Proper Techniques in Soap making

Hello Kitty Milk and Honey with rolled oats and vitamin E soaps

The first batch I made. (out of stock)

Sweet Kisses and Sweet Sunshine Milk and Honey soaps.

Second batch I made. (in stock)

Well, just like all beginners in soapmaking, the first time I made my first batch of soap I committed so many misses and mistakes. I poured too many honey on the mixture making the finished products's colour very dark brown and produces a filmy dark spots. I did not put the pitcher (while mixing milk and lye) on the bowl with ice prompting the colour of milk to shift from light yellow to dark brown, a normal reaction when lye is poured into milk without cooler around the container.

So what I did on the following day was made more research on the net and took notes on how to apply proper techniques. By the time I created my second batch of soap, I perfected the procedure and made a very nice creation. My third batch is excellently fine.

Unrefined Shea Butter soap with Jojoba oil and Vitamin E.
 (in stock)

So, if you are interested to try creating your own bath soap, here are important reminders that you should take note in order to avoid glitches and minor mistakes:

• Use only plastic, wood and silicon in all the equipment you will use.
• Do not use Aluminum because it will react with lye.
• Make a balance measurement with your oils.
• Too much honey will make your soap very brown.
• Do not pour water or any liquid on lye, it will explode the solution.
• Always pour lye on liquid and not vice versa.
• While working on your milk and lye solution, make sure to put the pitcher on a bowl with ice.
• Wait until the mixture traces before it will be poured into the moulds.
• Make a thorough research on the net first before you decide to start making soaps.
• Research the properties of oils first before you decide what combination to make.
• Very important: always run your ingredients in a lye calculator. Once you have your ingredients and finalize the combination of oils do not make any alteration on the measurement until you run again the ingredients on a lye calculator.

When you use Milk in a lye solution:

When you make a milk and honey organic soap, you should be extra careful with your lye solution because the moment you pour flakes of caustic soda or lye to milk the solution will get hotter and will change the colour from yellowish to light brown. Milk has sugar so when it gets contact with lye it will react and shift the colour to brown.


Right thing to do:

• Always pour the caustic soda or lye to liquid and not vice versa.
• Lye is very dangerous so you must use safety equipment like hand rubber gloves, surgical mask and goggles.
• Put the fresh milk first into the freezer and let it cool for several hours before you make your milk- lye solution.
• Put the pitcher in a bowl with ice cubes.
• Pour the fresh milk into the pitcher.
• Slowly pour the lye bit by bit into the pitcher, the mixture starts to get hotter by this time, continue stirring until all the lye dissolves.
• Let it cool up to 65 degrees centigrade before you mix it into the oils.

Heating the oils

After weighing the needed ounces of each oil (olive, coconut, palm, etcetera). 

• Put it all together in the sauce pan. 
• Bring it to heat. But do not boil because it will burn the oils. Enough heat is fine. 
• Check the temperature using a candy or meat thermometer. 
• Remove it from the heat when it reaches 100 degrees C. 
• Set aside and let it cool to 65 degrees C.

Important Equipment in Soapmaking using the Cold Process Method

• Accurate digital scale.
• Stick blender
• Safety goggles
• Rubber gloves
• Long Sleeve
• Spatula
• Saucepan to heat oils
• Pitcher for lye solution
• Separate containers for your milk and water
• Use only distilled water
• Ramekins to hold your oils and other ingredients
• Wooden spoon to mix your lye.
• Candy or meat thermometer.

Contact me if you have more questions to ask or details to clarify regarding soapmaking. Thank you.