Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Soap! Yes you CAN make Soap!

A couple of years ago I never would have guess I could make my own soap! And in my crock pot no less!  Of course, I knew that long ago people made their own soap, but I figured it was long forgotten much like washing your laundry in the creek with a wash board! (Side note here, I have recently discovered non-electric "washing machines" that you use in the bath tub!  NO I don't want one! LOL) Back to the soap... About a year or so ago I was cruising the Pinterest & saw several recipes of homemade soap!!  Seriously, you can make this stuff with oils that you can easily find at your local store, lye (100% lye drain cleaner is in home improvement store plumbing section) and water or other liquid.  Plus, for those visual learners, like me, there are TONS of videos out there on YouTube!

  After some research and supply gathering, I decided to jump into soaping.  I won't lie, but working with lye scared me a little bit at first. I had a lye burn when I was a small child & the feeling stuck with me!  But, I'm a homeschool mom of THREE boys, so I figured with the right safety equipment I could probably handle it!!   

  I decided to make hot process soap to start with.  This process cooks the soap making it ready to use immediately!  Since I'm not particularly gifted in the area of patience, I chose hot process over cold process because cp soap requires you to wait SIX weeks for the soap to cure!!! To this day, I've only made one batch of cp soap!  While hp soap is fast, cp in my opinion, is prettier!  The texture is smoother because the soap sits quietly curing. Then, a couple of weeks ago I discovered cold process/ oven process soap making!  This process offers a more smoother texture with the speedier curing of hot process!  The best of both worlds!  YAY!

Today the pictures On My Kitchen Counter I have my latest batch of homemade soap.  This batch was made with chilled red wine as my liquid in my lye solution instead of distilled water.  I was planning to add fragrance oils, but I like the way it smelled with the wine & cocoa butter that it was made with that I didn't add anything!!

Soap ready for the oven.
Finished soap!








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