Making soap for the first time

Soap is not hard to make as long as you get yourself very organised before you begin. It only takes a couple of hours to make a decent batch of soap.  I used  lye, lard, coconut oil and water, then added lavender for fragrance. After reading all the sites you sent me to, this weekend I began the practical research in making Lavender Soap for Charlotte.

First I made a Cold Process soap.  I added the lye to the water  and stirred it then added this to the fats and stirred that with the stick blender, it came to trace very quickly (Trace is when your stirring stick leaves a trace in the pudding like mixture) so I poured it into the mold and wondered why it had been so easy. After reading a number of other recipes I realised I had done piles of stuff wrong.  I had forgotton to take the temperature of the lye.  I added lye to unmelted lard. I had forgotton to cool the lye first. I had forgotton to cover the soap afterwards so that it stayed hot to cure (though I quickly rectified this once I realised).

(Surprisingly the next morning the soap had forgiven me and it was hard enough to cut into slices) Much to my amazement I had  made soap.

There are two ways of making soap, both begin the same but end differently: Cold Process Soap  and Hot Process Soap. I had elected to start with the Cold Process as it looked simpler.  Making Hot Process Soap means that after adding the lye water to the lard and stirring it to the trace stage, you then cook it, so with my second batch I did this in the slow cooker.

And once again I made soap. I got the recipe for this one from chickens in the road.

I chose to add lavender instead of vanilla and cinnamon (we all know how I feel about cinnamon) and it came out beautifully as well.

So either soap making is really not as hard as I thought or I have used up all my beginners luck.

Just be careful not to inhale the lye water, and mix the lye into the water not the other way around. And have everything measured and in order before you begin.

I used shoe boxes lined with white plastic bags for molds.

As I have no plastic jugs and bowls, glass and stainless steel is fine. Everything washed up beautifully in the dishwasher.

Make sure to cover the soap in its mold straight away with a piece of cardboard then with old sweatshirts and towels. The first stage of the curing is a hot one and it needs to stay warm as long as you can.

The bars of soap are now resting in the cellar to cure. I have about forty creamy lightly scented bars. For the Cold Process the curing  may take up to 6 weeks. For the Hot Process the soap will be ready to use after only a few weeks (though some people use them straight away) as the heat from the cooking escalates the curing process. I am instructed to turn these every few days so they cure evenly.

I was so focused on my soap making ventures that I did not notice Boo the Bad very quietly creeping into my reading chair for a quick recharge.

Now that I know the basics I am going to make more soap. Designing a soap for each of my children and their families as their Christmas presents.  There is excema in our family and lard soap is supposed to be very good for the dry skin.

After the soap I spent the rest of the weekend making bread and ice cream and tomato sauce and the usual things.

But I am as proud of making this soap as I am of growing my own apples.

Have a lovely day.

Your friend on the farm, celi

ps This is bread, not soap. No mixing the two up!! Good morning!

pss, (later in the morning)  just found this link with some really good soap making info: 4 steps to making soap.  Worth a look.