Gel phase and Unmoulding of CP Soap

A good way to understand if your soap is coming out properly, is to have a quick peek after 2 to 4 hours after pouring. By this time, properly mixed and insulated soap will have reached gel phase, and will look translucent and *much* darker then when you poured it. This is perfectly normal, and really, I think this is the only way to be sure that what you've done is going to be soap.... soon! :-)

Since there's no precise steps to follow at this stage, I will simply give you a list of notes and comments:

*Try and keep the soap in gel state as long as possible (that is, do not move the moulds or remove the insulation layer).

*After 12 to 24 hours, the soap should be ready to unmould.

*Properly made and insulated soap is opaque and solid, and should not be covered by any "soap dust".

*Soap dust is a white powder that may appear on the surface(s) of the soap exposed to air. Chemically speaking, this may or may not be sodium carbonate, a mild alkaline salt that forms when the still caustic soap mixture reacts with the air surrounding the soap, and is totally innocuous. Another theory is that this white powder is simply "dry soap". Discussions abound on this subject, and my personal conclusion is that it's not worth worrying (too much) about it.... :-)

*Unmould the soap and leave to cure at room temperature.

*Arrange the soap on your chosen "cooling racks" (for instance, clean carboard trays, such as those used by greengrocers for exotic fruit) so that air can circulate around each soap.
If you live in a very humid climate, it might be safer to cure the soap in air tight plastic containers. Experiences and opinions on this subject are not unanimous - my personal experience is that a humid room is a lot more "dangerous" than an air tight plastic box, and I know of soapers (in tropical Australia) who simply avoid making soap during the monsoon season.

*Curing is basically needed to get rid of the excess water, as well as an extra precaution to make sure no free alkalis are present.

*Well cured soap has a richer lather and lasts much longer than fresh soap.

*If you have precise pH strips, you can test the alkalinity of your soap. At the end of the saponification process, natural soap will read between 9.0 and 10.5.

*On the pH of soap, I recommend Ann Perius-Parker's article, available from Kathy Miller's fantastic soap info site.

*In my experience, the pH of properly prepared, mixed and insulated soap does not change over time.

*There are more empirical ways for testing the alkalinity of soap. The most popular is called "tongue test", and I personally like the way "Hersh" (James Hershberger) describes how to do a tongue test without burning one's tongue off.

*A simpler and less painful method, is to wash your hands with the soap. If it burns, or if it leaves you with a "boiled skin" feeling (similar to what happens after soaking in a hot bath for a long time), or if the lather feels slimy and rinses off with difficulty, then the soap is still caustic.
This might change over time. So before deciding your soap is too caustic, leave it to cure for another few days.

*If the burning/slimy/boiled skin sensations are still present after one week from unmoulding, then there is too much free caustic soda in the soap. Double check your recipe and notes: did you leave one of the base oils out? Did you check the accuracy of your scales? Did you double check the initial calculations using a reliable SAP calculator?

*In my experience, soap that still feels caustic after two weeks from unmoulding is most likely a "lye heavy" batch.

*The fact your soap is lye heavy doesn't mean you must throw it in the bin. On the contrary! Soap can always be rescued - for instance, you can rebatch the soap adding some extra oils, or you can make some laundry gel.

I hope you've found this information useful. If you would like to discuss further, you might like to consider joining a qualified soap making list, such as Soap Naturally.



Source: http://www.aquasapone.com.au/soapmaking/coldprocess_soap3.html

Ylang Ylang Chiffon Body Souffle Recipe

All measures by weight, except if otherwise noted. \

Ingredients:
1 oz. aloe butter
3 oz. ultra-refined shea butter
2 oz. rosehip seed oil
2 oz. hemp seed oil
1/2 to 1 tablespoon glycerin USP
1/8 teaspoon rosemary oil extract
1/2 to 1 1/2 oz. Natrasorb (optional)

Scent blend:
1 part neroli
1 part jasmin
1 part tangerine
3 parts ylang ylang

Process:
Melt aloe and shea butters over low heat in a stainless steel vessel. Once liquid, remove from heat and stir in fixed oils and ROE. Cool in freezer til white "crust" begins to form along sides of vessel (from fats hardening) and the butters become semi-opaque. Remove from freezer and begin beating with an electric mixer, preferably one that is outfitted with whisks. Beaters work OK. Once the mix becomes aerated and fluffy, drizzle in the glycerin while mixing on low speed. Once all the glycerin is in, whip again. Feel the consistency and decide if you want this product to have a less greasy feel. If you do, add in the Natrasorb by sprinkling atop the butter mix, and whip again til all is incorporated.

This product will not become hard in 24 hours. It should remain fluid and creamy if mixed properly. Spoon into sterile jars. This product is not pumpable.



Source: http://www.pureandnaturalsoaps.com/recipe-ylang-ylang-chiffon-body-souffle.html

Citrus Mint Soap Recipes

by Carrie Grovesner


Citrus and mint fragrances go together really well in soap. You get a doubly refreshing bar, perfect for that morning shower or whenever you need a little pick-me-up. When you’re blending citrus fragrances with mint, use a strong peppermint oil. Spearmint and wintergreen type fragrances seem to clash with the fruit scents, but peppermint is a great complimentary addition.

Using the recipes below, follow the instructions found here to make your cold process, citrus mint blends. The Grapefruit Mint Scrub Bar recipe makes a smaller batch.

Citrus Mint Soap
24 ounces olive oil
24 ounces coconut oil
24 ounces soybean oil
8 ounces palm kernel oil
11.5 ounces lye
30 ounces water
1 ounce sweet orange essential oil
1/2 ounce lime essential oil
1/2 ounce lemon essential oil
1/2 ounce grapefruit essential oil
1 ounce peppermint essential oil

Grapefruit Mint Scrub Bar
8 ounces coconut oil
8 ounces palm oil
32 ounces olive oil
6.5 ounces lye
18 ounces water
1 ounces grapefruit fragrance oil
1/2 ounce peppermint essential oil
1 tablespoon ground loofah*
* add the ground loofah at trace, just before pouring



source: http://www.waxandbubbles.com/citrus-mint-soap-recipes/

Just Thought I would let you know

For the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with bronchitis. It is not really that not fun. And if you were signed up for my bath products class on 9/27 that is the reason why it was cancelled. Sorry about that. I will be offering the class again soon.

Making Homemade Soaps - What Needs to Be Learned First

By Lisa Chambers

Soapmaking can be a creative and rewarding hobby as long as the proper safety precautions are followed. One of the biggest aspects of this means learning about lye and other safety procedures, and this should be done before even bothering to attempt to research how the soapmaking process works.

Sometimes even experienced soapmakers need to be reminded! Don’t let this all scare you- making soap can be as safe of a craft as any other! However, the key to safety means being informed. Here’s some guidelines and tips: GET TO KNOW LYE AND RESPECT IT!!! 

Soap CANNOT be made without lye. There’s no way around it and if someone told you they did, I hate to break it to you- they lied. Even liquid soap, bath gels, and shampoos contain a form of lye called potassium hydroxide. However lye, alone, is a highly dangerous substance. There’s no sugar coating it- lye can kill you. If you respect it and use it properly everything will be fine. Try not develop a fear of it, and instead focus on handling it properly. Label your lye water. If lye is ingested internally, there is a strong likelihood of it being fatal. If you walked away for even for less than a minute and someone walked into your kitchen with a bowl of lye water in a glass, bowl, or pitcher- the results could be deadly! Just to be safe I like to mark my bowl or pitcher with large adhesive label or even better yet, a permanent marker. 

Wear your goggles or safety glasses. Always! If lye water splashes into your eyes, it can blind you. It doesn’t take much… Better to be safe than sorry! Wear your gloves…. And your clothes! If it can do that to your eyes, exposed skin isn’t safer either! Lye can eat through skin. Even in tiny amounts it can cause painfully irritating chemical burns. 

It’s wise to keep a bottle of vinegar around in case of splashes or spills. If this should occur, rinsing with vinegar helps to neutralize the lye. However, care should be taken to prevent this because the vinegar cannot undo damage that has already been done! Even finished soap bars can be irritating until soap has it’s “curing” time- usually a very minimum of four weeks. 

When making soap, it’s smart to make sure you’re wearing clothes that will protect your skin. Pants, instead of shorts or dresses, and long sleeves are ideal. Don’t forget your feet- remember your shoes! Keep pets and children away while soapmaking. It doesn’t take much for lye to be harmful to anyone- it takes even less to bring harm to a small child or pet. If you have little ones running around, it’s best to do your soapmaking in an area they don’t have access to or wait until you have “alone time”. Even with ground rules and with the best behaved children or pets in the world, it’s just not worth the risk. 

Only use pure lye. NEVER attempt to use Draino or any other products that “contain” lye. These products contain other chemical additives that may interfere with the soapmaking process. The results could range from winding up with a soap that is highly irritant to the skin to a lethal concoction that you wouldn’t even want to be in the same room with! Work in a well ventilated area. The fumes that rise when lye is mixed with water during the first few minutes can irritate the lungs. Some people are more sensitive to it than others, but a well ventilated area is recommended to anyone. Remember even if it doesn’t bother you at the moment, repeated exposure may bring about a different story. Larger batches of soap are usually give off more potent fumes than smaller ones. 

Use an accurate scale. Never measure your ingredients by volume because it can lead to inaccuracies, leaving you with an irritating “lye heavy” soap. Instead, make sure you use an accurate scale to weigh out your ingredients- one that measures in increments of at least a 10th of an ounce is best. A good postal scale will do just fine. It’s also a good idea to invest in calibration weights for your scale so that you can test it’s accuracy periodically. Use the right equipment. 

Choose your bowls, pitchers, spoons, or whatever will come in contact with your raw soap carefully. Ideally, you want to make sure your supplies aren’t going to be used again for cooking, for an example. You also have to keep in mind that certain metals such as aluminum or copper can have undesired chemical reactions with lye. The best materials to use are stainless steel and heavy duty dishwasher safe plastics. (Even wooden spoons will do, though the lye water will slowly eat at them over time. I lost a good spoon that way!) 

Some people even recommend using large glass Pyrex measuring cups. However, I personally can’t. I have heard of rare instances where even sturdy Pyrex glass has shattered- in one case I heard of, no one was even in the same room when it happened! In a way it makes sense. Lye water, when first mixed, can reach very high temperatures in an absurdly small amount of time. Then on top of it, over time the potent lye itself may do it’s damage. Over time it may make the glass brittle and create stress on it, though unseen to the human eye. 

Use distilled water instead of tap. Some people say it’s alright to use regular tap water for soapmaking. In most cases, it probably is fine… However tap water can contain various trace metals and minerals that may interact with your lye, giving some unexpected results in your finished soaps. Once again, much better to be safer than sorry! Mind your pour! Always make sure to close the container of lye tightly when you’re done. Any moisture that gets in contact with the lye granules will form clumps, which may increase the chance of spills while pouring next time you use it. It may even effect your soap by giving you inaccurate weighings of your ingredients in the end, if enough gets in there. Pouring slowly so you get it right the first shot and don’t have to put any back is also wise. 

Another thing that can be a hassle sometimes when pouring to weigh your lye is static… Lye sometimes gets a “charge” and granules here and there seem to have a mind of their own when being poured! A quick wiping of the container you’ll be weighing with a dryer sheet first helps with a smoother pour. 

Always use a lye calculator- no matter what. Never assume a recipe that someone gives you, that you find online, or come across in a book is safe. Even if you obtain a recipe from the world’s most trustworthy source, it is always safer to run your recipe through a lye calculator first to make sure you use the proper amount of your ingredients. There are many free and easy to use lye calculators that can be used online or downloaded to your computer, so there’s no excuses! 

Stay away from painted surfaces. It’s best not to do your soapmaking on any painted surfaces. Lye can easily strip paint and damage surfaces. Even on kitchen counters made with a tougher surface material, it’s a good idea to lay down some plastic or freezer paper to protect the area you’re working in. Remember to always keep that vinegar handy as well, just in case! I know this all must sound terrifying to some and makes you feel as if you need a Hazmat team on standby when learning how to make soap, but believe me it’s not really as bad as it sounds! 

More people than you’d probably imagine throughout the world make soap every day. If you’re interested in soapcrafting, just do as much research on the subject as possible from as many different sources as you can. There are also several wonderful forums for soapmakers where people can turn to others for advice and to share experiences and ideas. Soapmaking may not be for everyone, but chances are once you make your first successful batch , you’ll be hooked on this craft! Just remember- at any stage in this wonderful hobby, safety always comes first! 

You can visit Lisa Chambers’ website at http://www.chambersessentials.com for free information, recipes, and tips based on natural or crafty point of views.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Chambers http://EzineArticles.com/?Making-Homemade-Soaps—What-Needs-To-Be-Learned-First&id=192562