Soap Geeking
Growing Up Green was in need of some more soap. Today was the day to get it made. I didn’t get pictures of the oils in solid form before I started melting them, but here’s the rest:
Oils on the heat:
Lye water mix:
Pouring in the lye – notice the clouding of it in the oils:
Thickening up:
Stick blender time:
About the consistency of pudding on the way to custard thickness:
Starting to bubble in the middle (boil 1 stage)
A video (forgot to turn off music first) to see the saponification of the oils : click here
(by the way, I have turned the heat off, but the lye continues to cook itself into a bubbly volcano as it turns the oils into soap)
I had to stop the video to stir the soap down before it overflowed the pot.
After stirring down:
Falling more after the excess water boils out:
Moved back the top layer to see the saponification still in process:
After it stops bubbling, stirring it again:
Adding in the shea butter – added at the end so that it doesn’t turn to soap. I want the shea butter to stay as an extra moisturizer in each bar of soap:
All stirred in – the consistency of VERY thick mashed potatoes:
And then plopped into a 3 pound log mold.
I will unmold tomorrow and cut into 3.5-4 oz bars.
