Hand Milled Soap

I have wrestled with myself on exactly how much of this story to divulge.

I decided to go ahead and tell you the whole thing.

So, here we go.

 

This is my extra bubbly good for shaving soap.

It has bentonite clay for slip.

It has castor oil for extra lather.

 

This soap doesn't stay in stock for long.

There is also always a bar or two in my shower.

So I made a 10 pound batch recently.

 

I added the clay to the liquid oils.

I hadn't done it this way before.

It seemed to work well.

 

When the soap was at light trace

I added some colorant.

I used Blue Mix Labcolor from Bramble Berry.

It's been my go-to color for this soap.

I usually make three layers

In three variegated (ombre?) shades of blue.

 

I added Cold Water Fragrance,

Also from Bramble Berry

It's manly, but most women like it too.

 

Fast forward to the poured soap.

I guess I forgot to take pictures of several steps.

 

 There was so much soap that it filled four loaf molds

Plus a few single bar cavities.

 

As I was putting supplies away,

I noticed the jug of castor oil.

Yes, jug.

I buy it by the gallon.

Anyway, I realized that I forgot to add the castor oil.

 

As the oils and lye combine to make soap,
The process of saponification occurs.
That means the oils and lye react
To produce soap.
 

Saponification takes the mixture from this

To this.
It also continues for several hours after the soap is poured.

When I design a soap recipe,

I use this SoapMaker program.

It lets me make sure there will be some leftover oils.

I think of it as the oils eating up the lye.

I shoot for about 5-8% more oils

Than what is required to "eat up" the lye.

If you are a soapmaker, it's okay if you chuckle at my

Technical explanation of saponification.

I did some quick calculations.

Based on the oils I did remember to use,

And based on the amount of lye used,

The soap was going to come out lye-heavy.

Not by a lot, but by a little.
You could even call it a smidge.

I use this extra bubbly soap for shaving.

But even if I didn't,

I would not be satisfied with lye heavy soap.

Even slightly, barely detectable lye heavy soap.

A really great thing about making soap
Is that you can almost always save a botched batch.

The way I saved this one was by hand milling it.
Here's how I did it.

Two days after the initial pour,
I unmolded the soap.
I cut the slighly lye heavy soap into small chunks.
I put these chunks into a crock pot.
I added the castor oil that I forgot the first time around.
The crockpot was set on low.
I melted the soap down.
It took a few hours.

This is known as rebatching, or milling.

Here's the melted soap glopped into a mold.

After another couple of days,
I unmolded the hand milled soap.

Here it is!

 

I'm quite happy with the end product.
I've already used part of a bar, and am loving it.

One advantage of hand milling is that
The soap can be used right away.
Usually there is a 3-4 (or more) week waiting period.

Another advantage is that the soap has an interesting look and texture.
I also think it produces more bubbles.

Each bar is one of a kind.

I set a lot of these bars back for personal use,
But a few will go up for sale.

Thanks for reading my hand milled soap saga!
 

 

 

 



Cold Process Soaps on the Curing Rack

Earlier this week I showed you some of what is on the curing rack.  Here’s a picture of more cold process soaps that are curing.  They should be ready in about 2 weeks.

Top Left: Extra Bubbly Good for Shaving

This is one of my more popular soaps.  It is scented with Cold Water fragrance from www.BrambleBerry.com.  It has clay added to help the razor glide smoothly over the skin. 

Top Middle and Right: Oatmeal, Milk and Honey

This is another customer favorite.  It is probably my most requested soap.  It is scented with Oatmeal, Milk and Honey fragrance from BrambleBerry.  The soap contains ground oatmeal, which is great for the skin.  It also provides gentle exfoliation.  The pleasant and mild fragrance lasts a very long time.
 
Middle: Ocean Shore
This is a small test batch.  I used an Ocean fragrance and sprinkled activated charcoal in the middle part.  This one will remain in my private stock. 

Bottom Rack: Gardener’s

The gardener’s soap is another popular soap.  It is scented with Rosemary and Lemongrass essential oils.  It contains corn meal and poppy seeds to give it extra scrubbing power. 

Bottom Left: Cherry Blossom

This turned out a very pale pink.  It is scented with BrambleBerry’s Cherry Blossom fragrance.  The pink is a bit lighter than I had planned, but they smell great!

Bottom Left in Cup: Rosemary Mint All Natural

This is actually finished curing – I just haven’t done anything with it yet.  It’s a bit of left over from a batch I made a while back.  The soap smelled wonderful and sold quickly.  This little reserve is for my private stock.  I need to make more soon.  The soap was scented with Rosemary and Peppermint essential oils.  I added ground rosemary to take the medicinal edge off the rosemary essential oil and to make the soap mildly exfoliating.

Bottom Right: Lilac

This is another staple that I try to keep in stock.  Again, the fragrance is from BrambleBerry.  It’s the most realistic lilac I have ever smelled.  Customers love it too!  The fragrance really holds up well in the cold process soap.  Some fragrances fade after a few months, but this one stays strong indefinitely.