Teach Soap

I made a version of David Fisher (About.com)'s cucumber soap, in which you prepare the lye solution with cucumber puree. My puree included the peel, and I chilled it before weighing and adding the lye. Fisher said the lye solution would turn brown and smell foul, which happened, except there was a layer of bright green cucumber riding on the top after it sat a bit. Fisher also said that the nasty fragrance would not transfer to the finished soap. Well . . .

That soap is now on week 3 of cure. It smells like burnt cucumber. I rebatched half of it on day 3 with coconut milk--that stuff still has the burnt cucumber smell too.

Has anyone had success making cold-process cucumber soap? The only thing I like about it is the soft green color! (made the soap 7% superfat, all-vege base with 50% olive oil. No other additives.)

Some recipes on the net are not worth making. This is one of them. Mix your lye with minimum water required to dissolve the lye. Add the rest as cucumber liquid when the lye water cools off some.

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

So, what is the minimum ratio of water to dissolve the lye? I always just use Soap Calc's 38% water as percent of oils.

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Lets see if I can get this one right: I use the lye and water in a 1:1 ratio. So 4 oz of lye would require 4 oz of distilled water.

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

Ok, thanks. The lye solution wouldn't produce the nasty odor when added to pureed cucumber?

[quote="soapcreator79"]I made a version of David Fisher (About.com)'s cucumber soap, in which you prepare the lye solution with cucumber puree. My puree included the peel, and I chilled it before weighing and adding the lye. end quote


Did David Fisher cuke soap include the cuke peel?

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