The soap gremlins on attack!

 It's a beautiful day in the soap kitchen...

 a beautiful day for a soap....

 Would you be mine, could you be mine. 

I have always wanted to hand make soap, just like you...

 I've always wanted to swirly a do a soap, with you so.......

Hold up, hold up, that is not how it went down!

Somebody  call up Mr. Rodgers so he can come get his soap gremlins. While it was a beautiful day, it wasn't in my soap kitchen today. The soap gremlins were on full attack today, so I had to put my guards up. 

This is how it went down.

I have been working so hard trying to build up my soaps for the upcoming holiday shopping season. I have recently orders tons of fragrances to try out, in an effort to find that killer scent. Today I decided to try out a new fragrance called Cranberry Yuzu. From what I read, this fragrance doesn't have issues so I decided to soap it. 

Everything was going well. I was using one of my favorite vegan handmade soap recipes.  I love this recipe because I have found it to be very easy to work with. So I mixed in the clays and added my lye water, all was well. I was thinking I wanted to do a spoon swirl so I didn't batter to loose. So in with the fragrance and that's when the fun began. 

Working with handmade soap batter can be a bang against the wall if you don't know come back against the gremlins on attack. As you can see in this picture, my batter began to accelerate quickly. I had my batter all separated for mixing in my colors. Got those done and came back to my base color and my soap was nearly at a seize. 

I have heard of the soap gremlins on attack before when talking to other soapers. However, I had yet to experience them for myself, until today. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to remain calm. So I proceeded to mix my color as if the seize was not coming. 

I pulled out my sword (my stick blender) and gathered more ammo (water) and I began slaying the crap out those soap gremlins. The stick blender was working ok, but as soon as I stopped blending the batter would thicken up again. I was working with a water discount, so there was room for more without totally killing my soap. So in went about another tablespoon of water and back to stick blending. 

I the beat that soap right back into submission with just water and my stick blender. I was not about to let those gremlins get the upper hand over me. The interesting part was, the base color was the only part of the batter that gave be a problem. My other colors, while they were thick how I wanted, they were still workable. So in went the base color and the rest was a plop and swirl. 

As you can see I made a royal mess of my soaping area. I had soap flying everywhere trying to hurry it into the mold.

At the end of the day, I came out with a great soap. I can wait to cut it and show if off to the world. 

 

Happy Soaping!

No Lye is a Lie

Welcome to the new world of naturalism. There seems a to be a new aged movement of converting from chemical based products to natural organic handmade products. I myself have been making this transition. The sad part is, because of misinformation being given out over the internet, many are going about this the wrong way.

I started my transition many years ago when I decided not to use chemical based products in my hair. After doing extensive research, I decided the best route for me was to make my own products. The commercial world wants us as consumers to believe that their chemical based products are what's best. However, with most commercial products you are being deceived by what is listed on the ingredients label.

While many commercial products start off with great ingredients, hence what you see on the label, they are keeping information from you. What you don't know is that they take these great ingredients and break them down chemically. By the time the finish product hits the shelf at your local market, there's nothing nutritious or organic about the product. I could give many examples, but that's the point here.

Knowing this, I made my transition in hair care, which lead me to making handmade soap.  I came to the conclusion that it was better for me know what was in my product opposed to trusting commercial companies. Why, you ask? Well, the best way to ensure that the product I use is natural and organic, was to make it myself.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has come this conclusion. However, I am learning from networking and building relationship with others who make their own handmade soap are being deceived. The deception is that there is a such thing as no lye soap.

Prior to making my first batch of soap, I did extensive research for over a year before I took the plunge to make my first soap. I, like many others, was so terrified of using lye, or sodium hydroxide, to make soap. So I found myself searching and searching for soap recipes that did not require me to use lye.



 



I did find a solution to this matter, it is called melt and pour soap. Melt and pour is a glycerin soap that can be purchased as a base ingredient to customize your own creations. It comes in many variations from clear to opaque. It appears to be a simple ingredient to work with, however for more creative outcomes requires great skill and practice.

Here's my issue. Many people view using this product as a quick and easy way to make beautiful soaps for profit and advertise these soaps as a lye free product. What these people don't understand is that you can not make any type of soap without the use of lye. In order to understand, you have to first understand the soap making process. I'll explain quickly and simply.

All soap products begin with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide (lye), a liquid such as water, milk, juice, or tea/coffee and oils. We all know oils and liquids don't mix, enter here your lye. The lye creates the bonds that holds the two together, which also creates a reaction called saponification. So the lye is mixed with the liquid of choice and then mixed with oils of choice to start saponification. Once the saponification process is complete, if done properly, the lye is no longer active and has created a byproduct in the soap called glycerin.







In cold process soaps, saponification takes 24-48 hours to complete. In hot process soap, such as melt and pour soap bases, the process can take as little as 30 minutes. Once the soap batter has completed the saponification process you now have soap, whether it be a bar soap, liquid soap or melt and pour.

This is just a simple explanation of the process. Of course there is so much more to know about making soap. However, my point is, there no such thing as lye free soap. You cannot make soap of any kind without the use of a lye.

To those who are against using handmade soaps because they were made with lye, I urge you to do some research. You will not find lye listed as an ingredient on a commercial based soap, as shown above, and this is why.