Teach Soap

Hi everyone! I am new here. I am so glad to find this forum. I have three adult children, and four beautiful(naturally!) grandchildren. I am now retired and have found time, at last, to make soap. I have made candles, melt and pour soap, and a few pounds of cold process soap, but that was years ago! Looking forward to meeting you all.

Welcome!

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

Thanks, Irena. Made my first batch of soap last week. Used a recipe from the "Soapmakers Companion". Mixed the oils and grapefruit seed extract per the recipe, and left them out a few days, covered. Mixed the lye water and immediately made the soap. No fo or do added. I used the stick blender for about. 30 seconds, and th soap went to medium Trace! Turned out ok,but do you think it was the. Gse? Should I have used germaben instead? What do you think? Thanks.

happy soaping!

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Amber D that'd be me!

There is no need for ANY preservative in CP soap due to the high pH. Just leave it out.
I prefer to have my oils and lye water at about the same temp. If you use very hot lye, it accelerates the saponification process. Sounds like that's what happened to you.

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

Thanks so much, Irena.

Hi Suemack!
Ditto what Irena said. Also be sure to run all of your recipes through a lye calculator before making your soap. It's possible for there to be typos in books and online. Always better to double check the lye amounts.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Hello and welcome!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Welcome to the forum! There are a number of soap forums out there - but you found the only one where people are knowledgeable AND nice!
Congrats on getting back into soaping!

Welcome aboard!