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!