Newbie Soapmaker – Day 4 Results 3


I made a total of 10 batches and here are the results from my first venture into soapmaking. Wow! I can’t believe I made this much soap.

Batch #1: Yesterday I shared that my first batch of soap volcanoed right out of the mold. Yikes! It turned out that my lye and my oils were too hot when I mixed them together. I had to put a piece of plastic wrap on the top and press the soap down. It would rise and bubble again and I would have to press the soap down all over again. I had to do this for several minutes until the soap stopped rising. I do not know what the temperatures of my lye and oils were because I did not use a thermometer. Due to the volcano, this soap was cosmetically challenged and had some glycerin beads inside the soap. These glycerin beads are not caustic and will re-absorb into the soap after some cure time.

Batch #2: My second batch was much easier and I used cooler temperatures, but I still didn’t use a thermometer. This batch behaved very well and when I cut the soap it had a thick layer of soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap had an excellent appearance otherwise.

Batch #3: Because I was feeling more confident in my soapmaking skills, I used a thermometer to record the temperature of my lye solution and oils before combining them. This allowed me to keep notes about temperature. My oils were 130° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 150° Fahrenheit. This batch behaved very well and when I cut the soap it had a thick layer of soda ash on the top of the soap. Other than the soda ash, this soap looks great!

Batch #4: For this batch, my oils were 130° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 140° Fahrenheit. This batch behaved very well and when I cut the soap it had very little soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap looked great. I’m doing much better!

Batch #5: For this batch, my oils were 168° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 160° Fahrenheit. This batch behaved very well and when I cut the soap it had very little soda ash on the top of the soap. However, this soap did have an odd white and off-white swirling pattern. Hmm, this is very interesting.

Batch #6: For this batch, my oils were 148° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 148° Fahrenheit. This batch was very thick (about the consistency of pudding) and grainy when I poured into the mold and I was worried if this soap would turn out at all. When I cut the soap it had very little soda ash on the top of the soap.

Batch #7: For this batch, my oils were 118° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 160° Fahrenheit. This batch behaved very well. When I cut the soap it had a very thick layer of soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap looks much better than the last batch.

Batch #8: For this batch, my oils were 170° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 180° Fahrenheit. This batch was thick and grainy when I poured it into the mold and when I cut the soap it had a thin layer of soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap did have an odd white and off-white swirling pattern just like soap number 5.

Batch #9: For this batch, my oils were 180° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 180° Fahrenheit. This batch was more like the fluid trace I see when it was poured into the mold and when I cut the soap it had very little soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap did have an odd white and off-white swirling pattern just like soap numbers 5 & 8.

Batch #10: For this batch, my oils were 132° Fahrenheit and my lye solution was 134° Fahrenheit. This batch behaved very well and when I cut the soap it had very little soda ash on the top of the soap. This soap looked awesome! I’m impressed with all this soap that I have made!

Overall Analysis: I discovered that my soaps did the best if the temperatures of my lye and oils were close in temperature. When the soaps had a large temperature difference, there was a heavy coat of soda ash on the final bar of soap. Most of my batches were mixed when they were too hot and this created an odd white/off-white swirl in the soap. I found I was too impatient to let my materials cool down!

My overall best looking bars were batch numbers 3, 4, 6, and 10. I think that while some of these did have some indication of the gel phase as it cooled, and I like this because it adds some fun character to the finished bar of soap.

I can’t believe that I’m finished with my first 10 batches of soap! Now, what will I make next?

Taylor

Collecting my supplies to begin soaping!

Batch 1

Batch 1 as it begins to volcano.

Batch 2

Batch 3

Batch 4

Batch 5

Batch 7

Batch 9

Batch 6

Batch 8

Batch 10

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About Taylor

I'm a twenty something happy, animal loving, curious experimenter. I love reaching back into history and trying old recipes for cosmetics or foods. I'm constantly asking "Why?" My curiosity has me trying new things. I love taking walks with my dog as well as staying at home to cuddle with the dog and my cats. Some of my favorite scents include Hinoki Wood, Rose Garden, Jasmine and Gladiator.

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3 thoughts on “Newbie Soapmaker – Day 4 Results

  • bluebutterflz

    Thanks for sharing your adventures! I’ve honestly never poured my lye and oils so hot before so this was interesting reading about the experience of what different temps do.

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  • Andee

    Each batch of Taylor’s used the following:
    6 oz of Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
    6 oz of Palm Kernel Oil
    4 oz of Sunflower Oil

    2.2 oz of Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)
    6 oz of Water

    I hope this helps! I have pulled this information from her posts in this series.

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