So I have been a little focused on soap the past week. The secret is I have been avoiding my academic work (which is precisely what I am doing now). I have a nice 17500 words to write for May over the course of a dissertation, and 3 separate essays. The enormity of the work I have to get done makes me feel... A little stressed.
I have been coping with the stress by forcing myself to free write a paragraph of dissertation everyday and then by avoiding it with other things. Bad tv programmes seem preferable to my work load. Of course every day I put it off is a day I lose for work. So I am now trying to force myself to do more.
I did myself a bullet pint list today of highe priority items to finish. Of corse the top 4 were academic ly relevant. Impulsively I scrawled underneath Its Managable!! Which I underlined... It's like a school yard charm. Not sure it will work...
Monday, 1 April 2013
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Coffee-scrub sold! Yay!
I made my first sale today! Woo! I did notice though that were a few others watching the item so I have relisted my coffee scrub soap on eBay for any one else who wants. I am selling them at cost at the moment. I may have to make more.
The lemon and ginger soap failed!!
This blog uses soaper jargon - here's a glossary.
Cold process: one form of soap making
Lye: the active ingredient to the soap making process - also know as caustic soda.
Saponification: the technical term for how oil and caustic soda form soap
Trace: the point at which the soap mixture ceases to separate.
Seize: a sudden onset of the trace point.
Discounting: reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe - not for the inexperienced!!
This batch was an experiment. I started by discounting the liquid. This should have been fine. But the appearance and texture of this batch indicates three things went wrong - the batch maintained an uneven temperature, the batch failed to mix sufficiently and the batch used a little too much lye.
First thing I noticed in the outside was the traces of soda ash. This is harmless. Soda ash appear, from what I have read, when the soap super heats inconsistently. This is because I don't insulate my soap (I rarely need to). The orange spots and the internal colour differentiations are signs that the soap mixture was not mixed properly when it went into the moulds. However, I had achieved a proper level of 'trace' so the oil was properly emulsified with the liquids. What I suspect happened is my mixture is it ' seized' in the mixing process. I have never had a mixture seize before. I now know it from the description. It is what happens when a soap mix forms a sudden heavy 'trace'. I think this has happened because I used a mixed liquid base and discounted the water. This has meant that the soap has pockets where it is oil rich and pockets where it is lye rich. This can be solved by re batching the soap but there is a third problem with this batch.
I made a classic mistake when I was mixing this lot. I measured too much lye. The 'superfat' level is only 1-2% which means the resultant soap is in this case too crumbly to hold together. Superfat is a term used to describe the percentage of oils level un-saponified during the cold process.The irony is I have made a block of soap with 0% superfat and it turned out perfect. But then every recipe acts different.
Cold process: one form of soap making
Lye: the active ingredient to the soap making process - also know as caustic soda.
Saponification: the technical term for how oil and caustic soda form soap
Trace: the point at which the soap mixture ceases to separate.
Seize: a sudden onset of the trace point.
Discounting: reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe - not for the inexperienced!!
This batch was an experiment. I started by discounting the liquid. This should have been fine. But the appearance and texture of this batch indicates three things went wrong - the batch maintained an uneven temperature, the batch failed to mix sufficiently and the batch used a little too much lye.
First thing I noticed in the outside was the traces of soda ash. This is harmless. Soda ash appear, from what I have read, when the soap super heats inconsistently. This is because I don't insulate my soap (I rarely need to). The orange spots and the internal colour differentiations are signs that the soap mixture was not mixed properly when it went into the moulds. However, I had achieved a proper level of 'trace' so the oil was properly emulsified with the liquids. What I suspect happened is my mixture is it ' seized' in the mixing process. I have never had a mixture seize before. I now know it from the description. It is what happens when a soap mix forms a sudden heavy 'trace'. I think this has happened because I used a mixed liquid base and discounted the water. This has meant that the soap has pockets where it is oil rich and pockets where it is lye rich. This can be solved by re batching the soap but there is a third problem with this batch.
I made a classic mistake when I was mixing this lot. I measured too much lye. The 'superfat' level is only 1-2% which means the resultant soap is in this case too crumbly to hold together. Superfat is a term used to describe the percentage of oils level un-saponified during the cold process.The irony is I have made a block of soap with 0% superfat and it turned out perfect. But then every recipe acts different.
Friday, 29 March 2013
Lemon and ginger soap
This photo was taken 12 hours after I plopped the soap mixture into the moulds. I like the colour it as turned. The problem with using natural colorants is that you can't always get the exact colour you want and the colour is always tied to a specific natural source. So coffee soap will always be brown and orange juice will always make it orange so you can't really have bright blueberry coloured orange scented soap without getting a weird mixed scent (which might be nice but not necessarily the desired effect).
This soap is no where near ready to come out of the mould. By this point the coffee soap was. It's still slightly too soft to hold the shape. I am not sure whether its because of the difference in liquid base or because I discounted the liquid base to much. It should be fine but as it was the first time I tried discounting its hard to know until I unmould and try one.
This soap is no where near ready to come out of the mould. By this point the coffee soap was. It's still slightly too soft to hold the shape. I am not sure whether its because of the difference in liquid base or because I discounted the liquid base to much. It should be fine but as it was the first time I tried discounting its hard to know until I unmould and try one.
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Lemon and ginger soap
Today's batch - lemon and ginger soap! Made with olive oil, lemon and ginger. Wonder what colour it will turn... I wasn't expecting it to be such a dark brownish yellow. It is likely to lighten in colour though given the fact that the soap colours become more white opaque as they sophonify.
This is another one I an eager to try.
This is another one I an eager to try.
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