Coolah Creations

The Curse of the Cure!

On Apr 13, 2013 0 No Comments

Sometimes, a soap curing can be it’s death. Colour wise that is. Although this batch was doomed from the get go (riced, smooshed into the mold, tried to over heat, etc), it came out pretty enough for me to hope it would pull through.

The fragrance could have been bottled and sold as perfume, it was divine! Sadly, the curse of the cure turned this pretty soap into the morning after, make up less scary monster!

The colours darked, the mass of air bubbles (due to pounding this soap into the mold with my fist), the ash. This is the definition of Fugly. But it still smells SO good!

ShareSometimes, a soap curing can be it’s death. Colour wise that is. Although this batch was doomed from the get go (riced, smooshed into the mold, tried to over heat, etc), it came out pretty enough for me to hope it would pull through. The fragrance could have been bottled and sold as perfume, it…

Being kicked out of the kitchen…

On Mar 16, 2013 0 No Comments

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… by my own products!!

First, it was the bottle of ingredients (and not a cheap one) that suicided off my kitchen bench, smashing all over the floor right at my feet.

Then, it was the hot detangler mixture that splurted over the edge and splashed me.

Since that didn’t seem to deter me, the big guns were brought in. The murderous mixer hired to finish me off…

Grab some protective booties and let’s examine the crime scene…

Before we even enter the kitchen, the evidence is clear…

Those with a weak stomach should turn around now… clearly this is not going to be pretty.

DUN, DUN, duuunnnnnnnn *girly squeal*

Just like the wall of a real crime scene, the writing was all over the walls… literally. My poor Ikea unit that I love so much takes such a beating some days.

Oh Mr Hart!!

It’s E V E R Y W H E R E!!!! On my fridge, on the other side of the kitchen cupboards, etc. EVERYWHERE!!

Last time this happened, it was because I was trying to see if I turned the dial super slowly, I could get a 0.5 setting instead of a 0 or a 1. But I learned my lesson, very messily that day. Today I just turned the dial to one and for a split second wondered why nothing was happening.

You know those idiots in movies that we’re always yelling at? “Turn on the light!!!!….. Don’t go down to the dark basement on your own!!! … TURN AROUND!!!” And of course, “Don’t look IN if it stops”. You see where I’m going with this? Yup! That split second was long enough for me to look over the uncovered bowl. Then, the mixer jump started with an explosive jolt.

Lotion. Everywhere. Including me!

Curse you mixer!

I’m taking this as a sign though. It was playing in the back of my head that it’s 4pm and I still need to finish off the labels and signs for tomorrow’s market, and load the car. I really shouldn’t be playing in the kitchen. I had just hoped to restock the lavender lotion for tomorrow. Instead, I have 6 tubs that will go to friends as the essential oils and preservative amounts aren’t accurate after losing half the batch everywhere. *sigh*

*nods to the gods* ok, ok, I’m listening now. Shower and then I’ll get back to finishing preparation for tomorrow. One day, 3 things attacked me. Jeepers!

Share… by my own products!! First, it was the bottle of ingredients (and not a cheap one) that suicided off my kitchen bench, smashing all over the floor right at my feet. Then, it was the hot detangler mixture that splurted over the edge and splashed me. Since that didn’t seem to deter me, the…

Lye is Ouchies!!

On Jan 20, 2013 2 2 Comments

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Everything happens in 3′s, and if it get’s worst each time, I think I better stop soaping right now!!

The first first, was crumbly soap.

The second, today, a lye spill! My first decent one – I’ve had splatters before, like the one that attacked the tip of my nose – but today’s resulted in a mad dash to the shower where I stripped so fast Superman’s head would have spun! Straddling the kitty litter that sits in the shower, I pelted myself with icey cold water and frantically rubbed all the burning areas. Stomach and thighs copped the full brunt of the spill and I felt the sharp sting of the burn the second it splashed against my skin.

I had my gloves and goggles on, but it’s summer here and I also had shorts. I wear a long sleeve ‘house coat’ when I mix the lye, but I was done mixing, I was just moving it. So I didn’t have that on – just my shorts and tank top. It was mixed and cooling when I decided I wanted to use that space (stove top – right under the fan on the fastest speed) so I picked it up to move it.

Then it happened. That tingle in your nose. A threatening sneeze. Naturally, I put the bucket of lye water down (2kgs worth) on the bench to be safe. But I only got the edge, and as it went to tip forward, I reached out to grab it a little too aggressively and it splashed all over me.

What did I learn?

That lye FREAKING HURTS MAN!!! Like stinging pain. A thousand pissed off jelly fish. I also learned that I can safely challenge Superman for a costume change time trial the next time I see him. I managed to drop my shorts and rip my tank top over my head in the SAME move!!

And, I learned that the kids aren’t the only ones who can get water droplets on the roof of the bathroom. I’m more ticked off at how much mess I have to clean up now!! Actually, that’s a lye…er, I mean lie. I’m more ticked off that it’s nearly a kilo of caustic soda wasted! Gah!

Straight back on the horse however, a new batch of lye is cooling as I write this. I discovered a miss spill splotch on the floor, which I found by standing on it – double ouch! I’m sure I was a sight to see with my replaced t-shirt, missing shorts and one foot dunked in the kitchen sink. I wish I knew why the neighbour on that side always crosses the street when he sees me coming…

I think for now, I’m going to go hide on the couch and watch a movie. I’m a bit worried for what the “third” first will be. Anyone have a spare bubble I can move into?

ShareEverything happens in 3′s, and if it get’s worst each time, I think I better stop soaping right now!! The first first, was crumbly soap. The second, today, a lye spill! My first decent one – I’ve had splatters before, like the one that attacked the tip of my nose – but today’s resulted in…

My first crumbly soap!

On Jan 17, 2013 0 No Comments

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After nearly a year and a half of making, I encountered my first crumbly soap today. And naturally, it was a soap I was highly anticipating cutting to see the awesome inside swirls. This is the soap that I managed to get the awesome top detail on the other night. (See Here)

Ok so not the best top, but I had high hopes for the pattern inside. The batch of soap had produced two Love Spell loaves, and two unscented plain loaves. After the soap had rested for 24 hours, I was quite surprised by the lack of moisture both on the soap, and underneath it when I turned it onto it’s side. Normally after a stint in the fridge and/or freezer, there is some condensation on both, but not this batch. Dry as a bone. My first alarm bell.

The second was how hard it was when I picked it up to put it on my soap slicer. Unusually hard. Like a brick hard!!

With these two warning bells flashing loud and proud, I decided to cut the unscented loaves first so I knew what I was dealing with before touching the others and their pretty patterns. And that’s when disaster stuck…

With my slicing wire as useful as a butter knife on concrete, the butcher’s knife of terror was pulled out and used to issue this murdering blow. I used all my strength to push the knife down and suffered whiplash as it hit the bench. Having never experienced crumbly soap like this before, it took a moment for the realisation to sink in. Slowly and filled with fear, my eyes shifted to the Love Spell loaves.

My heart beat increased, pulse raced, breath quickened…

Noooooooooo!!!!!!

Shattered. Absolutely Devastated! Not only because it’s the last of my Love Spell fragrance, but look at those swirls?!?! How awesome would those bars have been!!

The smell is fantastically strong, which still surprises me each time I walk into the kitchen (I’m too heart broken for the rubbish bin funeral arranging). I used less fragrance than I normally would, weight wise, so not sure if Love Spell is just particularly strong, or if it’s the changes I made to this particular batch helping that factor. Either way, it’s a bitter sweet smell at the moment.

Slowly I made cut after cut, a single tear running down my cheek as I realised the entire two kilos of perfectly coloured and scented soap was nothing more than a dried up corpse that could turn to dust at any moment. I agonisingly admired the different swirls and patterns as I came across them…

Now that I have accepted the batch is ruined – although I am considering finding a nice bowl and keeping it as room fresheners as the smell is remarkably strong – it’s time to work out what went wrong. The paperwork portion of the murder investigation.

There are three suspects:

The Liquid Discount. My first suspect. However after talking to some fellow soapers, my lye solution is (and was) very weak, so that has been temporarily ruled out. I’ve always worked with a weak solution as I feel relaxed with the extended trace time it brings, allowing me plenty of leeway to play with my swirls. The only downside is the loooooooong wait for the fancy tops.

Second suspect is the fact that I ran short on my olive oil and topped it up with Rice Bran oil, something that is already in my recipe, thus putting a LOT more rice bran into the mix. But my doubts are high with this one as a lot of people out there use nearly all rice bran (in place of olive) with no problems. Plus, I have topped up this way before, albeit not the extent of this batch, but again, I don’t see that really being the problem.

The final suspect and only other variation in the mix is how my lye got colder than it normally does. We’re talking ‘crap I forgot it was cooling in the freezer and now it’s slushy frozen’ kind of cold. This is not normally an issue as I work with chilled lye with all my batches to help keep the goat’s milk as white as possible, and it’s the way I do my liquid soaps to help keep it as clear as possible. But this particular mixture did have to be sat in a pot of warm water (just warm tap water) to thaw out enough to be runny and not have solid chunks in it.

My finger of blame is now firmly aimed at the lye. My suspicions is that the act of mixing the lye and milk with the oils caused the lye to heat up and quicken the tracing aspect of it. Given the hotter you soap, the quicker you reach trace, it’s a plausible theory that somehow, the chilled lye reacted somehow with the oils, started heating up and introduced the element of heat into the mix which isn’t normally there.

That would give me the hastened trace. But would that give me such dry, hard, and crumbly bars? They don’t zap, and given everything was mixed extremely well in the first place, they aren’t lye heavy at all. This is purely a lack of moisture factor. But how…

My mind boggles…

Coolah Creations Love Spell Goats Milk Soap

ShareAfter nearly a year and a half of making, I encountered my first crumbly soap today. And naturally, it was a soap I was highly anticipating cutting to see the awesome inside swirls. This is the soap that I managed to get the awesome top detail on the other night. (See Here) Ok so not…

Liquid Soap Making – The Beginnings!

On Nov 19, 2012 2 2 Comments

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Liquid Soap …. SUCKS!!!

I decided that this weekend was going to be liquid soap making weekend!! I managed to find a place about twenty minutes away from me that sells potassium hydroxide (aka liquid soap lye) which saves on postage and picked up a wee little kilo of it to give it a go.

I had been reading up on it all and was excited to give it a go. I had worked out my recipe and the method by which I wanted to cook it all, so Friday I jumped in! Admittedly, I went in cocky. I make CP soap – I can do this! Pssht! That’s like saying a fisherman can operate a submarine! (You know, coz they both go in water…)

Day 1.

I decided to attempt something new even with kids in the house. I only did so because of the time length involved and the knowledge that if I needed to stop at any point, I could do so safely. Unlike my bar soaps, liquid soaps takes hours (days!) to do and the first stage is anywhere from two to ten hours cooking in a slow cooker. No having to measure, mix and pour all in one hit.

As I measured my oils into the slow cooker bowl, I noticed that my thoughts of doing a small batch to start with wasn’t the best idea when I was using a five litre slow cooker. The oils barely covered the bottom and would be near on impossible to stick blend safely. So, I quickly doubled my recipe.

This is where I am ashamed to admit my rookie mistake. I doubled my oils, but then forgot to run my recipe back through my lye calculator and instead, used the original lye amount. Bow Boooooow. It took a bit to work out why my soap was still milky white after three hours.

Batch trashed.

Day 2.

It’s Saturday. The kids were dropped off to their dads the night before so I enjoyed a slight sleep in. After waking, I realised that I am either a hard core soap addict, or just completely have my priorities the wrong way round – I get my second batch of soap prepped BEFORE having breakfast.

I ran it all through my calculator again and am satisfied that my recipe is correct this time. I measure everything out and begin the cooking process. It runs a lot smoother this time and I watch it all go through it’s predictable and recorded stages until it becomes translucent as the books say it will. Woo Hoo!

This is where I come unstuck. The soap at this stage is a thick, taffy like paste. In order for it to be liquid soap, you need to dilute it. But, I hadn’t worked out how much water I needed to dilute it, and none of my notes explain the process to work it out. They all had recipes to follow which told you how much to add, but I had made my own recipe.

Not to mention everyone else works in ounces and in backwards upside down land, we work in grams. I ended up finding some Aussie notes that explained the process:

We recommend using the 35% water rate for KOH (liquid soap) recipes to liquify your caustic. The dilution water rate should be the initial water rate x 6 (minimum) or x 8 (maximum).

That made sense!! I worked out my water amount and it ended up being close to 4kgs of water. Yikes!! At the same time as I had found those notes, I had asked in a soaping group I am apart of how to work out a 30% dilution rate and had been given the answer of just over 500 grams. Eeeerm… 500g? 4kgs? Big difference.

So, freaking out that I had poured too much water in, I tipped three quarters out. Then wondered why my soap paste resisted diluting like a delinquent teenager.

Batch, binned.

I also learned that you don’t try to dilute your soap paste in cold (yes, refrigerated) water. You end up with your spoon stuck to the soap, that is stuck to the container. Doh! Re-reading my notes I realised boiling water. Aaaaah. Lightbulb!

I’m also iffy on the whole ‘one part paste – two parts water’ for the test dilution. I watched a YouTube video where they only grabbed the tiniest amount of soap paste for a test… trying to work that one out.

Day 3.

I woke up late after a pour night’s sleep and after a quick, unsatisfiying breakfast, I began the arduous task of cleaning up the kitchen from the mess created the day before. There was taffy like soap goop on the bench, on the outside of the slow cooked and amassed in the slow cooker bowl.

I managed to get everything cleaned up and was ready to take on attempt number three, I printed my record sheet out, weighed the pot and wrote it down. The same steps I had done two days previous. As I did so it occurred to me that it was unlikely the bowl had in fact lost or gained any weight over night. It’s ceramic. I’m an idiot. (I used the exact same pot all 3 attempts… )

I added ingredient after ingredient, just like I had done the two days prior. Happy with hitting the exact gram weight for all but the coconut oil (four grams over) I transfered the bowl from the scales to the slow cooker container and turned it on.

BOOM!! Sparks flew everywhere!!

“FRACK!!!”, exited my mouth.

What in the hell just happened?? I quickly turned the slow cooker off and realised that it had blown up on me. Oh my! Three or four times I tried to get up the guts to turn it back on, but being the wuss I am, pulled back before reaching the dial. I grabbed a hand towel to protect my hand – yes, like that was going to stop me dying from electrocution. *eye roll*

I leaned forward and turned it on.

Nothing.

Off. On. Off. On. Off-on-off-on. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Well phooey! My slow cooker was dead. “Craaaaaaaap” I assume it’s due to soap or water getting into the base from when the batch over flowed or from when I was cleaning it. Or both.

After my heart resumed it’s normal beating rhythm, I grabbed the second slow cooker I had – that silly little thing that was one day waiting to cook actual food. I began scraping all of my oils into the back up plan and realising that some were being left behind, thought to myself that, ‘(a) that extra four grams of coconut oil was actually a bonus, and (b) I am so smart, I can just weigh the pot and it should equal the oil amount, right?’

It was then that it came to my attention that the back up pot was smaller. Meaning it would weigh less. “Craaaaaap”

After resetting the electrical box (thank goodness for safety switches), I hesitantly put the new slow cooker on. No light on the front, but I’ll assume it’s working. I chuckled to myself that it was only yesterday I was thinking I should look for a spare bowl for my slow cooker so I could make batch after batch without having to wait for it to be clean. Looky that, I just created a spare bowl! HA! Not funny…

Like the day before, the soap batter went through all the required stages including hitting the taffy – rock like taffy – softer taffy stages and eventually translucent. After approximately three and a half hours I was ready to start diluting. Only this time – I would do little bits at a time.

250g of boiling water added.

*poke poke, prod prod*

Another 250g of boiling water added.

Now I realise that liquid soap takes levels of patience my brain just can not comprehend, but after nearly an entire day I was ready to rush it along. I grabbed my stick blender and tried not to kill it breaking up the paste. This would then later prove a nearly pointless task as the taffy was in fact that silver liquid terminator guy and would congeal back together after a few minutes. Grrr…

Today (technically day 4), I have been seeking out my fellow soap makers to try and help me see where I am going wrong and after showing pictures of what I was working with, was told to add more water. Enter another 250g of boiling water – bringing the grand total of 750g of water to approx 1.9kgs of soap paste.

From there, it went ok. More of the goop broke down and I ended up just scooping off the last bit. I poured what was left into some plastic pitchers and stared it down. I had either made liquid soap…. or Guinness.

Now goat’s milk will make the soap go brown. Not worried about that as I’m after the quality, not the clarity. Cocoa Butter will make a soap go cloudy, so I assume that’s why you can’t see the pint size Guinness confused drunkard I buried in the middle of each jug.

The only problem I have with it, is it’s watery thin. After doing LOTS of research and reading, that’s a normal trait amongst ‘real’ liquid soap and is usually overcome by a thickening agent. The common one – borax. Hrm… not really an ingredient I am happy to use.

I am tempted to use an ‘out of the book’ recipe tomorrow – including it’s borax – just to see if it’s something I am doing specifically, or just that I haven’t learned enough to wing the process with my own recipe / dilution rates. The one I have even gives you how much water to add in order to dilute. Coolah proof!!

The Weekend Wrap Up:

1 x Blown up Slow Cooker.
1 x Broken Stick Blender.
3 x Batches of Ruined Liquid Soap
Immeasurable levels of frustration.

Tomorrow morning after Kinder drop off I will be picking up some borax and giving it yet another go. I’m stubborn. I simply can NOT let this rest until I beat it. That’s how I got the nickname Soapinatrix – if you don’t do what I want, I bring out the whips until you do!!!!

Picture Gallery of Failure:

The beginning of the first batch, when my hope was still high!

I thought this stage was cool – one I don’t normally see with my CP soaps. But this is the start of ‘gelling’ and the soap reminded me of chewy caramel!! Caustic, burn your tongue right off but calorie free chewy caramel.

If any of my non soap maker readers get confused when I talk about ‘gelling’ – this is what I am talking about. It’s cooking the soap all the way through. This is a ‘full gel’ meaning that all of the soap has been cooked through … right to the edges.

For my liquid soap, this is what I was looking for. The soap begins to go translucent and starts to losen up again. Trying to stir it between gel and the ‘taffy’ stage was near on impossible!

Coming unstuck. I kept ending up with this hard bubble crust on top. Was driving me nuts as every time I would stir it in, it would re-appear!! But I think I got my answers to all that today and am curious to see if I can avoid it tomorrow.

I WILL master liquid soap! And I WILL master goat’s milk liquid soap that is what people would expect (thick and gel like, not too dark, etc). Once I set my mind to something I don’t give up!! Like…. EVER!

Welcoming ALL comments, tips, tricks, advice from any fellow liquid soap makers. It’s the dilution part I am really coming unstuck. How much water to add, how long it takes to dissolve, do I stir it periodically or just ignore it like the weird kid at school, etc, etc. Oh… and how to thicken it !!

ShareLiquid Soap …. SUCKS!!! I decided that this weekend was going to be liquid soap making weekend!! I managed to find a place about twenty minutes away from me that sells potassium hydroxide (aka liquid soap lye) which saves on postage and picked up a wee little kilo of it to give it a go….

It’s a good thing I like Coconut Oil.

On Nov 16, 2012 4 4 Comments

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Thank goodness Coconut Oil is good for your skin – I just took a 20L shower in the stuff! Not by choice, of course.

I have (or had) a fresh 20L box of solid at room temperature Coconut Oil. Because it does go solid when it’s cool/cold, trying to scoop some out of the box is harder than it sounds. Inside the cardboard packaging, the coconut oil is in a double thickness plastic bag with a pouring spout. Usually when packed, the pouring spout is pushed into the oil and then it sets… trapping it.

The last box I cut open and scooped out, I ended up covering my hands and chest in it. Chest? Yes… apparently I lean against boxes when I need to chisel rock like oils out. Since my body is still not porno ready, there was no need to be smearing it all over my girly fun bags. Instead it was just a nuisance that resulted in more washing.

What worked for me last time was popping the entire box into the oven on a ‘warming’ setting. This would melt the outer edges of the cube of oil and I would slowly pour what ever was available into my 5L bucket. What worked once, must work again…

Or so one would think.

But. I have kids. And cats – I’ve not yet ruled them out completely. What I didn’t realise this time, was that the oven had been turned up from ‘warming’ to 100 for the past hour. When I popped the lid off the spout to obtain a SMALL amount of the liquid oil, I was instead showered by the the entire 20L box!!!

Let me assist you with that mental image – red penquin pajama pants and a ’round the house’ tank top. One measly little 5L bucket in my hands and a victorious smirk on my face. This is then REPLACED by coconut oil assaulting me at unrecorded speeds.

The shocked scream jolts my five year old daughter into action to see what’s wrong – her answer? To stand there and state the obvious, “OH NO MUM!! You’re all shiney!! It’s all over the floor!! Oh wow mum, you’re going to be angry, aren’t you?”

“GET ME A BUCKET SAVANNAH!!!” was all I could respond with.

“Yes mum!!!! Aaaaaaaah”

Between the two of us I managed to save approximately 15L. I had warm oil dripping from my nose, chin and ears. My tank top and pyjama pants are now soaked and molesting my body like it’s a wet T-shirt contest. There is coconut oil all over the floor and it’s streaming out of the oven as there’s a lovely little swimming pool now installed on the bottom underneath the heating element. And, the best part is my tiled floor turning my kitchen into a makeshift ice-skating rink. Awesome.

Thankfully it all cleaned up ok courtesy of half a pack of baby bum wipes I keep in the kitchen for just these emergencies. With the oven door shut, I am waiting for the ‘pool heater’ (aka oven element) to go cold before I pull the inside apart to mop up (or likely, scrape up) the mess that’s remaining in there.

I’m clean and less slippery than most happy ending massage girls now, so I’m back to the kitchen to resume my fun liquid soap making. I apologise in advance to all future box’s of coconut oil that will be treated with mistrust until they prove they can behave. One misfit and all the rest will pay…

Slippery Soapi Signing Off!

ShareThank goodness Coconut Oil is good for your skin – I just took a 20L shower in the stuff! Not by choice, of course. I have (or had) a fresh 20L box of solid at room temperature Coconut Oil. Because it does go solid when it’s cool/cold, trying to scoop some out of the box…

From Failure to Fugly!

On Nov 13, 2012 4 4 Comments

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I’m not too sure what compelled me to have a go at gelling my soap the other week, but I did. I remember having over-heating problems in the beginning and once I discovered the freezer, I just never looked back. But, lately I’ve been wanting to de-mold quicker, cut quicker and see if there really is a noticeable difference in the smoothness of a gelled vs non-gelled bar of soap.

So, I gelled.

And, I failed.

Nope, I don’t make a habit of smearing jam all over the top (or in fact, the bottom) of my soaps. That’s overheating goop! Gross, jelly like, makes you dry reach just thinking about it, stinky goop!

Because all my soaps are milk soap, that adds to the heat factor and thus, can make gelling a little trickier. BUT I soaped cool – cold in fact!! My lye mixture was chilled, my mold was chilled, my oils were cool. Yet still, it overheated. Damnit! Perhaps coming into Summer isn’t the best time to start experimenting with gelling perfections?

After a quick autopsy, the entire loaf was binned. RIP Black Raspberry Vanilla loaf…

Thankfully, I’m smart! *taps temples knowingly* I only attempted to gel one out of three of my loaves. So, the other two were removed from the freezer, thawed and demolded. That’s about where my smarts ended. Or, I guess more specifically, my faith in my cats behaving ended….

See the wickedly cool paint splatter top I did? See how awesomely white my goat’s milk titanium dioxide free soap is? See the corner where I dropped the loaf moving it? Doh!!

Having a few ‘issues’ that day already, I decide it’s a good time to leave the house. The cats, the kids, the soap… something was going to cop it. So, we left…

And… we returned.

See that? The completely smooshed up corner? Want to know what I call that?! Either Max, or Coolah!! Otherwise known as ‘YOU FLIPPING CATS!!!!!’

That is the soap crash courtesy of shit-head one and shit-head two getting up on the kitchen bench while I was out all afternoon. It’s bad enough that one loaf overheated and had to be binned – but then my two ‘still soft from not being gelled’ loaves got knocked over by two poo heads claiming starvation and looking for food where they know they’re not allowed.

Unsure what to do with the non damaged sections, I decided to pick them up and try to save what I could. Because it had been tipped over, the loaf lying down hadn’t dried properly from the condensation that occurs due to freezing/thawing. This, combined with my butter fingers resulted in a dropped loaf onto the bench. Other end damaged.

No worries, I still had the samples. Oh wait, I left those in the mold until they were completely thawed, forgot they were still soft and now those are all smooshed too. Oh yeah, and I remember now, that was the last of my best selling fragrance!!!

With two damaged loaves and “bits” of sample soaps and such, I decided this was going to be a good soap batch to have a play with the embeds idea I had. There was absolutely NO love left for this batch, so who cared if it failed.

And fail, it did. The idea in my head – awesome. The result? Fugly!

The orange one definitely came out better than the green, but still, not as I had pictured it. Below is the rough idea (I have about 10 different pictures similar I looked at) of what I had in mind when I was creating it. Bear in mind that the below pic is made via a different technique/soap type…

Oh well. As I had no attachment to the failed batch, I don’t really care that it turned out fugly. Some nice cheap soap that no one will worry about using due to being “too pretty” lol. Scented with Pearberry (green) and Fruit Tingle (Orange), at worst they can go as freebies/samples alongside orders or such.

Of course now I am absolutely determined to do it right aren’t I? I’m such a glutten for punishment and frustration.

ShareI’m not too sure what compelled me to have a go at gelling my soap the other week, but I did. I remember having over-heating problems in the beginning and once I discovered the freezer, I just never looked back. But, lately I’ve been wanting to de-mold quicker, cut quicker and see if there really…

Moving into the big leagues!

On Oct 25, 2012 1 1 Comment

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I’ve now been officially soaping for a year – October 9th was on my first anniversary.

To date, my batches have been around the 1kg mark. A perfect fit for my silicone molds. That was until, I decided to change the width of my bars, and a single batch took me from 10 bars down to 7. This occurred at the same time as I took those brave steps into the public eye and started promoting my CP soaps. It was time to start looking at bigger batch sizes!

Yesterday, I made FOUR KILO’s of soap!! My biggest batch, EVER! Exciting, and scary, it was my first move into the ‘big leagues’. Taking off my hobby play time apron, I adorned my “I’m a soap maker” hat and proceeded to … watch every thing go wrong!!!

*takes a deep breath in…*

I ran out of my normal olive oil, so had to use the back up oil which is as green as an unclean swimming pool. Less than two minutes into mixing, my stick blender broke, dumping the shaft into the fresh lye added soap better. Trying to re-attach it so I could finish mixing introduced enough air bubbles I’m amazed the bucket didn’t fly away.

I had planned on an ‘in the pot’ swirl, only my purple colour bottle slipped and fell IN to the portion of mixture I had separated for that colour, and despite tipping the last of the colour in (bottle was COVERED in soap, not to be saved), it still morphed into a fugly green colour.

I knocked my bottle of red colouring over, and despite the fact it was such a large batch of soap, it all accelerated at lightning speed and instead of being an in the pot swirl, it was more an in the pot dump!

I’ve unmolded it this morning and it’s just a blend of fugly. No distinct colours, no swirl pattern. Just… bleh. Very lovely smelling bleh!

Given the colours were Red, Purple, Green and White, you can’t really tell. I will reserve final judgement until it’s cut (in a couple of days), but I’m not holding my breath. A couple of the bugs will also go straight to the reject bin as they didn’t pour properly.

Overall, absolutely nothing special about this batch besides the fact I got to clear out some fragrance oils from the cupboard, and that my 5kg bucket FINALLY got a decent work out!

That’s A LOT of soap right there!!

And my favourite stick blended… *sniff* I should be able to fix it, but it will never, truly, be the same again…

ShareI’ve now been officially soaping for a year – October 9th was on my first anniversary. To date, my batches have been around the 1kg mark. A perfect fit for my silicone molds. That was until, I decided to change the width of my bars, and a single batch took me from 10 bars down…

The soap that was just never meant to be right…

On Oct 23, 2012 6 6 Comments

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Yesterday I finally got to test the custom wooden mold my best friend’s dad built me. FINALLY I know someone able to make something and willing to help me!! Yippee!!

The mold is perfectly sized to fit into my freezer, while allowing for approx 27 bars of soap to be made. The only thing I haven’t done yet is cut up the dividers which will turn the slab into logs that I can then cut into bars… but who has time to stop and do that important step when there’s soap to be made?!?!

Drum roll please….

I bring you, my new wooden soap mold, freshly lined with wax paper!!

My first attempt at lining – not too shabby if I do say so myself!! Of course, my wax paper is 30cm wide, and the mold is 26cm x 27cm. Doh!

Next step? Make and pour the soap!! In order to do this though, I had to work out how much soap I needed to make. In comes the dreaded maths…. urg! I HATE it when teachers are right… “Melani, pay attention, one day you might need to know this stuff!”

Width x Length x Height x 0.4 = Soap Mixture.

BUT!!! I’m in backwards upside down land. It’s not that easy for me. Because I DID that… I multiplied my width (26.5), by my length (27.5), by the height I wanted (7cm) and then multiplied that number by 0.4… and look what I got?

Look a bit… flat to you? A bit… thin? Doesn’t really look like the height of a normal bar of soap, does it?

Yes, well, hrm. I was a bit confused when I poured the soap into the mold as it only came half way up the desired height. Even more confusing given I took the original quantity of soap and then added on 300 grams or so to make some sample sizes out of the same batch.

So what happened?

L X W X H X 0.4 ….

(L X W X H) X 0.4 ….

Same answer each time. What was going on?!

It took me a good fifteen minutes to figure it out. And it was only a chance fluke of reading a page that included a single word that all the other pages didn’t that finally clued me in. I had the maths right, that wasn’t my problem. The total number of just over 2000 I came to each time was in fact correct…. IF I didn’t live in backwards upside down land and used OUNCES like the rest of the planet!!!

Yup… the calculation gives you the OUNCES result. NOT grams which is the only thing I have even been taught about. I’ve never used ounces. Other people use ounces. We use grams. So when I read the calculation, I read it in grams. And the result… in grams.

2000 or so grams is not my mold size.

2000 or so OUNCES then converted to grams, which comes out closer to 5000 IS my mold size!!

Dag-nab-it!!

So, now I know. In backwards upside down land we have to do one extra mathematical step to work out how much our soap molds can hold.

The following morning, this morning, it was time to cut the soap. But bugger it, it’s not the normal height I use, so how was I going to cut it? *BING* goes the sound of a lightbulb above my head. I know… this slab is about the same size as my nizzy mold, and that mold came with dividers!! Oh I’m a genius!

Brilliant!! This will give me six decent bars, and the rest can go as samples. SAVED!! Dun, dun, da, daaaaa I have saved the soap!

Right about now my shoulder angels pop up…

*POOF*

Angel: Hrm, but how will you push the dividers in?

Devil: Use the chopping board on top!!

Angel: But wait… the dividers are intended to be pushed into wet soap. They have flat bottoms. This won’t work!

Devil: You’re smarter than the dividers. You’ll make it work. Riiiiiiight.

(BTW, it really helps if you hear their voices in your head… or maybe I’ve just seen the movie too many times)

Angel: Oh Dear…

Devil: It’s fine!!

Fine, it really wasn’t. What a mess!! Thankfully I was not attached to this soap at all!

My bright idea saw me end up with NO usable bars, a whole lot of mess and lots of sample / scrap soap. Bugger!

To add insult to injury, half the bars have the wax paper stuck to the bottom as well. I forgot last night when I went to bed that I had it on there, and as the soap thawed from the freezer, the condensation wet the wax paper and basically merged it with the bottom of each soap piece.

All in all, a great learning experience. Both in how to take measurements for my molds, how NOT to try and cut them, and that the devil, while amusing, is usually never right.

But, at least it got me back in the kitchen after nearly three weeks away from soaping!! Onwards and Upwards!!

ShareYesterday I finally got to test the custom wooden mold my best friend’s dad built me. FINALLY I know someone able to make something and willing to help me!! Yippee!! The mold is perfectly sized to fit into my freezer, while allowing for approx 27 bars of soap to be made. The only thing I…

Goat’s don’t like Apples!

On Jun 30, 2012 3 3 Comments

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Goat’s Milk Soap + Applejack Peel fragrance = crying soap!

See that single tear of overheated goop running down? Poor soap. Such a bummer too as those swirls were looking promising. I had read that this fragrance could have a bit of a hissy fit with CP soap, but given that was in the FREEZER, that’s some serious heat build up!

This is my second loaf of soap to befriend my rubbish bin in a week. I wonder what will be the third?

ShareGoat’s Milk Soap + Applejack Peel fragrance = crying soap! See that single tear of overheated goop running down? Poor soap. Such a bummer too as those swirls were looking promising. I had read that this fragrance could have a bit of a hissy fit with CP soap, but given that was in the FREEZER,…

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Being kicked out of the kitchen…

Lye is Ouchies!!

My first crumbly soap!

Liquid Soap Making – The Beginnings!

It’s a good thing I like Coconut Oil.

From Failure to Fugly!

Moving into the big leagues!

The soap that was just never meant to be right…

Goat’s don’t like Apples!

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