Teach Soap

Is it the use of the stick blender in the glass container that causes the cumulative damage? Or the raw soap itself? Curious.
Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Karri, I think it's the raw soap/lye that will cause problems. I mix my small batches & swirl colors in a couple of inexpensive sets of plastic meauring cups (1, 2 & 4 cup size) that I got at walmart. My stick blender fits perfectly in the 2 & 4 cup sizes and the 4 cup is large enough to mix 1# of oils.

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

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

<It's the raw soap that will etch the glass.>

Eventually all my glass containers go a cloudy color which I don't care about for manufacturing but for SoapQueen.TV and tutorials, I generally end up having to replace my glass every few years.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Hi Anne-Marie: Do you find that they ever break as Irena described? I have a pretty nice "inventory" of Pyrex containers I invested in just for soaping ... I love them because they're sturdy and I can microwave my oils in them without concern. Now I'm worried they're not safe...

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

I bought a small stainless still pot and a stainless steal mixing bowl at target just to be on the safe side.

My glass hasn't ever broken during normal use. And I soap a lot - and use my glass for everything from CP to lotion making to bath fizzies. Almost all my Pyrex is at least 5-8 years+ older. Ditto Otion's and they soap more than I do. That said, stainless steel is always great to soap with and for larger batches, you'll end up moving to a stainless steel or heat resistant plastic anyways. =)

I have learned the hard way not to microwave 1 ounce of beeswax in a 64 ounce Pyrex container though! That will break a Pyrex faster than dropping it. And man, does it make a mess! Apparently, all that empty headspace does a number on the glass when heating it virtually empty (a big duh, in hindsight). =)

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

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I soap therefore I am.

You can always find stainless steel cooking pots at second-hand stores. Just make sure they are stainless steel.

I have big stock pots that I make my big batches in, and what I think is a two-to-three quart stainless steel boiler (I actually have two of those) that I do my smaller batches in.

A pound and a half is about the smallest batch I make. A really teensy batch (in addition to the accuracy problems that Irena mentioned) won't have the heat to drive the saponification like a larger batch will. Teensy batches wil take FOREVER to trace, even with a stick blender.

Finessa, how did your batch turn out?

Anita

I found lots of good soapmaking supplies at Dollar tree. Just picked up couple more plastic bowls that are similar in design to the glass pyrex ones the other day so I wouldn't have to wash as much between batches. We make our soaps over a marathon weekend of soapmaking once a month. Anyhow these held up pretty good for me. Out of the three I bought back in April I have only lost 1 to a crack in the bottom but eeh- they were a buck.
Thing about using plastic is that it can never be used for anything else after it is used for soap- no lipbalms. You don't want to risk leaching lye into them. I guess they would be okay for lotions though. Also plastics need to be heat tested. Just pour boiling water on them or in them while they are sitting in the sink and see how they do.
My favorite thing I have found at the dollor store was these little mini spatulas. They are simply the greatest for mixing a bit of colorant or getting the last drop of that expensive fragrance out of the measuring cup.

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Have a Blessed Day