My sister-in-law, "K", is a very artistic person. She draws and paints and quilts and sews and and and... I am not exactly gifted in the drawing and painting department; I really can't even draw a stick figure with straight lines. My creative talents lie more in the area of performing arts. I create things on stage.
I do try, however.
Today, "k" is away having a great day with two of her grandchildren, so I decided to try a new technique that I have been looking at with some bit of nervousness. My philosophy is, though, that I don't know if I don't try, and if I try and don't do well, heck! I'll just try it again and do better next time.
Today's soap smells super super super, and I'm sure it will feel great to use once it has cured, it just doesn't look as wonderful in reality as it did in my mind.
Things have been busy in my household for several weeks now, actually due to performing arts, and today has been no exception. After helping out with an event at my daughter's school this morning, there was just enough time to come make a batch of soap before returning to the school for another event this evening.
I was SO ORGANIZED! Believe me, if you knew me and ever saw the desk I used to have, you would laugh at that statement. But I really was organized today. I had my recipe ready, ran it through soapcalc.net, and had all of my supplies and ingredients out and ready to go.
This is a recipe that K and I have both used before (found on lovinsoap.com), but I have been reading that when you add colorants to your soap, you need to account for the oils you use to mix the colorants when you are calculating the water and lye for your recipe. The recipe does not mention adding scent to the batter, nor does it really mention how much colorant or what type, so I called upon all that I have been learning about soap making.
I knew that I would be adding colors and that I would need time to complete the artistic part before the soap began to harden, so I used the calculator (mentioned above) to add in the amount of oils I would use with the colors, and I figured the recipe with a 38% water ratio rather than 35%, thinking that would make the batter thin enough to give me some work time.
Well...the best laid plans of mice and men...(with apologies to Robert Burns for using his line of poetry this way).
I mixed the lye and water and left the mixture to cool a bit while I measured the oils, the fragrance oil, and the colorants. This recipe calls for sweet almond oil, coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil, shea butter, and sunflower oil. I measured them and then put it into the microwave for about 30 seconds to begin melting the coconut oil and shea butter. During that time I measured out the fragrance oil. Today I selected Wisteria & Lilac from +Lebermuth Co because Wisteria reminds me of one of my favorite theater productions AND because I was planning a flower design.
The oils had not completely melted yet, so I measured out the oils and colorants for the decorative part of my soap. I used sweet almond oil with my colors, and selected Fired up Fuchsia, Tangerine Wow!, Aqua Pearl Mica, and Titanium Dioxide - all from +Bramble Berry.
I went to check on my lye mixture, and guess what! It had cooled down below 90 degrees! That has really not happened to "K" or me yet. Meanwhile, the oil had heated up over 115 degrees. I was shooting for around 95 degrees with both. So, I sat the oils in a sink of cold water to cool them down and the lye solution into a pan of hot water to warm it up. They got as close as they were going to get, both right around 100, so I poured the lye solution into my oils.
Guess what! Just as I began pouring, the dogs began a horrible ruckus outside. I looked up to see the UPS truck pulling up the drive and all three dogs rushing out to greet him. To a stranger, their greeting would not look like a welcoming one, and I didn't want him to worry, so I needed to go get the dogs, but I was there all alone today. I had to walk away from the just-combined mixture to get the dogs.
It didn't occur to me until he left that I had gone outside in my apron, blue gloves, and goggles. I wonder what he thought I was doing...
Side note...YAY! Our booth sign for the upcoming festival is here!!
When I got back to the mixture, I had no idea what to expect after leaving it, so I just proceeded. It mixed just fine so I added the fragrance oil then titanium dioxide to make the soap as white as possible. With the shea butter and the sunflower oil, it had quite a bit of yellow in it. At this point it began to thicken faster than it was supposed to. Uh Oh...
I mixed a bit of the batter into my colors in three different ketchup bottles, then poured white batter into silicone cupcake cups. A bit of left over batter went into yogurt cups. I then began adding the colors to the top of each cup so I could make the flower design.
This particular design is achieved by making circles of color on top of each cup of soap. I made a larger pink circle, then an aqua circle, left a white space, then put a dot of orange in the center. Think dart board with the bulls eye in the center.
That done, I picked up the skewer and began to pull it through the circles starting outside the circles and ending in the center of the "bulls eye." You have to wipe the skewer off with every single pass or you mix your colors. At this point I realized exactly how quickly the soap had thickened. The skewer was leaving channels in the soap. GREAT! I had no choice but to finish because leaving the circles really looked kind of silly? stupid? ugly? Choose your adjective. It just looked bad.
Once you have gone from outside to center in 4 places creating 4 petals, you can leave it with 4 clear petals, or you can go back and drag the skewer again but this time from center to outside straight through the middle of each petal. This gives the flower petals a different look.
Again, nothing I could do but keep going. So I did. After I made the petals, I banged the pans on the counter several hard times to see if the channels would close in as the soap settled. It seemed to help.
I boxed the soaps up and wrapped the boxes in towels so they can gel for 24 hours. Tomorrow K and I can check them.
Today was definitely about research and development. We don't like to waste our supplies - way too expensive - but practice makes perfect (at some point). I really can't wait to try this again.
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