I have a soap recipe that works well for me and I'll share that and some photos. I got this recipe from the internet at Homemade Soap At Marsha's, she gives step by step video instructions which makes it very easy to follow.
Items Needed:
Distilled water
Lye
6Lbs of oil
lemon juice
stearic Acid
I begin by measuring out my oils and melting them in a large pot on the stove. I always use 2lbs of Coconut oil and 4 lbs of Vegetable shortning. Marsha said we can use olive oil with this recipe but we tried this once and the verdict is still out on weather it works or not. It didn't seem to harden up correctly so I'm sticking with what works.
Once the oils are melted, we take the oil outside for the remainder of the steps, this is where the use of lye comes in and you will need plenty of ventilation.
Next measure out 17 ounces of lye.
You now have a pot of melted oil, you will also need a stainless steel pot with 3 cups of distilled water in it.
Slowly add the lye to the pot of water. Never add water to lye! The water will now begin to get very hot. Do not breath the fumes coming out of the pot or as Marsha says in her video, "you will choke!"
You'll need to wear eye protection and rubber gloves, as you can see I wasn't wearing my eye protection very well. Don't be looking in my messy garage either.
Once the lye is dissolved in the water add your melted oils to the lye water.
( Ingredients in this photo are, lemon juice, stearic acid, Almond fragrance, oatmeal and raw bees wax.)
After you have the oil stirred into the lye water, this is when you can mix in your essential oils, bees wax, honey, oatmeal or whatever you like. After you get those mixed in it's time to add 2 cups of lemon juice and 2 ounces of stearic acid. As you add those in you will see a pretty fast change in your mixture, Your soap will begin to make trace. Making trace means, as you stir the soap your wooden spoon will leave a trail in the soap. Once the soap makes trace it's ready to pour into molds or just a plain ole card board box lined with wax paper. This is the first time I've used the stearic acid, I think it helps with making better lather. I've made this recipe before without the stearic acid and the soap turned out good. I decided to go ahead and order some on the internet and give it a try, I'll be interested to see if it makes any difference.
The soap we made today is honey, almond, oatmeal, yum. Smells good enough to eat!
Mixing the oatmeal in.
Pouring soap into molds.
Once the soap is poured into the molds, cover with an old towel to hold in the heat. When the soap is cool and firm, score with a knife into the size of soap bar you like. Let your soap cure for about 4 weeks, then it's ready to use.
While the adults made soap, the kids played. These little girls are my grand daughters and great nieces. They started out just looking in the ditch.
Didn't take long and they were down in the ditch dipping out snails.
Seeing them playing in the dirty water brought back memories of when my sister and I were just kids. We asked mom if we could walk down the street and look in the big ditch. She gave us permission to go look but don't play in the dirty water, "you could get polio" she said. We walked down the street and peered into that mysterious dirty water, it didn't take us long until we couldn't stand it any longer. We gave in and played in the murky water. I remember one of us said as we walked back home, "Polio's going to suck but that was fun." Well mom, we didn't get Polio and eating the raw cookie dough didn't give me worms either. Love you mom, I know you were just trying to keep us safe and afraid all at the same time.
We had a great day, making soap and memories.
Have a Blessed day.
Angie
No comments:
Post a Comment