Teach Soap

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

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I would answer that but my mind is giving me the silent treatment right now!

Oh noes! Just got done cleaning up after a soaping session with many firsts...

SoapBuddy wished me well and told me to have fun. Hmmm...if learning through one's mistakes is fun, I guess I had a ball. My first time with a stronger lye solution (29%), first time with additives (baker's chocolate and cocoa powder), and my first NEAR VOLCANO! Or at least the first time I saw things headed that way.

This recipe moved SO FAST - I got what I wished for: batter that looked like thick brownie batter within a minute or so. The FO I used (NG almond) had rave reviews as a non-accelerating FO. Barely got it into the mold in time. Got it flatish on the top (sure to be dozens of air bubbles so don't know why I even tried to make it look neat) - began to walk it to the spare room where I leave soap overnight...I realized in horror that it began to look like a loaf a bread rising quickly - and there's that damn crack in the top everyone complains about. Having heard stories of volcano eruptions despite putting molds in the freezer, I rushed it outside.

Sigh. I think I know what went wrong - I had the music so loud I did not hear SoapBuddy's voice in my head telling me to soap at a lower temperature. The baker's chocolate was stubborn to melt - oils were at 130 F when I soaped with the lye solution a very close 135 F.

I should have waited for things to cool down a bit - more like 110 F - right? Argh!

Lesson learned. Oh well - so far the ugliness of my soaps has not gotten in the way of them actually being nice soaps to use.

Yeah, 130 is pretty hot. Think of it as a learning experience.

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

So far not the disaster I feared. The crack in the top never got longer than an inch or so. Cut the bars...not many air holes, nor pockets of unmixed cocoa powder (feared I got that in too late as the batch traced in a blink). A touch of oil on the surface - this has happened to me with my other high olive oil soaps (this had a touch over 50% OO) - it goes away as the soap cures - was not an issue with my lower OO soaps.

Nice brown color right now due to the chocolate. Very subtle chocolate scent with the almond.

Depending on how the color comes out after curing, I'd consider using baker's chocolate for brown in the future as long as it was compatible with the FO.