Teach Soap

Taking over the world seems over rated so I'm having a go at liquid soap today.
So far I'm 2 hours into the cook. Looking good.

The only down side was when the UPS guy brought a package (new smells & more lye, yippee). He caught me finishing up a stir and I didn't have time to take off my goggles & gloves. Apparently, answering the door in your pajamas, pink nonslip socks, apron, rubber gloves & goggles to sign for a package labeled sodium hydroxide says, I want to talk about why I order lye. I signed, said thank you & made sure he was clearly aware I was cooking soap and not something nefarious!

Will let you know how it turns out & if vice shows up. ; )
BTW... Thank you everyone for all of the great information here. I've learned tons after reading the entire (yes I'm serious) forum.

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In this world you can be either oh so smart or oh so pleasant. I used to be smart. I prefer pleasant. You may quote me. ~Elwood P. Dowd

That's funny!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

LOL have you seen the television series Breaking Bad? That's what came to mind! Chemistry instructor gone bad!

Can you imagine just what all the UPS delivery person HAS seen? There are stories!

That seems to happen every single time my Fed Ex guys delivers He's a very VERY tatooed kid with huge holes in his ears and one day asked me what I was doing. I laughed and told him about making soap, since then, he brings my boxes into the house (especially the heavy ones) and in return I gave him a gift box of soaps and lotions for Christmas. He said he loved the lavender the most.
That just cracked me up! Looking at this guy, you would never guess that lavender would even be on his top 1000 list.

Gotta love the delivery people!

Brandy

And - Never judge a book by its cover! Thanks for the smiles everyone!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

What I learned making liquid soap...
OR possibly the coolest thing I've experienced since watching liquid oils become a hard bar of soap for the 1st time.

Lesson #1: Nothing and I mean NOTHING can prepare you for the noise that comes from adding the KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) to the water. I read that it would make a woosh sound but no one told me it would groan! Creepy, creepy, creepy!

Lesson #2: Trace takes forever! Good lord, I've created and killed SIMs faster than this! (For those who don't get the reference, a SIM is a simulated person in a game. You create them, live a life, then they populate more SIMS & die. My 2nd addiction really.)

Lesson #3: when they (those in the know) describe the ultimate goal of trace as salt water taffy, they mean exactly that. I don't see any way that you won't realize when you've reached the right point. 

Lesson #4: when they (again, those in the know) say once trace happens, it'll happen fast, they aren't talking about anything close to gradual or even quick. One second it's this consistency, the next it's something completely different. Blink & you'll miss it! My only regret is that I can't bottle that reaction & feed it to my teenager when I ask him to do something. 

Lesson #4: diluting can take hours! I go with the slow cooker method and I kid you not it took 3 hours to dilute! So, just when you think you're done & have hit the (quickie) home stretch, there's more.

Lesson #5: Soap paste is possibly the neatest thing I've come into contact with since my children were small and brought home Oobleck/Ooblick from science class! Don't ask me why I think it's so cool, I just do.

Lesson #6 & on...
Liquid soap is not as difficult as I thought.
It does require a longer time commitment than a cold process batch (over night wait aside).
In the end, I find it well worth the time & effort. It's great fun (albeit at a watching paint dry sort of pace occasionally but some of us really do like to watch paint dry) : )

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In this world you can be either oh so smart or oh so pleasant. I used to be smart. I prefer pleasant. You may quote me. ~Elwood P. Dowd

Oh yes! Potassium hydroxide addded to water makes a funny noise.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

lol! noone has seen me in my soaping gear (yet!)...except for my dog. Found out she's scared of me when I put my goggles on, so I have to put her in another room when I soap!