Teach Soap

Hello everyone, I'm new to CP soap. I've been making lotion for years and decided to try my hand at soap making.
This will be my very first batch of CP soap! So happy to find this board fill of info!

Well I have a few questions, I'm sure you guys have gotten them before, I've looked over the board and did not find what I was looking for so decided to post here.

So here we go:

1. Can you mix your lye mixture directly into your un-melted oils? If so, is this better done with only certain soaps and will this change your soap in any way? Why do books say to have them at the same temp before mixing?

2. I would like to eventually make a lemon soap. Since lye ph and citric ph are on the opposite spectrum, would adding lemon deactivate the lye at all?

3. This is kind of silly but can I use plain old waxed baking paper to line my mold, will the lye react with the wax? Are there better ways to line wooden molds besides the caulking method?

4. Lastly I would like to add salt to my soap. I got this book "the complete soaper" cant remember who it's by, but she sais salt will curdle your soap. How are those salt scrub soaps made without this happening?

Those are my questions for now, I'm sure I'll have more as I continue on this soaping adventure. Thank you to anyone that can shine some light on this for me,
Becca

Great, thank you guys. I was hoping to make soap tonight but my lye did not arrive as it should have... I'm trying to find a local way of getting lye, has anyone used "Roebic crystal drain cleaner" in soap making? The label says 100% Sodium Hydroxide.

I grated up some lemon peel about 1TBS for a 3lbs batch of soap, will this mess up the process?

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

I have a stick blender and scale that i've been using for a few years for lotion making. Soap making and lotion making processes seem pretty similar except for the lye and the curing part. So we'll see how it goes. I'm sure some batches will be great and others not so great just as when i started out with lotion (man the first few batches were disasters!!!).

I punched my recipe into soap calc, it's one I found online. They add salt to make the bar harder but I can not find on soap calc where to add salt.

The recipe is:

28 oz. olive oil
4.5 oz. castor oil
15 oz crisco

2TBS salt added to lye solution

Does this sound about right?

How much water and how much lye are you using?

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

I'll be using 6 oz lye and 18 oz water. I'll probably reserve 1 oz of water to dissolve the salt into?

I would take Soapbuddy's advice about keeping your first batch simple. Making soap is a chemical process and there's a lot going on. I know you said something about some batches will probably turn out well and some won't. Well, if something doesn't go quite right, you're going to want to understand what happened. And the more goodies you put in there, the harder it will be to know for sure what the culprit was.

Good luck though and let us know how it turns out!

zeo

Thats so true Ill try to keep it simple (which is extremely hard for me!!)

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

So I add the salt at trance?

Sea salt wouldn't work to make a harder bar right? Do I have to use table salt?

when I have added either sugar or salt, I added it to my liquid before I added the lye, making sure it is completely dissolved before the lye goes in.
Petra

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Petra

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
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That book is by norma whatever. i've noticed a few mistakes and things in it. i'll check out the other books you listed...

Has anoyone read "Soapmaking for Fun & Profit: Make Money Doing What You Love!" by Maria Nerius ?

Books I'd like to read are :

Soap Making it Enjoying it by Ann Bramson

The Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch

The Soapmaker's Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch

Any recommendations?