The Highs and Lows of My Soapmaking Day

October 11, 2011 by | 12 Comments

Today was a marathon soapmaking day, mostly in preparation for the holiday season. I made four batches of soap and each of them was a different recipe. I had melted all the oils last night, and cooked a bottle of beer, but everything else I did today.

The first batch was another shampoo bar tester, made with beer, aloe, seaweed, nettle, and silk. Thank goodness it wasn’t a very big batch, because it ended up all over the counter! This would be my LOW of the day. I had to seriously contemplate whether or not I wanted to continue making soap after this disaster:

This is the photo I took after I scraped all the soap up.

I had this great idea to use my PVC pipe to make round shampoo bars. Only I forgot that when I was making soap in my PVC mold previously, I had a plug of melt & pour soap in the bottom which held the rest of the soap inside. So, today after I poured the soap, I grabbed the pipe to move it just like I had done before, only this time….the soap all came out the bottom! I had to think fast! There was a plastic rubbermaid container that looked like it would hold everything, so I scooped it up with my enormous silicone spatula, and ended up with this:

Shampoo bar tester - I believe this is #4 now

I’ll tell you about the next two batches another time, because I want to tell you about the fourth batch which was amazing! I used the Winter Wonderland fragrance I had from last year because that soap sold like hotcakes. It’s a very complex fragrance. The supplier describes it this way: “A cool, fruity blend that begins with a strong (and irresistible) citrus accord of grapefruit, orange, bergamot, and lemon. The refreshing heart is composed of violet, cyclamen, bois de rose, muguet, pineapple, and a hint of gardenia. The base notes are citronella, sandalwood, jasmine, and musk.”

I got a wild hair to do a four-color swirl in the pot, coloring the soap with micas: mauve, fuchsia, cyan green, and golden green. The base color was white. Here’s what the pot looked like before I poured the soap into the mold:

Winter Wonderland soap pot

I got a little scared that the soap was too thin to pour into the mold without getting totally muddy, so I took my time getting a photo and waited about 5-10 minutes. By that time, it was at the perfect medium trace. After pouring, I had some color left to make a swirl on top:

Winter Wonderland soap in the mold

What a day!! I’m glad to be done. However, I still have a sink full of soap mess to clean up, so I guess I better go take care of that! Tomorrow should be a fun day…cutting soap and all. There’s a special delivery arriving tomorrow as well that I can’t wait to show you!

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  1. I have done the same thing myself with tube moulds lol! My seal did not. It was there, it just didn’t! One of those moments when you just freeze, then start yelling for someone, anyone, to come and do something, anything, to help! Not a fun moment. Glad you managed to retrieve it. And the Winterwonderland looks simply stunning!

  2. My cure for the leaking tube mould potential now is that I set them into warm paraffin wax, contained in a shoe box that is large enough to hold all the tubes I intend to use – that way if it leaks at least it ends up in a box!

  3. Amy,

    Oh how upsetting to have your soap not go as planned. That shampoo bar sounds amazing though with the additives you used.

    Love, love, love the look of Winter Wonderland. What a gorgeous looking soap, it look stunning in the pot too.

    Sounds like you got a lot done. I’ve been soaping at least twice a week but this week will be three times to get caught up for Christmas shows.

  5. Oh Amy! What a LOW, but what a HIGH of the day in that FABULOSO Winter Wonderland! Is it the camera angle or is that one GIGANTIC log mold? I hope it’s as big as it looks because you’re gonna’ need LOTS of those beauties! ‘Can’t wait to see it when cut -I sure hope you share more pics. So pretty!

  6. WOW! That Winter Wonderland is gorgeous!! I love all of the colors. Can’t wait to see what it looks like cut!

    I laughed (with you, not at you!) when I read about your spill. Last week I had to mop my “lab” floor because I had so many sugar scrub spills the floor was sticky with sugar! At least soap is a clean thing to spill, right? And you definitely made up for that one oops with a lot of productivity! :0)

  7. Looks like Christmas Watermelon that soap of yours. So strikingly gorgeous. I too love the round PVC to make my shampoo bars and once the can lid I used to plug the end came loose as I was transferring soap to another room and the WHOLE BATCH came out on my kitchen floor.

    Cleanest kitchen floor in all of Illinois that day!

  8. So glad to hear I’m not the only one who has lost her soap out of the bottom of a PVC mold!! Not something we are likely to repeat – right, gals? (Great tip, Nikki!)

    I promise to have some photos of the WW soap after I cut it later!

  10. Oh wow, I bet the air was blue when that soap went everywhere. Thankfully it was a tester, not something like your Winter Wonderland… Winter Wonderful more like! Stunningly pretty and lovely colours. Another winner my sweet x

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