Teach Soap

I made cold process soap for the first time about six weeks ago. I used a recipe that called for crisco, lye and water. It's still tacky and smells funny. I would love help. Should I throw it out? I used this recipe because I wanted something very easy with crisco. I read online crisco makes a nice and hard soap. Any suggestions of any kind will be greatly appreciated. My 14 year old daughter and I are trying this for the first time. She really wants to learn to make soap. desperate lavonne10

Welcome!
I would get rid of it. You need more than Crisco to make good soap and some Crisco's have different ingredients. Either search for a soap recipe here or go to Kathy Miller soap. Make a small batch (like 2 lbs.) and don't forget to run ANY recipe through a lye calculator.
http://www.millersoap.com/ has soap recipe, but they need to be resized for smaller batches.
Let me know if you need more help.

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

I agree with soapbuddy - http://www.millersoap.com/ has lots of recipes using crisco along with other ingredients, but you do need to run them through a lye calculator before using them. I use www.soapcalc.net. Millersoap also has lots of great info on soapmaking in general.

If you find a recipe that you want to try, you can always post it here and get some feedback before you use it. Much luck!

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

I still use shortning in small batches, I have ever since I started making soap. I agree with soapbuddy 100% that an all shortning batch wouldn't make very good soap, I would toss it (and I hate tossing soap so much it makes me cry!). IMO there are few oils out there that work as 100% of the batch, olive oil, lard, and coconut being the only 3 I would ever attempt.
One of the first books I picked up when I started soaping was The Soap Book by Sandy Maine. Most if not all of the recipes in that book are:
44% Shortning (soapcal has "old crisco" and "new crisco" so read your ingredients)
28% coconut oil
28% olive oil
Use a lye calculator (I like soapcal.net when I use shortning) to figure out your batch size. Like soapbuddy said, try a smal batch, and research some more recipes. It's also good to read up on the different oils and what they contribute to your soap to you can tinker around and get what you want from your finished bar. It's so much fun to experament!