Soap surprises

One of the most fun and frustrating parts of soap crafting is not having any clue what your soap bars will end up looking like. Sure, you can guess based on your colors and swirling techniques that you're planning to use. But when you're trying a new method for the first time, or you're testing a fragrance oil that ends up seizing horribly, you just have to hope for the best. Then you get to wait 24 hours before you can cut the bars to see if they look surprisingly gorgeous, filled with air bubbles, or completely different from what you were expecting.

Recently, I made a watermelon cold process soap. I blended three shades of red/pink pigments in order to get the watermelon flesh color that I wanted. I was planning to include some drizzles of black horizontally across the loaf, so that it would look like seeds. However, I had not anticipated how much the black drizzles would spread. Instead of little black seeds, I ended up with black lines going through my bars. As I saw the black batter spreading as I was putting it into the mold, I knew it wasn't going to look the way I wanted it to. I still think the soap looks nice overall, but I will probably skip the black next time. Maybe poppy seeds would work better instead?

Regardless of how my soaps end up, peeling the paper off of my loafs and then cutting that first bar off makes all the work worth it. It's like opening a present that you worked really hard for. And most of the time, I am pleasantly surprised. :)

Dandelion Zebra Swirl

Sorry for the hiatus in posts! With my new job and my husband deploying, things have been busy around here. I just wanted to share my first attempt at the dandelion zebra swirl. I would say that it was a success!

I'm glad that the swirl was more centered than I thought it'd be. After watching some Youtube videos (haha) and looking at other people's results, I noticed that a lot of people's soap resulted in the swirl being off to one side. I think how centered it is just depends on the angle of the insert, how you remove the insert, and how much you are swirling. I just used a piece of cardboard and it worked out fine. The Youtube videos were very helpful :) I was dying in anticipation to cut this loaf, so I'm glad it turned out better than I was expecting.

Here are the mentioned Youtube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDuGer63C9Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YphXlXxcY-Q

Soap Ricing

So I've probably made close to 30 batches of soap by now, but I have now just experienced the problem of ricing. Typically, I make soap in 1-1.5 lb batches, mainly to test FOs, colors, and techniques. Because I wanted to make some ombre tall soaps, I had to use my mold that holds 2-3 lbs. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not testing this FO beforehand. I added the FO at light medium trace, and the soap immediately started ricing. Although I had never seen ricing, I immediately assumed it was ricing because of the quick reaction to the FO. The consistency reminded me a bit of tapioca pudding.

Not knowing what to do (and unsure if my soap would even be usable), I tried mixing the batter by hand. I didn't use the stick blender because I didn't want to thicken up trace even more. I was planning to do an ombre design with 9 layers, so I couldn't afford to have the batter be too thick. It ended up being pretty thick by the time I got to the last few layers anyway, so there are some air bubbles in the soap.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that this happened. I used the Lettuce fragrance oil from Brambleberry, and there was no mention of ricing online. I soaped at about 105/110 degrees, so I don't think it was too hot. I guess you can't really depend on other people's reviews for your own soaping experience, you just have to test the ingredients yourself.

I was dreading what the bars would look like after cutting. They don't look completely terrible, but there are obviously spots that I didn't break up and are therefore uncolored. From what I've read online, the soap is still usable. I'm just not sure how well these bars would sell. I'm probably just going to end up giving them away. :(

Here's what the cut bars look like:

What a bummer!

Soaping with wine

So far, the liquids that I've tried soaping with (aside from distilled water) include goat milk, beer, and tea. I've had mixed experiences with all of them. The goat milk worked out the best for the most part, and I like how the lather almost feels like lotion. In my opinion, though, if you want to do fancy designs and have consistent results, I'd stick with water.

Anyway, I had this Berrywine fragrance oil that I had purchased off of Brambleberry that I had yet to try. So to add one more liquid to my list, I tried making soap with wine. This time, I was smart enough to boil off the alcohol beforehand, haha. To avoid any mishaps, though, I decided not to try to do any fancy swirls. As long as I got the soap into the mold without air bubbles, I was good.

The wine behaved better than I anticipated. I didn't have much trouble in terms of trace acceleration. What I did have trouble with was: 1) the smell, and 2) the color. When I made soap with beer, the beer and lye mixture definitely stank. It was unpleasant but tolerable. The wine and lye mixture, however, smelled way worse! It was a smeller stink than the beer, but it seemed way stronger to me. I tried putting my pitcher under the oven fan so the fumes would get sucked up, but I really could not get over the smell. Thankfully it smells a bit better now after saponification, but I am hesitant about how the final bars will turn out.

Also, the wine and lye mixture changed color like crazy! As I was stirring the lye in, the wine changed color from merlot to dark green to dark blue and then to a gross dark brown. I have no idea why it did that, but it was interesting to watch. :) I wanted my soap to be a rich merlot color, but it was tricky with the wine. Without any added colorants, wine soap will cure into a mucky brown. I followed a recipe from my soaping book and added some titanium dioxide and then some merlot mica. The soap still looked brown as I poured it into the mold, but it started to redden more during saponification. Now, almost a week later, it's more of muted burgundy or dark rose color.

To prettify the soaps a bit, I decided to try painting mica on the tops right before cutting them. Although I had read about it, I had never attempted it myself. I had also read about drizzling a mica/oil mixture on top after you pour the soap in the mold, but I didn't want to try this method in case the soap didn't behave. I had a design in mind for painting mica on the top, but I was a little concerned that the mica wouldn't stick. So far, so good! Most of the mica is still on the soap, so I hope it stays that way. Here are a few pictures of the mica application:

Gold mica down the middle (sorry, I forgot to take a picture pre-mica)

Copper mica on the sides

And finally, merlot mica on the edges

The mica definitely makes the soap more glamorous looking. Now I'm just waiting for the stinky smell to go away. :)

Margarita Salt Bars

I recently learned about salt bars through my usual Pinterest/Youtube soap browsing. I was surprised to learn that it's the exact same process as making cold process soap, except you modify your oil ratios and add a bunch of sea salt at trace. Given that sea salt is beneficial to your skin and is associated with luxurious bubble baths, I thought I'd give it a try.

Even though I did a bunch of research online, I started with a small batch in case I messed something up. I used a new silicone mold that holds up to 6 round bars, and it worked great for this purpose. Salt bars are supposed to be really hard to cut if you don't cut them soon enough (a few hours after it's poured into the mold), so it's way easier to just pour the soap into individual molds and pop them out 24 hours later.

Unlike regular cold process soap, in which it's best not to have more than 30% of your oils be coconut soap, salt bars require a large amount of coconut oil. (Good thing I went to Costco and bought a giant container of organic extra virgin coconut oil!) The sea salt tends to inhibit lather, so you need about 70%-80% of your total oils to be coconut oil in order to get a nice lather. The coconut oil is not drying (as it would be in CP soap) in salt bars, and most people superfat their salt bars are a higher percentage anyway.

Based on the various recipes I found online, it seems that everyone prefers a different amount of salt in their salt bars. Some go as high as equal to the weight of the soap batter (i.e., if your soap batter ends up being 30 oz, you add 30 oz of salt at trace), some add the same amount of salt as there is oil (i.e., if your recipe has 20 oz of oils, you add 20 oz of salt at trace), and some go as low as half the amount of oil (i.e., if your recipe has 20 oz of oils, you add 10 oz of salt at trace). I decided to go with the middle option (amount of salt = amount of oils), as that seems to be what most people go with.

Again, I made a small batch, so I used 11 oz of oil total. I ended up only filling 5 of the 6 cavities in my mold, so I could probably use 12 or 13 oz of oil next time. Here's the recipe that I used:

Coconut Oil - 8.25 oz (75% of oils)
Avocado Oil - 1.1 oz (10% of oils)
Shea Butter - 1.1 oz (10% of oils)
Castor Oil - 0.55 oz (5% of oils)
Lye & Distilled Water - I used the Brambleberry lye calculator to calculate how I needed. I superfatted at 10%. Some people superfat as high as 20% for salt bars, but since I used a lot of moisturizing oils, I figured 10% would be enough.
I had some margarita fragrance oil that I had yet to try. I figured it would be a totally appropriate fragrance for a salt bar. :) I also used some yellow and green oxide pigment to create a lime green color.
And of course, 11 oz of fine sea salt added at trace. I actually mixed the FO with the salt beforehand and poured them into together in case the FO caused trace acceleration.

Here is what the soap looked like right after I poured it into the mold and after unmolding:

(I'll need to plane the rough side because it looks ugly haha.)

I love how smooth the edges turned out after unmolding. So many people have problems with crumbling when they cut their soap bars, so I'm definitely sticking to this mold for future salt bars. It's so cool how you can actual see the salt! I wish I could test one right away, but argh, I will have to wait another month. This would be perfect in the summer, because it smells super lime-y and refreshing. :)

Soaping tools

Although making handmade soaps can be a relatively cheap hobby if you buy the bare necessities and/or make your own molds, that has not been the case for me. :P So far I have been sticking to one adjustable wooden mold and a flat blade soap cutter. I'm really glad I started with an adjustable mold (purchased off of Etsy!), because I can make batches varying from one to five pounds with the same mold, and it's easy to take the soap loaves out. However, the only downside to the mold I got is that it is somewhat short--the inner height is only 2.25'', which doesn't leave me a whole lot of room for fancy tops. Meanwhile, the blade that I use was definitely the most cost beneficial option for a beginner, but more often than not, my designs end up getting smeared and I have trouble cutting straight.

Therefore, even though I haven't sold a ton of soaps yet, I decided to make the investment in new molds and a wire cutter. I bought a small silicone loaf mold off of Etsy and tried it out the other day. I don't know if it was the sodium lactate, the fragrance oil, or the mold, but my soap ended up cracked, soft, and crumbly when I tried to unmold it 24 hours later. It was a bit difficult to pop the soap out of the mold, and I messed up some of the sides in the process. Plus, the sides weren't rigid enough so it kind of bulged out as I poured the soap in. Granted, the mold came from China and probably isn't made from the best of materials. I'm not sure if I'll use it again, but if I do, I will plan on lining it with freezer paper so that it's easier to unmold. I bought another silicone mold that makes 6 round bars--I am hoping this mold will work better.

Today I went ahead and ordered another wooden mold off of Etsy. Although I'm sure my husband could build me a mold, I don't think he has all the tools to do so. It'd probably be more trouble than it's worth, so I figured it'd be better to just order one online. After shopping around, I found the Etsy prices to be the most reasonable. Plus, I was looking for a particular part of mold with tall sides. After seeing some of Emily Shieh's beautiful soaps (see her blog here), I have been wanting to make tall soaps. I could make ombre soaps with more layers and do delicate tops, the new possibilities are endless.

I also got a mandolin off of Etsy too. Although I wish I had the money to buy one of those super fancy wire cutters that cut your entire loaf of soap in one second, I just don't think it's worth the investment right now. The mandolin I got cuts one 1'' bar at a time, but at least it cuts with a wire. Hopefully it works well, cuts evenly, and reduces the amount of smearing. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Assuming you could make wooden molds yourself, the other ingredients for basic soap making really aren't that hard to get and aren't terribly expensive. If you used natural scents, natural colorants, and a few basic oils, you wouldn't need to order anything online. You could even buy lye from the hardware store (I have yet to do this because I don't trust that those products are 100% lye. I always buy my lye off of Brambleberry.). However, if you want to add fragrances and other colorants, you pretty much have to order products online. That is the part that kind of bums me out. I love experimenting with fragrances and designs, but it can be really expensive ordering that stuff online. Nature's Garden Candles fragrance oils are pretty cheap (about $2.60 for 1 oz bottles), but shipping always costs a ton. Boo. If only there were a way that I could produce fragrance oils and micas myself, hah. Wishful thinking, I know.

Anyway, here are some of my more recent soaping updates:

The rose soap I posted about previously is now ready on Etsy! I'm so glad the dried rose petals kept their color and shape.

I made this black raspberry vanilla scented soap with the spoon swirl method and M&P embeds. I used the colors black, white, burgundy, and rose. I'm afraid the black color is kind of dominating, so maybe next time I'll use a dark purple or something? I was also worried about the M&P embeds. I found this cute silicone raspberry shaped mold at Target (only $1!!) and thought it'd be perfect for the scent. However, since the embeds are offset for cutting purposes, I really was not sure how cutting the soaps would be. It turned out ok for the most part, but one or two of the raspberry soaps broke. :( I tried melting some more clear M&P soap to act as "glue," so we'll see how that holds up. Here's what the top looked like prior to cutting:

I also made this boba/pearl milk tea soap recently in that silicone loaf mold I mentioned above. It did not turn out the way I wanted, but at least I didn't waste too many materials. =/ I made the "boba" by pouring M&P soap into actual boba straw so that I ended up with these long black cylinders. The soap is scented with a green tea fragrance oil. I thought it was a cool idea, but if I made it again, I'll be sure to use my wooden tall soap mold. =P