Just for fun!

Made a shape out of gray self-drying hobby clay, took a (very clumsy) silicon mold of it, and now I have a fun shape to pour excess soap into if I make too much for the main mold.

On the left: clay thing. On the right: lavender soap.

Almost got a full gel this time, which felt nice.

The olive oil was marinating with shredded lemon peels for a week prior to processing, so it got a really strong natural lemon aroma. Hoping it holds up once done curing. :)

Apart from that, no additives.

Still new, and trying to learn all the things and terms :)

Came over this (store bought soap) and was wondering why it becomes sorta layered after use. I read today about "glycerin rivers" which can happen both during hot process soap, or cold process where the soap gets very hot during the gel phase.

I am pretty sure I over cooked it. I kept waiting for the mixture to look glossy but it was only ever partial so I wound up cooking it for 3 hours before deciding to just put it in the mold anyway and the soap doesn't hold together very well. I am leaving it in for a day but when I was pressing it into the mold it just felt like it wasn't forming a cohesive whole.

Independence from the tyranny of commercial soaps.

edit: my last Lemmy client was poorly working, welcome Eternity

It's been 15 months since I made my last (very large) batch of soap bars. Went back online today looking to purchase soaping oils. Dayum! Some of the oils I use have DOUBLED in price. I was bummed. I can understand an increase, but doubled... . No words here.

Lavender bar soap unmolded and a week deep into its cure. Had some issues unmolding where the soap stuck in the corners, which is visible in the bottom right bar. Color is better now than it was out the gate, but still not quite what I had hoped for. All issues with this batch probably stem from the high proportion of Shea butter: crack after pouring into mold, sticking in the mold, bars feel a bit too soft. Proportion of butter was twice as high as it should been, but lesson learned. Will report back when it's ready for use!

...and whipped up a few pounds of this lavender scented olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter behemoth. Color is a not exactly what I was after and I think the proportion of the shea butter was too high (hence the crack), but I'm hoping it'll still be a nice batch. Will update when I unmold and again after the cure.

I've made a few batches of soap in my nascent career, including three batches of bar soap based on this recipe from Soap Queen as well as three batches of this "Castile" soap. I'd love to branch out, try different recipes or experiment with different blends or ratios, just feeling reluctant to fix what isn't broken.

I'll be making a new batch of bar soap soon and will be sure to post updates of my progress. Let me know if you've got any sweet recipe selections or blends to try!