What on earth is this you might ask. A fancy dessert? Nope. It's the mess I made trying to portion out the hard butters I use when I make soap.
I bought a bag of hard cocoa butter wafers and I love them. They make measuring so easy. I thought I could do the same for the big bags of shea and mango butters but it didn't work out the way I'd planned. They just didn't pop out cleanly after I melted them and poured them in a mold. I should have known better.
Although it was a big mess to clean up it was actually a good thing. I just dug it all out and made up individual 1 ounce containers. It's the way I pre-measure out my lye. The less I have to fool with the lye the better and this lets me just grab it and go. Now I can do the same with the hard butters.
The Aleppo soap is doing some weird things too. It seems to be changing colors in an odd way and this morning it's all covered in a fine layer of white soda ash.
I've never seen soda ash on the cut sides of new soap before. The top always has some. It's not harmful it just makes your soap look powdery. This is some very strange soap. Every day it looks different.
If all that wasn't bad enough look at a loaf of Plain Ole Goat soap I made on Monday. Brown spots. I thought I had that all figured out the last time I made it but no. I forgot all about keeping that batter cool. I let it get too hot and the sugars in the milk turned spotty on me. Ugh. Again it's not harmful. It's just ugly. I just gave it another try so maybe I will get a decent loaf next time. Maybe.
Even though it was so far not a good soaping day, I went ahead and tried a new pouring technique I saw on You Tube with this loaf and then fretted all night that I had ruined it. It's my Olive Leaf & Fig scent and I really wanted this one to turn out. After cutting it the next morning I decided it's not too bad after all. A little busy maybe.
All this drama is what I get for not just sticking with what I know so I gave up and made the Just Peachy soap just by dumping it in the mold the way I always do and letting gravity do the work.
Lesson learned.
Keep it simple.
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I really think they all look nice. Even the spotty and powdery ones. I like the stamps on the one too. You are one busy lady.
ReplyDeleteI've been knitting on a new shawl with the yarn Meredith sent me. It's so fun to knit with. I'm using the Reyna pattern that someone else recently made. Easy peasy.
Blessings,
Betsy
Loving looking at all your soapy adventures and, as usual, learning new things! I'm having trouble concentrating on knitting even though I'm not working on anything at all difficult but I have so many projects going I'm not hurting for choice!
ReplyDeleteThe Olive Leaf & Fig scented soap just looks happy and Just Peachy looks soothing. What a frustrating day you must have had. Experimenting was probably still fun though.
ReplyDeleteSo much to learn with soap making isn't there? I love them all and am really intrigued how they change. Stay safe and well.
ReplyDeleteYou are a soap master!!! Keep scrubbing!
ReplyDeleteYour soap adventures are so interesting!
ReplyDeleteI think they are all lovely, even the spotty one. The stamped soaps are adorable and I can't imagine how much time that must have taken. Or even how you go about stamping on soap... Every time you (or anyone) talks about ugly soap, I think of my mom. She'd save all the little pieces of soap and when she'd saved up enough, she'd grate them with the cheese grater and mash them together like she was making meatballs. She had a thing for mint green and pink soaps and when they were turned into meatballs, they turned a hideous shade of gray. As a teen, there was nothing worse than having friends over and having them wash their hands with an over sized gray meatball. LOL
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