Soap Making

I decided last night to attempt to make some soap from Rhonda's recipe despite not having a thermometer and it was VERY easy.

First I weighed all the ingredients and then I realised I didn't have enough olive oil. Instead of having 1000 grams I only 445 so I went to the soap calculator and calculated that amount of oil in and then added Rice Bran oil which came to a 452g and that is all the oil I could use as the soap calculator didnt have Vegetable Oil in it and that was the only oil I had. The soap calculator was great though it worked out how much water and lye (or caustic soda) I needed and from there I measured the rest.

I then added the caustic soda to the water carefully (as it is toxic if breathed in) and then stepped back for a bit and then went back to stir it in so it dissolved and then added the copha to the oil and put it on low until the copha was a little over half melted and then turned the heat off.

I left it on that same hot plate for a few minutes and then took it off the heat and waited for the copha to completely melt. You are meant to wait for it to cool to 50 degrees Celsius but I didn't have a thermometer so I waited for the copha to melt and then felt the outside of the bowl with the caustic soda and the saucepan with the oil and when they felt the same temperature I added them together to my mixing bowl and mixed it using an electric mixer (not hand one) for about 5 minutes until it looked like this.

This is called Trace. It is thick but still pourable.

I then poured it into my silicone loaf pan and spooned into the other moulds and then left them to set overnight on my bedroom dresser.

The next morning I found this

So I cut the loaf up like this

Finished product until hubby came home and he wanted the loaf cut in half again

Then I soaked everything in this bucket of water overnight and I am going to see how it works as a dishwashing liquid, will research how to thicken it up.