Monday, October 15, 2012

Finally......I made 8%SF soap


Finally, I got down to it. After nearly a fortnight, I did make a small batch of soap, about a pound and a half. I have been wanting to try out soap with 8% superfat. The ones I made with 5% superfat have got great reviews, and friends and family love the way it leaves their skin moisturized. But, it still does not do away with the need to use lotion. I wanted to attempt a soap which would do away with the need to use lotion. Here, in Bangalore, the weather is extremely dry. So, here goes ...........

Base oils, superfatting oils and EOs

You can see my base oils, which are paprika-infused olive oil (hence the colour), rice bran oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil and castor oil. This is the first time I am working with sunflower oil. In the foreground, on the left are my superfatting oils and honey and on the right are the EO blend of lemon grass, citronella and tea tree. 

The oils and lye at light trace

I normally mix my oils and lye at a very low temperature because I don't want to panic  with the soap coming to trace very quickly. I added by EOs first and then my superfatting oils. Since I was using honey, which accelerates trace, and Evening Primrose oil for the first time, I did not want it to either seize or come to trace quickly. Thankfully, neither happened. It was smooth sailing.  

Ready to pour into the moulds

Once I added the EOs, it did get to trace pretty fast. But, that was fine.......... I decided to use individual moulds instead of a block since it was such a small lot.


Into the moulds...........

As you can see, I managed to get only 8 square cakes (3in square) and a small silicon mould.  I absolutely love the colour. It is such a rich orange. I wish my carrot and coconut milk soaps would have turned out this colour. But, carrot goes through a colour change after saponification and that lot of soap was more yellow than orange.


6 hrs later.....

After 6 hours, I was surprised to see that the soap had got to the gel stage despite being in individual moulds and having covered it loosely with a cardboard. If you look closely, you can see the gelled soap underneath the top layer in the mould in the centre first row. In fact, I think it had a minor volcanic eruption if I am to go by the stain on the cardboard. Honey was the culprit. And expected. I can't wait to see what it will look like tomorrow. It is currently very soft. I hope I did not superfat it too much. Tomorrow will tell.

Anyway, goodnight every body. Been a fruitful day today................

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