katinmo

You're non-latex gloves will be just fine. I use nitrile. I worked in a lab for years and we used these for stuff worse than lye. I prefer them over dish gloves because they offer more dexterity. I feel like a clutz in those big ones!

I'm new to soaping too (and addicted for sure). I buy OO, coconut oil, and lard from Wal-Mart. I've only bought oils online from Brambleberry and was very happy with them. I will order from them again and will also try WSP or BCN. If I get real serious, I would love to order from Columbus Foods but most oils have 7lb minimum.

Have fun!

I was reading "soapmakers companion" book this morning, and it said,"Cold-process soaps lose their caustic properties only after weeks of curing..." I thought caustic meant corrosive enough to eat throug things. Maybe she means the lye still keeps reacting with oil over time, even though not much of it is left after a couple of days?

You're right about what caustic means but I think most people use the term caustic when they mean alkaline (pH higher than neutral). If the soap were really caustic (with a pH of 13-14), you'd be burning yourself just taking the soap out of the mold and cutting it. My husband has been known to steal a bar minutes after I cut it and run to the shower. All of his skin is intact! I really think 99% of the sopanification takes place within 24-48 hours, especially with superfatting.

Kat

The first try was very hard to remove, it took a lot of hours in the freezer, and 3 inch gold lid from one of my candles that I sell and a roll of tape from my cash register. I was at one end holding the tube and my husband was at the other with a broom handle stuck in there shoving the soap out. Oh, the memories. hehe

Jen

LOL - We found that a can from the cabinet fit perfectly into the 3" PVC to try to help push the soap out, along with a tall salt shaker. Then we just ended up with a can of pumpkin puree stuck in the mold too, which is why I was afraid to leave the mold in the freezer for very long. I don't want to find out what happens when a can of pumpkin freezes! I know what happens to a can of diet coke. :smiley2:

Kat

I just tried PVC for the first time this weekend too, with similar results. I didn't oil or line it because I thought the freezer trick would work. Um, no luck. My hubby finally decided to cut the PVC off of the soap! I hope he'll make me another one becuase I'm not ready to give up on it.

How did you get yours out of the mold?

So how long does CP soap stay caustic, just first few days, or all those 4-6 weeks while it's curing? (I have kids too)

Sopanification should be complete within a day or two. The curing is just needed to allow any water evaoprate off for your bars to harden up. I usually try a small piece of soap straight out of the mold and its fine but it gets better with time (better lather, etc.).

Kat

Wow! The swirl on the summer solstice is to die for! However I have a special interest in the coco mango. My hubby is at home depot buying PVC right now. How on earth did you do that?

Don't worry. That's very standard MSDS language. I've read hundreds of them. More importantly, read the section above first aid measures. There are no expected hazards under normal use. Until you add lye, that is.

I'm pretty new to this but 100% avocado doesn't seem to make sense.

Here's what SoapCalc says:

Hardness 22

Cleansing 0

Condition 70

Bubbly 0

Creamy 22

Iodine 86

INS 99

Does that any qualify as soap, with 0 cleansing and 0 bubbles?

How much are they charging for that bad boy?

Thank you both!

Just got wasabi as a free sample in my recent BB order. I love it OOB and can't wait to try it. Since I'm a new soaper, I just wondered if anyone knew what to expect as far as acceleration, discoloration, or suggested amount ppo.

Also, I don't see a volume on the bottle but its smaller than the other 1 oz FOs I bought so I'm afraid its only 0.5 oz. Does anyone know?

Thanks!

Katherine

Thank you both for your help. I'll try again later this week, using better math this time!

Do you think I should continue with discounted water (assuming I calculate it correctly this time)?

After weeks of reading and gathering supplies, I finally decided to jump into CP. I chose a simple recipe and followed suggestions for first timers (no color, no FO, no stick blender, etc). It seemed like everything went well. I stirred by hand for ~30 min, until I was sure I was at trace, then poured into my lined shoe box and wrapped it up overnight. Unmolded after about 20 hours but when I tried to cut, it was very brittle and was just breaking into uneven chunks and lots of crumbs. It failed the zap test miserably! I know exactly where I went wrong but the question is how to fix it or whether to fix it at all.

My problem is my well-intentioned husband who only listens to me about half of the time. He’s been listening to me talk about soaping, SAP values, NaOH, water discount, etc. for weeks. Water discount is something I’m interested in but had no intention of trying until I’ve got several soaping experiences under my belt. So, when I asked him to bring home some NaOH from work, we thought he’d save me some trouble and bring home a 50% NaOH/H2O solution. Well, I didn’t want to send him back to work on a Saturday but I didn’t want to wait until next weekend so I thought, “Okay, I consider myself above average at math. I can figure this out. No problem.” (Famous last words, right?)

Here’s my recipe (2#):

45% Olive oil (14.4 oz)

25% Coconut oil (8 oz)

25% Lard (8 oz)

5% Castor Oil (1.6 oz)

At 5% superfat, my manual calculations (confirmed by Brambleberry’s calculator) said I needed 4.4 oz NaOH to 10.6 oz water. So I did some creative math figuring that at 50%, my solution would be 4.4 oz NaOH to 8.8 oz water so I needed 13.2 oz of solution. I’m thinking I should’ve actually used 8.8 oz of solution. Can someone confirm my error?

So, if I managed to mess up my first batch, should my second attempt at soap be a rebatch? Or should I just start anew? If I rebatch, how do I figure how much more oil (and which kinds) to add to my lye heavy batch?

Thanks so much for your help. This board has been very helpful!

Kat

Looks great!