LOL! I had a feeling it was going to happen, because the entire hot process way of soaping isn't really all that controlled.

I found a tutorial online, studied it like mad, and it still didn't turn out. I think I'll stick to mastering the cold process for a while. It's a lot more fun, anyway.

The soap I was trying to make in the crock pot today never thickened, never reached trace. So, I was stuck with a bunch of melted oils and lye water. Oh well. Disposed of it, cleaned up, and will start fresh tomorrow with some more cold process.

Everyone have a good night!

I am so proud right now I could squeel if I didn't feel so sick, lol.

After a nap this afternoon (really, I'm not feeling well), I cut my 3rd batch of soap. It is so near my idea of soap perfection it's scarey! This batch, as you remember, did not thicken too quickly like my others and I used soybean oil in place of coconut oil. OMG. LOOK!








My only concern is the soaps ended up being a little short in height, but that's easily fixed in the next recipe. And I did put in a lot of yellow colorant, so it's a nice, bright yellow.

I cut a tiny piece off to wash my hands with to check the lather and how it feels. The soap itself is very soft-feeling. There was a little lather, but there will be more once the soap has fully cured. And my hands feel soooooooooooooo soft after using it.

The soybean oil gave it an interesting scent. I don't know how to describe it. It's a familiar scent, but it's kind of sweet. It mixed well with the cucumber melon fragrance I put in it. It doesn't smell like cucumber melon, though. I honestly don't know how to describe it.

With my next batch, though, I don't think I'll put in any colorant or scent. It'll just be 100% oils (and lye. You can't have soap without lye!). I'll do that either tonight or tomorrow. Also, I got some more soybean oil and some olive oil, so I'll be trying those in my next batch.

What do you guys think? How's it looking?

You try to make soap while you're calm, and it messes up. Big time. You try to make soap when you're mad because your last batch was made completely of FAIL, and it seems to work out fine. Go figure, lol.

This soap will not defeat me!

Anyway...

I started my second batch today just like I did the first one. I used the same recipe and everything, and got the same result. Mashed potato thickness instead of gravy thickness. I couldn't get it out of the mixing bowl at all and had to chunk the entire thing. I had used the last of my coconut oil in that batch, so I went online looking for help making a new recipe.

I found a FANTASTIC web site called thesage.com, where I read about using vegetable oil. I went looking in the kitchen, and that 100% pure vegetable oil that we use to cook with is actually 100% pure soybean oil. "Hmmm," I said to myself, and came up with a recipe consisting of soybean oil, shae butter and mango butter. Before I added the lye water to the melted oils, I put the mixing bowl in a cool water bath to cool it down a bit, because I have a sneaky feeling that the bowl being hot had something to do with the mashed potatoes thing.

With the 3rd batch, I added some cucumber melon fragrance oil and some yellow colorant. Here's a picture of it in the mold. Once it dries, it'll be a paler color. It's going to be a soft bar, though, because from what I've read, coconut oil is a staple in most soap recipes because it makes a hard bar, so I'm betting this is going to be a soft-feeling soap.





Once I use up these fragrance oils and colorants (because they're already paid for), I'm going to switch to using natural essential oils and mica for colorant. The fragrance oils and colorant I have now are fine because I'm learning and they didn't cost a lot to begin with, so it's ok to mess up with them. Hopefully by the time I'm through with them, though, I'll have a much better handle on what I'm doing and can move on to the good stuff.

Eventually, what I'm wanting to do is set up a store online where I sell completely vegan/organic bath and body products. Soap, shower gel, bubble bath, bath bombs, milk bath, lip balm, deoderant... the whole 9. I want to use the purest and best quality ingredients there is to create earth (and body) friendly products.

OMG PLEASURE OVERLOAD SQUEE!!!

Ok. *breathes* I just cut my first batch of soap that I made yesterday. It is a little crumbly on the bottom like I expected from it thickening up so ungodly fast, but all in all, I'm really, really pleased! I'm going to do another batch after I clean up the house a little bit and see how it turns out. I <3 soap, have I mentioned that?

I am so proud, I took a pic:



I think I'll try to take pics as I go tonight.

Now for some lunch.

I am so proud of me! I made my first batch of soap tonight! I ran into a few learning experiences, that's for sure, LOL!

First, I found that measuring the coconut oil and palm oil was a little tricky (and I really need to work on using my scale better), so I ended up with more coconut oil than I had expected. Then when I added the fragrance oil, it thickened up waaaaaaaaaay too fast. I was scrambling to get it in the mold! I should be able to cut it tomorrow.

Other than that, I didn't really have any problems. I melted the oils in a pyrex glass bowl in boiling water in the stove, for lack of anything else to heat it in. That worked out great. No problems with mixing the lye either. I was really worried about that because it is a caustic chemical, but it turned out great.

Here's a pic of me gearing up to make it:



After trying it tonight, I'm addicted. I know that making soap for a living is definitely what I want to do. And so what if this first batch didn't turn out perfect? It was my first ever attempt at making soap, and I'm very proud of it!

The other day, I tried my hand at making lip balm. That was an experience in and of itself, LOL! There, I learned that it is never a good idea to heat the lip balm base with the colorant and flavor oil in it, LOL! But anyway, it turned out great except that I didn't have enough flavor oil in it, so it tastes a bit waxy.

I'm on my way to doing what I want to do! This is so exciting!