Friday, December 30, 2011

Soap Making

Hey everyone!  As most of you know we are in the process of remodeling our kitchen, which still isn't finished yet, so still no food to blog about.  Yes, we are slow.  We did take off Christmas weekend though to be with our families, so that put us behind.  We hope to put our new counter tops in Saturday and hopefully "almost" finish things up over the weekend. 

Below is a picture of me making soap back in November.  Yep, I made some soap for Christmas presents.  They didn't turn out how I wanted them to, but they still turned out great.  I thought the recipe was going to make more than what it actually did, but it didn't.  Tony made me a soap box to pour the mixture into, but since I didn't have enough to fill the soap box up, I poured the mixture into silicone muffin cups.  Tony's genius idea.  So, instead of square bars of soap I ended up with round bars, which turned out pretty cute.


After the soap hardened in their molds for 48 hours, I dumped them out to cure for 3 plus weeks.   I had to flip them everyday so they would cure evenly.  All that has something to do with the lye that's in them.  The ingredients that I used to make the soap were coconut oil, shea butter, almond oil, water, sodium hydroxide (lye), and warm vanilla sugar fragrance oil.   We have been using the soap for several weeks now and absolutely love it.  It leaves your skin feeling so soft and silky.  Tony's already asking when I'll be making more.  My next batch of soap is going to be a type of oatmeal soap made with homemade almond milk.  It will make a bigger batch, so I will be able to use the soap box that Tony made for me.   My goal is to be able to make that around mid January.  If the oatmeal soap turns out as good as this batch did, I'll be doing a giveaway.  The only bad  thing about making the soap is that you have to let it cure for at least 3 weeks.   It's very hard to wait that long. :o)


Here we have a close up of one right after I took it out of the mold. Pretty bright looking huh.

Here's a bar after they had cured for over a month.  I took this picture with my phone, so the picture is a little on the dark side.  The soap did darken though as it cured.

Here's one all wrapped up ready to be gifted. 

I haven't heard how everyone liked the soap, but I hope they like it as much as Tony and I do.

I hope everyone has a save and Happy New Year!   It will be next year before I blog again and hopefully it will be with pictures of my newly remodeled kitchen.

~Peace~

13 comments:

  1. Ha! I was chanting "giveaway, giveaway" as I read this, and then you said the magic word!!!

    BTW, we remodeled our kitchen 6 years ago and I will never, ever remodel anything, ever again. Hope you're a better sport about it than I am (probably not hard!).

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  2. Ooooh giveaway yay!! Oatmeal almond milk soap sounds like it'll be so great! I love the way they came out and your wrapped it up so nicely! It looks super adorable. I am such a believer that homemade things are always better. Seems like a fun project!! Hope the kitchen is progressing well! Hang in there!

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  3. I love making gifts for people, and these sound great! I bet they smell good too.

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  4. Homemade soap is the best! What a wonderful gift to give people. You're awesome!

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  5. Wow! That is so great! I hope it was a lot of fun for you - they definitely turned out really cute. Did you use a kit, or where did you find the lye? I hear you on the waiting! The bitters I made had to sit for 2 weeks. I couldn't wait to finish it up.

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  6. The soaps look like Baby Watson Cheesecakes. Maybe that's why you haven't heard from the relatives.

    Oldie but goodie...
    Q: Where's the best place to hide your money? A: Under a Frenchman`s soap.

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  7. Your soaps are adorable. I love vanilla fragrance; I can imagine how lovely and luxurious the scent is while showering etc.

    Happy New Year Michelle!

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  8. Great gift idea. Homemade gifts are the best. Happy New Year!

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  9. I've always wanted to make soap but it's something I've never gotten around to. Where did you get your recipe? I think the round soaps look great, and are probably easy to hold, too. I'm sure everyone loved them — how could they not?

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  10. Oh I envy you for making CP soaps! I'm only making M&P soaps so far (which I still love doing!) but I haven't dared yet to take the plunge for CP! *lol*

    You've been tagged in my latest blog, by the way, please check it out! :)

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  11. i want the recipe, too! do u know what the cost savings are? would be a fun giveaway!

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  12. your soaps look great. I have made a few easy types and really want to venture out making more soaps. Thanks for this great post!!
    http://healthyveganlife.blogspot.com/

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  13. So cool to find a vegan blogger from Jackson! I'm from Bells, so I've pretty much been in Jackson my whole life (for shopping). I'm sure you do have a tough time sourcing some of the things you need. Also noticed your Fiesta dishes, something else we have in common, lol. Keep the recipes coming!

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