Soap Week

 

You might have been wondering what took Soap Week so long to happen. First it was getting the supplies here and then it was....humidity. You can't cure soap when its natural glycerin keeps sucking water out of the air. Even with the AC on and the dehumidifier running I couldn't get the house under 70%. It's been miserable but on Friday we were down into the high 50's so I gave it a cautious go. 

I always start with something easy like Oatmeal, Milk and Honey. I make this so often that I know how it is going to react but I was still surprised. I couldn't get a good trace on it which means the batter wasn't thickening up as expected. 

Most likely the reason was too many soft oils and too much water. The cocoa butter that I usually use to stiffen it up is wildly expensive. It's $35 a pound and going without makes for a softer bar. I mucked around with the top so much trying to get nice peaks that I ended up with this gloppy mess.

It doesn't look too terrible now that it's cut but I'm most likely going to re-do it once I get all the bugs worked out. There is always some trial and error in the beginning with a new formula. 

Next up was Lavender Sage and this time I did a water discount meaning I put less water in the batter. It thickened up better. I'll be taking it out of the mold tomorrow so I'll have to wait until then to see if this helps. That's the fun of making soap. Every loaf is an adventure in chemistry.