Soaps

I used the Creamy Scrubber in the Down to Earth and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!

This is how well the creamy scrubber works.

Soap making. I thought it wouldn't take long to come to trace with my electric mixer, but turns out it is quicker with a stick blender. I thought I got rid of mine but hubby informed me tonight that we still had it in the shed. YAY!!

The basic process is to obviously get everything you are going to use out, ready and then weigh all the ingrediants (checkout Rhonda's blog for the full instructions with copha, which is what I used or this one uses less Olive Oil and some Rice Bran Oil).

Everything out ready for soap making

All the ingrediant weighed out

I then added the caustic soda to the water (it will automatically heat up) and then put the saucepan on the heat to melt the copha and heat the oil. You want both the oil and the caustic soda/water mixture to be at 50 degrees celcius at the same time. I put the saucepan on high heat ane then once the copha is half melted (only half is left in the block) I turn the heat off and then when there is only a little bit left I take it off the heat (normally by this time it is around 65 degrees celcius) and then leave it until it goes down to 50 degrees celcius (once it is off the heat it wont take long to get to 50 degrees celcius), then make sure the caustic soda/water mixture is also 50 degrees celcius and then this is when you add the oil to the caustic soda/mixture and mix.

I used an electric mixer this time, but it took too long to get to trace so I will be using a stick mixer next as it only takes a few minutes with them.

Once the soap gets to trace (you will know when it gets to trace when you see ripples from were the spoon/stick mixer has been form and stay for a bit rather then disappear straight away. See the picture below) you can either add extras to the soap (I added 50g pumice powder for a gritty soap for my husband who is a dairy farmer). I would not recommend adding anything until you have made a few batches of soap under your belt.

Notice how the mixture has a slight indent from the beater,
this is what trace looks like

Now it is time to pour the soap into moulds. I use silicon moulds for baking as my soap moulds.

These are the moulds I have

I poured the soaps in the moulds and then put them in a safe place were it cans it for a few months (my dressing table) and then covered them with baking paper. I then covered them again with 2 rugs. You dont have to use rugs you could use small towels. Just something to insulate the moulds so the soaps can harden better.

Soap moulds

Soaps on my dressing table covered in baking paper

Soaps covered in 2 rugs

As all my moulds are small and I dont need to cut any of the soaps smaller, I will leave them for a few days (if I can be that patient lol) before I take them out of the moulds, but if you were to use a bigger mould like a cake or bread tin or something like that then it is advisable to check your soaps about 15 hours or so after pouring them in the moulds. If they are still to soft to come out you can put them in the freezer for about half an hour and then take them out of the freezer and out of the moulds. Once they are out of the moulds, you can then cut them up to whatever size you want.