A Day In The Life Of Me

Using all those fancy and super smelling soaps is so luxurious, but what is it like to make?    

On a normal day, UPS will arrive with a bunch of supplies.  Received today:  35lbs of unrefined coconut oil, 10lbs raw cocoa butter, a myriad of beautiful new molds and other peripherals necessary to do business as a soaper. 


Once the unpacking is done, it's time to get down to business.  As I have been waiting forever for my cocoa butter to arrive, that's what I'll be using in my two recipes today:  "Cocoa Butter/Hazelnut Soap", and my new most favorite soap, "Brownie Bars," which is cocoa butter and cocoa powder mixed up and wrapped like a brownie.  Looks like a brownie, smells like a brownie... must be a brownie.  Be careful not to eat it! 

Next step is to clean up the lab, I mean kitchen, so that I have some working space.  I prepare the mold, measure out the ingredients and make sure I have all the other junk I need.  

Getting all the ingredients just right is key.  Liquid oils cold, solid oils hot and melted.  Mix them together and make sure they're stable at 110 degrees.

Soap-making attire - Holding liquid Cocoa Butter

Next I mix the lye solution. Modeling a highly fashionable respirator, I tie a long sleeved t-shirt around my head to spare myself from the fumes I'm about to create. (Amazing that I was so color-coordinated... I really didn't plan this).  

Lye solution

The action of mixing lye with a liquid creates extreme heat.  It is dangerous and can severely burn you.  (This lye is about 180 degrees F and must be reduced to 110 degrees F before it can be added to the oils).  The vapors created aren't visible, (but the steam is), and can really irritate your lungs and cause headaches if you're not careful.  The action, (saponification), that takes place between the lye, (a base), and the fats in the oils, (acid), creates soap.  Now there's your bit of science for the day.

Left - Oils and lye still separate.  Right - Oils completely mixed

Once you've mixed sufficiently, the soap goo is ready to be poured into a mold.  In this case, I've made a double batch and will use a lined wooden loaf mold.  After about 20 minutes, the soap has solidified sufficiently to go back with a knife and decorate the top by swirling it.

Now I wait impatiently for 24 hours before I remove the soap from the mold and slice it into bars.  Once it has been sliced, I wait again, (sigh), for at least two more weeks.  During that time, the soap cures, becoming milder and harder.  

Imagining this process over and over will explain the current state of my house.  It is no longer a house, it is a workshop that is clearly not big enough.  Is that a piano in there?

I do love the process of making soap.  So far I've enjoyed all aspects of starting up this business - (creating logos, websites, blogging, pushing my soap on prospective retailers)... all good stuff!  But I'd have to say that the best thing of all is getting to shower at the end of the day and having so many lovely soaps to choose from! ~ Sandy