2 August 2012



Makin' Soap


It was a bit scary!
:)


I heated 1000g olive oil and 250g coconut oil.


Dissolved 172g caustic soda/lye in 450mls filtered water.
To avoid the fumes, I mixed the lye and water outside. 
It heated up by itself and was steaming!


Then came the juggling act. 
The oils and lye solution both had to reach 50 degrees Celsius at the same time. When that happened I carefully poured the lye in with the oils and mixed them together with a stick blender.


And kept blending until it reached trace.


Then I poured it into a greased container.


The next morning, after much wrestling, I prised the soap out of the container and cut it into blocks. 
Next time I will line the container with baking paper.

Not the prettiest looking cakes but they smell lovely and mild...like Sunlight soap.

After six weeks of curing they'll be ready to use.


Note to self.....When dealing with caustic substances, DO NOT use your teeth to pull your rubber gloves off!!!

The result is a singed tongue.

:(



Soap recipe thanks to Rhonda of Down to Earth



6 comments:

Jane Robertson said...

Oh dear - and you knew to be careful of the caustic soda!! Better a singed tongue than rubbing it in your eyes though.

It looks really successful :-) What is 'trace'?

Unknown said...

Trace is when the ripples and squiggles stay on the surface. Like thick custard I guess.

I was so nervous and shaking the whole time I was making the soap. I tend to do careless things when I'm like that. But it was fun :) I'm keen to add essential oils to my next batch.

Pukeko G said...

Singed tongue didn't quieten you down though.! Another challenge conquered.

The Happy Whisk said...

Niki, you amaze me. Fantastic making your own soap and butter. Very frickin' cool.

Jane Robertson said...

You could add poppy seeds to make a 'gardener's soap'. Oils would be nice for perfume :-)

It's really difficult to buy cake soap in the places I've been, in the main shops anyway. It's all liquid soap in plastic bottles :-( Why?? What's wrong with nice cake soap - better for the environment.

dkm said...

love love LOVE this post. I agree with Happy Whisk---such admirable and earthy projects you take on. My mother used to make her own laundry soap---only she used old fashioned lard instead of olive oil. Made the house smell terrible, as I remember. I doubt she used any perfume. Do you sell your soap and may I place an order. If you call it Sunlight Soap, you'll have a worldwide market. Mmmm--essential oils.

I'm guessing the taste of that lye was worse than its burn, not? Haha to PG's comment.