advance that I can get.

 

[buffbeauty]

Gotcha!! Thanks.

 

[cybercat]

Speaking of goats since we will also be ready this next year. What breeds do you have for milk? Which is your favorite breed if you have more than one. What beside soap do you do with the milk?

 

[savingdogs]

Quote:
Any goat milk would work fine, but some breeds have a higher fat content, so your soap would be more superfatted.

I have mini nubians, and of course I think they are the best.

Both breeds that go into a mini nubian (nubian and nigerian dwarf) are supposed to be "dairy" goats and have a higher percentage of fat in the milk.

Besides make soap, we drink the milk, cook with it, make cheese and yogurt.

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

Hi everyone

I'm Carol and I'm a new soaping addict!

All of you here are so talented; I have absolutely been inspired by all the beautiful creations I've seen so far! I'm on page 318 of this epically long thread... whew!... but wanted to jump in here to say hi and ask a question or two.

I've got a few batches of CP soap under my belt now. (actually CPOP~ I stick them in a prewarmed oven overnight) I love tallow~ I render it myself. I've gotten suet from 3 different sources, the first two were already ground up for me. The last time was from a custom butcher not 5 minutes down the road from me. He saved me some suet over two days and sold me around 40-45 lbs at about a quarter/pound! Right now I've got 24 quarts of tallow in jars and several pints. Next time I'm going to put it in gallon buckets. I've also got a gf who has several family members and friends who hunt, and they're going to be saving their deer suet for me. Free is the best price of all! Of course, I'll be sending some bars to thank them, I'm thinking anise bars for the hunters and something nice for the wives...

My first batch was was a nice white bar with eucalyptus & cajeput oils in it; my kids were coming down with colds and this was antibacterial/antiviral and smelled kinda like Vicks VaporRub. We were very happy with this one.

The next batch was actually 4~ one small test batch each of tallow-based, lard-based, and olive oil-based soaps where I used herbal teas for the waters and added a packet of the teas (ground up) at trace for visual appeal and texture. Everyone headed straight for the tallow based cinnamon-apple~ not sure if it was the tallow or the cinnamon, but this one is the only one of the tea soaps to hold a scent. The feel of this soap is so nice, and the scent is very subtle. It did seize up on me fast when I added the lye solution to the oils, but I warmed it up a bit and stirred by hand, and that seemed to help. You can see spots in the bars where I guess some of the fats didn't get incorporated as well as the rest.

The fourth soap from that night was tallow-based soap in which I used a POM Wonderful, 100% pomegranate/blueberry juice for the water. Here's my question: This one came out horrible! It was the last of the night & I didn't stir it long enough. I wanted to see light trace, so that's what I called it, and I'm pretty sure I poured too soon. It came out way softer than the other three, and set up with an oil slick on top. I left it in the mold & the oil slick did kind of dry up. Now there's a layer of grease on the soap (looks like I smeared Crisco on top). After a few days I dared to unmold & cut it. It's just... not right. I actually did a zap test and got nothing. Will rebatching fix this soap? When I was messing with it the other day I actually took a little chunk and washed my hands with it to see if it would lather. It did lather a little, but my hands were soooo dry and yucky. Here's a picture:

And here's a picture of the cucumber soap (the one posted by np towards the beginning of this adventure!) I did two nights ago and cut yesterday. I substituted tallow for the palm (I ran it through soapcalc). It's not scented, but I love it! It's so pretty! I can't wait to try it.

 

[ChicksterJo]

That last soap is gorgeous! I have accumulated my equipment over the past week and tomorrow I should get my lye from Essential Depot. (BTW, if USPS ships my package, do they drop it off at the front of the house or do I have to pick it up at the PO? I ordered the 10 lbs. special.)
I have a couple questions after reading Watson's "Smart Soapmaking."
1. When measuring the solid oil like coconut oil, do I measure when it's solid or after I've melted it?
2. For her "All-Veggie Grocery Store Soap" she calls for 9 oz. coconut oil, 21 oz. olive oil, 9 oz. distilled water, and 4.1 oz. lye. I put the recipe through SoapCalc and I got 11.4 oz. water and 4.269 oz. lye. Which amounts for the water and lye do I use?

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

Thanks Chickster Jo!

I have Smart Soapmaking, too, just not in front of me at the moment. From the look of the numbers you wrote, it seems she is discounting the water because of how much olive oil is in the recipe. Olive oil soaps tend to be very soft and slow to set up, so it's common to discount the amount of water used to help the bar to trace faster and get hard quicker. (that's just my understanding so far~ I'm sure one of the more experienced soapers will correct me if I'm wrong...) In the olive oil soap I did recently, I discounted the water to 25% instead of 38% and it turned out fine. I think the recipe, as written, will work out nicely. Are you adding any scents or essential oils at trace? It seems some can accelerate trace, so that's something to look into, too.

See you around!

ETA: as for measuring the coconut oil, it doesn't matter if it's solid or melted (I scoop it out solid) as long as you're measuring by weight and not with a measuring cup

 

[tazcat70]

Carol those are so lovely!

 

[tazcat70]

Ok. I have been lurking with the occasional post for a LONG time as I slowly got items together. I finally found some local palm oil and that was the last I needed for the recipe that Julie and Joy gave me. NOW I am nervous!

How silly is that? I have been shopping and storing little pieces here and there and now that the time to make the soap has come I am nervous.

Plus, it didn't help when I mentioned making the soap when buying the palm oil the lady started asking me lots of technical questions.

 

[ChicksterJo]

hehe, tazcat70, as the time nears for me to make soap, I am getting anxious and nervous too! How about that.

Carol, Thanks!! That makes sense. She did say something about making her recipes so that there would be a "medium" amount of water used so that they would trace faster (easier for the beginner to work with I guess?). I'm not adding anything yet because this is my first batch (and it's only going to be 30oz, so no big deal if it's a flop!). Next time I will try to find some lavender or rosemary essential oil. I can buy lard at a grocery store to help cut down cost as I'm new to this..but I can't find fat for free!