Judgement Day

 It's time to formally test all the soaps I've been making. This stuff tells you if what you've made is safe to use.

 I cut off a piece of each of my soaps, let it dissolve a while in some distilled water and then added a drop of the ph tester. That's a lot of pink. Hmmmm......

 I was expecting the solution to stay clear so at first I was horrified but then I remembered, duh, that all soap has some ph level. That's what makes it soap. Here is my first soap, on the right and my last, on the left. That looks about right. The older soap is, the milder it gets.

 Out of curiosity, I tested my Melt and Pour base. Yikes. That's harsh but it's the one I use the most and it feels wonderful. Now I am confused.

As some experts recommend, I even cut off another piece of soap and dropped the solution right on it. Nothing.

 With this in mind, I figure my first three soaps which are testing so low must be ready to use. Yipee!

 I held onto a piece of that lye heavy disaster soap to use as a control. It was very pink and the only one that reacted when the drops were applied directly to the soap. The Mister's six week old orange soap was pretty pink in the solution but clear on the bar so I'm thinking it's getting rebatched in the near future. That means grating it up and melting it down for another try. I'm actually looking forward to that.

Scaredy cat that I am, I even bought some ph test strips to make double sure they were safe to use. They ranged from 9-7 which is perfectly normal for homemade soap.

 Here goes. The first use of my first cold process (lye) soap. The tea leaves I added made a giant mess but it feels and smells wonderful.

 Wow. I still have my skin. When I took it into the bath, the lather was outstanding. Way to go me.

I also have to figure out how to store it. I'm labeling and shrink wrapping some of the cured ones so I can get them off the drying racks. Shrink wrapping is an art form to itself. The ends have to stay open so the soap can breathe and getting that to happen takes practice. I'm pretty terrible at it but with my giant soap stash, I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice.