testing other handmade soaps

I mentioned in my first post on this blog that I am new to soap making and my reasons for giving this a go.  I have only ever used 'normal' store bought soaps so it occurred to me that I should probably try out a couple of handmade soaps so I have something more to compare mine to when they are ready for use.  So I took to eBay... of course I ended up spending a silly amount of time browsing many different types (plus getting sidetracked with almost everything else on there!), but finally settled with a bar of homemade castile soap (olive oil, lye and water).  This has been dispatched but shouldn't be too long in arriving, however once I get an idea in my head, I find it hard to be patient! So I went shopping...

The only shop (that I am aware of) near where I live that sells handmade soap is Lush, so I went there yesterday to have a look.  I must confess that I have never been in this shop before as I have always been put off by the extremely strong fragrant smell that lingers outside as you walk past. On entering, I found the table of soaps and was pleased to see that beside each soap there was a sign listing all the ingredients of each.  I quickly noticed that almost every soap contained sodium lauryl sulpfate (SLS) which is one of the many added synthetic substances in store soaps that I was hoping to avoid.  SLS is a detergent and sufactant which basically acts as a foaming agent producing lather making the cleaning more effective.  It is very cheap and can be present in reasonably high amounts in soaps and other cosmetic goods. The main reason I want to avoid SLS and other synthetic additives is that these can be irritants and I want to keep my soaps as simple and natural as possible.

Anyway, a very helpful sales assistant approached me as offered help.  I told her that I was looking for something as natural as possible and wanted to avoid things such as SLS.  She said that 'they' (lush I assumed  - but did wonder if she was being a tad bold by speaking for whole company!) had tried making soap without SLS but it doesn't really work as SLS is actually the soap!  I smiled politely but added that I would still prefer something without this, and it turned out that they did in fact have 2 soaps that were SLS free - despite what she had just told me!  After some further discussion about colours and fragrances, I realised that I wasn't going to get anything that was simple and completely natural, but since I had now invested so much time and effort into this visit I wasn't going to leave empty handed!  I opted for a bar of a green vegan soap called parsley porridge:

 

So home I went and after a trip to the gym, I ran a bath to try it out!  The first thing I would say, is that the bar felt ever so slightly sticky... or perhaps a little oily.  I was quite pleased about this as my own soaps that are curing, also currently feel very slightly oily to touch.  The soap does have a very distinct smell... its quite a clinical smell, not unpleasant though.  I found it lathered well and was quite pleasant to use, and I did feel and smell very clean by the end of my bath. I had left the soap in a soap dish but there must have been some water in the bottom of it, as when I went back in bathroom later there was a small green puddle of soap under the soap.  This is prob to do with the softness of the bar, so I might see this with other handmade soaps.  In summary though, I like the soap and seems to be fine on my sensitive skin (but its only been used twice so far!), but I am looking forward to testing the castile soap and comparing it to my own (which I made a batch of other night and hope to unmould later today!).

A final point... I was quite surprised at the price of the soaps in lush - although handmade and I would expect to pay more for a handmade bar, I was still shocked that the size of the bar I picked up cost me £5.44!  

A little too bold?!

Since the 'success' of my first attempt of soap making, I have been trawling the net for soap related information, ideas, recipes etc.  This was partly to pass the time between the pouring of the first batch and the 48 hours of waiting until I could unmould it!  Although I was keen to get started with a second batch instantly, I had overwhelmed myself with recipes and blogs and found myself unsure what to do next.  I ended up doing nothing for a few days, going back to the mundane life of work, chores, gym and catching up on the odd episode of TV that I watch.  However by the weekend, and armed with a generous gin and tonic, I was back searching for my next recipe!

I was keen to try something that used the limited ingredients which I had (olive/coconut/palm oils, or shea butter), but that was a little different/adventurous from the first batch.... I finally opted for a "easy to make coconut milk soap recipe".  As with the last recipe, I scaled it down to fit my mould and checked the lye calculation (although I am not convinced this was quite correct... see later!). The ingredients were: 

• olive oil - 560g
• coconut oil - 140g
• coconut milk - 224g
• lye 96.6g

Method:

Before starting, I read through most of the comments which had been left on the post for this recipe.. there were probably about as many comments reporting success when they attempted to make this soap as there were unsuccessful attempts! The general consensus was that there are differences in the water/coconut ratios in different varieties of milk, plus the added complications of additional additives that may have included (such as preservatives). Despite these 'warnings' I carried on, quite confident that since it has worked for many others, it would work for me! The coconut milk I had in my cupboard was this one:

Ingredients : Coconut extract (53%), Water, Antioxidants: Citric Acid (E330).

I followed the method on the website, weighed out and melted coconut oil, and added in the olive oil.mThe method stated that the lye should be added into the milk (which should be chilled). This is where I slightly swayed off the listed method as it did not state to let the lye/milk solution cool down before adding to the oils - I decided to cool them to around the same temp as most recipes I have read have said to do this. This mixture did turn a caramel colour which was mentioned in the method - apparently its the lye reacting with the sugars in the milk. When both the oils and the lye/milk mixture reached around 120 F, I added the lye solution to the oils and blended. Trace was reached in less than 5 minutes, but it was noticeably more runny than in the first batch. The soap was then poured into the mould then wrapped up in towels to set. As well as being slightly more runny, the soap mixture did not smell great! Its hard to describe... it didn't smell horrible, but just not great!

Unmoulding

I was more patient this time, and waited a complete 48 hours (without peeking!) before attempting to remove the mould and cut the soap. When I uncovered it, immediately it looked a bit wrong. On touching it, it was sticky but I decided to cut a slice and see what was happening.

Unexpectedly, the middle of the soap has a large green rectangle in it! Most odd! I am not actually sure what happened - any suggestions would be appreciated! After seeing this, I decided just to put it back for another couple of days and see what happens! I left the portion out which was cut, and it has since turned back to the whiteish colour.  I will give it a few days and have another look.

I suspect the problem lies with the coconut milk. If different milks have different water contents, then it would seem logical that the lye calculation which I did using the online calculator was insufficient. I told the calculator that I was using coconut milk, but there wasn't an option to state the water content etc. and I am not experienced enough to know how much of an effect this could have.  

I am willing to accept defeat with this batch if things don't improve! But this has only made me more determined to try again with other recipes! 

the final cut... (of batch number 1!)

The waiting is over... well the first part at least... 

After 48 hours, the soap was finally ready to be cut. Normally on a friday night I am mostly looking forward to relaxing after a hard week's work with a glass of wine or a gin and tonic (perhaps both!), but tonight I couldn't wait to see how the soap turned out! Luckily the wooden mould that I bought from ebay is easy to dismantle making soap removal very easy and I had also lined my mould with polythene which peeled off the soap block without any problems.

The mould is 26cm long and initially I had though I would cut it into 8 bars, each of ~3cm wide. However, after cutting the first bar, I felt this was actually a little too thick, so cut the rest at a slightly smaller 2.5cm width.  This will give me 10 good sized bars in future if I cut them all at this size.  I used a normal kitchen knife for cutting which cut through the soap very easily and left a nice smooth surface on the cut faces.  

I weighed each bar and the ones which were ~2.5cm wide were all very similar in weight - between 100 to 120g.  I think they will be a little lighter after the curing process but that is to be expected. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the soap is a light white/cream colour which looks to be even throughout all of the bars.  There are no holes or anything in the soap so presumably there were not air bubbles in there when it was poured.  Now all that remains is to leave it (again!) to cure for 4 weeks or so.  I have placed all the bars in a cardboard shoe box where they are sat on top of greaseproof paper.

I might need something a little bigger but this will do for now!  Since this is my first ever soap batch, I was desperate to try a bit to see if it lathers.  Rather than waste a good bar, I picked up a tiny bit of soap which had been stuck to the plastic and tested it.... much to my relief and amazement, it acted just like normal soap!  Honestly, I was expecting this whole trial to be a disaster and fail, so you can imagine my excitement to see the product working!  Fingers crossed, so no I can  happily wait for the curing process to finish.

I genuinely can't believe that I have successfully completed my first batch of soap and it worked!  I have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, however I am already thinking about what I can try next!  I found myself today once again browsing some soap sites and blogs on my lunch break, and came across another (simple! ha!) recipe which only contains olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk and lye....

I want to also start adding colour though.... oh what to do!?!?

First batch - update

I couldn't help myself from having a small peek at the soap this morning!  It has been less than 24 hours since pouring but it already looks like it is setting well (I think!).  

It is probably sensible to leave it for closer to 48 hours before cutting though as I don't want to risk messing up my first batch by cutting it up while it is still soft in the middle.  Reluctantly, I have wrapped it back up in it towels and placed back into the box! now to wait...

First batch!!!

Finally, after all the internet research and planning, tonight was the night to make my first soap batch! Very exciting!  I decided to follow a simple online recipe which I found here.  The recipe was given in ounces which meant nothing to me, so I firstly converted it to grams then scaled it down to yield ~800g of soap which would fit into my wooden mould.  My final recipe looked like this:

• Olive oil - 367.2g
• Coconut oil - 238.1g
• Sustainably sourced Palm oil - 178.6g
• Shea butter - 19.9g
• Lye - 115.1g
• Distilled water - 267.9mL

I bought all of my ingredients online from www.justasoap.co.uk with the exception of the olive oil which came from a local supermarket, and the distilled water which I am lucky enough to be able to get from my work.  As recommended by almost every guide I have read, I double checked the amount of lye required using an online lye calculator.  This recipe has 5% excess oils which should (hopefully!) ensure that the the lye reacts with all but around 5% of the oils. 

The process:

Since I was making this in my kitchen, I decided to cover up my work surface with foil which would act as a guard against any accidental splashes and spills.  After checking and laying out my ingredients and equipment, I was ready to go!

I followed the process from the same beginner's guide that supplied the recipe and found this particularly easy to follow with helpful images alongside the descriptions.  With the help of my partner, we got to work.  We weighed out the solid oils (coconut, palm and shea butter) into the pot and put them on the stove (low heat) to melt.  Whilst these were melting, the lye and water were weighed into separate containers and the lye was added  carefully into the water and stirred until clear.  This solution generated a lot of heat, so was then left to cool to 110F (unfortunately I forgot to covert the temperature into Celsius, however this didn't matter as my thermometers measured both).  Whilst waiting on the lye cooling, I added the remaining liquid olive oil into the pot, mixed well and turned off the heat.  This was then also left to cool until it reached 110F.

Once both mixtures were 110F, the lye solution was carefully poured into the pot with the oils.  The stick blender was then used to mix this until trace was reached (which was remarkably quick, probably less than a minute), then the mixture poured into the lined wooden mould. 

Finally, I put a lid made from cardboard on top of the soap and mould, and placed the lot, wrapped in a towel into a cardboard box to set/rest for 48 hours.

The whole process appeared to go surprisingly well - I suppose only time will tell if that is in fact the case though!  It took me less than an hour to complete, and that includes reading the instructions many times in between!  I plan to check on the soap tomorrow night, and removed from the mould and if ready, cut... otherwise I will need to wait for 48 hours!  The most frustrating part of it all is that I won't be able to test the soap until it has cured (up to 4-6 weeks apparently!!!).  Fingers crossed it will all be worth the wait!!!

I will be back with an update once the soap is ready to be removed from the mould and cut!

Soap making preparation

OK... where to start?!... I am starting this blog with the aim of logging the progress of what I hope will become my new hobby... soap making!  I am new to both soap making and blogs so who knows if I will stick at either - but my intentions are good!  I suppose I should start with the reasons why I have decided to try and make my own soaps.  I have been vegetarian for more than 10 years now and although I have been a strict vegetarian with my diet and clothing, I must admit that I haven't put to much thought into cosmetic goods.  Of course, I avoid products made from manufacturers that test on animals, but in all honestly I had not fully considered the what goes into store bought soaps - not just the possibility of animals products, but also potentially harsh chemicals and ecologically unsustainable products.  I also find that the soaps I use are hit and miss with my skin - some doing their job fine, others bringing me out in a nasty rash so would like to investigate exactly what it is that causes this.  The last reason, but probably the most important is sustainability.  I think that we have become far too detached not only from the processes behind the vast array of "stuff" we consume but also impact that the "stuff" has on our environment, take for example the clear cutting that goes on in the palm industry that is destroying what is left of our rain forests.  If I can produce sustainably sourced soaps for close friends and family, then in my own small way I may be helping rather than contributing to the problem...it is a start at least.

Myself and my partner (who is vegan) have been chatting about this for a few weeks now, but I must admit to initially being more sceptical than him as assumed it would require expensive specialist equipment.  However, while on my lunch break at work last week, I found myself reading a few sites on soaps and the different soap making methods and thought we would give it a go!  I have since read many different online guides and tutorials about the different methods of making soap (i.e. cold process, melt and pour...) and have decided that we want to make the soap from scratch therefore the cold process method is for us.  

So whats the plan?!  Well, I had hoped to get started this weekend, and had gathered/bought most of the equipment and materials to make a basic soap: stainless steel pot, jugs and bowls, stick blender, scales, soap mould, oils, butters and lye.... only to realise that still needed a thermometer (or 2) and distilled water!  So, with any luck we will make our first batch later this week instead.  Although a little frustrating, this delay is not all bad as it will give me time to decide on our first (simple!) soap recipe.  I want to start with a soap that does not have any colours or fragrance added so that I can concentrate on getting the method right (I hope!).  

So that's it for now.  I plan to be back soon with a basic soap recipe, and details of my first attempt... My aim is to be able to produce beautiful vegan friendly soaps which look as wonderful as these:

but I know that this is still a long way off... but I can dream cant I?!