Lessons Learned

[WanderlustSoaps]

Hello All,

  So although I am still very very new to the soapmaking scene I thought I would start a thread about some of the mistakes that new soapers make and the lessons learned from them.  Please add to this list with your own lessons learned and hopefully we can prevent some of these mistakes with future soapers.

 

1.  Base Oil Overload - Many of us do a lot of research before starting a hobby such as making soaps, and with this research you will find tons and tons of information about the various oils that can be used to make soap.  As you read about the various properties of the oils and how they affect your soap you start to create a list of oils that you just have to have cause it will make your soap the super bestest that has ever been crafted and you will instantly vault to super soapy stardom.  WRONG, start with some basic oils, ones you can get locally and cheaply.  You will be making small batches for a while and testing the waters of what and how making soap works, learn on the cheap stuff and get the good stuff later after you have some processes, recipes and some experimentation under your belt.

 

2.  Essential Oil Overload - Early on it is very easy to sit and think, man this smells good and that smells good, I should buy all of these essential oils and I can mix to my hearts content.  While this is not a bad idea overall EO's get expensive quickly and if you dont really know what they smell like (as an EO versus say a fragrance or plant that you like) you could end up buying lots and lots of oils that you will have around for a very long time.  In connection with this, sometimes you will see a sale, co-op, bulk rate and think yeah I should get a pound of this, only to later realize you are still making small batches and only need half to one ounce at a time, wow that pound is gonna last forever or it will sour and then your out the dough anyway.

 

3.  Silicone Liners Please - So this may be uniquely to me, but I doubt it.  I, being a pretty handy guy, jumped right in and when I wanted to make my first batch of soap after a month or two of research decided I should just go ahead and make my own molds.  I have some old birch plywood in the shed and power tools, so why not.  Built a couple ~2.5 lbs molds and was really satisfied with them the first time I used them.  By my 6th batch or so I began to hate freezer paper and having to spend an extra half hour lining all my molds before I began making the soap so like any good crafter I went in search of silicone.  Found tons and tons of silicone molds and silicone mold liners but guess what the catch was... NONE would fit my molds.  Again being the crafty sort I attempted to make the liners myself, even made the pourable silicone myself, then they shrank and three days with six attempts down the tubes I got One that works and fits my mold, would have been cheaper to just buy the cheapo silicone liner and make a new mold once I had them in hand, which is what I ended up doing anyway.

 

This is by far not a complete list, but I didnt want to deter people from reading it, so I stopped myself at the first big three I ran into.  Please add to this list so we can help our future soapers.

[Moonstar]

I don't have anything meaningful 

to add to your post but I love reading your posts. I hear ya on the EO's though. They add up really quick don't they ? I can't tell you how much money I've wasted 

in just the past 9 months alone 

FO too - you can't really buy just a few 1oz bottles when shipping is at $10 so you end up ordering bigger bottles just to justify the shipping cost. My new goal is to stay focused - fingers crossed :/

 

[WanderlustSoaps]

1 minute ago, Moonstar said:

...FO too - you can't really buy just a few 1oz bottles when shipping is at $10 so you end up ordering bigger bottles just to justify the shipping cost. My new goal is to stay focused - fingers crossed :/

 

 

Hahahahaa I know exactly what you mean, I do this all the time, not just with FO / EO but with anything I order online.

[Chefmom]

Some mistakes I see newbies make...

 

Trying to make a complicated recipe first.  This is where the internet and all it offers you can bite you in your backside.  Seeing all the swoopy swirls and fancy soaps and people don't want to make a plain three oil/fat soap, uncolored and unscented to understand the process from start to finish.  Then they post frustrated photos of seized soaps or volcanoes or separated oil slicks and want "experts" to diagnose their issues. 

 

I am utterly amazed at how much money I see people spending BEFORE they ever make soap.  I am a frugal person, and I have spent my share of money on supplies and equipment, but when I see $200-300 dropped on a hobby that you don't even know if you LIKE I shake my head.  A cardboard box lined with plastic make a great starter box.  Buy a box of teabags in the market and line that box with plastic and it's perfect for a little 1 pound starter batch, or even the box that kosher salt comes in...very heavy cardboard and a perfect mold size.  It was a couple of years into soap making before I used a mold that wasn't a found cardboard box.  A couple of extra kitchen things can be taken for soap making and use your old stick blender (buy your food kitchen a new one) can be used.  After 15 years of making soap I am only on my second stick blender, the first one cost me $8 and by the time I needed a second one the price had increased to $11.  I'm thinking about maybe getting a new one, I've probably cursed myself now...

 

MANY recipes can be made from grocery store oils/fats. Sandy Maine's shortening/coconut/olive recipe is a VERY good starter recipe!! (44% shortening 28% coconut, 28% olive and 5% superfat)

 

Making single oil soaps.  Um.... most single oil soaps are not newbie simple formulas.  Sure, it sounds simple...but olive oil soap can take days to reach trace.  A person who has never made soap doesn't need to stand there and make themselves paranoid and nuts over a soap never tracing, or pouring too soon and having it separate in the mold.  Or....a soap that at best can't be used for months to years.  That isn't anyway to start (in my humble opinion).  And coconut only soap moves so fast that it can get away from someone who doesn't understand the process in the first place.  I once read a comment that a soap maker made on facebook that they believed a new soap maker needs to spend a YEAR making every kind of oil into single oil soap recipes BEFORE ever making any kind of blend of soap to better understand what every kind of oil/fat/butter does on their own, to be able to make their own blend soap recipes.  Wow...  Thankfully that experiment has been done and the results are online.  But knowing what a 100% shea butter soap looks and feels like doesn't help me one lick to know how shea butter compliments coconut and olive oil in a soap blend. 

 

My advise for someone's first soap....first find a cardboard box like mentioned above.  Then go to your local Chinese takeaway and enjoy a quart of Wonton soup, bring home two packages of chopsticks while you are there.  Keep the plastic container from the soup and wash and dry.  Print out the base recipe from soapcalc, use the wonton soup container to mix your lye water in, stir with a chopstick.  You know your lye is active because the chopstick will turn bright yellow from the reaction.  A simple 8 cup plastic bowl and spatula is really all that is needed.  It's a great beginner lesson and the end result is a small batch of soap to kick your heels up over.  During the cure time of the first soap make a few changes to the base recipe so that in 8-12 weeks there are several different soaps to test.  Soaping is a journey that never really ends.  I don't think I'll ever make/test every idea that has popped into my head.

 

Classic Trinity Base Formula

50% olive

30% Lard, Tallow or Palm (which can be bought as organic shortening)

20% coconut

5-8% superfat

 

that same formula can be switched around to 50% lard/tallow/palm, 30% olive, 20% coconut.  When you are ready to test other oils or butters, just pull 10% out of the lard amount and use 10% of your chosen fat/butter/oil.

 

Side by side testing is amazing to decide what your favorite oils and fats are.  This is how I learned my daughter loves almond oil, but I love avocado oil.  She loves shea butter, I love cocoa butter.  My husband hates soaps over 10% superfat, but my skin LOVES 20% superfat. And the entire family agrees that the 100% coconut oil soap with 20% superfat is a love or hate soap.  It doesn't lather in my well water at all, it feels greasy and yet strips our skin in just one use.  Many people sing praises and love for this soap.  I am in the group that can't use it at all.

 

Please don't think I'm bitching and moaning...I do shake my head a lot at what I read online tho...I am glad that I'm not a newbie actually.  There is so much online these days that I can understand how overwhelming it must be. 

[cindym]

When I first started making soap I used Millers Soap site and this forum.  I made very simple soap recipes that were just awesome! 

[Candybee]

30 minutes ago, cindym said:

When I first started making soap I used Millers Soap site and this forum.  I made very simple soap recipes that were just awesome! 

 

You must be my twin! I did the same thing. Learned from Millers and used AJ's basic lard soap recipe to start out.

 

Also my first year I just made basic soap and didn't spend a whole lot on exotic oil, ingredients, additives, molds, equipment, etc. As my soaping skills improved and I needed to make soap faster I started buying professional molds and equipment and buying in larger bulk quatities. Also, as the years go buy I continue to learn to stick to basic recipes. For me, less is more and this equates to fewer oils in my basic bath soaps. I keep narrowing down the list of oils I use and only buy other oils I need for my specialty soaps.

 

 

[Candybee]

Wanderlust-- I would continue to make my own molds if I were you. What I would do instead is research and find sites that sell silicone molds that you like, purchase those, then build your wood molds to fit.

 

I did that with Nurture soap. I use their silicone molds and have had some wood molds built to fit them. Saved some money that way. When my woodcrafter retired I can still buy both the silicone & wood mold sets at Nurture so my soaps are standarized which saves time and money in labels, packaging, etc.

 

Also, if you don't want to buy silicone molds you can find material to use to line your molds without having to use freezer wrap.

 

For example I use those thin plastic cutting boards sold at Dollar stores. They are thin enough to cut to size and I use them to line my shaving soap molds. Another material you can use is are those cake sheet forms. Sorry don't remember what they are called... hopefully someone here will chime in for me. I also knew a soaper that uses mylar wrap from JoAnn's fabric stores.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Candybee

[TallTayl]

@wanderlust, one of my favorite molds was my first. I spread clear silicone caulk right on to the wood, let it cure very well, then assembled the side to the base with hinges. No line, no leak, the exact right dimensions and cost was a tube of silicone caulk, a couple of hinges and scrap wood. 

[WanderlustSoaps]

2 hours ago, Candybee said:

Wanderlust-- I would continue to make my own molds if I were you. What I would do instead is research and find sites that sell silicone molds that you like, purchase those, then build your wood molds to fit...

For example I use those thin plastic cutting boards sold at Dollar stores. They are thin enough to cut to size and I use them to line my shaving soap molds. Another material you can use is are those cake sheet forms. Sorry don't remember what they are called... hopefully someone here will chime in for me. I also knew a soaper that uses mylar wrap from JoAnn's fabric stores.

 

That is exactly my plan, actually 5 of the silicone liners I purchased made it here today so I will be crafting new molds for them to go in this weekend since it is not a soaping weekend.  I try to limit myself for now to only making soap every other weekend that way I constantly have some curing and finishing the cure and so I dont go hog wild making more soap than I know what to do with.

 

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

@wanderlust, one of my favorite molds was my first. I spread clear silicone caulk right on to the wood, let it cure very well, then assembled the side to the base with hinges. No line, no leak, the exact right dimensions and cost was a tube of silicone caulk, a couple of hinges and scrap wood. 

 

I have thought of that several times but have not really seen anyone say that it works, I have on the other hand seen lots and lots of failed experiments.  Maybe I will deconstruct what I have, line them with silicone or one of Candybee's suggestions, cut and put a hinge on and keep them around for a few more years lol.  Thank both of you for the suggestions btw, I didnt intend on getting rid of the first two molds but could have made them different / better if I had done more mold research and less soap research haha.

[Candybee]

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

@wanderlust, one of my favorite molds was my first. I spread clear silicone caulk right on to the wood, let it cure very well, then assembled the side to the base with hinges. No line, no leak, the exact right dimensions and cost was a tube of silicone caulk, a couple of hinges and scrap wood. 

 

Now that would make a cool video.. showing how you did that.

 

I know a soaper that makes her molds out of styrofoam. She buys those large door sized pieces, cuts them down, then uses duct tape to secure them. She still has to line them but I think those may be some of the cheapest molds I have very seen.

[TallTayl]

37 minutes ago, Candybee said:

 

Now that would make a cool video.. showing how you did that.

 

I know a soaper that makes her molds out of styrofoam. She buys those large door sized pieces, cuts them down, then uses duct tape to secure them. She still has to line them but I think those may be some of the cheapest molds I have very seen.

I used the poster foam core as a box with craft foam inside. It was no-line, reusable, cheap and FAST. It caused the most traffic on my old blog. I should dig that out again.

 

I'll see about making another of those to Video. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

A good soaping friend used the white caulk on wooden boxes without hinges and managed to make fine soap. It took a couple of days for the soap to shrink away from the sides enough to release the vacuum, but her molds always worked flawlessly.

[Sponiebr]

Amen! Oh this is GOOD STUFF!!! Yeah Candle Science had a $.99 1 oz sample sale and I bought 26 flip'n FO's. (Most of which I have been extremely happy with) It has given me a variety of FO'S that I can mix if I want and didn't break the bank. 

 

Anyway... MOLDS: So I made one of those hinged adjustable molds where the 2 long sides fold down and the ends are held together with a single carriage bolt and wing nut on the ends. My end pieces are just blocks of wood cut and finished to the width and height of the inside dimensions of the mold. When I line this mold with freezer paper all I do is take out the end pieces and lay down the freezer paper across the open mold (sides laying down) I tape the paper to the outside long edges and then fold them up applying a crease as I flip up the sides. At this point I have a perfectly taught and neat freezer paper lined channel. I then wrap the ends like little presents making sure all the seams and taping is on only one side of the block. Then I just drop those little wrapped ends down into the mold at the length I want them set at and tighten up the end bolts. I get very, very little leaks at the very ends and not for nothing, but I really don't even have to re-wrap the end pieces every time, as long as they come out in clean and undamaged condition I just used them again in the same end and same orientation(the little soap seepage has made a gasket for me).

 

And yeah... Just some basic oils. That Great Value Shortening really is some of the most awesome and cheapest soaping fat on the planet.

Chefmom, I dunno about the single oil thing... All of my soaps in the beginning (my recent beginning) were single oil soaps. Truth be told, I had never even considered olive oil for making soap until I think it was earlier this year.  I just could not fathom using something so dear as olive oil for soap making. When I tell you I grew up in the middle of nowhere I'm not joking, I had never even tasted OO until I was a Junior in college. Soaping fat for me growing up was usually whatever the butcher would give me in a sack and I had to wet render it outside in Florida summer heat over a Coleman dual fuel camp stove set down on a wooded cable spoon that was set amid the chicken coops, burn barrel, compost bin, and the ash leaching crib made from half a plastic 55 gal drum (I hated that damned thing). Sometimes I'd get a treat and mom would buy a bucket of Armour Lard and a can of Red Devil Lye (we eventually used both of these exclusively, much to my relief).  My aversion to the smell of lard and lard based soaps stems directly from my childhood, and yet there is NOTHING that smells more like soap or "clean" to me than lard based soap... Oh and we never had a soap mold, not once, not ever. I used the largest pyrex rectangular baking "pans" we had and lined them with black visqueen or a black trash bag.

I have dedicated molds, and I buy, (in a STORE) my fats and lye for making soap now... Life is SO much easier. 

 

Cheers,

 

Sponie the (meh you KNOW, you know...) 

 

 

[Faerywren]

I absolutely love Sandy Maine's basic recipe, too! It is my go to with different oils for superfatting if I'm feeling froggy.

[Sponiebr]

16 hours ago, Candybee said:

 

You must be my twin! I did the same thing. Learned from Millers and used AJ's basic lard soap recipe to start out.

 

Also my first year I just made basic soap and didn't spend a whole lot on exotic oil, ingredients, additives, molds, equipment, etc. As my soaping skills improved and I needed to make soap faster I started buying professional molds and equipment and buying in larger bulk quatities. Also, as the years go buy I continue to learn to stick to basic recipes. For me, less is more and this equates to fewer oils in my basic bath soaps. I keep narrowing down the list of oils I use and only buy other oils I need for my specialty soaps.

 

 

Oh Kathy's BRILLIANT! I still go to her site from time to time. That was the first place that my soap dealer (I mean my (cough) friend who makes soap...) sent me to learn more "modern" methods of soap making.  

 

13 hours ago, WanderlustSoaps said:

If you haven't check out Kathy Miller's soap page it is a gold mine of information. http://www.millersoap.com/

Edited October 20, 2016 by Sponiebr

[Jcandleattic]

I have made a tall skinny mold out of that courogated plastic stuff that election signs and for sale signs are made out of. Cheapest mold I've ever had because my friend had a huge 4' x 4' clean white sheet of it that she didn't need to use anymore and gave it to me. A few cuts and a few folds and viola, perfect TSM with no lining required. Literally took me 10 minutes to make, and I've made probably 20-25 batches of soap in it and it's still a good mold. Out of that sheet I got, I could probably make at least 4 more as well. 

I think I have a post on here as to how I made it as well. 

I love being frugal when it comes to making soap, but I also believe in the philosophy that my dad and brother have instilled in me, and that is to use the right tools for the right job to get the right results. So it is a fine line I walk when it comes to candle/soap making supplies. 

[TallTayl]

I remember that mold post. I made one using printed corrugated and ended up with inked soap from the transfer. With all the political signs that will be junk in a few weeks someone could score big recycling them into molds if they can figure out how to remove the printing!

[Jcandleattic]

6 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

I remember that mold post. I made one using printed corrugated and ended up with inked soap from the transfer. With all the political signs that will be junk in a few weeks someone could score big recycling them into molds if they can figure out how to remove the printing!

I figured something like that might happen, so I was happy to be able to find the plain white kind. Works perfect. I love it. 

[Sponiebr]

2 hours ago, Jcandleattic said:

I figured something like that might happen, so I was happy to be able to find the plain white kind. Works perfect. I love it. 

Yep! And those signs make really nice dividers for doing sectional pours  with swirls and such.