Happy Easter .... and some more soap!

The school term flew past unbelievably quickly and with a few dramas too, although the great measles plague of Beerwah does seem ancient news now! Today is Good Friday and I'm still shocked that it's already April! Happy Easter to all!

With the house to myself today (the boys are at their father's until Wednesday) Mum popped over and I gave soap making another go. She helped a lot and only hindered a little! We did one batch by Cold Process method and the second in the crock pot.

Still in its mould, this Coconut soap looks absolutely disgusting though it does smell ok. I love the idea of reusing materials and thought that this empty water bottle would make a great mould. I'm yet to see whether this is the case though.

I did spray it thoroughly with olive oil, but in hindsight I think it's going to be bloody hard to get the soap out of. I may have to saw off the base to get some leverage to push it through. Note to self - keep empty milk cartons for soap moulds and toss empty water bottles for recycling!

This soap was made using a traditonal Cold Pressed method (which actually creates and uses lots of heat so go figure that name!) and when I added the fragrance oil I thought it looked a bit slippery. It is setting to be quite firm and tomorrow when I get to unmould it and slice it ready for 4-6 weeks of curing, I'll have a better idea of whether or not it worked.

This one has no colouring and maybe the clay that was added to my first batch at Christine's was what helped it to look a bit milkier .... and smoother ..... hmmm  ....

Next up, Mum and I cooked up a batch in the crock pot. An email from Gabbie last night encouraged me to give this method a go as once the soap has set and cooled it can basically be used straight away as it is already cooked. Leaving it sit and cure only hardens the bar and is not actually a part of the process. Now, me not being known for patience thought this would be a mighty fine idea.

The method is initially similar but then the soap gets to stay and cook in the crock pot for an hour. An inital huge spewover which saw scalding hot frothing and cooking soap cover half the kitchen (yes my own little mini disaster for the day) had Lynnie (aka Mum) in a bit of a panic and flap but we cleaned up and soldiered on to complete the process. I glopped it into a couple of rectangular moulds - one being a silicone loaf pan. Second note to self - this is not a good idea for a mould either - far too deep and squishy bendy. Anyway it sat and cooled for a bit and I think that I unmoulded and cut it too quickly. There's that patience issue again - a virtue I run short of. In a nutshell this looks like a big heap of grey/pink crap ..... BUT ..... the strawberry champagne fragrance smells utterly divine AND it lathers like a dream - nice and smooth and bubbly. Just might have to shower with eyes closed as it does look quite ugly.

After all that, I'm certainly keen to master the crock pot method. I *think* I have an idea as to why it volcanoed and will tweak the process a litte. I've also decided that I would like to make it a natural colour with just fragrance. I really would rather have a browny/yellowy/creamy neutral colour soap rather than a sludgy grey colour. At least the experimenting was fun!

Thinking of everyone on the road this Easter - have a safe one!