don't forget behind the ears....

So... I couldn't resist and decided to take the advance soap making class to learn about color and additives. My first bars were the plain with fragance. This batch has fragrance, color AND oatmeal! I just cut it, so I have to wait a few weeks before I can try it out...

I didn't peek this time, so no photos of the gel stage. This is just before I unmolded it. I chose a orange/almond scent and a bit of oatmeal for texture.

Hmmm... didn't do a great job on the plastic wrap this time. Note to self: pay attention when wrapping the mold. What if I call it a "design element"?

We were going for a burgandy accents with the natural color of the soap. The color needed to be mixed (red and black). The results are more plum-ish with swirls of the natural... Not what what I expected, but a lovely surprise.

I decided to cut half of the batch into a smaller size. Handier to pass out and ask people to test it for me. It's laid out next to my first batch...

So what's next you ask? Well... I'm gathering the supplies to try it out on my own, without supervision.... wish me luck!

Wash Clean...

I love home made soaps. I have been buying them when we travel, online and from etsy. It gets a little pricey...

Last month I took a class at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. It was a class on making cold process soaps. It started off with a short lecture on the ingredients and process of making soap. Then a demo on mixing the lye solution and mixing a batch.

Then we all got to mix our own batch of soap. The ingredients were all measured out for a basic recipe and heated to the right temperatures. We just needed to pick our scent for the soap. This is what it looks liked shortly after I got home.

It needs to sit for at least 24 hours, wrapped up to keep the heat in, while the chemical reactions take place. I peeked to see what was happening. This is the gel stage.

And after a little more than 24 hours (because I forgot), I released the soap from the mold. The mold is wrapped in plastic to keep it from sticking. There were some small holes in my plastic where the soap leaked out and stuck to the mold.  

After it is cut into bars, the soap needs to be cured for about three weeks. If you look closely you can see that the bars are a bit shiny and not completely dry. These bars are scented with the Love Spell scent from the Soap Box (who conducted the class) and do not have any coloring added... that's for the next class...

Making soap in class was simple, everything was prepared in advance for us. I just used the first bar of soap and it is lovely... next class - adding color and additives...