Making my first CP soap as we speak!!!

[LittleMissSunshine]

Eeeeeeeee!!! I'm so excited!!! 

[Jcandleattic]

Awesome! what kind are you making? Are you scenting it? Coloring it? 

We want pics, even if it's a no scent, no color soap!! 

[LittleMissSunshine]

Haha so it was a little bit of a mess! I really wanted to try fragrance and colors, even as a first time. So I asked my husband and he picked Amber Noir from CS and black and purple. Just a little 1lb recipe so it's not too much. The recipe is from Yellow Cottage Soapery's video on YouTube for beginner soapers.

 

I'm pretty sure that the colors are going to completely discolor so the whole thing is kind of a weird shade of grey lol! It also thickened up on me a lot so I had to scoop it into the mold. I definitely need to learn how to tell what trace looks like, but I know that will come with experience. Hopefully it comes out at least somewhat okay. But either way it was a lot of fun and I wish I had another small mold so I could make more!! 😍

[TallTayl]

Plastic ziploc or glad food containers are pretty handy for small batches. 

[LittleMissSunshine]

2 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Plastic ziploc or glad food containers are pretty handy for small batches. 

 

Ooooh! That's smart thinking! 

[Candybee]

Nice job! Are you going to share cut pics? Please!!

[kandlekrazy]

Great for a first batch!  It's just one of those things you have to do to get a feel for what's happening, and eventually you know how your batter should feel. 

[LittleMissSunshine]

1 hour ago, Candybee said:

Nice job! Are you going to share cut pics? Please!!

 

Absolutely! Do you think it'll be good after 18hrs? Or will it need a full 24hrs? What's the best way to tell?

[Jcandleattic]

11 minutes ago, LittleMissSunshine said:

 

Absolutely! Do you think it'll be good after 18hrs? Or will it need a full 24hrs? What's the best way to tell?

Best way to tell is if you push on it, does it dent easily, or do you have to put pressure on it? If it doesn't dent easily then you can cut it. Then you can do a zap test to make sure that all the lye and oils have saponified, then the waiting begins.

 

[LittleMissSunshine]

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

Best way to tell is if you push on it, does it dent easily, or do you have to put pressure on it? If it doesn't dent easily then you can cut it. Then you can do a zap test to make sure that all the lye and oils have saponified, then the waiting begins.

 

 

It feels pretty firm, and the sides of the mold peeled away from it really easily. I think it would probably be okay. But I'm going to give it another couple hours to be sure. Thank you! What do I do if the zap test fails? 

[Sarah S]

19 hours ago, LittleMissSunshine said:

Haha so it was a little bit of a mess! I really wanted to try fragrance and colors, even as a first time. So I asked my husband and he picked Amber Noir from CS and black and purple. Just a little 1lb recipe so it's not too much. The recipe is from Yellow Cottage Soapery's video on YouTube for beginner soapers.

 

I'm pretty sure that the colors are going to completely discolor so the whole thing is kind of a weird shade of grey lol! It also thickened up on me a lot so I had to scoop it into the mold. I definitely need to learn how to tell what trace looks like, but I know that will come with experience. Hopefully it comes out at least somewhat okay. But either way it was a lot of fun and I wish I had another small mold so I could make more!! 😍

 

That looks great, I love the textured top! Isn't that the most darling little loaf mold?

I literally just made a test soap with the CS Amber noir a couple days ago, and I thought it moved a little fast. So it may have been the oil, not you. Can't wait to see it cut!

[Crafty1_AJ]

2 hours ago, LittleMissSunshine said:

 

It feels pretty firm, and the sides of the mold peeled away from it really easily. 

 

That's the way I determine if the soap is ready to unmold and cut.  If the sides of the mold peel off easily, and don't leave a lot of soap on the mold, I know I'm good to go.   

[Jcandleattic]

3 hours ago, LittleMissSunshine said:

What do I do if the zap test fails? 

You can wait another couple days. Sometimes a soap can zap for 3-5 days. But it sounds like everything went well, so I bet it won't zap. 

If after a week it still zaps you can rebatch your soap. 

[LittleMissSunshine]

I love it! The colors actually look really nice right now. Let's hope it stays that way! the fragrance seems like it's morphed a little. Wondering if it will morph back...? You can see the spots/holes on it from it being so thick so it didn't completely settle. Anyway! Here's the cut. I did the zap test too and we're all good. Although there are a few little white spots at the bottom on one that I'm worried about. Should I be worried?

[LittleMissSunshine]

It's a little messy, especially on top, but I love it! I actually think it looks really pretty. 4 weeks is going to be a long time to wait!

[Jcandleattic]

Those look great!! You'd never know that they were your first soaps! 

The scent very well could settle back to what it's supposed to smell like. It happens all the time for me. 

 

Take a little sliver and use it now. Then you can see how it changes and mellows out after time. 

 

For the holes, they are not bad, at all, but if it concerns you, in the future, what helps prevents them is banging the mold on the counter to loosen the air pockets and help them rise to the top of the soap. 

 

Congrats on your first soap. Welcome to the addiction.  

[Shari]

Your soap turned out great!  Congratulations!!!  As stated, take a sliver off and test it out.  I also recommend trying it weekly so you can see the change during cure. 

 

Also, you didn't mention it, but all recipes should be run through a soap calculator for accuracy.  Errors happen when people put recipes in print.

 

 

[Sarah S]

It looks awesome!! Great job! The little white spots are probably just some unsoaponified stearic, I get that often as I use a lot of solid fats.  Your swirls are fantastic! And did I mention how mush I love the textured top? 😃

Like Jane said, sometimes when the soap is "fresh", the fragrance can seem off. It should settle down after your bars dry a little bit.

What fragrance are you soaping next?? 😁

[LittleMissSunshine]

4 hours ago, Shari said:

Your soap turned out great!  Congratulations!!!  As stated, take a sliver off and test it out.  I also recommend trying it weekly so you can see the change during cure. 

 

Also, you didn't mention it, but all recipes should be run through a soap calculator for accuracy.  Errors happen when people put recipes in print.

 

 

I probably will test it out! and I did make sure to run it through soapcalc before making it. It was actually a good way for me to learn how it works! 

[LittleMissSunshine]

3 hours ago, Sarah S said:

It looks awesome!! Great job! The little white spots are probably just some unsoaponified stearic, I get that often as I use a lot of solid fats.  Your swirls are fantastic! And did I mention how mush I love the textured top? 😃

Like Jane said, sometimes when the soap is "fresh", the fragrance can seem off. It should settle down after your bars dry a little bit.

What fragrance are you soaping next?? 😁

Okay phew that's good haha. You can barely even tell they're there. And thank you thank you!! I was surprised by how nice the swirls came out, especially with how thick the batter was. It was definitely pudding thick, heavy trace haha. And thanks! I actually like the textured top too! 😊 

 

I don't hate the fragrance the way it is now. It was a really like sexy, sensual kind of scent before and now it kind of smells like....black tea with like berries in it? Or something like that. So it's still a nice fragrance, but here's hoping it goes back to the original! 😁 Haha there are so many I want to make! I already had a ton of fragrances, and now I just got a ton of samples from the CS sample sale lol!! I want to try them all!!!

[Candybee]

Looks beautiful! Great job! I agree the white is most likely stearic that didn't quite dissolve enough to blend in. This happens a lot to me with palm oil. I have to always be sure when I melt palm oil to make sure its crystal clear before adding it to my other oils. Any oil/butter that has high content of stearic could do the same.

 

Other white issues could be ash. But from the pics I think its stearic spots.

 

Speaking of ash, to avoid it I always let my soap sit overnight completely covered so air doesn't get on it while its saponifiying. So this usually means letting it sit about 18 hrs covered. Much of the saponification takes place in the first 24 hrs so if you can avoid contact with the air you can reduce or eliminate ash.

[Candybee]

Wanted to add don't be afraid to pound the mold against the countertop hard to help eliminate air pockets. If you pound too hard you can get bits of soap in your face so start out a bit soft then harder. On soaps that accelerate so fast on me I have to jam the soap batter into the mold I pound the tar out of those molds against my countertop. Helps a lot to work out air pockets. But on some occasions no amount of pounding will completely work.