200g palm oil.
distilled water 350ml, lye 126g: MMS calculator says this is superfatted around 7%
Was going to use green tea in the lye solution for this one, until I read that it can foam up a lot if you add the lye to it when it is warm. I couldn't be bothered cooling it so I just used 350ml plain water instead. In the end I did wind up cooling the lye solution in an icewater bath. They lye went a browny colour, possibly from dregs of green tea still in the mixing-jar after I tipped the tea out?
Once the oils and the lye were both around 100 degrees I tipped the lye into the oil and stirred very briefly to combine, then went at it with the handheld Braun mixer. Within a few minutes it was a custard consistency and very yellow. It was a little gloppy as I poured it into my Wiltshire loaf mold, right to the top. I put the remainder into a heart-shaped ice tray from Ikea. Both molds are now in the garage with gladwrap over them to stop bugs getting at the soap- those mosquitoes just don't know what's good for them! Weather is a little humid, it rained a few drops here and there today after a very hot day. Right now the temperature is 24.7 degrees.
I hope it works. I hope its not too soft. I hope the oil is okay- it supposedly expired in January, and I think I bought it as long as a year ago but I never opened the tin. Certainly wasn't rancid-smelling, not much of a scent to it at all.
Had some ideas about packaging it. Will use old sewing pattern tissue and maybe stamp 'EmilyKate' on it, stick it closed with japanese washi tape.
Morning, Sunday 27 February.
Rain overnight. VERY soft, VERY sticky soap. I popped out one of the mini soaps from the icecube tray, the surface was cracked and soap was left inside the tray. Will leave them all in there to cure a bit more. Icecube tray soap did not seem to have gone through gelling. The soap in the loaf mold had gelled almost but not quite to the edges. I carefully flipped it over and peeled the loaf mold back off it. Very soft so it became somewhat misshapen but it didn't crack and none was left in the mold. Cut into 11 sticky pieces with crimped cutter. They are now resting between tissue paper on top of a cooling rack.
I still have some stearic acid, if this batch remains too soft then I'll use the acid in the next batch to make it harder. It also would have been better to use the lower end of the suggested water volume.
Tuesday 1 March
Still very soft, maybe less sticky. No zap!
Ricebran and Palm OilCreated by EmilyKate | Service provided by Majestic Mountain Sage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LiquidsWARNING: Always add your solid form lye, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, to the liquid. If the liquid were added to the solid form lye a violent reaction could result. This means you could have a "volcano" erupt out of your container. |
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Always wear protective goggles, gloves and other safety clothing when handling sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Refer to the appropriate MSDS for complete details. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Basic Soapmaking Instructions
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Sunday May 15
The soap is now hard enough. could maybe be left another few weeks but I was impatient. Wrapped up the bars in sewingpattern tissue. Gave to Bec, Liat and Natsu. The end peices of soap looked like they had a kind of gel-like consistency in the middle, below the surface. I took photos but this quality didn't show up in the photos.