I finally lost my virginity!

I DID IT! YIPPY!!
I know you want to look at pictures and we'll get to that, but if you are seriously interested in making soap at some point, this blog is supposed to help you, so let me say a few things first:

*Check your scale first. Recipes are in decimals not fractions and I had to convert between the two. There is a new scale in my soap making future!
*Lye will not jump up and try to strangle you! I mixed it under my vent on the stove. I used a dishwasher safe pitcher which got warm, but worked fine. I liked that it was deep and I didn't have to worry about splashes. I then placed the pitcher in an ice bath to cool it down. Your oils and your lye have to be within 10 degrees of each other before you mix them together to get soap.
*Get all your things out in advance and do a run through. Remember to have things ready for cleanup because YOU CANNOT WASH THE LEFTOVERS DOWN YOUR DRAIN!

Okay, here's what happened in my kitchen this morning. Not great pics, but it's hard to take pics while you're trying to keep the soap process going at the same time.

 Everything out and ready including putting the animals away. Don't want to trip over a critter with caustic substances in your hands!

This is the dreaded LYE! Take note of the white distilled vinegar. It's the neutralizer and you need plenty on hand in case of an emergency spill and also when it's time to clean up.

This is lye in the pitcher. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temp. Also, use  chilled, DISTILLED, water. ADD THE LYE TO THE WATER. NEVER the other way around or KABOOM!

 These are the oils. Some are liquid and some are solid and you slowly warm and bring into a cohesive goo. 

 

This is called soaponification. You have added the lye water to the oils and as  you stir, you are waiting for something called trace to happen. Trace makes you very, very, happy! :)

This is fragrance oil. This one is called Energy and smells like citrus. Note that the cute little bowls I bought are useless because they are too cute and too little. You add the fragrance after trace happens. (my house stills smells like this)

This is how my recipe started out. Nice and neat. The paper on the right is the actual recipe.

And this is how my recipe looked at the end. I am such a SLOB!

~~~~~

And here we have soap in the mold! There is plastic wrap on the top.

Then you do this...

You wrap it all up nice and cozy in towels to insulate it so it can keep cooking and the lye can do it's job. It goes through a gel phase and then gets hard enough to slice in 24 hours. But you can't touch it until then! No Peeking!!

Tomorrow we slice the sucker up! See you then!!



Joy turns to frustration and a lot of Grrrrrrrr...

 First I felt like this: Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

Then I felt like this: Huh? You want me to mix what with the what?

Then I felt like this: I'm gonna kill you cause I don't understand!!!

Now I feel like this: I can't do this. Whaaaahhh!!!

The items on my table have been staring at me for 2 days intimidating me. I've been looking at them, but I don't go near them. I wave from the other side of the room. "Hello soap things. I'm so happy you're here!" Then I run away.  They woke me up last night calling my name. "Annggie...Annggie...ANGIE!.."  So today I swallowed hard and approached the table. I snatched up the recipe the company sent with my "starter kit". Starter being the key word. Here it is:

Can you see it? Can you see this tiny slip of paper? This is all I got in the instruction category! I've never even seen this stuff before and you're gonna send me this? Right. What part of STARTER do you not understand? STARTER kits are for STARTER PEOPLE, are they not?!? (PLEASE REFER TO PHOTO #3) To be fair, there is a book, but you aren't exactly looking at the book about procedure when you're making soap with hot lye in your hands. You're looking at the recipe. Am I right? Nod and say yes.

 I have been reading. And reading, and reading, and reading, and I know enough to see that there are a few things missing on this mighty mini soap recipe. Luckily I have joined a soap forum where I can beg for help from people who actually know what the *bleep* they're doing. After several emails, I'm feeling a lot more like this:

 Never fear. Soon there shall be soap!

I hear angels singing and I'm hyperventilating!

Look! Look! Look! It's here! It's here! It's here! (So is my foot)

I'm shaking as I open it...

GASP!

It is magnifique!!

I am SO excited! But wait. I can't do anything until... It's okay...I can just stare at it for a while. Sigh...

Don't look away!

Tomorrow should be the day that I get my kit of great stuff to make soap! That's what the tracking number says, anyway.  You don't always have to purchase a kit, but because I'm a homemade soap virgin, I thought it made more sense to trust someone else to put everything I need for a batch of cold processes soap together, rather than set about trying to find it myself. Especially since I don't know what I am actually looking for.


Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you how the pre-packaged kit is shipped and all it's glorious contents. Can't wait! However, my husband made me pinkie swear that I wouldn't actually make any soap until he gets home because he is afraid that his wife will blow up the house. Oh you didn't read that? Look at my previous post with the list of things you need to make soap and all about the LYE.  


Catch me tomorrow and we'll have some fun. Pinkie swear! ;)

A treasure hunt for supplies

I went out today to grab the supplies from the supply list I put together. I am having a hard time finding large, heat resistant, plastic, pitchers. You can never find something you need when you’re looking for it. Am I right? It’s always that way.

I ended up buying lots of things that I deemed cute. I love itty bitty things so when I found these adorable little silicone bowls; I had to grab ‘em. In my mind, I can put my additives in them like my herbs, oils, or ground powders. I have absolutely no idea if I will even need them. Until you actually make the soap, how do you know what equipment you prefer? Beats me.

                                                                          

Things to buy before you can make soap

ALL THIS STUFF NEEDS TO BE USED ONLY FOR SOAP MAKING! KEEP IT SEPARATE FROM YOUR REGULAR COOKWARE THAT YOU FEED YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY WITH!!

Look for supplies around your house. Go to Good Will or a dollar store to find most of this. Put your money in your scale- Digital with a zero button.

1) 8-12 quart STAINLESS STEEL pot. I had one I was getting ready to give a way. Lucky me.
2) 2- 2 quart large CLEAR plastic pitchers WITH lids. (You want to be able to see what’s happening when you mix your LYE TO THE WATER! I advise two because that’s what somebody told me.) Oh…MUST BE HEAT RESISTANT. Don’t forget that. The lye gets VERY hot when you ADD THE LYE TO THE WATER!
3) Mid-size plastic containers for holding additives
4) Silicone spatulas. The process will break down wooden spoons and eventually you’ll have splintered soap and that’s not nice. (Metal spoons and chemistry makes me nervous, although lots of people use them)
5) Measuring spoons
6) Grab some cheap plastic containers to us on your scale when you measure your stuff. (Stuff. Very scientific) How this differs from #3, I have no idea.
7) Candy thermometers - 2. One for the LYE TO THE WATER! , one for the oils.
8) Rubber gloves
9) Safety goggles
10) Some kind of soap mold. They’re sending me one with my starter kit
11) A soap cutter. I’m gonna try a miter box from the hardware store
12) Butcher paper to line your mold.
13) A stick blender and not the one your son and daughter-in-law gave you for Mother’s Day.
14) A digital scale with a zero button. (to zero out your what you have previously weighed while leaving it on the scale)
15) Digital scale with a 'zero' button as mentioned at the beginning of this post.

*#8 and #9 are IMPERATIVE. I have watched videos of women making soap with no protective gear and it’s only a matter of time before they get a splash of something awful in their eyes or on their skin and don't look very pretty anymore. Being ugly at your own hands is inexcusable!　
　
Keep in mind that I have never used any of this stuff as of yet. Here’s what I know thus far about any of it:

* A stick blender is imperative unless you want to feel like you’re back on the Little House on the Prairie and stir for days. (Slight exaggeration)
* You MUST add the LYE TO THE WATER! And you will see me declare this in caps every time I write it!! Listen to this, if you do it the other way around and add the water to the lye, YOU’LL GET AN EXPLOSION AND HURT YOURSELF!!!
*DO NOT leave your lye-water solution sitting out in an unmarked container. There are stories about people and dogs/cats/pets drinking it and doing serious damage if not DYING! Put your kids and animals in their kennels and don’t let them out until you’re done. They do too make kennels for kids! If you don’t have a kennel for your kids, schlep them off on somebody else for a couple of hours. This is what grandparents and friends are for. Please don’t make soap with your kids and pets around. Thanks!

Someone suggested doing this step under your kitchen exhaust fan or outside, but I don’t like the idea of carrying the stuff around so I’m doing mine in my kitchen under the fan. *DO NOT breathe the fumes when you add the LYE TO THE WATER!

You can't lye to your friends, you can’t lye to your momma, but you always LYE TO THE WATER!!!! Heh-heh.
　　　

What's new about soap?

I am over the top excited about ordering my first soap making kit from Brambleberry.com. I placed the order on 6/13/11. It is now 6/16/11. I live in Florida and it ships from Washington state soooo…tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. <Heavy sigh>

I looked into making soap about a year ago and purchased The Idiot’s Guide to Soap Making, which I do NOT recommend. I read it and decided that soap making was far too dangerous and time consuming for the likes of me and left it alone.

I buy soap locally from Hickory Ridge Organics, here is St. Augustine, Fl., and spend at least 50 bucks a month there in various products. They make a great, organic bar of soap! I have this thing about soap. It kept nagging at me so I gathered my courage and once again, started peeking at what was out there for the soap newbie.

This time, I picked up a book that was widely recommended on the sites I was browsing; The Everything Soap Making Book. Way better resource! After getting past the, “LYE TO THE WATER! LYE TO THE WATER! LYE TO THE WATER!” warnings, I decided that maybe a clumsy girl like me, could actually take a run at this soap making thing. (My husband is more than a little nervous about the lye thing. He just put down new hardwood in the kitchen and he knows there’s not an ounce of grace in my entire body. Buck up, buddy. I’m going for it!) Yikes!

In searching for info for a “beginning soaper”, I realized that there was WAY too much information being vomited upon me. I found several sites I loved and already follow, but as far as a specific blog for a really, really, REALLY, green soap looker into, I found that for the most part, they all had a small section for beginners, but would invariably turn into an advanced soap making site as the author became more proficient in the art. I guess that’s a natural progression, but my goal is to keep my blog designed for the new soapers out there.

This brings me to why I am writing this. I want to keep notes on my progression and feelings and in the meantime learn how to put together an interesting, successful blog that someone might actually read. Here’s what I hate in a blog and don’t want in mine;

1) Too many words (blah, blah, blah)
2) Cute pictures of your family (or mine) Nobody thinks these people are as adorable as we do. It’s true.

     Not even this guy...

Here’s what I am searching for in a beginner soap blog and can’t seem to find in exactly the way I want to see it:
1) A question and answer section that is not over the top and too far advanced that confuses me! (Clumsy AND slow) Talk to me like I’m two.
2) A link to local soapers in my area. I need a mentor. Bad! (Not proper English. I know, I know.)
3) More videos. The best ones I have found so far are on SoapTv. I just enjoy watching someone do something, rather than looking at the still pictures of them doing something. Capiche?

There are HUNDREDS of soap blogs. How do I make mine more interesting or stand out? Maybe I just keep talking to myself like I am right now.