I did it! I made my first batch!! Oh wow, why didnt I do this earlier?? How much fun was it!!! And the possibilities of what you can do..... Haha I know, right?! It's awesome! Soooo scary before you start, and then you can't clean your stuff quick enough to make another batch!!
I had a problem with getting my oils cool enough, and mean while my lye was cooling down while my oils were staying about 130-140. What happens if they are not the right temp?There's a few different ways you can tackle this. I soap around the 40 degree mark, and I've learned the easiest way (ie the way that doesn't make me wait forever) is to put the
hard oils into my pot and melt them - I melt mine on the stove top. So that would be your Coconut Oil (depending on weather/hardness of it), Palm Oil, etc. Anything that is hard at room temp. Then, while those are melting I measure out my soft oils (Olive Oil, Castor, etc) into the bucket that I use to mix my soap.
As SOON as the hard oils are melted (usually around 70 - 80 degrees), I tip those into the bucket with my olive oil and stir them around to help them cool. This usually drops the temp down to about 50 degrees straight away.
If I'm doing Lye/Water - I make that up first. If I'm doing Lye/Milk - I do it last. Which ever way it usually ends up around the same mark... Anything within 5 to 10 degrees of each other (so if my oils are 40 - and my Milk/Lye is 30) is ok...
Also, as this was my first time and i had never seen trace before IRL, what i *think* was trace happened very quickley, is this right? It went to a smooth thin custard consistancy. Also, at what stage do i know i have mixed it enough and its ok to mould?Yup - sounds good. I assume you did a small batch to start with? My batches are all around 700g of oils + Lye/Milk, etc. Ends up being around 1kg of 'soap' that I make. I've stopped using my stick blender as I reach trace too quickly (in like 1 minute!!). I use a whisk now and still get a light trace around the 4 - 5 minute mark.
When your oils go from clear to opaque - that's when they are mixed together enough to be almost a "light" trace. The custard consistency is a good trace to pour at when starting.
If i were to add fragrance to a batch do i add that at trace? AND when i measure the fragrance at whatever % it is, is that of the total oils i have used? (What i mean is, if i use oils that amount to 300grams is this the figure i use to work out the % of fragrance to add. Hope that makes sense)Some people add fragrance at trace, other's add it to the cooled oils before adding the lye. I always added at trace while learning and I still do for any fragrance that I am unsure about. Some fragrances can accelerate trace - so adding AT trace takes you from custard to cement mix pretty quickly!
And yup, I've always worked around the 3% mark per the oils. So for me, I work out 3% of my 700g of oils for fragrance. If you're using a Brambleberry fragrance, they have a calculator that tells you how many mils /grams to use.
For me it usually ends up about the 30g mark for a 1kg batch of soap.
And i just checked it before i came to work, no gelling, but its hard to touch (couldnt resist) is gelling good or bad? Or does it all just depend on what ingredients you use?Gelling is a personal preference really. A Gelled soap is usually ready to cut earlier than a non-gelled one, but the colours will always be darker. Some say there is a different feel when washing with a gelled soap vs a non gelled soap, I haven't noticed
too much of a difference myself. That said, I can feel the difference of a dry soap.
Not likeing the whole waiting game though, i wanna use it now!!!!The worst part!~
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