# My First Attempt at Soap Was...



## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

...a complete fail. At least I think it was. I won't bore you with the details, but I ended up using too much lye. Today I have "soap" sitting in a puddle of brownish lye liquid.

Lesson one: I need a better kitchen scale.

Lesson two: Guessing how much lye to add after spilling some in the sink (oops!) is not a good idea.

Drat. 

NOT groovy.

Back to the drawing board.


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

Soap calc really helped me with my recipe! And I did it so I could just use a pound of lye, and buy it in 1lb bottles so it works great haha!


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## AncientBlue (Dec 21, 2014)

Mine have all worked out pretty well. Now if I would just learn to SAVE the successful recipes. lol


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm going to start my own line of soap and lotions this spring... Maybe even some shower gels.... Thanks for the lesson groovyoldlady


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Go to walmart and pick up one of these scales, it's what I still use. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Slimline-Digital-Scale/35854314

And you should also have one of these temperature guns http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CVHIJDK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

If you don't have a stick blender, get one of those too! What recipe were you trying?


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

J.O.Y. Farm said:


> Soap calc really helped me with my recipe! And I did it so I could just use a pound of lye, and buy it in 1lb bottles so it works great haha!


Thats cheating!!!! LoL not a bad idea though :-D


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

I have had a lot fun last year making soaps. Soo much more coming this year!!!


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I've been in a soapy mood lately too, and I had my first disaster batch (but still turned out usable). I originally was going to do a swirled pumpkin soap with a piped soap frosting topping, but by the time I have my frosting ready my pumpkin soap was somewhat volcano-ing out of the mold. The pumpkin part of the batter was pushing the oils out, so I had a huge oil mess and and a partially lye heavy soap that I could pipe the topping for, so that had to be mashed into another mold by the time I had the oil mess taken care of (UGH!). 
Then I made some oatmeal milk & honey, and starting cutting it too soon after taking it out of the freezer and unmolding it :lol: When I went to cut the 1st bar it broke and crumbled. I freaked out thinking the whole darn thing was gonna be like that. So I gave it several hours and came back to it after it had warmed up, and I cut one bar with a cheese slicer, and it was fine so I cut the rest. So I think when I first cut it, it may have still been frozen :lol: 

Right now I want to make a billion batches of like 10 different scents, but alas, I do not have $550 to spend on soaping stuff :lol:


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

nannysrus said:


> Thats cheating!!!! LoL not a bad idea though :-D


I know lol! But it makes life easier! And lye was a little scary to handle at first, now I'm comfortable with it and don't mind so much lol



nannysrus said:


> I have had a lot fun last year making soaps. Soo much more coming this year!!!


Oh wow! Those are such nice soaps!!  I haven't gotten into any colors or fancy stuff lol! I don't have the soap to waste if I mess it up haha! I get so swamped I feel like I can hardly keep up with making enough sometimes!


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Ooooooo. I LOVE the camo soap. That would go over BIG up here with all the hunters and Yankee ********. I was going to try my second batch yesterday, but the day got away from me. Gonna try a simple honey and oat recipe again and THIS time I won't screw up the amount of lye.

Unless it spills again...


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## Frosty (Feb 13, 2010)

Now you scared me. I was thinking about trying my first batch soon. I got milk frozen to do it. I haven't figured out what I need to buy yet and where to get the lye. I got past the getting goats, and breeding and birthing so now time to do a new adventure. Oh and I forgot the showing. lol. Any tips will be greatly appreciated and a simple receipt.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

You can get lye at the hardware store, like Red Crown brand, just make sure it isn't something that has metal particles in it. 
A simple recipe would be 50% olive oil, 20% sunflower oil, and 30% coconut oil with an 8-9% super-fat (5% super-fat is bit drying because of the higher coconut). Depending on the milk you are using, it will raise the super-fat 1-3% even, so adjust accordingly. I would soap this at 30-32% lye concentration. 
You can also make some with lard, I haven't yet, but the option is out there. 
A good scale and a stick blender is a must. 

Here is some soap I made using the recipe above. After it cures, it lathers very well.


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

Frosty said:


> Now you scared me. I was thinking about trying my first batch soon. I got milk frozen to do it. I haven't figured out what I need to buy yet and where to get the lye. I got past the getting goats, and breeding and birthing so now time to do a new adventure. Oh and I forgot the showing. lol. Any tips will be greatly appreciated and a simple receipt.


You should come up to my place and make it with me, I'll show you how to do it all  I'm always making soap now that I sell a fair amount at work and they want me to sell in in our other two stores too! Eek! Lol!


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

*Good Starter Recipe*

15 ounces olive oil
13 ounces coconut oil
12 lard

5.5 ounces lye
13 ounces of goats milk (water, coconut milk, or other liquid)

Very simple easy recipe that I started with and have never had it fail me!


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

Little-Bits-N-Pieces said:


> A good scale and a stick blender is a must.
> .


I made soap for a long time hand stirring before I bought a stick blender. *NEVER* again will I hand stir lol wow- 2 1/2 hours hand stirring verses 15 minutes stick blending.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Hmmm. I HAVE a stick blender. I use it all the time for soups. But the instructions say very explicitly that you are not supposed to run it for more 1 minute at a time. It's an Oster 2605. I'd love to use it, but I don't want to burn it out.

How do you stick blender advocated use yours?


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

I have a cheap Hamilton from Wal-Mart. You blend for a few minutes stir for one. Blend for a few stir for one. 

It takes 5-10 minutes to hit trade. (Sometimes not that long) just keep check on your blender. You will know if you have ran it too long.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I run it for about 20 seconds, the stir it around for the same amount of time and repeat until I'm at a trace I like. Mine trace in less than 5 minutes.
The steeper water discount you do, the faster you will reach trace. Also the hotter you soap the faster it traces. Dont go too hot if you add and sugars though, you risk separation and volcanoing out of the mold.


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

I soap at 90 degrees to keep my milk from scorching and always do 35-38% milk. Which is why it takes mine longer to trace.


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## LuvMyNigies (Sep 14, 2013)

nannysrus said:


> *Good Starter Recipe*
> 
> 15 ounces olive oil
> 13 ounces coconut oil
> ...


I know this is an older thread, but I had a question--would vegetable shortening work in the place of lard? Also, how big a batch of soap does this make?


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I don't think shortening would work the same way. It is much softer than lard. Every type of fat requires a different amount of lye. So go to one of the soap calculators online. Here's one: http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp and here's another: https://www.brambleberry.com/pages/lye-calculator.aspx

You want to make sure you have the right amount of lye for the fat you choose. There are plenty of fats to choose from if you want to avoid lard.


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## LuvMyNigies (Sep 14, 2013)

Okay, Thank You!!


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## capracreek (Apr 5, 2016)

I am sitting here with some of the best products need for making goat soap of all kinds. I have spent a small fortune..................Special bowls, special spoons and spatulas, stick blender just for soap, coloring, 6 different kinds of oils, essential oils, molds, scale, digital thermometer, etc .. I watch youtube on making goat soap and I have yet to make one single batch. Pretty expensive at this rate!!! Yes the use of Lye is intimidating.


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## billiejw89 (May 7, 2014)

I am in the same boat! I purchased everything to make soap but haven't got around to it yet. It is intimidating. I need to just go for it!


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