My Soap Diary

07/09/11

Well all three children left for school this morning, our house was like "The first day of the Next Sale" lol I didn’t know whether I was coming or going, I needed a brandy in my coffee once they had gone lol….

So now on with the important stuff, SOAP MAKING….

I have just taken my Gardeners Soap out of the mould with a little help from the freezer, yes that’s right, it was being stubborn so I put it in the freezer for half an hour and hey presto out it pops, I also checked on the 1st batch of the Sunflower & Calendula (that was the disaster at the beginning of the week) and it looks lovely, I'm still not going to take it out of the mould until Friday to give it a better chance. I made my 2nd batch of Lavender & Thyme Soap, this one is going into the chunks while the first one was sliced, hopefully this afternoon I am going to make the Sunflower & Calendula one, again this one will be in the form of chunks as well and then that will be it for the day as I have just about run out of Moulds. Yippeeee my Cornish Spring Water has just turned up, thank you Just Water Ltd.

Well over the past couple of days I've learnt so much about soap making, some of it is basic common sense, which is in very short supply in my life and some of it you learn as you go and hope beyond all hope that it turns out ok, here are just a few, for those of you that are just starting out:

1. Castor Oil seizes the mixture, so you need to move quick.
2. The Sunflower & Calendula mixture is sloppier than all the rest, even though I do nothing different.
3. The freezer is a god send when having difficulty get the soaps out of the moulds, even if you loose a little with the fragrance.

            And finally

4. 48hrs is better than 24hrs for curing.