Fumbling Towards Soap: Adventures in Melt-and-Pour Soapmaking
A Soap Semi-Blog by Aviva Rothschild
Recently, in an effort to find something to do to distract
myself from the twin problems of having been laid off and having
to put my mother into an Alzheimer's care home, I went to Hobby
Lobby to find a craft. I had some vague idea about candlemaking
or rock tumbling. Instead, I discovered that all their melt-and-pour
soapmaking items were half off. Thumbing through a craft soap
book, I was struck by how easy and cool the whole hobby was.
Also, I love chunky soaps, and the thought of making my own was
very appealing. So I spent about $40 on soap, scents, dyes, molds,
the soap recipe book, and so forth. I would later come back and
buy another batch of stuff, and since then I've picked up many
other things at the ARC Thrift Store (they have knives like you
wouldn't believe, and plastic ice cube trays with interesting
shapes), Hobby Lobby again, and Michael's.
I read the two craft soap books with great interest. It all
seemed so easy! However, reality intruded when I made my first
batch. I encountered all kinds of interesting little problems.
And when I checked the Internet for tips from more experienced
soapmakers, I discovered that there is relatively little information
about this particular hobby, especially the nuts-and-bolts part.
It's one thing to tell the newbie to melt the soap, add things,
and pour it into molds. It's another when the soap hardens too
quickly, or the scent evaporates too rapidly, or the spoon becomes
too coated with soap to use, or the damn soap won't unmold. There's
a decent amount about true homemade soap (the lye & fat kind),
but that's not what I'm doing. Thus, I'm creating this semi-blog
in an effort to alert newbie soapmakers to the problems they
might encounter, and (hopefully) to stimulate discussion, tips,
and help from other soapmakers.
I have a couple of craft soap books: Soapmaking 101
and Soothing Soaps and Scrubs. Although I bought 101
first, the other has turned out to be more useful. 101
is mostly recipes for chunky and "hand-milled" soaps,
while Soothing has all kinds of natural bars that don't
require too much imagination from the beginner, just the right
ingredients.
Soapmaking Log:
- 2/12/03: First attempts (white glycerin soap base)
- 3/21/03: Cornmeal soap (olive oil soap base)
- 3/30/03: Witch Hazel soap (clear glycerin soap base)
- 4/3/03: Aloe soap (clear glycerin) and Calamine soap (white
glycerin)
- 4/5/03: First chunky soap attempt (olive oil)
- 4/14/03: Oatmeal soap (clear)
- 4/29/03: Rosemary soap (olive oil)
- 5/7/03: Vaseline soap (clear)
- 5/8/03: Vitamin E soap (clear)
- Useful Links
Pictures coming soon!
Soapmaking 2/12/03
Time to experiment with soapmaking basics: melting, stirring,
adding dye, adding scent, pouring into molds, unmolding.
I used opaque white soap to start—glycerin soap may act
differently. I’ll try that later.
It takes a lot of scent per batch—1 to 6 drops of scent
PER OUNCE. That’s per one little square. Looks like if we
go commercial, scent will be our biggest expense.
Soap hardens quickly, so it should be quite hot when it comes
out of the microwave, so that it stays melted long enough to
play with. The entire batch should be melted (but not boiling).
Stir frequently. Obey the every 10-15 second rule and stir well
after each heating. [3/30/03 NOTE: No, stir as little as possible
to avoid making bubbles.] This is, I think, the crucial step—the
soap MUST be liquid. Hardened soap is a bitch to deal with—a
scum forms on top, and the spoons or whisks get coated in ever-increasing
layers of soap.
Soap bits that stick to the sides, the spoon, etc. do not
easily melt back into the main mass.
It’s easy to clean up!
The dyes are very concentrated and can easily be overused,
especially when using a whole drop on a small piece of soap (e.g.,
dropping a drop into a tiny leaf mold).
The dyes spread out amazingly when a drop is dropped into
the soap.
Your hands feel tacky very quickly.
Metal spoons are probably not ideal for stirring the soap.
You need at least 2, as well, one to scrape the hardened soap
off the other. [3/30/03 NOTE: Craft sticks work MUCH better!]
I think it was OK to repeatedly remelt the soap. I did it
once or twice and probably should have done it more often.
Lightly swirled drops of color will combine more thoroughly
if the soap is remelted.
Have different melting containers for different colors of
soap, though I didn’t have too much trouble with red soap
bits melting into a new batch (see above).
Very small molds are hard to pour into—might be better
to spoon the soap into those molds.
Scrape off any dots of soap that splash onto the molds—"chaff"
looks funny on the finished product.
I now have a shitload of bars of soap!
Adding hardened soap into semi-molten molds (to fill them
up) seems to work, sort of, if you squish molten soap over the
hardened bits to cover them. When I unmold the tester, I’ll
see what it looks like. (Looks crappy as of this moment, when
it’s still not hardened completely… And it looks crappy
unmolded.)
If a soap is over-dyed, will one’s hands get colored
when one uses the soap? Will find out. (Answer: No, but you end
up leaving a lot of colored water/foam in the soap dish when
you wash your hands with the soap and then put it down.)
I must say, after having washed the splattered soap off my
hands, my hands feel nice and smooth! Good stuff!
I tried putting a drop of color into a mold and then pouring
in uncolored soap. We’ll see what results. (Nice splash
pattern.)
The soap should be even in the mold, and should fill all crevices.
Be generous. Half-filled soaps look stupid and flimsy when unmolded.
Use a toothpick to draw soap into tiny crevices.
Toothpicks are good for lightly swirling drops of color.
The dye is very water-soluble. It comes right off the fingers.
Unmolding takes a deft touch in order to avoid wrecking the
mold (if it’s made of flimsy plastic).
DON’T USE CANDY MOLDS. They bend way too easily.
Opaque soap layers are noticeable.
Little bubbles appear in some of the soaps. Is this preventable?
What am I going to do with all this soap?
Later: Some of the littler, skinnier soaps (from the candy
molds, feet- and hand-shaped molds) curled up somewhat. Ugly.
This probably won’t be a problem if I immediately add semi-hardened
shapes to bigger bars, but I have to try it. (Found on a website
that the reason for this is that the soap lost water. Aha. Don't
know how to prevent that yet.)
FEEDBACK
Me: I liked the soap, but I think I'm allergic to too much
dye. The soaps with too much dye aggravated my skin.
Soapmaking 3/21/03
Attempted Cornmeal soap from recipe. Olive oil soap, honey,
cornmeal, scent.
The soap called for yellow dye as well, but the soap had such
a nice yellow-brown color when I mixed in the honey and cornmeal
that I didn’t bother.
I learned that six ounces of soap fills about one and a half
soap-bar-sized molds (one and a half of the "massage"
bar molds from Life of the Party).
The recipe called for a 3" hexagon mold, but the LotP
molds aren’t marked, so I just found a hexagon in the "massage"
mold set and used that.
I used peach scent, putting in 3 drops per ounce of soap.
It didn’t smell like anything much while I was making it;
maybe it’ll smell OK when it’s cool and I can hold
it up to my nose.
Olive oil glycerin soap melts MUCH more nicely than the opaque
white.
I made sure the soap was very hot this time. Nevertheless,
it stuck mightily to the spoons, and I had to reheat it several
times to remelt the globs of stiffened soap that I scraped off
the spoon.
I think next time I’ll try to reheat it JUST before pouring
it into the mold. That might make life easier.
I reheated the soap with the cornmeal, scent, and honey in
it, and nothing seemed to go wrong. Of course, I only heated
it for three ten-second intervals.
Well-heated soap does take some time to harden sufficiently
to unmold. It’s also possible that the glycerin soap takes
longer to cool, or that the cornmeal/honey mixture had an effect
in some way.
I wish I had some way to know in advance how many cubes of
soap will fill a particular mold.
I found a recommendation that one spray molds with PAM or
something similar to make things easier to unmold. (Actually,
they recommend an oil mister rather than PAM.) I'll try that
next.
Another recommendation: Pour excess soap into Dixie cups to
make cute guest soaps. I would also suggest having some small
molds ready in case you have, like I did this batch, an amount
of soap obviously too small for a normal-size mold.
Yet another recommendation: I need to get a mister and some
rubbing alcohol. Apparently one is supposed to mist little soap
bits that you insert into liquid soap, and also the bubbles I
noted earlier will apparently go away if I mist the top of a
newly poured bar. Also, over-stirring will add bubbles to the
soap when you're melting it.
Aha! Didn't realize that the olive oil soap chunks were half
the size of the white soap chunks. Serves me right for not reading
the packaging. So I made the recipe with half the soap. I'll
try again tomorrow with the full amount of soap.
FEEDBACK
Dad: He liked it, but wasn't enamored of the cornmeal; he
wasn't sure of its purpose. When I explained that it was "scrubby"
soap, he sneered at me. I think I'm going to have to rescue the
bar from him before he throws it out.
Me: I had a mass of this soap stuck in a mold. I tried to
dissolve it out by letting it sit in water. Because there was
too much cornmeal, the soap got all slimy and old-cornmeally.
Ugh.
Soapmaking 3/30/03
Well, I didn't redo the cornmeal soap yet. Instead, I went
for Witch Hazel soap, as I had just bought some.
Ingredients: 6 oz. clear glycerin soap, 2 oz witch hazel,
scent (peach), color (blue), molds. I also added some glitter
to see what the effect would be.
I actually doubled the recipe so I could make more than two
bars.
I took care to cut more soap than I needed (about an extra
chunk worth--probably should have used a tad more) and to cut
up the soap into smaller chunks for ease of melting.
I also used a craft stick rather than spoons, and I took care
not to stir the soap much while it was melting. The craft stick
turned out to be a GOOD idea. Hardly any of the soap stuck to
it, and it was too skinny to possibly over-stir with it.
The soap melted very nicely, though I had to do many 10-second
zaps to get it all to melt. I got it hot enough that it didn't
all freeze to the side of the measuring cup, either.
I added the glitter just after I took the soap out to cool,
and the witch hazel, the scent (36 drops), and the color (3 drops)
just before I poured the soap. I stirred it with the craft stick
until it was all mixed, but I took care not to over-stir.
I probably didn't use quite enough glitter--there were no
suggested amounts on the packaging--but it looked neat both in
the clear soap and in the light blue soap that three drops created.
The soap poured very nicely and almost filled four hand-sized
bar molds--one was slightly below the edge. These weren't the
recommended molds, but oh well.
I remembered to mist the soap with alcohol after I poured
it, and presto! All the foam and bubbles that had formed from
the pouring vanished. Yay!
A bit of scum had formed on the soap. As instructed by my
recipe, I pushed it aside and added the various things, but when
I poured the soap the lump of scum poured into the first mold.
Realizing a bit later that this would look awful in clear blue
soap, I fished it out. I think in the future I'll just discard
it before pouring.
In retrospect, blue + peach scent wasn't the most logical
combination. Probably should've used yellow, yellow + red, or
a more blue-appropriate scent. Oh well.
(Update 4/3/03: When unmolding the soap, I discovered that
it's REALLY easy to deform warm soap when you press the mold
to get it out. All my bars ended up with flat instead of round
tops. They're also kind of irregular, as if the mold had shifted
a bit.)
FEEDBACK
Dad: He loved the soap but hated the glitter. He used it and
then went to the ACLU, where he volunteers. He went into the
bathroom there and discovered that he glittered! He says he'll
keep the soap but only use it in the shower. Probably want to
avoid using glitter except in kids' soaps.)
Robin: She isn't going to use it; she put it on her desk at
work because it's attractive. She's the wisest of us!
Me: The damn glitter is mildly abrasive and hurts! No more
glitter!
Soapmaking 4/3/03
I wanted to make Rosemary Soap, but it turned out I didn't
have any rosemary, so I tried Aloe Soap instead: clear glycerin
soap, aloe vera gel, green dye, scent (melon cucumber this time),
mold, alcohol to destroy surface bubbles. As before, I doubled
the recipe.
The picture of the Aloe Soap in the book shows it having some
kind of herb in it, but the recipe didn't call for any. Hm.
As before, I cut the soap into smaller chunks, and it melted
beautifully.
I probably should have let it cool a bit more before adding
stuff. I had several problems that I relate below.
The "gel" was more like a cream; I may have used
the wrong stuff. When I added it, much of it melted but many
little blobs remained. I ended up having to stir the soap more
than I would normally have to get the lumps to dissolve.
I used a green dye from a different company (I usually have
used Life of the Party before; this time I used Fields Landing).
I accidentally squirted a lot into the soap, but instead of turning
the soap deep green, the stuff diffused a lot and barely tinted
the soap at all. I ended up using several more drops without
much effect.
One odd thing: the dye, instead of spreading out normally,
seemed to be captured in small globules within the liquid soap.
Was that a function of the heat, the dye, or the addition of
the aloe vera gel? (I saw another example of aloe vera soap that
seemed to have these little globules.)
I used extra scent because I'm almost positive I put it in
too soon and it evaporated out quickly. It still didn't smell
like much.
Note: When misting soap with alcohol to destroy bubbles, if
you have a glass of water that you're drinking nearby, MOVE IT
FIRST!!!
I put a mold with some smaller soaps into the freezer to see
how well they came out. They popped right out! Even the half-filled
mold came out easily.
Later...
I decided to use up my white glycerin soap, since I hadn't
used it recently. I wanted to try my new techniques on it. I
decided to make Calomine Soap: White glycerin soap, calomine
lotion, scent (strawberry), molds.
I cut up the soap into small chunks and melted it. As had
happened with the first white glycerin soap, a lot of it crusted
onto the sides of the measuring cup. It wasn't worth my time
to keep scraping it off, so I just kept melting until the main
mass was thoroughly liquid. Obviously, whenever one works with
white glycerin soap, one must expect much more soap loss than
with clear glycerin soap.
I vaselined the molds this time, to see how easy it would
be to get the soap out. More on that when I actually unmold the
soap. I was going to use a mister and vegetable oil, but I forgot
and only bought one mister (for the rubbing alcohol).
The white glycerin soap cools and scums over MUCH faster than
clear glycerin. When I added the scent, it pooled on top of the
scum until I had a chance to stir it in. It's also harder to
get rid of the soap scum. Some of it will dissolve back into
the main mass, but most of it will hide at the bottom and pour
out onto your final bar of soap. Ironically, the soap stays hotter
in molds than clear glycerin soap does.
Also, the stupid top of the soaps hardened before I could
mist the bubbles away. Conclusion: Move REALLY fast with white
glycerin soap!
The soap also built up on the craft stick much more thoroughly
than the clear soap ever did.
I used Crafty Bubbles Strawberry scent this time. It was nice
and strong!
Oh, before I forget: It helps to have a resting place for
your craft stick, as you don't want to be holding it all the
time. I use a paper plate. I also cut the soap onto a paper plate.
I put one bar, which had no vaseline, into the freezer to
see how well it pops out. Came out nicely! It was in the freezer
for about 20 minutes.
Soapmaking 4/5/03
Didn't use a specific recipe this time; instead, in an effort
to use up some olive oil soap base, I decided to try chunky soap.
I used the olive oil soap, some extra green dye, and these
hideous red soap chunks that look like bits of raw meat. I used
Life of the Party peppermint scent with the idea of making "holiday"
soap. For soap, I used the equivalent of 7 oz. Much of that would
end up on the sides of the measuring cup or on the craft stick.
The olive oil soap melted rather like the white glycerin:
it readily built up on the sides of the measuring cup. Oddly,
it developed a skin during the melting process. Also, it steamed
for a while yet kept developing skin, and I ultimately had to
remelt the entire batch because it hardened way too rapidly.
Stirring did help the skin to dissolve, but I probably introduced
too many bubbles into the soap by doing that.
The stupid green dye was almost as bad as it was with the
aloe soap, though it seemed to improve and spread out appropriately
when I remelted the whole batch. I won't be using it much from
here on in, though.
I had to add the scent while the soap was still steaming,
in an effort to get some soap that was still pourable; otherwise
it would've just turned into wax. Peppermint is strong enough
that while some may have evaporated, enough got in to make a
good scent.
I filled an egg-shaped mold about halfway, then poured in
the chunks. Because the soap developed a skin immediately, the
chunks didn't sink at all, but just sat on the skin. I had to
stir the soap in the mold to get them to distribute more evenly,
and even then most floated to the top. Next time I'll put a few
chunks in the mold before pouring the first layer.
I probably put in too many chunks, but oh well.
The soap skin poured into the mold, and I was too lazy to
fish it out. The bottom of the soap looks fairly crappy as a
result.
Because of the rapid skin-forming, I didn't bother to mist
the soap to kill the bubbles.
I had a bit of soap left over and poured it into one of the
smaller round molds in the same piece of plastic. This had the
unfortunate effect of unbalancing the mold, so that I had to
prop the mold up lest everything develop a tilt.
Susan says that she saw Martha Stewart melt soap in a double
boiler with few problems. Next time, I'll put the measuring cup
in a pot of simmering water. Maybe that'll help with the olive
oil base and the white glycerin base. If it doesn't, I'll stick
with clear glycerin.
Soapmaking 4/14/03
Although I got a huge monolithic lump of clear glycerin soap
to play with, I had enough left over from my original batch to
make a recipe: Oatmeal Soap.
Recipe: 6 oz soap, 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1 tsp cinnamon, 4 vitamin
E capsules. No scent or color needed, thanks to the cinnamon.
I thought about adding a bit of maple scent, but not to my first
batch. Maybe another batch.
I finally bought a food/soap scale at Target. They have a
nice big one that holds quite a bit of stuff in its bowl. And
I verified that yes, indeed, those little scored cubes in the
2 lb chunks of Life of the Party soap are indeed 7/8 oz. each.
The soap melted perfectly in the microwave. No problems.
The oatmeal tended to clump at the bottom, as had the soap
chunks. But I looked at the picture of the soap in the recipe
book, and the oatmeal seemed to proliferate at the top of the
soap (the bottom when one pours it), so I guess things are OK.
The cinnamon spread out very nicely, and the soap smells quite
nice! I wonder what other spices one can use that way. I know
you can use nutmeg. Paprika, perhaps? (Mild paprika.) Turmeric?
This was my first attempt to use vitamin E capsules. Those
little buggers are tough! My soap knife (admittedly coated in
soap) couldn't cut them. I managed to pierce one with the tine
of a fork; it squirted all over the stove. Solution: Hold the
capsule over the cup of soap. Pierce it carefully at one tip,
then squeeze the "juice" into the soap. I didn't lose
any "juice" that way.
I actually used the recommended mold (large oval) this time.
I had enough left over to completely fill a small oval, too.
I misted this batch--seemed to work, but I think the bottom
will be wrinkly. I wonder how one can "sand down" the
soap? Maybe if I wash with it once or twice?
BTW, I stumbled on a sale on soapmaking materials at "Joanne"
(fabric and craft store I'd forgotten about). They had a different
line of soapmaking stuff (Hobby Lobby and Michaels carry mostly
Life of the Party and Crafty Bubbles), and I got some slick molds
and new scents! Some of the molds have bases to prevent tippage,
which is VERY nice; they also have oz. indicators next to the
individual molds. I LIKE these molds! Though they may be awkward
when it comes to unmolding soap. I'll use one next time.
They also had small (and EXPENSIVE) hunks of alternative soaps,
including already-colored and already-scented clear glycerin
(seems to take the fun out of soapmaking, doesn't it?), olive
oil, goat's milk, honey, etc. I didn't look at all of them, but
I might experiment with them someday.
In general, though, I'll be buying at least soap base over
the Net from now on. 10 lbs. of clear glycerin from The
Chemistry Store cost me $29 and change even with S&H.
10 lbs. at Hobby Lobby cost at least $31. I'll probably reorder
when I'm down to 2 lbs. to minimize "down time" while
I wait for more soap.
I splashed drops of soap on myself while melting it. Is one
dirty when one has soap smeared on one's body? An interesting
thing to contemplate.
FEEDBACK
Me: I've been using the bigger oatmeal bar. The extra cinnamon
doesn't seem to be a problem, though it seems more drying to
my skin than usual. I don't like the feel of the oatmeal as it
begins to emerge from the bar, however, and the soap dries funny
so that when I pick it up to use it again it feels scratchy.
I think the latter problem is a function of the cinnamon, and
I'll probably want to use smaller bits of oatmeal next time.
A couple of quick pulses in a food processor should take care
of that.
Soapmaking 4/29/03
Although I bought that 10 lbs of clear glycerin soap, I decided
to use up my leftover olive oil soap on Rosemary soap.
I did this at my dad's (soon to be my) house and in his microwave.
The recipe called for ¼ tsp ground rosemary and ½
tsp rosemary leaves, but those things aren't even available in
gourmet and natural food stores, so I took ¾ tsp of rosemary
seeds and ground them up with a mortar and pestle, which seems
to have worked OK. I can't believe they wanted those whole grains
of rosemary that you typically get in stores. Are those leaves?
I have no idea.
The recipe also called for 6 oz soap, but I used 10 oz just
to use it up. I didn't adjust the rosemary quantities, since
the grinding process was tedious. Also the usual dye and scent.
I used two drops of green dye to accent the green olive oil soap,
and papaya-plum scent. Dad was dubious that this scent would
mix well with the scent of rosemary, but as you'll see below,
it came out fine.
The green dye, which I've used before, is from Fields Landing.
I'm not that impressed-it isn't nearly as strong as the dye from
Life of the Party. On the other hand, I've been using it in the
clear and olive oil soap; maybe it's more impressive in white
soap.
Having had trouble melting olive oil soap before, I was going
to melt it in a double boiler this time, but we couldn't find
the right pot, so I decided to microwave it again. Surprise!
The soap melted MUCH more nicely in dad's microwave, proving
conclusively that I have a crappy, low-powered microwave. I still
had to remelt the soap once or twice, but I hardly lost any.
I stirred the soap a bit more than usual in order to remelt
small chunks and to evenly distribute the rosemary. Unlike with
the heavier oatmeal, the rosemary remained evenly suspended in
the soap, which is nice.
The scent was from Fields Landing, and yikes! It didn't come
out in drops but a stream! I don't THINK I used too much. I had
dad smell the hot soap, and he was quite pleased, so all should
be well. I like the variety of scents available from Fields Landing,
and it sure smells nice, so even if I quit using their dye I'll
use their scents--though CAREFULLY.
As usual with olive oil soap, as soon as I poured it into
the mold it skinned over, rendering the alcohol mist step unnecessary.
Unfortunately, the rapid surface cooling also meant wrinkles.
Oh well, I guess the wrinkles give the soap that "homemade"
touch. Still, I think I'll try resting something flat on the
soap immediately after I pour it to see if that helps eliminate
wrinkles.
Also when I poured it, lumps of skin from the rapidly cooling
soap in the measuring cup poured into the molds. I fished out
what I could, but it was annoying. Maybe I'll smear the skin
on the side of the measuring cup next time.
I had enough liquid soap to fill four of the five small molds
in the tray completely. I poured what was left into the fifth
mold, then remelted the stuff in the measuring cup and poured
that into the fifth mold. It got frothy and interestingly cloudy;
I'll be intrigued to see what it looks like compared to the others
when unmolded.
The cloudy one looked OK from the top but very bubble-filled
from the bottom-tolerable but not great. The others came out
very nicely. However, here's a clue for you all: Very transparent
or lightly colored soaps should not be poured into molds with
images. I used little sun and moon soaps with smiley faces
and the like (OK, they're stupid, I freely admit), and you could
barely see the embossed images. Conclusion: Use clear soaps almost
exclusively in traditional molds, where the soap itself is more
important than the image on it.
