So I briefly got into soap making back in 2011. I happily soaped several batches over a 9 month period and then my new hobby got put on hold while life got a little crazy. This past winter I decided that I wanted to start soaping again but also decided that I shouldn't dive back in/restart while I was 8 months pregnant... now that baby is getting bigger I decided to go for it as I really want to make an assortment of soaps for Christmas gifts (two of my younger sisters still talk about the soap I made years ago and occasionally ask if I'm going to start making it again... I figure that's a good sign, lol).
So tonight after meticulously gathering all of my equipment and ingredients I made my first batch (a very small 16 oz of oils batch) to get back into the swing of things. Things went swimmingly well. Set everything up, mixed up my lye solution and let that cool a bit while I measured/melted my oils. Added lye solution at 130 degrees to oils (approximately 100 degrees) and blended/stirred away. Thin trace at 3.5-4 minutes, added fragrance (BB's Orange 10x EO), and stirred to medium trace. Poured into individual molds, tapped for bubbles, spritzed with alcohol and put the soap to bed. Feeling pretty good and giving myself mental high-fives [note to self: if it seems to good to be true, it probably is].
It was as I was cleaning up that I noticed my little package of shea butter, unopened, hiding behind the honking behemoth bottle of Olive Oil. I groaned, trotted out all the words and colorful phrases my military cousins were kind enough to teach me, and then finished cleaning up. After that I ran the amount of oils actually used through soapcalc as a recipe keeping everything the same (superfat 7%) and compared my findings with notes that I'd taken during the soap making process:
* my original recipe called for 6.08 oz water and 2.19 oz of lye (Oils were Coconut 20%, Lard 20%, GV Shortening 25%, Olive Oil 30%, and Shea butter 5%... total oil weight 16 oz)
* Revised "recipe" calls for 5.78 oz of water and 2.10 oz of lye
* While things were actually going down I added .1 oz extra of olive oil and only 2.15 oz of lye (the lye I have is the little round beads that is randomly all clingy and with the size of spoon I was using to measure out lye I didn't trust myself to get that extra .04 oz. I'd rather be a little under than over on lye, yes?)
Obviously I'll be doing the zap test in ... 3?... days but until then any thoughts on the likelihood of it turning out okay? It obviously won't be the end of the world if I need to dump or rebatch but... you know.
On the plus side, DH wandered out into the kitchen while I was cleaning up and Mr. "No Bar Soap For Me" was
very interested to know how long it would be until that super yummy smell, err soap, would be inhabiting our shower...